Everest is a two-week walk. Most of Nepal is a day out.
What the Base Camp trek really costs and how long it takes. Whether the mountain flight beats the helicopter. Which valley heritage day is worth $17 and which is worth $180. Reviews of every tour you can book in Nepal.
The two-week walkEverest Base Camp Trek – 14 Daysfrom $1,800
Everest in a morningEverest Base Camp Helicopter Tour landing at Hotel Everest Viewfrom $1,600
The valley in a dayPrivate Kathmandu Sightseeing Tour | UNESCO World Heritage sitesfrom $17
Sunrise over AnnapurnaSarangkot Sunrise Himalayas Tourfrom $8
Momos in Thamel, a dawn ridge, three days to Poon Hill, an hour beside Everest.
The four bookings a first trip to Nepal usually gets built around. What each one costs, and what the travellers who took it say about it.
01The first afternoonHalf day cooking class in Thamel kathmanduMomos folded by hand in a Thamel kitchen, then you eat what you made. Two hours, and every menu in the country makes sense afterwards.
02The first sunriseNagarkot Sunrise View and Day Hiking from KathmanduNagarkot before dawn, then a walk down through the terraces to Changu Narayan. The whole skyline before breakfast, an hour from the city.
03The short trekPoon hill Trek 3 daysThree days up to Poon Hill and back, sleeping in teahouses. Annapurna South at sunrise without the two-week commitment.
04The hour in the airMountain Everest Scenic Flight with Hotel Pickup and DropoffA first-light run along the Khumbu with Everest off the right wing. Everyone on board gets a window seat.
Fourteen days to Everest, or three to Poon Hill. Pick your walk.
Nepal sells its trails by the week. What separates the big routes is time off work and how high you sleep, not the scenery. Here is what each one costs to start.
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · Everest Base Camp Trek – 14 Days
Everest Base CampTwelve to fourteen days up the Khumbu, Lukla flight attached.
Annapurna Base CampFive to twelve days into the sanctuary, teahouses the whole way.
Ghorepani and Poon HillThree or four days, one enormous sunrise, barely any altitude.
The Annapurna CircuitA fortnight around the massif and over Thorong La at 5,416m.
Mardi HimalFour days on a ridge above Pokhara, quieter than its neighbours.
All 273 walks in the hills →
Kathmandu first, then whichever way the road out of it goes.
A valley of temple squares, a lake town under the Annapurnas, the trailhead belt behind it, a jungle park on the Indian border, and two hill ridges people set alarms for. Six places to start, and the best day out in each.
Walk to Everest, land beside it, or be back in Kathmandu by nine.
The trek is a fortnight and a Lukla flight. The helicopter is one morning and a landing under Kala Patthar. The mountain flight never touches the ground and costs less than a night in a good hotel.
The days out more travellers book than anything else in Nepal.
Every Nepal tour we have reviewed →What the country is actually booking, from a $17 walk round the temple squares to a fortnight on foot at the head of the Khumbu.
1
Everest Base Camp Trek – 14 Days
Trek from Lukla to Everest Base Camp and Kala Patthar in 14 days with Ace the Himalaya. You get a licensed English-speaking guide, porter support, meals, permits, filtered water, and Kathmandu flights. Guides such as Maddy, Kishor, Chris, and Rajendra have led recent departures.
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
ZipFlyer Nepal – The World’s Steepest Zip-line
from $165
5
Half day cooking class in Thamel kathmandu
from $28
6
Everest Base Camp Trekking
from $1,350
7
Nagarkot Sunrise View and Day Hiking from Kathmandu
from $45
8
Full Day 7 UNESCO Tour with Lunch – Private/Group
from $10
Pokhara is where Nepal stops climbing and floats for a day.
Phewa lake, a wall of Annapurna standing behind it, and the shortest walk to a serious mountain view in the country. It is also where you land after a trek, and where the next one leaves from.
Every Pokhara day out →
Kathmandu: seven World Heritage sites inside one valley.
Everything in Kathmandu →
Three Durbar Squares, two Buddhist stupas, two Hindu complexes, all within an hour of each other. Most guided days take in four of the seven. The long ones do all seven and feed you halfway through.
All seven sites, one van
Durbar Squares at Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur, then Swayambhu, Boudha, Pashupatinath and Changu Narayan. Long, and the only sensible way to see the lot without hiring a car and a driver yourself.
Bhaktapur on its own
The square the 2015 earthquake left most intact, and the only one where potters still work in the open. Go after three, when the seven-site vans have moved on and the light drops behind the Nyatapola.
Patan, then the rickshaws
Patan holds the finest Newari metalwork in the valley and the quietest of the three squares. The light after four is the reason photographers base themselves in Lalitpur rather than Thamel.
