4 Days Kathmandu & Nagarkot Tour

Airport transfer: 6 km / about 30 minutes | Altitude: 1,350 m | Overnight: Kathmandu

Welcome to Nepal! Our representative meets you in the arrivals hall of Tribhuvan International Airport and drives you to your hotel. After check-in and a short trip briefing, the rest of the day is yours. Stretch your legs with a stroll through Thamel, where colourful prayer flags hang over lanes full of cafés, bakeries, bookshops and craft stalls, or simply rest after your journey.

• Main experience: arrival, welcome and a relaxed first evening in Kathmandu.
• Taste of Nepal: try dal bhat – rice, lentil soup, vegetable curry and pickles – Nepal's everyday meal.
• Insider tip: buy a local SIM card at the airport or in Thamel; mobile data is cheap and useful for maps and messages.

Full-day guided sightseeing by private vehicle | Overnight: Kathmandu

Start the day on the hilltop of Swayambhunath, the "self-created" stupa that has watched over the valley for more than two thousand years. Prayer flags flutter from its golden spire, monks chant in the small gompa and monkeys scamper along the walls, while the whole of Kathmandu spreads out below you.

Drive down into the old town for Kathmandu Durbar Square, the former royal palace complex. Your guide shows you the carved Kumari Ghar, home of the living goddess, the Hanuman Dhoka Palace where Nepal's kings were crowned, the fierce stone Kal Bhairav and the busy bazaars of Indra Chowk. After lunch, continue across the Bagmati River to Patan, the city of fine arts. Its compact Durbar Square is a gallery of Newar architecture, with the stone Krishna Mandir, the Royal Bath and the superb Patan Museum of bronze and religious art. Visit a family workshop where statues are still cast by the lost-wax method.

• Main experience: three UNESCO-listed monument zones in a single day.
• Taste of Nepal: a Newari set lunch with beaten rice, choila (spiced grilled meat) and bara lentil patties.
• Insider tip: dress modestly with shoulders and knees covered for temple visits, and always walk clockwise around stupas.

Sightseeing and drive: Kathmandu – Bhaktapur – Nagarkot, about 45 km in total / 2 hours | Altitude: 2,175 m | Overnight: Nagarkot

Begin at Pashupatinath, the most sacred Shiva temple in Nepal, set on the banks of the holy Bagmati River. From the east bank you watch the gilded temple roofs, holy men in saffron robes and the ghats where Hindu funerals are held. Then walk the kora with Tibetan pilgrims around the great white dome of Boudhanath, one of the largest stupas on Earth, ringed with monasteries and butter-lamp shrines.

After lunch, explore Bhaktapur, the medieval "City of Devotees", where farmers still dry grain in the brick squares and potters work at their wheels. Admire the Palace of 55 Windows, the Golden Gate and Nyatapola, Nepal's tallest pagoda. In the late afternoon drive 13 km uphill through terraced fields and pine forest to Nagarkot, a peaceful ridge on the north-eastern rim of the valley. Watch the sun set over the Himalaya from your hotel terrace before a warming dinner at the resort.

• Main experience: from sacred temples to a mountain-view sunset in one day.
• Taste of Nepal: juju dhau, the creamy "king of curds", in Bhaktapur.
• Insider tip: evenings at Nagarkot are cool even in spring – pack a warm jacket.

Drive: Nagarkot – Tribhuvan International Airport, about 25 km / 1 hour

Wake before dawn for the moment Nagarkot is famous for. As the sky brightens, the first light touches a chain of snow peaks stretching more than 300 km – from Dhaulagiri and Manaslu in the west, across Ganesh Himal and Langtang, to Gauri Shankar and, on very clear days, Everest in the east. After breakfast with the mountains still in view, drive down to the airport for your onward flight, with the Himalaya fresh in your memory. Namaste!

• Main experience: sunrise over a 300 km Himalayan panorama.
• Insider tip: October to December gives the clearest views; from March to May the hills are bright with rhododendrons.