Free tool
Altitude check
Is your itinerary climbing too fast? Enter where you sleep each night and we'll check it against the medical guideline, night by night.
Pick one of our treks to load its nights, then change anything: another company's itinerary works too.
| Night | Where you sleep | Altitude (m) | Remove |
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Guideline: once above 3,000 m, raise where you sleep by no more than about 500 m a day (Wilderness Medical Society, 2024). A planning check, not medical advice.
Want Suren to fix it?
Send your checked itinerary to Suren, a licensed trekking guide. He'll reply with a day-by-day plan that adds rest or extra nights where it climbs too fast, and a price if it's one of our treks.
How to read the result
Altitude sickness depends mostly on how high you sleep and how fast that rises, not on the highest point you walk to in a day. So the check looks only at where you sleep each night.
The guideline starts at 3,000 m, so nights below that are not flagged, although altitude sickness can begin from about 2,500 m. Above it, each night that sleeps more than about 500 m higher than the night before is marked. Rest days, nights spent at the same place, are counted, because they give your body time to adapt.
Most of our own treks break the guideline somewhere: on Everest Base Camp it's the climb to Namche Bazaar, on Annapurna Base Camp the last two days into the Sanctuary. That doesn't make them unsafe, but it tells you which days to take slowly. Want to compare treks? See all our treks side by side.
Questions
What is the 500 m rule for altitude?
Medical guidelines from the Wilderness Medical Society say that once you sleep above 3,000 m, you should raise your sleeping altitude by no more than about 500 m a day, and take a rest day every three to four days. Where you sleep matters more than where you walk during the day.
Does breaking the guideline mean I will get altitude sickness?
No. It means the risk is higher on those nights. Many itineraries, including most of ours, break it once or twice. Walk slowly, drink water, and tell your guide about any headache, nausea or dizziness. If symptoms get worse, go down.
How do I make my itinerary safer?
Add a night at an altitude in between, or a rest day at the same altitude, before the big jump. The tool suggests a stop when we know one on that route.
Is this medical advice?
No. It is a planning check based on published guidelines. Talk to a doctor about your own health, especially if you have had altitude sickness before.