What a day in Nepal actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs. A guided morning round the temple squares runs to less than lunch does at home. A walk to Everest costs more than the flight in.
Temple-square walks, momo classes, the Chandragiri cable car and the sunrise hikes out of both cities.
The mountain flight, Pokhara’s bungee and ATV afternoons, Chitwan packages and the shortest teahouse treks.
The long trails, the helicopter that puts you down under Kala Patthar, and the zip line above Pokhara.
Three things that only happen in Nepal.
Mountains and monasteries turn up all over Asia. A four-in-the-morning habit of driving to a ridge to look at the horizon, a runway cut into a hillside at 2,845m, and grassland with rhinos in it four hours below the snowline do not.
The dawn ridge habit
Nepal may be the only country where the standard tourist activity is getting up at four to look at the horizon. Nagarkot sits on the valley rim at 2,175m and on a clear winter morning shows Ganesh Himal, Langtang, Dorje Lakpa and, far to the east, a sliver of Everest. Sarangkot does the same job above Pokhara for Annapurna and Machhapuchhre. Both go grey by nine, which is why the jeeps leave in the dark.
- 1Nagarkot Sunrise View and Day Hiking from Kathmandu★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 471 reviews
- 2Private Bhaktapur and Nagarkot Day Tour From Kathmandu★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 305 reviews
- 3Nagarkot Sunrise View & Morning Hike with Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 188 reviews
The runway that starts the walk
Almost every Everest trek begins with a twenty-minute flight into Lukla, onto a 527-metre strip carved into a hillside at 2,845m with a stone wall at one end and a drop at the other. It flies at dawn or not at all. Cloud grounds it for days at a time, which is why every honest itinerary carries a spare day at each end.
- 1Everest Base Camp Trek – 14 Days★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,499 reviews
- 2Everest Base Camp Trekking★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 485 reviews
- 3Everest Base Camp Trekking – 13 Day★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 365 reviews
Chitwan, the other Nepal
The Terai sits at about 150 metres, runs hot and flat, and looks nothing like the postcards. Chitwan is sal forest and elephant grass with one-horned rhino in it, plus gharial on the Rapti and, if the week goes your way, a tiger track in the mud. Nearly everyone books it as a two- or three-night package out of Kathmandu or Pokhara.
- 1Jungle Towernight Stay In Chitwan National Park ,nepal-2 Nights 3 Days Package★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 186 reviews
- 23-Day Chitwan National Park Jungle Safari Tour Package with Pick Up★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 184 reviews
- 3From Kathmandu/Pokhara: 3-Day All-Inclusive Chitwan Safari★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 133 reviews
Four Nepal bookings that will not wait.
Most of this country can be arranged over breakfast in Thamel the day before. These four run on flight seats, permit desks and a monsoon that shuts half the trails.
- 01Everest Base Camp Trek – 14 DaysThe Lukla flight is part of the trek, and seats in October and April go months ahead. Every weather day pushes the whole queue back a slot.
- 02Everest Base Camp Helicopter Tour landing at Everest View HotelHelicopters run at first light in five-seat loads. By late morning the Khumbu has clouded in and the landing is off.
- 033-Day Chitwan National Park Jungle Safari Tour Package with Pick UpLodges inside the park sell fixed two- and three-night packages with the jeep permits attached, so the room and the safari are one booking or neither.
- 04Annapurna Circuit Trek with Tilicho LakeThorong La is 5,416m and closes under snow. The window either side of the monsoon is short, and the teahouses on the pass fill inside it.
When the monsoon closes the Khumbu, the Kathmandu Valley stays open.
From late June the cloud sits on the hills, the Lukla flights stop for days at a stretch and the big views go. The valley carries on regardless: temple squares, kitchens, workshops and the cable car all work in the rain, and the terraces are green rather than dust.
By place, from the Kathmandu Valley down to the Terai
By kind of Nepali day, walk, flight, temple or river
Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Nagarkot, Pokhara, Poon Hill, Chitwan: the loop almost everybody does first.
The newest Nepal tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Namobuddha Monastery Hiking Day Tour via Panauti from Kathmandu
Read our review →
Private Half-Day Tour of Kathmandu Durbar Square and Swayambhunath Temple
Read our review →
Private Half-Day Tour of Boudhanath and Pashupatinath Temples in Kathmandu
Read our review →
Private Day Tour in Kathmandu Valley Rim with Bhaktapur Sightseeing
Read our review →
Private Day Tour: Patan and Bhaktapur from Kathmandu
Read our review →
Private 3-Hour Nagarkot Sunset Tour from Kathmandu
Read our review →
