Kathmandu, Nepal-5-day-itinerary

Rather than chase individual sights across the map, this version of a five-day Kathmandu trip moves neighborhood by neighborhood, letting each area’s character do more of the work than a rushed checklist would.

Day 1: Thamel, on its own terms

Land, get through visa on arrival with cash US dollars (15 days $30, 30 days $50, 90-day multi-entry $125), and take the prepaid taxi counter inside the terminal for a fixed NPR 700-800 into Thamel rather than negotiating outside. Spend the rest of day one simply learning Thamel: its narrow lanes, its trekking shops, its rooftop bars. It’s the densest tourist zone in the city and also the densest concentration of touts, so treat today as calibration for the rest of the trip. Dinner and an evening walk here set a good baseline before you branch out.

Day 2: Boudha and Pashupatinath

Morning at Boudhanath Stupa, NPR 400, in its own Tibetan quarter called Boudha, full of monasteries and a noticeably calmer pace than Thamel. Walk the full circle around the stupa rather than rushing it. In the afternoon, head to Pashupatinath, NPR 1,000, Nepal’s most sacred Hindu temple and an active cremation site on the Bagmati River. Non-Hindus can’t enter the inner pagoda but can view the cremation ghats respectfully from across the water. If a sadhu offers a blessing, settle a price first or decline before contact starts.

Stay for dinner in Boudha if you can manage it; the Tibetan food here tends to beat the Thamel equivalent.

Day 3: Patan, and the neighborhood with the best food

Cross the Bagmati into Patan, technically a separate city called Lalitpur. Spend the morning in its Durbar Square, widely considered the best-preserved of the valley’s three, and worth prioritizing if you only trust one opinion on this. The metalwork shops here are genuinely good browsing. For lunch, get a real Newari thali with chhoila and bara at Newa Lahana or Honacha, NPR 500-1,200; it’s simply a better meal than anything on the Thamel restaurant strip, and after three days of comparison eating I’ll say that plainly rather than hedge it. Spend the afternoon wandering Patan’s quieter side streets before heading back.

Day 4: Bhaktapur, given a full day

Bhaktapur is its own medieval town, about 45 to 90 minutes out, with its own entry fee around NPR 1,800-2,000 covering the whole town across multiple days. Give it the full day rather than the rushed afternoon most shorter trips are forced into. Morning in the pottery square while the light and the potters are both at their best, afternoon through the preserved Newari streetscape, lunch on-site rather than heading back first. The Nyatapola temple survived the 2015 earthquake standing, one of the few structures in the valley that didn’t need years of reconstruction.

Day 5: Kathmandu’s core, then departure

Spend the morning at Kathmandu Durbar Square, roughly NPR 1,000, mostly rebuilt since the quake with Kasthamandap reopened since 2023-24. Then head to Swayambhunath, the genuine Monkey Temple, NPR 200, up the roughly 365 east-side steps for monkeys and a proper valley panorama. This is worth clarifying since guides mix it up constantly: Swayambhunath is the Monkey Temple, not Pashupatinath, which you already saw on day two doing something entirely different.

Use the afternoon for last-minute shopping in Thamel, now armed with a week of bargaining experience, and head to the airport with time to spare for traffic.

Practical notes

Taxis are legally metered and drivers routinely ignore that, so agree the fare before getting in or use Pathao or InDrive for a locked-in price. There’s no metro system anywhere in the valley. Keep cash on hand for Bhaktapur’s smaller vendors and Boudha’s monastery-adjacent shops, since card acceptance is patchier outside central Kathmandu and Patan. Learn “namaste” and “dhanyabaad”; both carry real weight outside the main tourist strips, where English coverage thins out fast.