Travel in Nepal

Nepal fits three very different landscapes into short drives. The Kathmandu Valley holds three royal cities and centuries of temple building. West of it, Pokhara sits on a lake with the Annapurna wall behind it. South of both, the Terai lowland is still jungle. Our six Nepal itineraries are built around those three places and the hill towns on the roads between them. Every trip is private and guided — there are no fixed group departures — and every one arrives at Kathmandu airport and leaves from it. None of the six uses a domestic flight; the whole route runs by road and on foot.

All six spend time in the Kathmandu Valley. Kathmandu's Durbar Square is on every one — the Hanuman Dhoka palace, the Taleju and Jagannath temples, and on five trips the Kasthamandap, said to have been built from the wood of a single tree. Swayambhunath, held to be 2,000 years old, stands on the hill above the city and is also on all six. Five itineraries add Patan and its Mahaboudha temple, nicknamed the Temple of 1,000 Buddhas because every brick carries an engraved image. Five include Boudhanath, where thousands of pilgrims a day turn prayer wheels and stock up on yak butter and barley flour. Four add Pashupatinath, seen from the eastern bank of the Bagmati because only Hindus may enter. Bhaktapur and its Fifty-Five Window Palace are on every trip.

Pokhara is on all six too — a place to slow down, and the road head for the mountains. Two itineraries go up to Sarangkot at about 1,592 m for sunrise on Dhaulagiri and Annapurna, around 5 a.m. Three take in the white Shanti Stupa at roughly 1,115 m above the Phewa valley; on the 14-day temple route that is an hour's climb on foot. Four visit Devi's Falls and the Seti River gorge, the Bindhyabasini temple and the Gupteshwar Mahadev cave. A boat trip on Phewa Lake is on five. One 17-day trip adds a mountain-bike ride out to the surrounding villages, with a picnic on the riverbank.

Chitwan is on four of the six. The pattern is a bird-watching outing or nature walk at dawn before breakfast, then a jeep safari or a canoe trip later in the day, both arranged by the hotel according to weather and local conditions. One of the last populations of Asian one-horned rhinoceros lives in the park; a Bengal tiger is possible rather than likely. Nights vary: two on the nine-day trip and on the 14-day culture route, three on the 14-day temple route, and one on the 11-day trek, which arrives for a single afternoon safari and drives back to Kathmandu the next morning. One firm seasonal rule applies — no jeep safaris run in Chitwan during the rains in July, August and September.

Four itineraries put a multi-day walk above Pokhara in the middle of the trip. All four share one high point: sunrise on Poon Hill at 3,210 m, after a night at Ghorepani at 2,750 to 2,850 m in rhododendron and oak forest. The 11-day trip walks the five-stage loop from Nayapul through Ulleri, Ghorepani, Tadapani and Ghandruk. The 14-day culture trip walks the same loop but breaks the first stage lower, at Tikhedhunga at 1,495 m. One 17-day route starts at Kande at 1,700 m and crosses the Australian Camp viewpoint at 2,200 m. Majestic Himalayas is the long one: Nayapul, Ghorepani and Tadapani, then north past Chomrong, Dovan and Deurali at 3,200 m to a night at Machapuchare Base Camp at 3,700 m, with the climb to Annapurna Base Camp at 4,130 m that afternoon. Conservation rules restrict the lodges up there, so from Dovan onwards you sleep in shared rooms. Where the stages carry distances, they run roughly 4 to 15 km and three to seven hours of walking.

The nine-day route is the shortest of the six: the valley, two nights in Chitwan, Pokhara and Sarangkot, then Dhulikhel, where the sunrise over the peaks is watched from the hotel, and Nagarkot at 2,175 m with Bhaktapur on the last day. The 11-day trip drives straight from the airport to Nagarkot, then takes in Kathmandu, the Annapurna loop, Lumbini — where an Ashoka pillar marks the Buddha's birthplace — and one night in Chitwan. Fourteen days buys either the trek with more time in the valley, or a route with no multi-day walk at all: a night at the Naydo Monastery in Pharping, where the 5 a.m. puja is open to guests, and two nights in Bandipur, a hill town of narrow lanes and wooden houses on a ridge at 1,000 m. The two longest trips add Changu Narayan at 1,540 m and the two-hour walk on to Telkot and Nagarkot.

Prices start at EUR 930 for the nine-day trip and reach EUR 1,760 for the 14-day culture route. The two longest itineraries both start at EUR 1,640, so more days does not automatically mean a higher price. Hotel accommodation, breakfast, a bottle of water on arrival and someone reachable 24 hours a day are included, and staff meet you at the airport. International flights are not. Hotels run Standard, Deluxe, Superior and Executive — there is no five-star tier. Everything is tailor-made, so the dates are yours; plan around the Chitwan rains and the mountain viewpoints, which need clear weather.