Kathmandu Valley Heritage Tour

1. 1

   Kathmandu · Royal city

   Kathmandu Durbar Square

   Inscribed 1979 · palace from the 12th century

   The old royal seat, and the busiest of the three squares because the city never moved away from it. The Hanuman Dhoka palace holds ten courtyards behind its gate; the Kasthamandap, the rest-house the city may be named after, has been rebuilt in its original timber since 2015. The Kumari Ghar is the reason most people stop: the living goddess is a child chosen from the Shakya caste, and she appears at a first-floor window when she chooses to, which is not on a timetable.

   Photography is welcome in the square and forbidden inside the Kumari courtyard.

2. 2

   Lalitpur · Royal city

   Patan Durbar Square

   Inscribed 1979 · square laid out from the 14th century

   The densest and the most walkable of the three, entirely pedestrian and small enough to cross in three minutes, which is exactly why it repays three hours. The Krishna Mandir was cut from stone in 1637 and carries twenty-one gilt pinnacles. Behind it the palace runs through Sundari Chowk, with the Tusha Hiti bath sunk in its floor, to the Patan Museum — restored over a decade with Austrian help, and the finest small museum in South Asia.

   Museum entry is inside your ticket; allow an hour for it, and it is the one indoor stop that suits a wet afternoon.

3. 3

   Bhaktapur · Royal city

   Bhaktapur Durbar Square

   Inscribed 1979 · capital of the valley to 1482

   A whole medieval city rather than a square: cars are kept outside the walls, and the brick and timber run unbroken between four connected plazas. The Golden Gate and the fifty-five-window palace are on Durbar Square; the five-tiered Nyatapola, the tallest temple in Nepal, stands on Taumadhi on a stair of stone guardians and came through both the 1934 and 2015 earthquakes upright. Potters' Square is still a working yard, not a demonstration.

   The entry fee here is the valley's steepest and funds the restoration; your ticket is multi-day if you want to go back.

4. 4

   Kathmandu · Buddhist and Hindu

   Swayambhunath

   Inscribed 1979 · stupa from the 5th century

   A hemispherical stupa on a hill west of the city, with the Buddha's eyes painted on all four sides of its gilded cube and the whole valley laid out beneath it. It is sacred to Buddhists and to Hindus, which is the ordinary condition of religion in this valley rather than an exception. The rhesus macaques that gave it its tourist nickname live in the wood on the east side and are entirely unbothered by you.

   365 stone steps up the east stair, steep at the top; a road runs to the west gate if stairs are a problem.

5. 5

   Kathmandu · Tibetan Buddhist

   Boudhanath

   Inscribed 1979 · rebuilt after 2015

   One of the largest stupas in the world and the centre of Tibetan life in Nepal, ringed by more than fifty monasteries built by the communities that settled here after 1959. The mandala of the base is best understood from a rooftop; the stupa itself is best understood at dusk, when the quarter walks the kora clockwise around it in a slow continuous crowd and the butter lamps go up in the alcoves.

   Walk clockwise, as everyone else is. We time the visit for the evening kora rather than the midday coach hour.

6. 6

   Kathmandu · Hindu

   Pashupatinath

   Inscribed 1979 · shrine recorded from the 5th century

   The holiest Hindu shrine in Nepal, dedicated to Shiva as lord of the animals, and a complex rather than a building: over five hundred temples, ashrams and lingams spread along both banks of the Bagmati, with a deer park behind. Open-air cremations take place on the ghats through the day. Sadhus in ochre sit on the terraces above them. At 6 pm the lamps of the Bagmati aarati go up on the west bank and the whole river turns towards it.

   Only Hindus may enter the main temple; the east bank sees more anyway. Photograph the cremations from across the river or not at all.

7. 7

   Bhaktapur · Hindu

   Changu Narayan

   Inscribed 1979 · inscription dated 464 AD

   The oldest temple still standing in Nepal, on a ridge above Bhaktapur, and the quietest of the seven by a distance — most day tours cannot fit it in, which is the whole argument for a week. It is dedicated to Vishnu, and the stone in its courtyard bearing a Licchavi inscription of 464 AD is the earliest dated record in the country. The struts and the tympanum over the gilded door are the finest Newar woodcarving on the itinerary.

