We started out booking three day trips around Kathmandu with Ace through their US representive, Kathy Kramer, who was very responsive. Our Kathmandu guide, Dil Lama-Tamang, spoke excellent English and was very, very knowledge about the places we were visiting. He arrived every morning on time with a driver. The days were well organized and of appropriate length.
After our Kathmandu stay we were supposed to go to Tibet however the Tibet trip was canceled due to visa problems so Sajiya at Ace helped us book a trekking tour up to Hotel Everest View. Sajiya met with us in her office and reviewed the trip in detail. She was very helpful in finalizing the trip on very short notice. They even stored our suitcases at the office during our trekking trip and managed the receipt of our passports from the agent trying to get him Tibetan visas and held them until we returned to Kathmandu.
On the day of our departure our trekking guide, Manoj Bhattarai meet us and helped us to maneuver through Kathmandu’s domestic airport. He lead us up the trails to Hotel Everest View. He was very patient when we needed to take frequent rests. Manoj was also very flexible and arranged a helicopter trip to base camp, a visit to Tengboche monastery and a return flight to Lukla. He was able to change our guesthouse reservations apparently seamlessly. Finally he managed our return flight from the very,very chaotic Lukla airport to Kathmandu.
We had a very nice porter carry our duffels up the trails and were very pleased to learn that Ace takes good care of their porters (unlike some tour companies). They limit how much they can carry, pay them a reasonable wage, and provide health insurance for them.
We had two more days in Kathmandu before our flight home. Sajiya booked us a hotel room in Thamel for a very reasonable price. She also organized our taxi to the airport for our flight home.
In summary we really enjoy the cultural tours provided by Ace. They helped us recover from a canceled Tibetan trip and we really enjoy the remainder of our time in Nepal thanks to their efforts. I highly, highly recommend Ace the Himalaya.
