Our office, in Thamel

Nepal is a landlocked country in South Asia, located between India and China. It is home to Mount Everest and the Himalayan mountain range.

You can enter Nepal by air through Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) in Kathmandu, or overland through designated border crossings from India and China.

Most foreign nationals need a visa to enter Nepal. Indian citizens generally do not require a visa.

Most travellers can obtain a tourist visa on arrival at Tribhuvan International Airport or apply online in advance. A valid passport and passport-size photo are generally required.

Nepal has diverse weather due to its varying elevations. Summers are generally warm and rainy, winters are cooler and dry, and higher mountain regions remain cold throughout much of the year.

The best seasons for trekking and sightseeing are generally spring (March to May) and autumn (September to November), when the weather is usually clear and pleasant.

Nepal follows Nepal Time (NPT), UTC+5:45. The international dialling code is +977.

Yes. ATMs are widely available in major cities such as Kathmandu and Pokhara. Credit and debit cards are also accepted at many hotels, restaurants and shops.

Yes, travel between Tibet and Nepal is possible through designated border crossings, but access may depend on permits, regulations and current border conditions. Organised travel is generally required.

Nepali is the official language of Nepal and is written in the Devanagari script. Nepal is also home to many other languages and ethnic communities.

The most common traditional greeting is Namaste or Namaskar. It is usually accompanied by placing the palms together in front of the chest.

On the main routes, yes. Trekkers in the national parks and conservation areas are required to walk with a government-licensed guide, and the checkpoints on the Everest, Annapurna, Langtang and Manaslu trails verify the licence rather than take your word for it. Restricted areas such as Upper Mustang, Manaslu and Dolpo go further again: a special permit, a registered agency and a minimum of two trekkers. Day walks around the Kathmandu valley and Pokhara are not affected.

Almost every trek needs a national park or conservation area entry permit, and several regions add a rural municipality fee collected at a local checkpoint. The old paper TIMS card has been replaced by a digital system and is no longer used in the Everest region at all. Restricted areas need their own permit, issued only through a licensed agency. We arrange the permits for the trips we run.

Yes. Our terms require comprehensive travel insurance for every trip. It has to cover trekking to the maximum altitude on your itinerary and, separately, helicopter evacuation, mountain rescue and repatriation. Ordinary holiday cover stops well below Himalayan trekking altitude, so read the altitude ceiling rather than the headline: most insurers sell a walking trek as a 6,000 m band.

Cards work in Kathmandu and Pokhara hotels, restaurants and larger shops, and nowhere on a trail. Nepali ATMs dispense roughly NPR 20,000 to 35,000 per withdrawal and charge around NPR 500 on top, so take out the largest amount your card allows rather than making several small withdrawals. Bring clean, undamaged US dollars in cash for the visa fee on arrival, and change the rest with a licensed money changer in Thamel, where the rate beats the airport.

None are compulsory to enter Nepal unless you are arriving from a country with a risk of yellow fever, which requires a certificate. Travel clinics usually recommend being current on tetanus, hepatitis A and typhoid, and will discuss hepatitis B and rabies for longer or more remote trips. Book the appointment six to eight weeks before you fly: some courses need more than one dose to protect you.

Not from the tap, anywhere in the country. Treat it instead: a filter bottle, a UV pen or chlorine tablets all work, and refill stations along the main trekking routes sell treated water by the litre for a fraction of what a bottle costs. Single-use plastic is restricted in the Khumbu and other regions are following, so a refillable bottle is now the practical choice as much as the responsible one.

Tipping is customary rather than obligatory, and it is given as a lump sum at the end of the trek rather than day by day. The usual range is USD 10 to 15 a day for a guide and USD 8 to 12 a day for each porter, pooled by the group and handed over at the farewell dinner. In cafés and restaurants, 10% is generous where a service charge is not already on the bill.

Nepal runs on 230V, 50Hz, with type C, D and M sockets; the round two-pin European plug fits most of them. Phone, camera and laptop chargers are almost always dual voltage and need nothing more than an adapter. City power cuts are far rarer than they were a decade ago, but in a teahouse electricity is metered and charged per device, so a 20,000 mAh power bank pays for itself in a week.

Yes. Ncell and Nepal Telecom (NTC) both sell tourist SIMs at the airport and across Thamel: bring your passport and a passport photo and it takes about fifteen minutes. NTC has the better reach in the mountains, Ncell the faster data in the cities. Both support eSIM now, and international eSIM providers work from the moment you land if you would rather arrive already connected.

For October, November, March and April — the two peak windows — three to six months is sensible: teahouses, Lukla seats and the best crews are all spoken for early. Outside those months a few weeks is usually enough. A place is held with a 20% deposit and the balance is not due until the trip briefing in Kathmandu, so booking early costs you nothing but the deposit.