Travel in Patan

Patan sits about 5 km south of Kathmandu, across the Bagmati river, and appears on the road signs as Lalitpur. Our itineraries call it the oldest of the valley's three royal cities. On every route that includes it, it arrives in the same shape: an excursion inside the day-2 sightseeing programme, run out of the Kathmandu hotel you are already in.

Be clear about the scale. Day 2 is not Patan's alone. It opens with Kathmandu's own Durbar Square — Hanuman Dhoka palace, the Taleju temple, the Jagannath temple, the Kala Bhairava statue, the Kasthamandap said to be built from the wood of a single tree — and Swayambhunath, the hilltop stupa the itineraries date at 2,000 years. Patan is what follows. A few hours, not a day, and you drive back to Kathmandu to sleep.

Four monuments are named in the itinerary text and nothing else is: the Krishna Temple; the Hiranya Varna Mahavihar, known as the Golden Temple; the Kumbheshwar Temple; and the Mahabouddha Temple, where each brick carries an image of the Buddha — the "Temple of 1,000 Buddhas". The Krishna Temple stands on Patan's Durbar Square, so that is where the visit happens. The Patan Museum inside the old palace is not written into any programme, and neither are the metal and woodcarving workshops the city trades on. Ask before you book if either is the reason you want to be here.

Five trips take you there: The world of Nepal (9 days, from EUR 930), Temples, shrines & Himalayas (14 days, from EUR 1,350), Impressions of Nepal – culture and nature (17 days, from EUR 1,640), Majestic Himalayas (from EUR 1,640) and Culture and Himalayan hiking (14 days, from EUR 1,760). Four of the five give the valley a second full day straight afterwards — Bhaktapur, Boudhanath and Pashupatinath on day 3. The 9-day route does not. It leaves for Chitwan on day 3 and only reaches Bhaktapur on the way back, on day 8.

The sixth Nepal trip skips Patan altogether. Trekking tour through Nepal (11 days, from EUR 1,575) drives from the airport to Nagarkot with a stop in Bhaktapur, spends day 2 in Kathmandu, then heads to Pokhara for the Poon Hill trek. If Patan is the reason you are coming, that is not the route.

All six run privately, on your own dates, with your own guide — German-speaking, as on everything we sell. Breakfast, hotel accommodation and 24-hour contact are included; international flights are not. Hotels run Standard, Deluxe, Superior and Executive. There is no five-star tier and no fixed group departure.