Kathmandu gives you the temples. The Himalaya are a morning away.
Which of the seven UNESCO squares you can do in a day, what a guide actually costs here, whether the Everest flight is worth $75 before breakfast, and where the Nagarkot ridge looks north over the whole range. Reviews of every tour you can book out of Kathmandu.
Heritage squaresPrivate Kathmandu Sightseeing Tour | UNESCO World Heritage sites
Everest Base CampEverest Base Camp Trekking – 13 Day
The Nagarkot ridgeNagarkot Sunrise & Hike to Changu Narayan Day Tour from Kathmandu
Newari street foodWalking Street Food Tour in Kathmandu
Base camp by helicopterEverest Base Camp Helicopter Tour landing at Hotel Everest View Durbar Square, the ridge at dawn, an hour along the range, dinner you cooked.
Four bookings a first week in Kathmandu is usually built around. What each one costs and what the people who took it say.
01The first full dayFull Day 7 UNESCO Tour with Lunch – Private/GroupAll seven monument zones in one run, with lunch and a guide who can read the woodwork. Start at Durbar Square while the courtyards are still cool.
02Before dawn, day twoNagarkot Sunrise View and Day Hiking from KathmanduUp to the Nagarkot ridge for first light on the range, then walk down through the terraces instead of riding back.
03An hour in the airMountain Everest Scenic Flight with Hotel Pickup and DropoffThe mountain flight leaves at sunrise and everyone gets a window. One pass north along the range, Everest at the far end, back by breakfast.
04Dinner you cookedHalf day cooking class in Thamel kathmanduA half day in a Thamel kitchen: momo pleating, the spice tray, and the dal bhat you eat at the end of it.
A day on the valley rim, a week to Annapurna, a fortnight to Everest.
Every trek out of Kathmandu is really a question about time. Three lengths of walk, what it costs to start each one, and which trailhead the flight or the bus leaves for.
What a day out of Kathmandu actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. Guiding here is cheap and altitude is not, so the ladder is unusually long at both ends.
Guided walks through the squares, the Nagarkot sunrise run, cooking classes and the valley day hikes.
The mountain flight, Bhaktapur and Nagarkot together, Chitwan by road, the short Annapurna weeks.
Base camp on foot or by helicopter, the long circuits, and private cars for a whole valley day.
- 1Everest Base Camp Trek – 14 Daysfrom $1,800
- 2Everest Base Camp Helicopter Tour landing at Everest View Hotelfrom $1,575
- 3Everest Base Camp Trekkingfrom $1,350
Kathmandu keeps its heritage in seven separate places, not one.
Every heritage tour →
Three royal squares, two Buddhist stupas, one Hindu temple complex and a hilltop shrine, spread across a valley that takes a driver most of a day to cross. These three cover the ground in the order that works.
Durbar Square and the Kumari house
The old palace complex, the Kumari Chowk courtyard and the earthquake rebuilding still going on around it. A guide is the difference between carved struts and a story about them.
Swayambhunath, and the stairs up to it
The stupa sits on a wooded hill above the city with prayer flags running off it in every direction. Go for the view north across the valley; go early, before the haze settles.
Bhaktapur, kept as a brick town
Fourteen kilometres east and no cars in the core. Nyatapola’s five roofs, the potters’ square drying rows of clay, and juju dhau served in the bowl it set in.
From Kathmandu the Himalaya are an hour by air, not a fortnight on foot.
Fixed-wing mountain flights leave Tribhuvan at first light and run east along the range with Everest at the end of it. Helicopters go further: Kala Patthar, a landing at Everest View, and back before lunch. Both live or die on the morning’s visibility.
The Kathmandu days more travellers take than any other.
Every Kathmandu tour we have reviewed →Base camp treks, the seven-zone heritage run, the mountain flight and one cooking class in Thamel. What earns each of them the slot.
1
Everest Base Camp Trek – 14 Days
Review of the 14-day Everest Base Camp trek from Kathmandu, including costs, altitude, guides, flights, daily hikes, meals, and practical tips.
