Everest takes two weeks. The valley takes one morning.
Which Everest trek actually reaches base camp. What a Lukla flight does to your schedule. Whether Poon Hill is enough when four days is all you have. Reviews of every tour you can book in Nepal.
The walk in to base camp, day nineEverest Base Camp Trekking – 13 Day
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · from $1,399
A fortnight on the trail, a valley of temples, a dawn over the Annapurnas.
The four bookings a first Nepal itinerary hangs off. What each one costs and how much of your fortnight it takes.
01Fourteen daysEverest Base Camp Trek – 14 DaysFourteen days to base camp and back, teahouse to teahouse, with the Lukla flights and the park permits built in.
02Day one in the valleyPrivate Kathmandu Sightseeing Tour | UNESCO World Heritage sitesSeven listed sites around the valley in one day, with a car and somebody who knows which courtyards are worth the detour.
03Before breakfastSarangkot Sunrise Himalayas TourUp to Sarangkot before the light reaches Machhapuchhre, back in Pokhara in time for breakfast.
04The two-hour versionEverest Base Camp Helicopter Tour landing at Everest View HotelBase camp and the terrace at Syangboche by helicopter, back in Kathmandu before lunch.
Everest, the Annapurna sanctuary, or a ridge above Pokhara.
Nepal sells its mountains by the number of days you can give them. Three kinds of walk, what it costs to join each one, and how long you are actually on the trail.
Five bases: Kathmandu, Pokhara, two ranges and the Chitwan jungle.
Nepal is short on distance and long on altitude. Kathmandu for the squares and the stupas, Pokhara for the water and the ridge, the Annapurna and Everest trailheads for the walking, Chitwan for the rhinos.
Everest is a two-week walk or a ninety-minute flight.
The trail out of Lukla climbs through Namche to the moraine at Gorak Shep and takes a fortnight of your life. The other way up is a dawn flight along the ridge line, or a helicopter that lands for breakfast at 3,880 metres and has you back in Kathmandu by noon.
The most popular days out in Nepal.
Every tour in Nepal →More travellers take these than anything else between the Terai and the Khumbu, and this is what earns each one its slot.
1
Everest Base Camp Trek – 14 Days
Trek from Lukla to Everest Base Camp with a small group of up to 14, a first-aid-trained guide, porters, meals, permits, and domestic flights. The route includes Namche Bazaar, Tengboche, Dingboche, Kala Patthar, and Sherpa villages. Guides such as Maddy, Kishor, and Rajendra Khatry 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
Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur each kept their own palace square.
All of Kathmandu →
Three royal cities inside an hour of each other, and a valley rim carrying the stupas at Swayambhunath and Boudhanath and the ghats at Pashupatinath. A car covers the lot in one long day. Two days does it properly, on foot.
Seven listed sites, one car
The full valley circuit: the durbar squares of Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur, then Swayambhunath, Boudhanath and Pashupatinath before the light goes. Entry tickets are paid at each gate on top of the tour.
Bhaktapur, and the potters at work
The best preserved of the three squares, with a pottery square still turning out drying rows of clay and a courtyard of woodcarvers behind it. Worth a whole afternoon rather than a photo stop.
Boudhanath at lamp lighting
The stupa fills with pilgrims walking the kora as the light drops, butter lamps go on around the base, and the rooftop places on the ring look straight down onto it.
Three things that happen nowhere but Nepal.
Mountains and monasteries exist all along the Himalaya. An hour at eye level with eight-thousanders, a thermal that flies tandem beginners over a lake, and a kitchen that teaches the pleat do not.
The Everest Scenic Flight
The dawn flight out of Kathmandu turns east and runs the length of the range with Everest off the left wing. Every seat is a window seat, the cabin swaps sides halfway so nobody loses out, and the whole thing is over inside an hour. It goes at first light because the cloud builds by ten, which is also why a bad morning moves the whole schedule.
- 1Mountain Everest Scenic Flight with Hotel Pickup and Dropoff★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 210 reviews
- 21 hour Panoramic Everest Flight★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 175 reviews
- 31 Hour Mount Everest flight from Kathmandu With Hotel Pick Up★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 161 reviews
Paragliding over Phewa
Sarangkot sits a thousand metres above the lake with a thermal that works most of the year, which is how Pokhara became one of the easiest places on earth to fly tandem. Pilots launch off the ridge, circle with the hawks over the water and land on the lakeshore around twenty-five minutes later. Autumn mornings are the steady ones.
- 1Paragliding★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 91 reviews
- 2Adventure Paragliding Trip with Photos and Videos★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 50 reviews
- 3Paragliding at Sarangkot Pokhara★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 50 reviews
Momos and the dal bhat set
Momos are folded in every kitchen in the country and the pleat is the part nobody gets right first time. A class runs through the dough, the buff or vegetable filling and the stacked steamer, then sits everybody down to a dal bhat set with the results on the side. Most run in Thamel and most end as lunch.
- 1Local Women-Led Nepali Cooking & Momo Class★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 360 reviews
- 2Local Lead Nepali Cooking & Momo-Making Class★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 212 reviews
- 3Nepalese Momos or Dal Bhat Cooking Class (Cook with Delight)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 99 reviews
What a day out in Nepal costs, and what a trek costs.
Every tour on the site grouped by price. A guided day around the valley runs to the price of lunch at home. The long walks are where the money actually goes.
Valley sightseeing, cooking classes, day hikes, the lake boat and the tourist bus.
Mountain flights, rafting days, Chitwan safaris and the three-day ridge walks.
Base camp treks, helicopter landings and the restricted-area trips into Mustang.
- 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
The Nepali bookings that will not wait.
Most of this country can be arranged over breakfast in Thamel the day before. These run on permit windows, weather slots and teahouse beds that were taken in September.
- 01Everest Base Camp Trek – 14 DaysTeahouse beds on the Lukla trail go through October and November, and the flight seats go with them.
- 02Trekking in Annapurna/Langtang/Everest/Upper Mustang regionsUpper Mustang sits behind a restricted-area permit issued for a fixed window. It cannot be bought on arrival at the trailhead.
- 03Everest Base Camp Helicopter Tour landing at Everest View HotelHelicopters fly in the morning weather window, and the landing slots up at Syangboche are capped.
- 04Jungle Towernight Stay In Chitwan National Park ,nepal-2 Nights 3 Days PackageThe park runs a fixed daily timetable of safari slots, and the lodges around Sauraha fill from October to March.
Monsoon Nepal: the ranges disappear from June to September.
For four months the rain sits on the valley and the mountains hide for days at a time. The answer is indoors and low. A kitchen in Thamel, a courtyard museum, a massage table, the carpet workshops around Boudha. Mustang stays dry behind the range if you want to keep walking.
Dal bhat twice a day, and momos in between.
The set meal is rice, lentils, a curry and pickles, refilled until you stop it. Around it sit the Newari khaja platters of the old valley towns, the buff momo kitchens of Thamel, and the market walks that explain both.
Kathmandu, Chitwan, Pokhara: the loop almost everybody does first.
Kathmandu
Nagarkot
Chitwan
Pokhara
Annapurna RegionBy place - valley, lakeside and the two ranges
By kind of day - trail, temple, kitchen or thermal
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