The mountains are the reward. The booking is the hard part.
Fourteen days to Base Camp or an hour in a Twin Otter. A momo class for the price of lunch, or a helicopter that lands at 3,880 metres. Reviews of the treks, flights, safaris and valley days you can actually book in Nepal.
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01
Walk it
Everest Base Camp Trek – 14 Days
Fourteen days from Lukla to Base Camp and back down. The trip the whole year gets built around.
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02
The city
Private Kathmandu Sightseeing Tour | UNESCO World Heritage sites
Seven UNESCO squares and stupas in a day, with a guide who can read the carvings.
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03
Fly at it
Mountain Everest Scenic Flight with Hotel Pickup and Dropoff
An hour on the mountain side of a small plane. The cheapest way to put Everest in front of you.
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04
Eat well
Half day cooking class in Thamel kathmandu
Half a day in a Thamel kitchen learning the dishes, then eating what you cooked.
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05
First light
Sarangkot Sunrise Himalayas Tour
Up to the Sarangkot ridge before dawn for the Annapurnas turning gold.
Six named treks leave Nepal’s two trailhead cities. They are not interchangeable.
The difference between them is days on your feet and how high you sleep, not scenery. Poon Hill gives you the Annapurna wall in three days from Pokhara. Base Camp asks for two weeks out of Kathmandu and a flight into Lukla. Everything below leaves from one of those two cities.
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · Everest Base Camp Trekking – 13 Day
Ghorepani & Poon HillThree or four days from Pokhara. Rhododendron forest, one famous sunrise.
Annapurna Base CampA week into the sanctuary, ringed by peaks on every side.
Everest Base CampTwelve to fourteen days, and a flight into Lukla to start it.
Mardi HimalThe quiet ridge above the Annapurna trail, four days from Pokhara.
Langtang ValleyThe range you can reach by road from Kathmandu. No mountain flight needed.
All 336 treks and hikes →
The tours more travellers take than anything else in Nepal.
Every Nepali tour we have reviewed →A fortnight to Base Camp and a five-dollar cooking class sit in the same list. That is the shape of this country.
1
Everest Base Camp Helicopter Tour landing at Everest View Hotel
Review of the Everest Base Camp helicopter tour from Kathmandu, with Everest views, Lukla refueling, Everest View Hotel, costs, tips, and weather advice.
From · $1,575
Read our review →
2
ZipFlyer Nepal – The World’s Steepest Zip-line
from $165
3
Everest Base Camp Trekking
from $1,350
4
Nagarkot Sunrise View and Day Hiking from Kathmandu
from $45
5
Full Day 7 UNESCO Tour with Lunch – Private/Group
from $10
6
Annapurna Circuit Trek with Tilicho Lake
from $1,093
7
Bungee Pokhara by HighGround Adventures
from $90
8
Everest Base Camp Trekking – 13 Day
from $1,399
Three kingdoms, seven UNESCO sites, one valley you can cross in an afternoon.
Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur were rival royal cities close enough to see each other’s temples. The durbar squares, Boudhanath’s dome, the burning ghats at Pashupatinath and the monkey-crowded steps at Swayambhu are all inside an hour’s drive of each other.
You can see Everest in an hour, in a morning, or in a fortnight.
None of them starts at the mountain. All three leave Kathmandu, and the difference is what you are willing to spend in time, money and altitude.
The mountain flight
A small plane lifts out of Kathmandu at dawn, turns east along the range and gives every passenger a window seat and a turn in the cockpit doorway. Everest is a long way off and unmistakable. You are back at your hotel before the city has finished waking up, and it is the only way to see the summit without altitude, boots or a fortnight.
- 1Mountain Everest Scenic Flight with Hotel Pickup and Dropoff★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 210 reviews
- 21 hour Panoramic Everest Flight★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 175 reviews
- 31 Hour Mount Everest flight from Kathmandu With Hotel Pick Up★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 161 reviews
The helicopter landing
Helicopters run from Kathmandu into the Khumbu, drop into Kala Patthar or Gorak Shep for a few thin minutes, then set down for breakfast at the Everest View Hotel above Namche. Weather closes this in by mid-morning almost every day, so departures are early and cancellations are normal. It is the expensive option and it is the one that gets you standing on the ground up there.
