Adventure Specialist Travel (AST) was started in 1995. The Founder of AST is Mr. Raj K. Shrestha, who began his career in Tourism business in 1988. 19 years in the tourism trade helped him to gain enormous experience in making attractive tour/trek packages and traveled a lot to add realistic/practical knowledge on all the tour packages, he initiated.

He also traveled to Europe  and USA several times to do the marketing and promote Nepal as a tourist destination among his friends, clientele and tour operators. He is multilingual personnel with high ability to understand western as well as eastern cultures. He facilitates westerners to understand Nepali culture properly and motivate them to support Nepal in different ways, either by visiting Nepal as tourists or initiating deference development projects in Nepal, which will help Nepal and Nepalese for a better future.

You can visit following website for more information on his social contributions and development works in Nepal, which he has been doing for more than a decade.

www.nepalhilfe.de
He believes in generating more employment opportunities through tourism and it is one of the biggest foreign currency earners for this country. AST contributes 10% of its earnings to all the development works; he has been involved in the country. Therefore, booking a trek with AST, you can also contribute to our efforts to make our dreams of ‘better Nepal for tomorrow” come true!

www.fwhcnepal.org.np
AST is a registered travel agency under the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation, Tourism Department (Reg. No. 426/053), Ministry of Commerce and Industries (Reg. No. 5990/053/54), Nepal Government, and is an active member of Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (NATTA), Nepal German Chamber of Commerce & Industry (NGCCI) and several other local Associations, which promotes tourism business for Nepal.

Our main office is located at Pulchowk, Lalitpur, exactly at the Gateway to the famous Patan Durbar Square (one of the World Heritage Site), in front of the Municipality Building, Lalitpur, Kathmandu Valley. AST is also affiliated with numerous agencies/companies from all over the world and has an aim to bring many tourists to Nepal in order to generate more job opportunities to youths, who are leaving this country due to lack of proper opportunities in the country. As per recent statistics, it is estimated around 600 to 800 youths, who are leaving this country EVERYDAY for better jobs outside the country. Skilled and talented youths are also attracted to go abroad for better opportunity, which is definitely a ‘brain-drain’ from this country. Therefore, by booking trips with us, you will also help generating job opportunities in Nepal, thus helping Nepal & Nepalese.

Our Administrative staff can deal with all your queries, and there will always be someone in the office to answer your questions regarding trips to this part of the world instantly. All Staff members are qualified to answer your all queries regarding the trip to Nepal as well as trips to Bhutan, Sikkim & Tibet.

Some more reasons, why you choose our Company for trips to this part of the world:

• We try to make your holidays, a lifetime experience! so that you can have a positive impression of your trips and the areas, you are traveling. AST cares for good services and value your money paid for the services. AST does not compromise with better services. If you would like to have references of our previous customers, who live nearby your hometown or region, AST can provide you for your references and probably even done the same trip, you are considering!
• Friendly Staff: Nepalese are traditionally friendly people and easygoing people. All staffs, either in the field or in office, are very friendly or care for better hospitality. AST Team consists of the staffs, which come from the northern part of the country, where all high mountains are located, as well as from the lowlands of the country, where people are trained for extreme mountainous activities and have also climbed several high peaks in the country. Staff members are also from the famous trekking areas of Nepal, such as Everest region, Annapurna region, Langtang region, who are eagerly awaiting to take you to their regions to show their life style and let you enjoy the sceneries seen from their home places. Our staffs are well trained to handle high altitude sickness besides their normal safety measures for clients and are very conscious about keeping better environment in the areas, they take you.
• Hygienic food & water: AST is very concerned about your fooding or eateries in Nepal, when you are traveling here. It tries to suggest you better & hygienic places, where you can go and eat, however, most of the Restaurants, which are meant for tourists, are, of course, better managed, hygienically. While on trek, AST provides plentiful, healthy, wholesome and varied foods, prepared by cooks trained in modern cooking hygiene. Special care is taken to serve well-boiled and purified drinking water everyday, while on the tour or trekking, to ensure that our clients stay healthy and enjoy their outing fully. Our cooks for the trek are famous for their ability to produce varied and tasty meals in adverse conditions.
• Group Size: AST can organize trips according to the size of the group, which can be from minimum number of participants to high number of participants. AST has organized many trips, which consisted to maximum 8 pax in a group. However, it also organized tour/trek for a group of 30 pax recently in Nepal. AST can prepare varieties of itinerary according to the size of the group. There are also tours on ‘group joining’ basis for those, who are interested and like to do the tour with the people from different countries or even same country!
• Environmental Concern: AST briefs all the staffs to make them aware of environmental issues in the areas, they take clients and are very much conscious about it. It is more precisely done, especially, when AST has group to a trekking in the country. AST uses kerosene or gas for cooking purpose on the trek to avoid burning firewood. We recycle non-biodegradable waste and use centralized toilet tents. Our staffs are trained in the correct disposal of waste. All biodegradable waste is burned and buried before breaking camp every morning. Non-degradable wastes (tin, cans, bottles, plastic, etc.) are carried back to Kathmandu for proper dispose. Care is also taken to fill in toilet holes after use.
• Insurance: Every single porter and staff employed by AST for the trek, is not only well paid, but also protected by a life insurance policy.