Aussie travel company plans epic 50th bash in the shadow of Everest

Australian adventure travel company, World Expeditions is throwing a black tie event for the 50th anniversary of its operations. And fittingly, for this off-the-beaten-trail outfit, it comes with an offbeat twist.

About 100 people will assemble for the birthday feast under a big tent at Thyangboche, Nepal, a village at an elevation of 3860 metres in the Khumbu Valley. It’s well-known for its important Buddhist monastery, its panoramic views of peaks including Everest and its association with Tenzing Norgay, Sir Edmund Hillary’s sherpa.

Tengboche monastery at Thyangboche, Nepal with Himalayan peaks in the background.Credit: Alamy

In attendance will be locals, trekking luminaries including famed Australian mountaineer, Tim Macartney-Snape, Himalaya authority, Garry Weare and legendary guide and mountaineer, Soren Kruse Ledet. There will also be a cohort of World Expeditions’ paying guests there on the company’s 50th Anniversary Everest Trek, a 13-day Kathmandu round trip departing September 2025.

When it comes to the black tie dinner – to be held September 24, 2025 – World Expeditions chief executive Sue Badyari says the term is wide open to interpretation.

“Guests can bring their tiaras along with their trekking boots, their frocks and socks, whatever they want to wear. But we’ll be encouraging them to wear something fun.”

The so-named anniversary trek is one of seven special itineraries crafted to celebrate the Australian company’s impressive milestone. (Badyari has been with World Expeditions for around two thirds of its lifespan, joining in the late 1980s.)

Another presents the opportunity to trek alongside Tim Macartney-Snape during a 16-day challenging itinerary through the remoter regions of the Khumbu Valley.

Nepal has been chosen to mark the half century, because, as Badyari says, “Nepal is our original stomping ground – we were there in 1975.”

World Expeditions has seen plenty of change in that time, including to its own operations. In response to demand, it’s now got multiple sibling companies offering adventure travel. Each carries the ethos of treading lightly, empowering local people in the destinations in which it operates and delivering quality alongside sustainability.

Badyari says in the age of overtourism, it’s an approach that is becoming more attractive to more people.

“Travellers have a new consciousness,” she says. “Instagram and other social media platforms have really driven the rise of over-tourism and over-touristed destinations. But people, particularly younger generations coming through, have a ferocious appetite for going where others are not going, to destinations where you’re not contributing to over-tourism.”

She says while Nepal is obviously busier than it once was, World Expeditions continues to choose the paths less travelled – both physically on the Himalayas and figuratively in the way it approaches tourism.

Here’s to 50 years more of that.

See worldexpeditions.com