Kathmandu
4.9(71)Kathmandu Arrival & Orientation Package
Airport pickup, SIM card, currency, a trekking-gear run and a Thamel orientation walk — the first six hours in Nepal, handled.
1 day1 – 4 guests
From$85
Three days across the valley's UNESCO squares, monasteries and living artisan quarters, led by a licensed heritage guide.
The Kathmandu Valley holds seven UNESCO World Heritage monument zones inside a 30 km radius — nowhere else in the world is that dense. This three-day route covers the essential four (Kathmandu and Patan Durbar Squares, Boudhanath and Swayambhunath) at the hours they are actually worth seeing, and adds the working metal and thangka studios that most tours drive straight past.
You travel in a private vehicle with an English-speaking, government-licensed guide. Group size is capped at eight so the narrow courtyards and workshop visits still work. Pace is comfortable — this is a walking tour, but a civilised one, with a long lunch and an afternoon break each day.
Day by day, as it actually runs.
Airport pickup and hotel check-in with time to reset. Late afternoon we walk Kathmandu Durbar Square — the old royal palace complex, Kumari Ghar where the living goddess resides, and the Kasthamandap site the city is named after. We finish at a rooftop above Basantapur for the light going down over the tiered roofs.
A full morning in Patan Durbar Square and the Golden Temple, then into the metal-casting lanes where families still work lost-wax bronze by hand, and a thangka studio where you will understand why one painting takes six months. After a break we drive to Boudhanath and join the evening kora as the butter lamps are lit. Newari feast dinner in a restored courtyard house.
Early start for Swayambhunath before the tour buses, with the valley laid out below and the resident macaques getting on with their morning. Then Pashupatinath — the cremation ghats and the ascetics' terraces, handled with the respect the site deserves. Back to the hotel for late checkout and airport transfer, or continue to Pokhara.
4.8
Based on 96 reviews
Hannah Lindqvist
18 Mar 2026
Sweden
Anish is the reason to book this. He knew the family in the bronze workshop by name, and they let us watch a pour. Three days felt like a week in the best way.
Marcus Webb
27 Feb 2026
United Kingdom
Boudhanath at dusk was the highlight of our whole month in Asia. Well-paced, never rushed, and the hotel was much better than I expected at this price.
Priya Iyer
30 Jan 2026
India
Excellent guiding and genuinely good food. Docking one star only because day 3 starts very early and we would have liked a heads-up on how cold the sunrise is in January.
Kathmandu
4.9(71)Airport pickup, SIM card, currency, a trekking-gear run and a Thamel orientation walk — the first six hours in Nepal, handled.
From$85
Lumbini
4.7(38)Three quiet days at the Buddha's birthplace — the sacred garden, the international monastic zone and a dawn birding morning in the Terai wetlands.
From$295
Lumbini
$289
per person · 3 days