---
title: "Nepal travel guide: Kathmandu Valley, the Annapurnas | Wimup"
description: "Nepal: where to go between the Kathmandu Valley, Pokhara, the Everest trails and the Terai parks, what to eat, when the two dry seasons run, and what to know."
url: https://wimup.com/country/nepal
type: Country guide
updated: 2026-10-29
publisher: Wimup (https://wimup.com)
---

# Top 10s across Nepal

Eight of the fourteen mountains above 8,000 metres stand inside one border, and the country below them holds **medieval city squares**, **jungle national parks** and the **birthplace of the Buddha**.

## Quick answer

Land in **Kathmandu** and give the valley a few days, with the royal squares of **Patan** and **Bhaktapur** half an hour away. Then the country splits three ways. West to **Pokhara**, the lakeside town under the Annapurnas. East to **Lukla** and **Namche Bazaar**, where the Everest routes start. South to the **Terai** for rhino and tiger at **Chitwan** or **Bardiya** and the Buddha's birthplace at **Lumbini**. Two weeks covers the valley, one trek and one park. Come in October, November or March, when the mountains are visible.

## Quick facts

- **Best months:** Oct · Nov · Mar
- **Ideal length:** 12–16 days
- **Budget per day:** $40–100
- **Language:** Nepali, with English the working language of tourism
- **Getting around:** Domestic flights for the long legs, buses and jeeps for the rest

- **3** City guides
- **29,164,578** People
- **7** Provinces

Nepal is narrow, short from east to west by Asian standards, and stacked vertically in a way that changes everything. The Kathmandu Valley is the arrival point and the cultural centre, with three former kingdoms (Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur) inside half an hour of each other and seven UNESCO monument zones between them. Pokhara, six hours west by road or twenty-five minutes by air, is the base for the Annapurna treks and the lakeside town people rest in either side of one. The Terai, the flat southern strip along the Indian border, carries Chitwan and Bardiya national parks and Lumbini, where the Buddha was born. The high routes (Everest Base Camp out of Lukla, the Annapurna Circuit, Langtang) are the reason most first trips exist, and they run best in the two dry shoulder seasons rather than through the summer monsoon. Roads are slow, domestic flights are weather-dependent, and both facts should shape the itinerary rather than surprise it.

## 3 Nepal city guides

1. [Kathmandu](https://wimup.com/city/kathmandu.md): Asia · 10 picks
2. [Pokhara](https://wimup.com/city/pokhara.md): Asia · 10 picks
3. [Janakpur](https://wimup.com/city/janakpur.md): Asia · 10 picks

## Know before you go

- **Population:** 29,164,578
- **Area:** 147,516 km²
- **Density:** 197.7 / km²
- **Capital:** Kathmandu
- **Major cities:** Kathmandu, Pokhara, Bharatpur, Lalitpur, Birgunj, Biratnagar
- **Tourism board:** Official site
- **Currency:** Nepali rupee (NPR), pegged to the Indian rupee Pegged at 1.6 to the Indian rupee since 1993. Cards work in Kathmandu, Pokhara and big hotels, rarely elsewhere. The trails have no ATMs, so draw trek cash first, in small notes.
- **Languages:** Nepali is official, English is the working language of tourism Nepali, in Devanagari, runs government and schooling, among more than a hundred languages. Maithili carries the eastern Terai, Nepal Bhasa the valley's festivals. Tourism workers speak English.
- **Calling code:** +977
- **Time zone:** UTC+5:45, an offset no other country's standard time uses
- **Power:** 230V, 50Hz, plug types C, D and M
- **Emergency:** Police 100, fire 101, ambulance 102, tourist police 1144 The lines answer in Nepali, so let a hotel or guide call. Tourist police in Kathmandu, Pokhara and Chitwan handle theft and lost passports. On a trek, rescue runs through your guide and insurer.
- **Visa:** On arrival at the airport and the main land borders, in 15, 30 and 90-day tiers Fill the Department of Immigration form online up to two weeks ahead and save the barcode. Bring a passport valid six months, a photo and US dollars. Some nationalities cannot get one on arrival.
- **Trekking permits:** A licensed guide and an agency-issued TIMS card in the protected areas Required since 1 April 2023 in the national parks and conservation areas, where the famous routes run. Each area charges its own entry fee. Day walks near Kathmandu and Pokhara are exempt.
- **Getting around:** Fly the long legs, drive the short ones, walk where the road ends Measure roads in hours: the Prithvi Highway to Pokhara takes most of a day. Flights save days and are the only sane way to Lukla or Jomsom, though weather cancels them. Jeeps run off the tarmac.
- **Tipping:** Not automatic in a restaurant, expected at the end of a trek Restaurants in Kathmandu and Pokhara often add service, so check the bill. On a trek, tip guides and porters as a group at the end, and agree the sum with your party beforehand.
- **Altitude:** Above 3,000 m the schedule matters more than the fitness Climb slowly, sleep only a few hundred metres higher each night once high, and take the rest days. Symptoms that persist mean going down. Check your insurance covers helicopter evacuation.

