Things to do in  Kathmandu

I did the Kathmandu city tour with the same company 2 days before that tour and I was happy to see that the same guide showed me around again. The two main highlights of this tour are the Hindu ceromony at the temple in the mountains and the delicious lunch at a local restaurant.

Short stay in Kathmandu between business meetings and took a day to trek outside the city. Wonderful nature views and local culture experience as we walked through the mountains and villages. Highly recommended if you have a short stay in Kathmandu and want to see day-to-day life in Nepal.

I only had a short time to see Kathmandu and this was a great way to do it. Each of the sites was well worth the visit and the personal touch of a private tour was a nice way to learn about the experience. If you want to take in the history and culture of the city, I would highly recommend this tour

Everything you could want to see in Kathmandu in one day! Our tour guide Jamuna was amazing! She was very informative and helpful. She catered the tour to what we wanted and stood in touch with us throughout our entire trip in Nepal to see if we needed anything. If you book this tour I would highly recommend asking for her!

A very humbling experience. One year after the devastating earthquake that hit the Kathmandu village it was good to see that the people have moved on with their lives. Walking through the many small villages on this hike allowed me to get close to the people closer than I ever imagined.

This tour was a hiking tour which was very interesting in several aspects. We visited temples and especially villages outside Kathmandu. It was a great experience to see the local people doing their daily things and at the same time doing a refreshing hiking with an informative conversation with the guide. I learned a lot about the Napelese culture and also practical information about the life of the normal people in Nepal.

Our guide Shanti Karki arrived sharp at 7 am to pick the two of us up at our hotel with a nice clean car and a driver. She was polite, professional, knowledgeable and caring. She would tell us about the history of all the sites we visited, caution us about things to watch out for, answer all our questions. She did all this with a smile and caring friendliness. We had only one day in Kathmandu and this was probably the best way to see all the important sites and learn about them. The car was comfortable and clean and we could rest and take short naps while being driven from one site to another.

We enjoyed Kathmandu city half day tour. The guide was very informative. We learned quite a bit about Nepal in 5 hours We were able to visit 4 main places in Kathmandu. Entrance fees were unexpectedly expensive to me (I was in Nepal 20 years ago and I did remember I paid such amount). Visiting 4 places cost 2600 NRP/person. Just prepare for that. The guide speaks English very well. We learned a lot from him about Kathmandu history. Thank you.

We were picked up a 4:30 for the drive to Nagarkot in the dark. There was no commentary but then it was hard to see anything. Arrived in time for the sunrise and did get one on a nice day. (The morning was chilly so dress appropriately) Breakfast was provided at a nearby hotel and followed by a walking tour of old Bhaktapur. Our guide Prakash was knowledgeable and it was nice to see Bhaktapur’s Durban Square survives the 2015 earthquake better than Kathmandu. Tickets to enter the city were Us$30 per person (as indicated n the brief). On top of this we had to pay another $7 for the two of us to see the sunrise a couple km up a road into a park. This was not mentioned when booking.. We were dropped off back at the hotel at 10:15. (6:45 duration) You’ll spend most of your time driving back and forth and taking in the sunrise. The walking part of tour was around an hour although we were offered the option of wandering around by ourselves once it finished. If you’re short of time this hits some of the highlights.

We’ve been on a lot of tours, and this one was one of the best, if not the best. Our guide, Prasant, was incredibly knowledgeable and was able to answer just about every question we threw at him. He gave a very sensitive analysis of everything we saw and pitched his explanations to exactly the right level for our interests. His English was excellent and clear and the car was comfortable. We’ve been raving about the tour since it ended. It was the highlight of our visit to Kathmandu. Very, very highly recommended.

First and foremost if you book this tour expect a high chance of not seeing the sunrise or even the mountain range. My guide told me that (mid-October) out of the 4 days he did the sunrise tour only 1 of those days was clear enough for a view. I did not set all of my expectations on the sunrise and view so I was not too disappointed. The trip started with the driver and my guide (Madan) picked me up at my hotel at 4:20am. We took a very bumpy ride to Nagarkot (don't expect to nap on the way there!) and arrived about 20-30 minutes before sunrise. As it was foggy, we went into the village and had breakfast (not included in the booking). Madan was nice enough to lend me cash since I didn't have any on me at the time. I paid him back at the end of the day. After breakfast and Madan and the driver took a smoke break, we started the walk. If you're a fast walker, it could take 1.5 hours but if you top and take your time like me to take photos and chat with Madan it could take 2.5-3 hours. I was expecting a hike through a small trail but actually we just walked through the villages the whole time. You get to see how people like in the hills, children going to school, and lots of farm animals! We also stopped at a recently build Buddhist monument with a great view of the hills and valley and afterwards a Hindu temple before meeting up with the driver. Madan and I had some great discussion and he answered all of my questions and was easy to understand. The driver then took us a few kilometers to a more touristic town (Madan paid for the entrance) with Hindu temples. The drive was beautiful and the driver was kind enough to stop when I was taking my photos! If we had more time, you could stop and buy some things but we were all a bit tired at the end so we did not stay long there before heading back to a lot of traffic jams in Kathmandu. They were also kind enough to drop me off near Thamel instead of my hotel when I asked. Overall I would recommend this tour or the tour without the sunrise (if you want a bit more sleep) if you are looking for experience to see how people in the hills live and want to get out of the busy capital for a day. The hike is also very easy!