   A short walk up from the road, and the natural stop on the way down from Nagarkot rather than a detour.

Kathmandu Valley Heritage Tour: day by day

1. Day 1Arrive in KathmanduKathmanduNo sightseeing

   Someone from our office meets you inside the arrivals hall at Tribhuvan International with a marigold garland and your name on a board, and drives you the twenty minutes into Thamel. The rest of the day is yours. At 4 pm we run the briefing over tea: which square you are in on which morning, what to wear inside the temple courtyards, where photography is welcome and where it is not, and how much cash to carry for the days you are on your own. Dinner is in a Newari courtyard restaurant a few streets from the hotel.

   • Private airport pick-up, at any arrival hour
   • 4 pm briefing over tea, with the week laid out square by square
   • Welcome dinner: a samay baji platter and a chhoyla, in a Newari courtyard

   

   Time at the sitesNo sightseeing

   Based inKathmandu

   DistanceAirport transfer

   MealsBBreakfast not includedLLunch not includedDDinner included

   HotelHeritage hotel in Thamel, twin share
2. Day 2Kathmandu Durbar Square and SwayambhunathKathmandu5–6 hrs

   We walk to Durbar Square rather than drive: it is fifteen minutes from the hotel through the bazaar, and the approach is half of what the square is. Inside are the Hanuman Dhoka palace, the Taleju temple, the erotic struts of Jaganath, and the Kumari Ghar, where the living goddess appears at a first-floor window when she chooses to. Your guide will show you the 2015 earthquake damage and what has been rebuilt since, which is most of it. After lunch we drive across the Vishnumati to Swayambhunath and climb the 365 stone steps through the rhesus macaques the hill is nicknamed for. The stupa is 1,500 years old and the valley is laid out below it, which is the best possible orientation on your first full day.

   • Kumari Ghar, Hanuman Dhoka and the Kasthamandap, rebuilt in its original timber
   • The 365-step east stair at Swayambhunath, or the road to the west gate if you would rather
   • Both entry fees paid in advance: no queuing at the ticket window
   • Evening free in Thamel, ten minutes from the hotel on foot

   

   Time at the sites5–6 hrs

   Based inKathmandu

   Distance9 km by road

   MealsBBreakfast includedLLunch includedDDinner not included

   HotelHeritage hotel in Thamel, twin share
3. Day 3Patan, and the craftsmen south of the riverKathmandu6 hrs

   Lalitpur means city of beauty and it earns it. The Durbar Square here is the densest of the three, and it is entirely pedestrian: the Krishna Mandir carved from a single quarry of stone in 1637, twenty-one gilt pinnacles above it, and the three palace courtyards behind — Sundari Chowk with the sunken royal bath at its centre, Mul Chowk, and Keshav Narayan Chowk, which is now the Patan Museum and the finest small museum in South Asia. We give it an unhurried morning, then walk five minutes to the Golden Temple, a working Buddhist monastery a family has looked after in shifts since the twelfth century. The afternoon leaves the tourist map: Bungamati and Khokana, two Newar villages where the woodcarvers still work to order and the mustard-oil press is turned by hand.

   • Patan Museum entry included, and worth the hour it takes
   • The Golden Temple, still run by a rotating family priesthood
   • Lunch in a rooftop courtyard over the square, not in a hotel dining room
   • Bungamati and Khokana: woodcarvers, and the mustard-oil press

   

   Time at the sites6 hrs

   Based inKathmandu

   Distance22 km by road

   MealsBBreakfast includedLLunch includedDDinner not included

   HotelHeritage hotel in Thamel, twin share
4. Day 4Bhaktapur and Changu Narayan, up to NagarkotNagarkot6 hrs

   Bhaktapur is the one people wish they had given two days to. Cars are kept out, the brick is unbroken street after street, and the four squares run into one another: Durbar Square with the Golden Gate and the fifty-five-window palace, Taumadhi with the five-tiered Nyatapola standing on its stair of guardians, Dattatreya with the peacock window, and Potters' Square, where the wheels are still turning and the drying rows change every morning. We eat there, and you should have the juju dhau — king curd, set in clay. Mid-afternoon we climb to Changu Narayan on its ridge, the oldest standing temple in the country, and then keep climbing to Nagarkot for the last hour of light along the Himalayan skyline.