## When to visit

- **Jan** (good): Cold and very clear. Fog sits in the valley in the mornings and the high passes are shut, but the mountain views are the sharpest of the year.
- **Feb** (good): The cold eases, the skies hold, and the trails are still quiet. Lower routes like Poon Hill and Langtang come back into range.
- **Mar** (best): Rhododendron opens across the middle hills and the trekking season reopens with it. Warm days, dusty valley air.
- **Apr** (peak): Spring at its best and the busiest month on the trails, with the Everest climbing season on the mountain above. Book beds ahead.
- **May**: Hot below and hazy above. Fine for crossing high passes now that the snow has gone, poor for photographs of anything distant.
- **Jun**: The monsoon arrives. Leeches on the trails, landslides on the roads, and domestic flights that sit on the ground.
- **Jul**: The wettest weeks of the year. Mustang and Dolpo lie in the rain shadow and stay walkable, which is the whole argument for coming now.
- **Aug**: Still wet, still green, still cheap. Good for the valley cities and the rain-shadow routes, wrong for everything else.
- **Sep** (good): The rain lets go, usually around mid-month. Rivers run high, the hills are green, and the season has not filled up yet.
- **Oct** (best): The best month: washed air, warm days, and Dashain filling the valley with families travelling home.
- **Nov** (best): Clear and cooler, with Tihar lighting the streets. The other month everyone recommends, and they are right to.
- **Dec** (good): Cold nights, empty trails, superb visibility. Anything crossing a high pass needs checking before you commit to it.

## Fun fact

Nepal is the only country whose flag is not a rectangle. Two stacked pennants carry a moon and a sun, and the shape is written into the constitution along with the geometry for drawing it.

## Stereotypes, sorted out

- **Myth:** Nepal is one long trek **Reality:** Plenty of trips involve no walking. The Kathmandu Valley holds seven UNESCO monument zones within an hour of each other, Chitwan and Bardiya are jungle parks with rhino and tiger, and Lumbini has monasteries built by a dozen Buddhist countries. Trekking is the headline, not the whole paper.
- **Myth:** Everest is the point **Reality:** The Annapurna region takes more trekkers than the Khumbu, on routes that are lower, warmer and reached by road. Nor is Everest Base Camp a view of Everest. Nuptse hides the mountain from the camp, and the view people photograph comes from the climb up Kala Patthar the next morning.
- **Myth:** It is a smaller version of India **Reality:** Nepal was never colonised, and it shows. It keeps its own language and script, a Bikram Sambat calendar running decades ahead of the Gregorian one, and a clock set 45 minutes off the hour. The Kathmandu Valley is Newar civilisation, with its own language, festivals, architecture and food.
- **Myth:** The 2015 earthquake flattened it **Reality:** The 7.8 quake of 25 April 2015 killed almost 9,000 people and did real damage to the durbar squares, and the reconstruction has been going on ever since. The monuments people come for are standing again. The way to help is to turn up: tourism is a large part of how the rebuild was paid for.
- **Myth:** Trekking means tents, ropes and mountaineering **Reality:** On the main routes it means walking between villages and sleeping in teahouses, in a bed, over a plate of dal bhat. No technical skill, no camping gear. What it needs is days. Altitude is a scheduling problem, and the itinerary that skips acclimatisation is the one that fails.

