Kathmandu Valley: Where to Start
Get your bearings before you get moving: Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur were three separate walled kingdoms competing for the finest carved temple right up until 1768, and the valley still behaves that way today. Each has its own royal square, its own ticket booth and its own version of a skyline. Treat them as three trips, not a single city with suburbs attached, and the whole valley opens up fast.
Kathmandu Durbar Square gets the crowds for good reason
Basantapur, 15 to 20 minutes on foot south of Thamel through the spice bazaars of Ason and Indra Chowk, holds the old royal palace complex. The rebuilt Kasthamandap pavilion (the very timber structure that gave Kathmandu its name, flattened by the 2015 earthquake and reopened in 2022), Kumari Ghar where the living goddess occasionally shows herself at a carved third-floor window, and the stone Kal Bhairav relief all sit inside one ticket perimeter. Foreigner admission is NPR 1,000, SAARC visitors pay NPR 150, and the ticket runs for a single day. Kathmandu Durbar Square tours and skip-the-queue tickets are on GetYourGuide .
Patan puts the metalwork on full display
Cross the Bagmati River and you’re in Lalitpur, the valley’s undisputed capital of stone sculpture and bronze casting. Patan Durbar Square centers on the Krishna Mandir, carved entirely from grey stone in 1637, and the Patan Museum, one of the finest collections of Newar sacred art anywhere in Asia. Foreigner entry is NPR 1,000, SAARC NPR 500, and the museum is fully included in that single ticket. Staying nearby for a few days? Take your ticket and passport to the visitors’ center for a free multi-day stamp valid for your whole Nepal visa.
Bhaktapur rewards the extra half hour
Thirteen kilometers east, Bhaktapur is the best-preserved medieval city in the valley, paved end to end in traditional red brick. Nyatapola Temple climbs 30 meters as the tallest pagoda in Nepal and has already outlasted two major earthquakes. Pottery Square has artisans throwing clay on wooden wheels all day, and a bowl of Juju Dhau, the valley’s famous king curd, is the single best NPR 100 you’ll spend here. Foreigner admission runs NPR 1,800, SAARC NPR 500; bring a passport photo to the gate office for a free 7-day extension.
Swayambhunath and Boudhanath round out the skyline
Swayambhunath, the Monkey Temple, sits atop 365 stone steps three kilometers west of the center; foreigner entry is NPR 200. Keep food and plastic bags out of sight going up, since the resident rhesus macaques read both as an invitation. Boudhanath, one of the largest stupas on the planet and the spiritual heart of Tibetan Buddhism in Nepal, charges NPR 400 foreigner entry and rewards a dusk visit, when butter lamps light up around the base and monks complete their evening kora.
Pashupatinath asks for quiet respect
The holiest Hindu site in Nepal sits on the Bagmati River, where open-air cremations take place daily on the Arya and Bhasmeshwar ghats. Watching respectfully from across the river is welcome; photographing the cremations themselves is not. Entry is free for Indian and Nepali nationals by nationality, not by faith, so a foreign visitor of any religion pays the NPR 1,000 gate fee. The inner sanctum stays restricted to practicing Hindus, but the surrounding precinct, its hundreds of miniature shrines, and the evening Maha Ganga Aarti at 6:00 pm are open to everyone. Book a private Kathmandu heritage tour on Viator .
Book your day around the fee schedule
Carry cash. Every one of the seven monument zones charges its own foreigner fee in Nepali Rupees only, and there’s no combined pass across them. Budget roughly NPR 3,400 total if you’re hitting all the big five in one sweep, plus taxi fares that run NPR 300 to 800 between sites depending on distance from Thamel.
Once the five big squares are ticked off, the valley rim still has plenty left: see our Kathmandu day trips guide for what’s within a 1 to 2 hour drive.
Authority sources for current fees and hours: Nepal Tourism Board , Patan Museum .