A group of 4 ladies were looking for a quick experience on the outskirts of Kathmandu. The first village we visited was Panauti, a very quaint, peaceful village walk. We walked at our pace of personal interest and even swung on the big bamboo festival swing. Next we went to Bhaktapur, a World Heritage site. Many museums were closed due to the festival holiday. We stopped for a sweet, cool yogurt and even did some limited shopping. Our guide Akshay from Royal Mountain Travel was personable, friendly, spoke excellent English and offered a hotel drop off as well. We felt safe and entered a small picture of Nepalese culture.

This is a very extensive tour of the highlights around Kathmandu. Birodh was a great guide with extensive knowledge of the sites visited, their history and significance to Nepalese culture. His easygoing style and excellent English made for an enjoyable and educational day. The tour has a significant spiritual element and Birodh’s in depth understanding of both Hindu and Buddhist customs was enlightening. Besides choosing a great lunch spot, he also got me in position to see the Kumari and explained how a little girl comes to be a revered living princess. Highly recommended tour and guide!

Good time to visit one of the interesting spot in Kathmandu Valley. Professional staff.

Great trip. Excellent and friendly guide. Highly recommended way to see Kathmandu.

This was by far the BEST tour I've ever had. Kalpana is an excellent guide with very extensive knowledge about local culture and she will be more than happy to anwser any of your questions. After the tour I felt I learned more in the span of 4 hours than during my entire stay in Nepal. HIGHLY recommended if you want to see all the best places in Kathmandu!

BGuide and driver were on time in picking me up at my hotel at the scheduled time of 9 am. Actual itinerary was slightly different from the one described in Viator. My stops and sight admission fees that I paid were: First stop Boudhanath Stupa 250 Rupees Second stop Pashupatinath Temple 1000 Rupees Third stop Kathmandu Durbar Square 1000 Rupees Last stop Swayambhunath Temple 200 Rupees While we stopped at the Boudhanath Stupa, we also visited an art school/handicraft store with an option to buy some souvenirs. Next to the Pashupatinath Temple, I saw several cremations in progress along the Bagmati River. We visited the Kumari house in Durbar Square hoping for a glimpse of the Kumari, the living goddess, but she did not make an appearance. Tour was good and the guide spoke English quite well and knew the sights. Overall, it was a good introduction to 4 main sights of Kathmandu. Tour was about 5 hours long and I was back at my hotel by 2 pm.

Excellent tour - a great way to see Kathmandu's major Buddhist and Hindu sites in a single day.

What a lovely hike! Starting in the shadow if the biggest statue of Shiva that's perched on the hill at Sanga, we took the trail that went up. Not very steep, the first part of the way is upwards. It wasn't long before we reached the top of the hill where we were supposed to get some tremendous views. However, the late monsoon and cloudy weather meant that we didn't see the promised panoramic views. I have been in this corner of the Kathmandu Valley before, so I knew what I was missing. Maybe it was just as well my friends didn't know what they were missing as on a clear day, you can see the Himalayas stretching as far as the eye can see. The hike was very interesting, passing through villages, along paddies, up and down little trails that criss-crossed the hillside. Sometimes walking through forest, sometimes along ridge paths, the scenery was varied and we met lots of local people going about their day to day business. Schools were on holiday so it was nice saying hello to children who wanted to practice their English with 'What is your name?' and 'Where are you from?' Too soon we were descending to Panauti, the lovely Newar town on the other side of the hill we'd climbed. Visiting first the homestay where the Community Homestay Coordinator lives, we were shown to the homestay where we were to have lunch. Here my friends and I tucked into one of the nicest dal bhats I've had for a long time. Dal bhat is the Nepali staple of rice served with lentil soup and vegetable curry. Our hostess had gone to town with a wonderful selection of vegetable curries, homemade pickles and we left very full, to explore the historic sights of Panauti. This historic Newar town in the Kathmandu Valley has not changed much at all over the years. I first visited in 1994 and the old part of town still looks very much the same, with women winnowing the corn, piles of grain stacked on plastic sheets in the streets full of old houses. After a quick tour of the little old durbar and ghats by the river, we took a slow stroll back through the town to the bus park where my friends caught their bus back to Bhaktapur where they were staying, 15 minutes away.

This tour is jammed packed with all of the historic and cultural sights that you would want to see in the Kathmandu area. And no mandatory shopping trips. The 3 Durbar Squares, Bhaktpur, Patan, and Kathmandu, were all well worth seeing, displaying a medieval architecture unlike any I have seen outside Nepal. Patan has a small museum, so you can see what filled the palaces and temples. And these pieces were well worth seeing for their beauty and craftsmanship. Astonishingly enough, at Kumari Chowk , Kathmandu Durbar Sq, the Kumari herself made an appearance at the window. There were only a handful of us present, and we were all awestruck. How does one react in the presence of a living goddess? All of the sights were beautiful and inspirational. For me, the most impressive sight was the Pashupatinath Temple. This is also known as the crematorium. It may sound morbid or gross, but in the presence of people caring for, and venerating their dead, I felt an empathy for the mourners, and a glimpse of something sacred in their lives. I want to commend our driver and guide, who did valiant work battling the local traffic, and were thoughtful and flexible to our wishes. The guide answered many questions for us, not just about the sights, but about the life and culture in Nepal.