- Shoes come off at the door of a home and at most temples. Feet are the impure end of the body, so do not point them at a person, a shrine or the food.
- Eat with the right hand, and keep it clear of your mouth when you serve yourself from a shared dish. Anything your lips have touched is jutho and nobody else will eat it.
- Walk clockwise around stupas, chortens and mani walls, keeping them on your right. It costs nothing and everyone notices.
- Ask before photographing people, and expect a no at cremation ghats and inside shrines. The main courtyard at Pashupatinath is closed to non-Hindus, and that is a rule.
- Greet with namaste and palms together, especially with women and with anyone older than you. Public affection between couples reads as odd almost everywhere outside Thamel.
- Do not hand sweets, pens or rupees to children on the trails. It builds a habit of begging from trekkers. Give through a school, a health post or your guide's own village project instead.

## Famous Nepali faces

- **Tenzing Norgay Sherpa**: With Edmund Hillary, first to summit Everest, on 29 May 1953. Raised in the Khumbu
- **Pasang Lhamu Sherpa**: The first Nepali woman on Everest, on 22 April 1993. She died on the descent
- **Kami Rita Sherpa**: Most Everest summits of anyone alive, a record 32nd in May 2026
- **Nirmal Purja**: All fourteen 8,000-metre peaks in six months, in 2019. Killed on Broad Peak in July 2026
- **Prithvi Narayan Shah**: The Gorkha king who took the Kathmandu Valley and unified Nepal in 1768
- **Bhanubhakta Acharya**: Adikavi, the first poet, whose Nepali Ramayana began the language's literature
- **Laxmi Prasad Devkota**: Mahakavi, the great poet. His 1936 Muna Madan is the best-known work in Nepali
- **Arniko**: Valley craftsman at Kublai Khan's court from 1260, builder of Beijing's White Dagoba
- **Ani Choying Drolma**: Buddhist nun whose chant recordings sell like pop and fund a school for nuns
- **Narayan Gopal**: Swar Samrat, the emperor of voice, and the measure for every modern Nepali song
- **Manisha Koirala**: From a political dynasty to Hindi cinema's front rank, in Bombay and Dil Se
- **Prabal Gurung**: Kathmandu-raised designer, in New York since 2009, worn by Michelle Obama
- **Mira Rai**: Maoist army recruit turned trail runner, a 2017 National Geographic Adventurer
- **Paras Khadka**: Captained Nepal from 2009 to 2019 and took the side to ODI status
- **Anuradha Koirala**: Founded Maiti Nepal in 1993 against trafficking. CNN Hero of the Year
- **Sanduk Ruit**: Eye surgeon whose cheap cataract surgery has restored sight to more than 100,000 people
- **Mahabir Pun**: Brought wireless internet to roadless hill villages. Internet Hall of Fame member

