Day by Day
Day 1 Kathmandu Arrival and Orientation
Arrive at Tribhuvan International Airport and be met by the SherpaHolidays representative for a private transfer to the boutique hotel. The briefing that evening is the first and most important meeting of the journey: the full thirteen-day itinerary is covered in sequence, including the altitude profile from the valley to Nagarkot at 2,175 metres, the safari activities at Chitwan and their physical requirements, the predawn departures at Sarangkot and Nagarkot, the accommodation at each destination, and the practical arrangements for luggage, meals, and transfers. The capital on the first evening is best encountered gently: the lanes of Thamel within walking distance of most central hotels, the smell of incense from the nearby shrines, and the mountains visible above the city on a clear evening provide a sufficient introduction to what the days ahead will offer.
Stay: Luxury Boutique Hotel in Kathmandu
Days 2 to 3 Kathmandu Valley UNESCO Heritage and Sacred Wonders
Swayambhunath on the morning of Day 2 is the oldest Buddhist site in the Kathmandu Valley, its hilltop position above the western edge of the city giving it a view across the valley in all four directions that has been considered sacred since before the medieval cities were built below it. The stupa at the summit, with its painted eyes and layered symbolism, is reached by the 365 steps of the eastern staircase, the approach lined with prayer wheels and stone carvings worn smooth from centuries of contact. Pashupatinath in the afternoon is the most sacred Hindu site in Nepal: a working temple whose cremation ghats on the Bagmati river are in continuous use, whose sadhus in their ochre robes and ash-marked foreheads receive visitors in the outer courtyards, and whose religious activity is visible without the mediation of a museum or a heritage interpretation. The site is not presented to visitors: it simply continues.
Patan Durbar Square on Day 3 is the finest of the three medieval royal courts for the quality and variety of its temple architecture. The stone courtyards, the gilt rooftops, the Krishna Mandir built entirely in stone in a southern Indian style in the seventeenth century, and the Patan Museum within the palace complex make this the most rewarding single morning in the valley for a visitor with any interest in religious art. Kathmandu Durbar Square in the afternoon holds the Kumari Ghar, where the living goddess, a young girl selected through a rigorous traditional process, resides for the duration of her tenure. The Hanuman Dhoka palace complex behind the square contains the former royal residence of the Shah dynasty and a museum whose collections trace the history of the Kathmandu kingdom from the Licchavi period to the present century. Bhaktapur, the easternmost and most intact of the three medieval cities, is a full day in its own right: the Nyatapola Pagoda, the tallest temple in Nepal, the Golden Gate at the entrance to the Palace of Fifty-Five Windows, and the Peacock Window on the palace’s outer wall are each worth the time to examine at the pace that their craftsmanship demands. The optional Everest Mountain Flight, available from the domestic terminal on the morning of Day 2, follows the Himalayan chain east from Kathmandu at sunrise in a small aircraft, the peaks from Everest at 8,849 metres to Kanchenjunga at 8,586 metres visible through the cabin windows in sequence.
Stay: Luxury Boutique Hotel in Kathmandu
Days 4 to 5 Chitwan National Park Into the Wild
The drive south from Kathmandu to Chitwan crosses the Mahendra Highway through the Siwalik foothills to the Terai, the subtropical lowland at the foot of the Himalayan range where the forest and the grassland of the national park begin. Chitwan, established in 1973 and declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984, protects 932 square kilometres of sal forest, riverine grassland, and wetland that is the primary habitat of the greater one-horned rhinoceros in Nepal. The population has recovered from fewer than 100 individuals in the 1960s to over 700 today through a conservation programme that is one of the most successful large-mammal recovery stories in Asia. The Bengal tiger is present in the park in numbers that make a sighting possible rather than guaranteed, and the birdlist of over 500 species makes Chitwan one of the premier birding destinations in the region.
The elephant-back safari on Day 4 enters the tall grass and forest terrain where rhinos, deer, and birds feed in the morning. The height of the elephant allows close approach to rhinos that a vehicle or a walking group cannot replicate and minimises the disturbance that brings the animal’s head up and the encounter to an end. Professional naturalists from the park identify and explain everything encountered, from the alarm calls of the deer that signal a predator in the area to the specific feeding habits of the one-horned rhino. The canoe journey on the Rapti River on Day 5 is quieter: the dugout moves in silence past the gharials and mugger crocodiles on the sandbars, the kingfishers and herons along the bank, and the smooth surface of the water in the still morning hour. The Tharu cultural village visit in the afternoon introduces the indigenous community of the Terai: the Tharu people have lived in close relation to the jungle of Chitwan for centuries, and their traditional architecture, their handicrafts, and their knowledge of the forest ecology are a distinct cultural subject alongside the wildlife of the park itself.
