Itinerary
7 days · 30 stops · 7h 30m travelling
The first-timer's route: three days across the Kathmandu Valley's three old cities, the tourist bus over the hills to Pokhara, three days on the lake and under the Annapurnas, and a morning flight back for your departure.
Make this yours: you get an editable copy with every day and stop already in place, plus the travel between days. Nothing here changes — the copy is separate.
Start where the city did. Kathmandu Durbar Square holds the royal complex, the Kumari's house and Kasthamandap, the rest house the city may be named for. Then walk north into the bazaar — Indra Chowk and Asan are still working markets, not a heritage display.
A jet-lagged first day is best kept short and on foot; everything below is within twenty minutes' walking of the square.
The valley's three great pilgrimage sites, and they are genuinely different from one another: a hilltop stupa reached by 365 steps, Nepal's most important Shiva temple on the Bagmati, and the largest stupa in the country with a kora that fills at dusk.
Boudha last is the deliberate order — the circumambulation and the butter lamps are an evening thing.
The other two royal cities in one day. Patan's durbar square is the finest metalwork and the Tusa Hiti sunken bath; Bhaktapur is the one that still feels like a town rather than a monument, with Nyatapola rising five tiers over Taumadhi Square.
It is a full day. If you would rather give each city its own, the Kathmandu Valley Heritage route does exactly that.
Tourist buses leave Kathmandu early — book the day before and expect to be moving by 07:00. The road follows the Trishuli most of the way.
Afternoon on Phewa Lake: a rowing boat out to Tal Barahi on its island, then the Lakeside strip for dinner. On a clear day Machhapuchhre is directly up the valley.
Leave in the dark for Sarangkot — the ridge west of the lake is the classic Annapurna sunrise, and it is also where the tandem paragliders launch once the thermals build.
Afternoon on the south shore for the World Peace Pagoda, which looks back across the water at the town.
A slower day on the edges of town: the two quiet lakes east of Pokhara, the gorge at Davis Falls, and the limestone caves. Bindhyabasini is the temple the town itself goes to.
If you would rather spend this day walking, Australian Camp and Dhampus are both day-hikeable from here.
The Pokhara–Kathmandu flight is under 40 minutes against six to eight hours on the road, and on a clear morning it flies the length of the Annapurna and Ganesh ranges. Morning departures are the reliable ones — afternoon cloud cancels flights here.
That leaves an afternoon in Kathmandu. Thamel is fifteen minutes from the airport, so a cooking class or a last walk through the bazaar both fit before an evening international departure.
Leave a buffer before your international flightNote
Domestic weather cancellations are common enough that a same-day connection is a risk on this leg. If your flight home is in the morning, take the bus back on day 6 instead.
Or start an empty plan and build it day by day.