KATHMANDU · NEPAL
Old temple towns and the road to Everest.
The medieval Durbar Squares and great stupas of the Kathmandu Valley, base camp treks and dawn mountain flights, sunrise at Nagarkot and the rhinos of Chitwan. The trips that get you out into Nepal.
Only in Nepal
Three days you can only have here.
Cooking classes and city walks you can find the world over. Walking to Everest, a valley of seven World Heritage sites, and the dawn flight along the Himalaya belong to Nepal alone.
On foot
Walk to Everest Base Camp
No trek on earth ends with more meaning. Twelve days up the Khumbu through Sherpa villages, past the monastery at Tengboche and along the glacier to the 5,364m moraine at the foot of the highest mountain on the planet. Tenzing and Hillary set out from this same valley in 1953.
- 1 Everest Base Camp Trek – 14 Days
- 2 Everest Base Camp Trekking
- 3 Everest Base Camp Trekking – 13 Day
Seven in one valley
The Seven-Temple Valley
Nowhere else packs seven UNESCO World Heritage sites into a single valley: three medieval royal cities with their Durbar Squares, the great stupas of Boudhanath and Swayambhunath, the riverside ghats of Pashupatinath and the hilltop shrine of Changu Narayan. A living Newar civilisation, still in daily use.
- 1 Private Kathmandu Sightseeing Tour | UNESCO World Heritage sites
- 2 Kathmandu: Full Day 7 UNESCO Tour with Lunch – Private/Group
- 3 Kathmandu: Full Day Top 4 UNESCO Tour with Lunch – Private/Group
By dawn light
The Everest Mountain Flight
An hour after take-off you are level with the roof of the world. The dawn mountain flight tracks the whole eastern Himalaya, every seat is a window seat, and the turn for home brings Everest close enough to pick out the peaks standing guard around it.
- 1 Mountain Everest Scenic Flight with Hotel Pickup and Dropoff
- 2 From Kathmandu: 1 hour Panoramic Everest Flight
- 3 1 Hour Mount Everest flight from Kathmandu With Hotel Pick Up
Start with the big one
The trip most people come to Nepal for.
If you do one thing in the country, it tends to be this. More travellers plan a Nepal trip around it than anything else we cover.
The classics
Nepal's Most Popular Trips
Everest base camp, the seven-temple valley, a Thamel cooking class and sunrise at Nagarkot. The trips most people fly in for.
Where to begin
The trips a Nepal visit is built around.
Everest base camp on foot, the seven-temple valley, the mountain by helicopter, the Annapurna Sanctuary, sunrise at Nagarkot and a kitchen in Kathmandu. The handful of trips most itineraries start from, and the best way to do each.
The big question
How to see Everest.
You do not have to trek for two weeks to stand in front of it. Three ways to reach the highest mountain on earth from Kathmandu, by the time you have and the budget you bring.
In a Kathmandu kitchen
Momos, masala and a plate of dal bhat.
Half the memory of Nepal is the food. Spend a morning folding momos with a local family, grinding the masala for a glass of chiya, and sitting down to the dal bhat that fuels every trek. Many of the best classes are run by women’s collectives in the old city, lunch very much included.
Read the guide: the best cooking classes in Kathmandu →The spiritual heart
Prayer flags, butter lamps, the dusk kora.
At Boudhanath, one of the largest stupas on earth, pilgrims circle the dome at dusk, turning the prayer wheels as butter lamps flicker against the whitewash. Across the valley, the ghats of Pashupatinath and the hilltop eyes of Swayambhunath complete a city that prays out loud, every single day.
See the temple & spiritual tours →The Himalaya
Eight of the world’s fourteen highest peaks.
Nepal holds eight of the planet’s fourteen eight-thousanders, Everest among them, strung along a single border. From Kathmandu the whole range is a flight, a drive or a long walk away. Trek into it, fly the length of it at dawn, or watch it turn gold from a hill above the valley.
Himalaya treks & hikes →Annapurna
A walk into a ring of giants.
West of Kathmandu the Annapurna massif throws a wall of peaks around a hidden glacial basin. Trek into the Sanctuary itself, ring the whole range on the classic circuit over the Thorong La, or climb to Poon Hill for the dawn that puts every Himalayan postcard to shame.
- 1 Annapurna Circuit Trek with Tilicho Lake
- 2 Annapurna base camp trek 5 Days
- 3 Annapurna Base Camp Trek
By how far you go
Pick your Nepal, by altitude.
From a temple morning in the valley to weeks on a Himalayan trail. Stay low and cultural, head out to the rim for a sunrise, or go all the way up.
In the valley
Temples and old cities.Durbar Square walks, the great stupas, a cooking class in Thamel and the bazaars of the old town. No early alarm.
Out to the rim
Sunrise and day trips.Dawn over the Himalaya from Nagarkot, the cable car up Chandragiri, the potters of Bhaktapur and the Namobuddha hills. Back by dinner.
Into the mountains
The high Himalaya.Everest Base Camp, the Annapurna Sanctuary and the long circuits. Weeks on the trail, or a mountain flight when the clock is tight.
The Terai
Down from the mountains, into the jungle.
Nepal is not all altitude. Drop south to the steamy lowlands and Chitwan National Park, where greater one-horned rhinos graze the grasslands, wild elephants cross the rivers and Bengal tigers leave prints on the trail. A dugout canoe at dawn, a jeep through the sal forest, and the Himalaya feels a world away.
See all 30 Chitwan safaris →By place
Nepal, six ways.
Kathmandu for the old town and the bazaars. Bhaktapur for the best-kept royal city. Patan for the bronze and the courtyards. Nagarkot for the sunrise. The Everest region for the famous trail. Annapurna for the sanctuary and the circuits.
By activity
Pick how to spend your time.
Trek if you want the mountains up close. Fly if you want Everest by breakfast. Walk the temples if you want the old valley. Cook, sit out a sunrise, or ride into the jungle.
Plan it
Three days in the valley.
New to Kathmandu? Here is a first three days that hits the essentials without a wasted hour.
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