- 1Everest Base Camp Helicopter Tour landing at Everest View Hotel★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 668 reviews
- 2Everest Base Camp Helicopter Tour landing at Hotel Everest View★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 218 reviews
- 3Everest Base Camp helicopter tour with landing★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 61 reviews
Walking to Base Camp
The trek starts with a flight into Lukla, one of the shortest runways in commercial aviation, and then it is your own legs through Namche, Tengboche and Dingboche with rest days built in so your body catches up with the altitude. Base Camp itself is a moraine of rock and prayer flags. Most people say the view from Kala Patthar the next morning is the real summit of the trip.
- 1Everest Base Camp Trek – 14 Days★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,499 reviews
- 2Everest Base Camp Trekking★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 485 reviews
- 3Everest Base Camp Trekking – 13 Day★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 365 reviews
A day in Nepal costs four dollars or four figures. Very little in between.
The country splits cleanly: the valley sells mornings for the price of a coffee, and the ranges sell fortnights. Every tour on the site, grouped by what it actually costs.
Momo classes, durbar square walks, the sunrise run up to Nagarkot and most of what happens inside the valley.
Mountain flights, a jeep down to Chitwan, paragliding off Sarangkot and the short treks out of Pokhara.
The named treks, the helicopter landings and the private guiding that carries your fortnight.
- 1Everest Base Camp Trek – 14 Daysfrom $1,800
- 2Everest Base Camp Helicopter Tour landing at Everest View Hotelfrom $1,575
- 3Everest Base Camp Trekkingfrom $1,350
Pokhara is where Nepal stops being a city and starts being a trailhead.
A lake with the Annapurnas standing behind it, boats going out to the island temple, and a ridge above town that everyone climbs in the dark for the same reason. Most Annapurna walks start and finish here, so the town runs on people either about to go up or just back down.
- 1ZipFlyer Nepal – The World’s Steepest Zip-linefrom $165
- 2Bungee Pokhara by HighGround Adventuresfrom $90
- 3Sarangkot Sunrise Himalayas Tourfrom $8
In monsoon the Himalaya spends most of its time behind cloud.
Summer rain closes the views, greys out the mountain flights and turns trail days into leech days. October and November are the clear months, March and April the second window. If your dates land in the wet season, book the valley instead: carved wood, kitchens, courtyards and monasteries do not care what the sky is doing.
Four Nepali bookings that will not wait for you.
Most of this country can be sorted over breakfast in Thamel. These four run on weather windows, park permits and a mountain airstrip with a habit of closing.
- 01Everest Base Camp Trek – 14 DaysThe whole trek hangs on a Lukla flight, and Lukla closes for weather. Trekking companies build the buffer days in advance, not on the day.
- 02Everest Base Camp Helicopter Tour landing at Everest View HotelKhumbu helicopters fly in the early window before the cloud builds. Seats are sold by the aircraft, and a cancelled day is rebooked, not refunded on the spot.
- 03Mountain Everest Scenic Flight with Hotel Pickup and DropoffMountain flights all leave within the same hour after dawn, because that is when the range is clear. Miss the slot and the next one is tomorrow.
- 04Jungle Towernight Stay In Chitwan National Park ,nepal-2 Nights 3 Days PackageChitwan is a full day south by road and the lodges inside the park run on fixed arrival days. It is a two or three night booking, not a day trip.
By place — the valley, the lake, the Terai
By kind of day — trail, temple, kitchen or cockpit
Two cities do the departing. Everywhere else is what you go and see.
Kathmandu holds the carved squares and every trekking agency in the country. Pokhara holds the lake and the trailheads. Between and beyond them: two more royal cities, a rim of sunrise hills, a sanctuary of peaks and a jungle park down on the Indian border.
Kathmandu, the valley rim, Pokhara, Chitwan: the fortnight almost everyone does first.
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