Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

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Overview:

The city of beau­ty, Kath­man­du Val­ley sits in the heart of Nepal and in the allur­ing shad­ow of Mount Ever­est as an immense his­toric and beau­ty filled city with hun­dreds of mon­u­ments, mul­ti­ple reli­gious pil­grim­age sites and as a diverse land­scape of cul­tures, which offer glimpses into the past, present and future of Nepalian civil­i­sa­tion.

Also known as the Nepal Val­ley or just Nepa the core of the city hous­es the famous Pago­da style archi­tec­ture which is evi­dent in the three his­toric Dur­bar Squares of — Kath­man­du, Patan, and Bhak­ta­pur – all of which were once inde­pen­dent states ruled between the 12th and 18th cen­turies by war­ring Mal­la kings, and which now host the unique and beau­ty filled shrines, tem­ples and stat­ues that reflect the unique Nepalese tra­di­tion, art and cul­ture – which once earned Nepal a rep­u­ta­tion as a fabled Shangri-la.

Although some set­tle­ments in Kath­man­du date back to 130bc, the city is also high­ly adapt­ed to mod­ern tourism require­ments and offers a unique gate­way to explore not only the Himalayas, but also large swathes of pre­served jun­gle land, which com­bined with a series of unique year-round fes­ti­vals and the city’s ‘strange bewil­derin’ time’ makes it a tru­ly unique won­der of the world.

Where:

Kath­man­du Val­ley is easy to find as it’s locat­ed in the heart of Nepal – with a host of easy access trans­porta­tion option and a series of walk­a­ble tem­ples and sites to dis­cov­er in the city itself.

 

Best time to Visit:

While Kath­man­du is acces­si­ble all year round, tem­per­a­tures can drop into sin­gle dig­its in the win­ter months – so a vis­it in Octo­ber when it’s warmer and the entic­ing Dass­ian fes­ti­val is being cel­e­brat­ed is always a good time to vis­it as is April when the famous but row­dy Bisket Jatra cel­e­bra­tion takes place.

Explore:

Any vis­it to Kat­man­du Val­ley has to start by explor­ing the his­toric and unique cul­ture of the three his­toric Dur­bar Squares of — Kath­man­du, Patan, and Bhak­ta­pur.

With the city of Patan (sit­u­at­ed in Lal­it­pur) being con­sid­ered the quite and cul­tur­al of the three and famous for art­works, crafts and the best of the Pago­da style archi­tec­ture – and also being home to the Patan Dur­bar Square which is known as the “City of Beau­ty” which is evi­dent in not just the

Krish­na Mandir and the Bhim­sen Tem­ple, but also the stun­ning ancient roy­al palace and the Patan muse­um which allows you to take a walk back through the sto­ried his­to­ry of kat­man­du.

Fur­ther, the Kath­man­du Dur­bar Square is anoth­er sight not to be missed, allow­ing you not only to immerse your­self in Nepalase cul­ture but also expe­ri­ence the Kasthaman­dap or ‘wood­en hut’ after which Nepal is named and which is the most vis­it­ed site of all of Nepal (be wary of ‘guides’ offer­ing to give you a tour). Although bad­ly hit the by Nepal earth­quake of 2105, the Square still hous­es the Hanu­man Dho­ka Palace Com­plex – a place fit for kings and is also home to the famous Boud­ha Stu­pa – an giant stu­pa built dur­ing the 5th cen­tu­ry and con­sid­ered the cen­tre of glob­al Bud­dhism – as well as the Swayamb­hu­nath Stu­pa and the apt­ly named gar­den of dreams all of which are unique world her­itage icons deserv­ing of a vis­it.

Also the Bhak­ta­pur Dur­bar Square, which hous­es the the roy­al palace of the old Bhak­ta­pur King­dom and the fas­ci­nat­ing and well named lions gate, is anoth­er sight of unique cul­tur­al impor­tant and beau­ty with the Vat­sala Tem­ple – and a chance to under­stand just how much dam­age the 2015 earth­quake did as you take in the ruins of mul­ti­ple shat­tered tem­ples.

For those who move beyond the three squares, the Pashu­pati­nath Tem­ple on the banks of the bag­mati riv­er – a fas­ci­nat­ing two tiered gold­en tem­ple hon­our­ing the hin­du god of shi­va and the Changu­narayan Tem­ple – con­sid­ered a liv­ing muse­um of carv­ings from the Lich­havi peri­od are both spec­tac­u­lar site not to be missed.

For those feel­ing even more adven­tur­ous and want­i­ng to immerse your­self in the nature and moun­tains of the val­ley, the Shiv­a­puri Nagar­jun Nation­al Park which lies just on the bor­der of the val­ley is a beau­ti­ful and thick­ly rain­for­est park – which is home to not only mon­keys, bears and leop­ards but also fea­tures a hike to the site of a for­mer Bud­dhist monastery from which you can cap­ture panoram­ic and sweep­ing views of the Himalayas.

 

Cost:

Vis­it­ing Nepal can be incred­i­bly cheap – so much so that a vis­it to Kath­man­du Val­ley is con­sid­ered the ‘cheap­est won­der in the world to vis­it’ with trav­ellers able to get by on as lit­tle as $20 a day and the aver­age stay cost­ing $50 a day – of course based on flights, excur­sions and the lev­el of lux­u­ry you put your­self up in that may increase – but Nepal is not just a won­der for it’s beau­ty, but also for its afford­abil­i­ty.

Top Tip: While Nepal is safer than India, there are still the occa­sion­al inci­dents of pick pot­ting and crime, par­tic­u­lar­ly dur­ing the fes­ti­val sea­son and dur­ing bisket Jatra – so it’s strong­ly advised to enjoy the val­ley but keep an eye on your belong­ings and take extra care if a female and head­ing out on to some of the treks alone.

As a more fun top tip – it’s def­i­nite­ly rec­om­mend­ed not to miss the Newari food – tra­di­tion­al­ly Nepalese food cooked on wood ovens down ally ways – which make for both a deli­cious and cul­tur­al meal as you won­der round the Dur­bar Squares.

Also giv­en the prox­im­i­ty of Kath­man­du to both the Himalayas and Varanasi – it’s strong­ly rec­om­mend­ed to com­bine a trip here with a trip to at least Ever­est Base camp and India for a once in a life unique buck­et list expe­ri­ence.

Getting there:

Despite the image of the Himalayas con­jur­ing up images of inac­ces­si­bil­i­ty Kat­man­du is incred­i­bly acces­si­ble – with reg­u­lar flights ser­vic­ing the city’s main Trib­hu­van Inter­na­tion­al Air­port and the city and main explo­ration sights being eas­i­ly acces­si­ble on foot or in one of the main rick­shaws that pound the city’s streets. It’s also pos­si­ble to arrive by bus from india from the cities of

Gorakh­pur and Varanasi and from over the bor­der in Tibet for those more trav­el con­scious trav­ellers.

For those want­i­ng to head on to the var­i­ous treks that sur­round the city includ­ing the Anna­pur­na cir­cuit trek or vis­it the swathes of jun­gles, a tour guide will be required or fur­ther trav­el on bumpy roads.

Best photo spot:

Along­side the three squares of Kath­man­du, Patan, and Bhak­ta­pur and the rooftop bars of Bhak­ta­pur – the post­card pic­ture asso­ci­at­ed with Kat­man­du, with a small vil­lage against the back­drop of the Himalayas is found in the foothills of the Ghan­druk Vil­lage – which is also the spot of the incred­i­ble Anna­pur­na cir­cuit trek.

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