6 Days in Kathmandu: First-Timer
Quick correction before we start: this itinerary stays inside the Kathmandu Valley the whole time, no Nagarkot overnight, no Everest flight, that trekking-gateway side of Nepal gets its own treatment in our Nepal itinerary . Six days gives you room to do the valley properly, all seven UNESCO monument zones plus the hidden villages most visitors never reach. Check the full guide for the background on everything below.
Book these before you go
- A Thamel or Patan hotel room on Booking.com : rooms in the Dashain/Tihar weeks and the October-November peak sell out first.
- A guided Durbar Square heritage tour on GetYourGuide : skips the separate ticket queues at each square.
| Day | Focus | Entry fees (NPR) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thamel, Kathmandu Durbar Square | 1,000 |
| 2 | Boudhanath, Pashupatinath | 400 + 1,000 |
| 3 | Changu Narayan, Kirtipur/Bungamati/Khokana loop | 350-400 |
| 4 | Bhaktapur | 1,800-2,000 |
| 5 | Patan Durbar Square | 1,500 |
| 6 | Swayambhunath, Garden of Dreams or Chandragiri | 200 |
Day 1: land, settle in, and Kathmandu Durbar Square
Sort your visa on arrival before baggage claim, 15 days for $30, 30 days for $50, crisp US cash since card machines here are unreliable. Take the prepaid taxi counter into Thamel, skip the curbside touts quoting double while grabbing your bags for leverage. Spend the morning wandering Thamel’s narrow lanes, it’s chaotic and motorbike-heavy but genuinely fun to explore on foot. In the afternoon, head to Kathmandu Durbar Square, about NPR 1,000, and here’s a correction I want to make plainly: it is not fully restored a decade after the 2015 earthquake. Kasthamandap reopened in 2022, the Trailokya Mohan Narayan Temple finished its rebuild in early 2024, but the Nine-Story Tower’s interior stays closed and parts of Hanuman Dhoka remain under active restoration, expect scaffolding in places. Stick to bottled water for the whole trip, tap water isn’t worth the risk.
Day 2: Boudhanath and Pashupatinath
Morning at Boudhanath Stupa , NPR 400, walking the kora clockwise through the Tibetan Buddhist quarter surrounding it. Afternoon at Pashupatinath, NPR 1,000, the Hindu cremation site on the Bagmati. Non-Hindus are barred from the main temple’s inner sanctum but you can view the full complex and the cremation ghats from across the river, so don’t treat it as off-limits entirely, just stay respectful and keep your camera down around grieving families. Dress modestly and remove shoes wherever required.
Day 3: Changu Narayan and the valley’s hidden villages
This is the day most itineraries skip entirely, and it shouldn’t be. Changu Narayan is widely considered the oldest Hindu temple in the valley, parts dating to the 4th or 5th century, sitting in a genuinely quiet rural setting with exceptional stone and metal sculpture and none of the crowds the other six zones pull, roughly NPR 350-400 entry. Pair it with an afternoon on the Kirtipur, Bungamati, and Khokana loop, three Newar villages known for woodcarving, mustard-oil pressing, and valley views with a fraction of the tourist traffic, genuinely the strongest hidden-gem cluster anywhere in the valley.
Day 4: Bhaktapur, unhurried
Bhaktapur earns a full day, not a quick stop. It’s a separate medieval town about 45-90 minutes out depending on traffic, entry runs NPR 1,800-2,000 and keeps trending toward the higher figure, covering the whole entry-controlled town, and it’s worth every rupee. The Nyatapola temple survived the 2015 earthquake standing, one of the tallest temples in the country though exterior viewing only, and the pottery square is where you’ll want to linger, watching potters throw on manual wheels the traditional way. Try the Juju Dhau yogurt here, it’s Bhaktapur’s own specialty and doesn’t taste the same anywhere else. Midday sun is intense here, so plan your walking for morning and late afternoon if you can.
Day 5: Patan
Patan, also called Lalitpur, sits across the Bagmati as its own separate city, and honestly it’s the best day of the trip. Patan Durbar Square is better preserved and far less crowded than its Kathmandu counterpart, my clear pick if you ever have to choose between the two, and the ticket’s three-day validity also covers the excellent Patan Museum inside the square. Spend the day among the Newari architecture and metalwork studios, watching bronze statues cast the traditional lost-wax way, then eat real Newari food, chhoila and bara, it’s a different tier from Thamel’s tourist menus. Support the local artisans here too, plenty of handmade work worth bringing home.
Day 6: Swayambhunath and departure
Use the morning for Swayambhunath, NPR 200 and about 365 steps up the east side. This is the genuine Monkey Temple, not Pashupatinath, a distinction worth getting right before you fly out. If you’ve got a few hours before your flight, the Garden of Dreams near Thamel is a calm NPR 400 way to close things out, or the Chandragiri Hills cable car for one last valley-rim view, roughly NPR 1,360 round trip. Grab last souvenirs in Thamel, keep a photocopy of your passport separate from the original, and exchange any leftover rupees before you head to the airport.
Getting around
No metro exists in Kathmandu, don’t plan around one. Taxi meters are required by law and ignored in practice, agree your fare before getting in or use Pathao and InDrive for a locked app price. Verify any Thamel trekking agency is TAAN or NTB registered if you’re booking anything beyond day trips, and ideally do it before arrival rather than off a walk-in pitch, unlicensed storefronts are common and not worth the risk.