   • Bhaktapur is pedestrian throughout: the whole day here is on foot
   • Nyatapola, the tallest temple in Nepal, which stood through 1934 and 2015
   • Changu Narayan and its Licchavi stone inscription, dated 464 AD
   • Sunset from the Nagarkot ridge, then dinner at the hotel

   

   Time at the sites6 hrs

   Based inNagarkot

   Distance45 km by road

   MealsBBreakfast includedLLunch includedDDinner included

   HotelRidge hotel at Nagarkot, twin share, Himalaya-facing
5. Day 5Sunrise at Nagarkot, evening kora at BoudhanathKathmandu4–5 hrs

   We wake you before six. From the ridge the range comes up in order — Ganesh Himal, Langtang Lirung, Dorje Lakpa, Gauri Shankar — and on a hard, clear winter morning Everest is there on the far right, small and unmistakable. Breakfast afterwards, then the drive down through terraces and brick kilns into the city, arriving at Boudhanath in the early afternoon while it is still quiet. The best of it comes later: at dusk the whole quarter walks the kora clockwise around the stupa, monks and Tibetan families and shopkeepers, butter lamps going up in the alcoves, and you walk it with them. We stay for it rather than photographing it from a café roof and leaving.

   • Pre-dawn call for the sunrise; the hotel opens the kitchen early
   • Everest is visible from Nagarkot on perhaps one clear morning in four
   • Boudhanath: the largest stupa in Nepal and the heart of its Tibetan community
   • We stay through dusk for the kora and the butter lamps

   

   Time at the sites4–5 hrs

   Based inKathmandu

   Distance38 km by road

   MealsBBreakfast includedLLunch includedDDinner not included

   HotelHeritage hotel in Thamel, twin share
6. Day 6Kirtipur and Chobar, then Pashupatinath at aaratiKathmandu6 hrs

   A morning on the hill town of Kirtipur, which almost no tour goes to: Bagh Bhairab with its offering of captured weapons, streets of Newar houses that are lived in rather than restored, and the valley from the south for once. Then Chobar, where the Bagmati cuts its gorge, and the Adinath temple hung with the cooking pots newlyweds leave there. We are at Pashupatinath by mid-afternoon, Nepal's holiest Hindu shrine, with over five hundred temples and lingams inside the complex. Non-Hindus do not enter the main temple, and the east bank is the better side anyway: the ghats, the sadhus, the deer park behind, and at 6 pm the Bagmati aarati, when the lamps go up on the river. Farewell dinner back in town.

   • Kirtipur and Chobar: two stops most valley tours leave out
   • Cremations take place on the ghats; we watch from the far bank, quietly and at distance
   • The 6 pm Bagmati aarati, and the deer park behind the complex
   • Farewell dinner with a Newari dance performance, and your trip certificate

   

   Time at the sites6 hrs

   Based inKathmandu

   Distance28 km by road

   MealsBBreakfast includedLLunch includedDDinner included

   HotelHeritage hotel in Thamel, twin share
7. Day 7Depart KathmanduKathmanduNo sightseeing

   Breakfast at the hotel and a private transfer to the airport three hours before your flight. If you are going on to a trek, to Chitwan or to Pokhara, this is where we hand you over — same office, same paperwork, no second booking to make. And if your flight is in the evening we will hold the room until noon and put the morning to use: Asan and Indra Chowk for the spice market, Thamel for the last of the shopping, or the Garden of Dreams if you have had enough of crowds.

   • Late check-out held to noon wherever the hotel allows it
   • Private airport transfer, timed to your flight
   • Onward treks, Chitwan and Pokhara arranged on the same booking

   

   Time at the sitesNo sightseeing

   Based inKathmandu

   DistanceAirport transfer

   MealsBBreakfast includedLLunch not includedDDinner not included

   HotelNo overnight