Stay: Premium Jungle Resort in Chitwan
Days 6 to 7 Pokhara and Sarangkot Lakeside Serenity
The drive west from Chitwan to Pokhara follows the Prithvi Highway along the base of the Himalayan foothills, the mountains appearing above the valley rim as the road approaches the lake city. Pokhara at 800 metres sits closer to the high Himalaya than almost any other town of its size in Nepal: the Annapurna range rises directly above the northern shore of Phewa Lake, and Machhapuchhre, the sacred unclimbed peak whose double summit gives it the local name Fishtail, stands in the centre of the view in a position of dramatic proximity. The first afternoon in Pokhara is best spent at the lakeside: the reflection of the peaks on the still water in the late light, and the quality of quietness at the lake’s edge after the noise of Kathmandu and the activity of the jungle, make the transition feel deliberate and earned.
The predawn drive to Sarangkot on the morning of Day 7 starts before 5am, the road climbing the hillside above Pokhara in darkness to arrive at the viewpoint at 1,592 metres before the first light touches the peaks. The sunrise from Sarangkot delivers the full Annapurna massif from Dhaulagiri in the west through Annapurna I, Annapurna South, Hiunchuli, Machhapuchhre, and Annapurna II to Lamjung Himal in the east, lit from below by the first light while the surrounding hills are still dark and the valley is in shadow. The boat ride on Phewa Lake after breakfast provides the reflection of the same peaks on the water from a position in the middle of the lake. The Barahi Temple on its small island is reached by rowing boat and is an active place of Hindu worship as well as the most visited point on the lake. David’s Fall nearby, where the Phusre Khola disappears underground into a cave at the edge of the city, is a geological curiosity that the Pokhara valley produces in the karst terrain beneath the surface.
Stay: Luxury Lakeside Hotel in Pokhara
Days 8 to 10 Nagarkot and Changu Narayan Himalayan Horizons
The return drive from Pokhara to Kathmandu follows the Prithvi Highway east through the middle hills. Rather than returning directly to the capital, the route continues to Nagarkot at 2,175 metres on the eastern rim of the Kathmandu Valley, a hill resort whose position above the forested ridge gives it the widest mountain panorama available from any road-accessible point near Kathmandu. On a clear morning, the view from Nagarkot extends from the Annapurna range in the west to Kanchenjunga in the east, with Everest at 8,849 metres visible above the closer ridges in the centre of the panorama. The sunrise on Day 9 from the resort viewpoint or from the tower at the edge of the ridge: the peaks emerging from darkness in the predawn blue, the first light catching the summits from the east while the valley below is still in shadow, the full arc of the eastern Himalaya lit in sequence across the horizon.
Changu Narayan on its hilltop above the Bhaktapur valley is the oldest surviving temple complex in Nepal. The principal Vishnu shrine dates to the fifth century CE, with stone carvings from the Licchavi period that are among the finest examples of early Nepali religious sculpture in the country. The courtyard around the main temple contains carvings spanning fifteen centuries of artistic production, including a multi-armed Vishnu image from the Licchavi period that is cited in every account of early South Asian sculpture. The approach to the temple through the forest from the road below takes twenty minutes and arrives at a hilltop with views over both the Bhaktapur valley and the Kathmandu Valley on the far side of the ridge. The descent to Kathmandu on Day 10 returns the journey to the valley for the final days and the farewell chapter.
Stay: Scenic Hillside Resort in Nagarkot then Luxury Boutique Hotel in Kathmandu
Days 11 to 13 Pharping and Farewell Spiritual Reflection and Departure
The Pharping caves in the Dakshinkali valley south of Kathmandu are the meditation caves associated with Padmasambhava, the Indian master credited with introducing Vajrayana Buddhism to Tibet in the eighth century CE. The Asura Cave lower on the hillside and the Yanglesho Cave above it are sites where Padmasambhava is held by the tradition to have practised and attained realisation before carrying the teachings north across the Himalaya. Both caves are active: monks and practitioners visit daily to meditate in the sites associated with the founder of their lineage, and the caves have a quality of continuous use and spiritual purpose that a heritage site managed for visitors does not replicate. The surrounding Dakshinkali valley, with its Newar agricultural terraces and the Dakshinkali temple at the valley floor, provides a final encounter with the rural Kathmandu Valley that the city days do not offer.
The farewell dinner on the evening of Day 12, at one of the traditional Newari cultural restaurants in the old city of Kathmandu, closes the journey formally. The menu is Newari: the cuisine specific to the indigenous people of the Kathmandu Valley, whose dishes of beaten rice, buffalo preparations, fermented vegetables, and clay-pot lentils represent a food tradition that is distinct from the Nepali national cuisine and largely unknown outside the valley. The folk dance programme that accompanies the set menu presents the classical dances of the Newari tradition, whose forms and music are tied to the religious calendar of the valley temples. Day 13 is the final transfer to Tribhuvan International Airport for departure, the mountains visible above the city on a clear morning providing a last encounter with the Himalaya before the return to the world below.
Stay: Luxury Boutique Hotel in Kathmandu
