Kathmandu Valley

Not a stopover

Most itineraries treat Kathmandu as the place you wait for your flight to Lukla. That is a mistake of scheduling more than of judgement: the valley holds seven UNESCO World Heritage Monument Zones, all within about an hour of each other, and there is no comparable density of living heritage anywhere else in Asia.

The word living matters. These are not ruins. Pashupatinath performs cremations daily, Boudhanath fills with circumambulating pilgrims every evening, and the Durbar Squares are working town centres with vegetable markets in them.

The three royal cities

The valley was three rival kingdoms until the eighteenth century, each with its own palace square, each trying to outbuild the others. What survives is three variations on the same idea.

Bhaktapur is the best preserved and the one to prioritise if you only have a day — largely vehicle-free, and the 55-Window Palace and Nyatapola temple are intact. Patan has the finest single square and a continuing tradition of Newar bronze casting you can watch in the workshops behind it. Kathmandu's own Durbar Square took the worst of the 2015 earthquake and parts remain under reconstruction.

On the earthquake

Some temples fell and some are still scaffolded. Restoration has been slow and uneven, and it is worth knowing before you arrive so the gaps are not a surprise. The craftsmanship going into the rebuilding — traditional joinery, hand-carved replacements — is itself worth seeing.

Boudhanath and Pashupatinath

Boudhanath is among the largest stupas anywhere and the centre of Tibetan Buddhist life in Nepal. Go at dusk, when the kora fills with people walking and the butter lamps are lit.

Pashupatinath, on the Bagmati, is the most significant Hindu site in Nepal and an open cremation ground. Visitors are permitted on the far bank. It deserves saying that this is a place where families are grieving in public, and photographing a cremation is not acceptable — our guides will tell you where it is and is not appropriate to raise a camera.

How long you need

Two full days covers the essentials without rushing. Three lets you add a hike on the valley rim — Nagarkot or Champadevi — for a Himalayan skyline at dawn. One day is enough for Bhaktapur and Boudhanath only.

Best time

Year round. October to April has the clearest air; the pre-monsoon months are hazy and the mountain views from the rim disappear. Festivals — Indra Jatra, Dashain, Tihar — transform the squares and are worth planning around if your dates allow.

Where to go next

• Langtang Region — The high valley directly north of Kathmandu
• Lumbini — The birthplace of the Buddha, confirmed by a stone pillar raised in the third century BCE
• Chitwan National Park — Nepal's first national park, a UNESCO site in the subtropical Terai

Related activities: Cultural & Heritage Tours, Rock Climbing in Nepal, Canyoning in Nepal, Photography Tours in Nepal.

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