Day by Day
Days 1 to 2 Kathmandu Ancient Traditions and Sacred Sites
Arrive at Tribhuvan International Airport at 1,350 meters and transfer to your hotel with a traditional Sherpa welcome. The city orientation covers the days ahead and the cultural context that makes the rest of the journey meaningful. The evening is for Thamel: the traveler's quarter of Kathmandu, dense with gear shops, bookstores, thangka galleries, and restaurants that have been feeding expeditions since the 1970s.
Day Two is a full circuit of the valley's most significant sites. Swayambhunath, the Monkey Temple, where the painted eyes of the Buddha have watched over Kathmandu from their hilltop stupa since at least the 5th century. Pashupatinath Temple on the Bagmati River, the most sacred Hindu site in Nepal, where the cremation ghats have operated continuously on the same riverbank for centuries. Patan Durbar Square, the finest collection of medieval Newari architecture in the valley, with its bronze statues, stone temples, and royal palace courtyards. The historic town of Kirtipur, on a ridge southwest of Kathmandu, one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in the valley and home to a community that resisted the unification of Nepal under Prithvi Narayan Shah longer than any other.
Stay: Kathmandu Hotel
Days 3 to 4 Chitwan National Park Lowland Adventures
Drive south from Kathmandu through the Terai hills, descending from 1,350 meters to the flat subtropical lowlands in roughly five hours. The temperature rises noticeably on the descent and the vegetation shifts from hill terraces to dense riverine forest as the road approaches Chitwan National Park. The park covers 932 square kilometers of grassland, riverine forest, and wetland habitat along the Rapti and Narayani rivers, and holds one of the last healthy populations of the greater one-horned rhinoceros in Asia, along with Bengal tigers, leopards, sloth bears, and over 500 recorded bird species.
The elephant-back safari moves through the tall grass in the early morning when rhinos are most active. Adult male rhinos can weigh over 2,000 kilograms and at close range from elephant back the scale is genuinely surprising. The dugout canoe on the Rapti River moves quietly past the sandbanks where gharial crocodiles bask in the morning sun. The gharial is critically endangered across South Asia; the Rapti is one of the few rivers where it still maintains a population. The Royal Bengal tiger is present in the park. Sightings depend on the forest, the season, and the particular morning. The evening Tharu cultural program presents the stick dance, a martial art form that has been part of Tharu community life in the Terai for generations.
Stay: Jungle Safari Lodge, Sauraha
Day 5 Pokhara Gateway to the Annapurnas
Drive west from Chitwan to Pokhara along the highway that follows the Narayani River before climbing back into the foothills. Pokhara sits at 827 meters beside Phewa Lake, with the Annapurna massif and Machhapuchhre rising directly above the water. Machhapuchhre, the Fish Tail peak, is sacred and has never been permitted for summit attempts by the Nepalese government. Its double-pointed silhouette is one of the most immediately recognizable in Nepal and its reflection in Phewa Lake on a still evening is the image most associated with Pokhara. Settle into the lakeside hotel and take the afternoon at your own pace. The trekking gear is checked and the start point confirmed for tomorrow morning.
Stay: Pokhara Lakeside Hotel
Days 6 to 9 The Skyline Trek Pokhara to Begnas Tal
The Royal Trek begins north of Pokhara on a trail that rises from flat paddy fields into the middle hills of the Pokhara Valley. The first section crosses irrigated rice and wheat terraces, moving through small farming settlements where the landscape looks much as it has for generations. The climb to Kalikasthan, a ridge village above the valley floor, takes roughly three to four hours and brings the first open views south to the Pokhara basin and north to the lower ridges of the Annapurna foothills.
The trail continues through dense forest along the ridge to Shaklung, a traditional Gurung village at moderate elevation. The Gurung people have lived in the hills north and east of Pokhara for centuries, and their communities on this trail are genuine rather than touristic: farming families, community temples, terraced fields worked by hand. The Gurung reputation for hospitality is not marketing. It is cultural fact, rooted in a tradition of welcoming travelers that predates modern tourism by several hundred years.
The Chisopani viewpoint at 1,990 meters is the highest point of the trek and the place Prince Charles's party camped during the 1980 visit that gave the trail its name. The panorama from here is the payoff for four days of walking: Annapurna II at 7,937 meters, Lamjung Himal at 6,986 meters, Manaslu at 8,163 meters, and Himalchuli at 7,893 meters across the northern horizon, with the full Dhaulagiri massif visible to the west on clear mornings. The Annapurna range from this angle shows its full east-west extent in a way that is not possible from Pokhara itself. Descend on the final day via stone staircases through rice paddies to the shores of Begnas Tal, the larger and quieter of the two lakes east of Pokhara, where the trail ends at the water's edge.
Stay: Traditional Teahouses
Days 10 to 11 Pokhara Lakeside and Sarangkot
Return to Pokhara and a full day to move at the city's natural pace. The early morning walk to Sarangkot hill takes roughly an hour from the lakeside and arrives at the viewpoint in time for sunrise over the Annapurna range and Dhaulagiri. The light hits the upper faces of the peaks before the valley is lit, moving through orange and gold to white in roughly twenty minutes. A rowing boat on Phewa Lake, the small Barahi Temple on its island, Davis Falls in the afternoon. The lakeside restaurants in the evening are the right place to end a trekking trip: warm, unhurried, with the mountains still visible above the rooftops.
Stay: Pokhara Lakeside Hotel
Day 12 Return to Kathmandu and Departure
Drive or fly back to Kathmandu, a four-hour road journey following the river highway through the Himalayan foothills, or a 40-minute mountain flight with views of the ranges below. The final evening in Thamel: the last walk through the market, the bookstore, the restaurant that was good on the first night and is good again now. Private transfer to Tribhuvan International Airport for international departure. Twelve days. Kathmandu's medieval valley, Chitwan's jungle, Pokhara's lake, the ridge walk that a future king once took quietly above the city, and two different lakes at the end of it.
Stay: Kathmandu Hotel then International Departure