## Must-try Nepali food

- **Dal bhat**: Rice, lentils, curry and pickle, refilled until you stop. The national plate, twice a day.
- **Dhido**: Buckwheat or millet porridge pinched into soup by hand. Older than rice in the hills.
- **Gundruk**: Fermented, dried greens boiled into a sour soup. The taste Nepalis abroad miss.
- **Aloo tama**: Potato and sour bamboo shoot in black-eyed bean broth, thick enough to eat with rice.
- **Momo**: Steamed or fried dumplings with tomato and sesame dip. Buff is the Kathmandu default.
- **Sekuwa**: Meat marinated in ginger, garlic and timur, grilled over wood, eaten with beaten rice.
- **Sukuti**: Air-dried meat, chewed plain or fried with onion and chilli. The bar snack.
- **Bhatmas sadeko**: Soybeans tossed with mustard oil, chilli, lemon and coriander. Arrives with the beer.
- **Chatamari**: A thin rice-flour crepe topped with minced meat and egg. Called Newari pizza.
- **Bara**: A black lentil patty fried until it puffs, often with egg. Breakfast in Patan.
- **Choila**: Flame-grilled buffalo tossed with mustard oil, chilli and timur, served cold.
- **Samay baji**: The Newar festival platter of beaten rice, choila, soybeans, ginger, egg and aila.
- **Thukpa**: Tibetan noodle soup, the standard order once the trail starts climbing.
- **Tibetan bread**: Deep-fried flatbread with honey at breakfast or curry at dinner. In every teahouse.
- **Yomari**: A steamed rice-flour parcel of molasses and sesame, made at the winter full moon.
- **Juju dhau**: The king of curds: Bhaktapur buffalo yoghurt set in clay pots, firm enough for a spoon.
- **Sel roti**: A ring of sweet fermented rice batter, crisp outside and chewy in. Made at Tihar.
- **Chiya**: Milk tea boiled with ginger, cardamom and cinnamon, sold by the glass on every corner.
- **Tongba**: Fermented millet in a wooden pot, topped with hot water, sipped through a metal straw.
- **Raksi**: Home-distilled millet or rice spirit, poured at festivals. Strength varies by house.

## By theme

- [Hiking & trekking](https://wimup.com/hiking.md)
- [Highest summits](https://wimup.com/summits.md)
- [Temples & shrines](https://wimup.com/temples.md)
- [Adventure capitals](https://wimup.com/adventure.md)

## FAQs

### Do you need a visa for Nepal?

Most nationalities get one on arrival, at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu and at the main land borders, in 15, 30 and 90-day tiers priced in US dollars. Bring a passport with at least six months left, a passport photo and cash, because the card machines at the airport have a reputation. The Department of Immigration lets you fill the form online up to two weeks before you land, which turns the arrival queue into a receipt check. A handful of nationalities are excluded from visa on arrival, so confirm on the department's own site.

### When is the best time to go?

October and November first, March second. Those are the dry windows either side of the summer monsoon, and they are when the mountains are reliably visible. April is spring at its best and also the busiest month on the trails, with the Everest climbing season on the mountain above. June to September is the monsoon: leeches on the trails, landslides on the roads, flights that do not go, and a green, cheap, half-empty country for anyone willing to work around it. December to February is cold and exceptionally clear, with the high passes shut.

### Can you still trek on your own?

Not in the national parks and protected areas. Since 1 April 2023 the Nepal Tourism Board has required foreign trekkers on those routes to walk with a licensed guide and to carry a TIMS card issued through a registered trekking agency. Day hikes around Kathmandu and Pokhara are outside the rule. The requirement is as much about search and rescue as about employment: the card records who is on which route, which matters when weather closes in.

### How much does altitude actually matter?

More than fitness does. Everest Base Camp sits at 5,364 m and the trek climbs to it over roughly eight days precisely so the body can keep up, with rest days built in at Namche Bazaar and again higher. Altitude sickness is a function of how fast you ascend and how high you sleep, not of how strong you are, and the only reliable treatment is going down. Any itinerary that saves days by skipping the acclimatisation stops is selling you a worse trek.

### How do you get between Kathmandu and Pokhara?

Fly or drive, and the two are not close. The flight is about 25 minutes and the road is most of a day on the Prithvi Highway, with tourist coaches leaving Kathmandu early in the morning. Flights are the sensible choice when the schedule is tight, with one caveat that applies to every domestic route here: mountain weather cancels them, sometimes for days, so leave a buffer before an international connection.

## Related countries

- [Japan](https://wimup.com/country/japan.md)
- [India](https://wimup.com/country/india.md)
- [All of Asia](https://wimup.com/asia)

Part of [Asia](https://wimup.com/asia.md)

## Sources

- [Tourism board](https://ntb.gov.np/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Visa](https://www.immigration.gov.np/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- [Trekking permits](https://ntb.gov.np/plan-your-trip/before-you-come/tims-card?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- Rankings are Wimup editorial picks. Prices, durations and budgets are editorial estimates, not live quotes; check the official site before you go.