From · $1,800
Read our review →2
Private Kathmandu Sightseeing Tour | UNESCO World Heritage sites
from $17
3
Everest Base Camp Helicopter Tour landing at Everest View Hotel
from $1,575
4
Half day cooking class in Thamel kathmandu
from $28
5
Everest Base Camp Trekking
from $1,350
6
Nagarkot Sunrise View and Day Hiking from Kathmandu
from $45
7
Full Day 7 UNESCO Tour with Lunch – Private/Group
from $10
8
Annapurna Circuit Trek with Tilicho Lake
from $1,093
Four Kathmandu bookings that the weather, not the calendar, decides.
October and November give the clearest air of the year; the monsoon closes the view from June, and winter fills the valley with haze by mid-morning. Everything below runs on light, not on availability.
- 011 hour Panoramic Everest FlightMountain flights go at dawn or not at all. Cloud over the range grounds them, and airlines rebook rather than refund.
- 02Nagarkot Sunrise View and Day Hiking from KathmanduThe ridge only shows the range on a clear morning. Stay the night up there and you get two chances at it.
- 03Everest Base Camp Helicopter Tour landing at Everest View HotelLukla and the Khumbu close in fast. Helicopter days are flown on a morning window and turned back at Kala Patthar if it shuts.
- 04Everest Base Camp Trek – 14 DaysLukla flights are the bottleneck, not the walking. In peak season they shift to Ramechhap and the day starts at four in the morning.
Momo, chatamari and a dal bhat that arrives with eight bowls.
Kathmandu eats Newari food that exists almost nowhere else: buffalo momo, rice-flour chatamari off a griddle, yomari at festival time. Walk the Ason market lanes first, then get into a kitchen and pleat your own.
Three things you can only book in the Kathmandu Valley.
Mountain views and old towns exist all over Asia. A stupa with the whole Tibetan diaspora walking round it, a forge that still hammers khukuris by hand, and a hill town founded on a legend about a tigress do not.
Boudhanath at dusk
One of the largest stupas anywhere, with a Tibetan quarter built in a ring around it. At dusk the whole circle walks clockwise, butter lamps go on in the alcoves, and the monasteries behind the shopfronts start their evening prayers. It is a working place of worship first and a monument second, which is why the walking is the point.
- 1Sacred Pashupatinath: Aarati,Cremation Rites & Boudha Stupa★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 18 reviews
- 2PashupatiNath and BoudhaNath – Private/Small Group★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 18 reviews
- 3Private Half-Day Tour of Boudhanath and Pashupatinath Temples in Kathmandu★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 9 reviews
The Gurkha knife forge
The khukuri is still forged the old way in workshops outside the ring road: leaf-spring steel heated in a coal hearth, hammered flat, quenched, and fitted with a horn handle. Half a day at the anvil, and you leave with the blade you shaped. Nobody else in the valley is selling the process rather than the souvenir.
- 1Half day cooking class in Thamel kathmandu★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 607 reviews
- 2Local Women-Led Nepali Cooking & Momo Class★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 360 reviews
- 3Local Lead Nepali Cooking & Momo-Making Class★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 212 reviews
Namobuddha and Kopan
Namobuddha sits on a ridge two hours east, on the spot where a prince is said to have given his body to a starving tigress. The walk in from Dhulikhel takes a morning through terraces and pine. Kopan, closer in above Boudhanath, runs the meditation courses that half of Thamel is on its way to.
- 1Dhulikhel to NamoBuddha Day Hike with Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 62 reviews
- 2Dhulikhel, Namobuddha & Panauti: A Scenic Day Tour from Kathmandu★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 36 reviews
- 3Private Scenic Day Hike to NamoBuddha★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 32 reviews
Three medieval cities, one valley rim, and the trailheads past it.
Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur each kept their own royal square. Around them the valley rim carries the viewpoints, and the airport carries everything further. Six starting points, and the best day out in each.
By place — the valley and past its rim
By kind of day — walking, flying, carving or cooking
Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Nagarkot, and one flight along the range.
The mountain flight
ChitwanThe newest Kathmandu tour reviews.
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Nepali Cooking training & Cultural Homestay Experience
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From Kathmandu / Pokhara / Chitwan: River Rafting – 1 Day
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4 UNESSCO World heritage sites of Kathmandu-private tour
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Kailashnath Mahadev, Panauti and Namo Buddha Monastery Sightseeing
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From Kathmandu Budget: 15 Day Everest Base Camp Trek
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Everest Base Camp Trek with Helicopter Flight Back
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Spiritual Journey to Kailash Manasarovar 16 Days Overland Trip
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