Kathmandu, Nepal-3-day-itinerary

Fair warning before you plan this trip yourself: don’t try to cram a Nagarkot day trip into a single afternoon, I’ve seen itineraries suggest leaving at 2:30pm and being back for dinner, and it simply doesn’t work when the drive alone is 1.5-2 hours each way and the whole point is catching sunrise. Here’s a three-day plan that actually respects the geography.

Day 1: sacred sites

Get your visa on arrival sorted before baggage claim, 15 days for $30, 30 days for $50, crisp US cash only since card machines are unreliable here. The prepaid taxi counter into Thamel runs a fixed NPR 700-800, skip the curbside touts pushing NPR 1,500 while gripping your luggage.

Morning at Boudhanath Stupa, NPR 400, walking the kora clockwise through the surrounding Tibetan Buddhist quarter. Afternoon at Pashupatinath, NPR 1,000, Nepal’s most significant Hindu cremation site on the Bagmati. Non-Hindus can’t enter the inner pagoda but the whole complex and cremation ghats are visible from across the river, don’t skip it thinking there’s nothing to see, just stay respectful around grieving families. Evening, explore Kathmandu Durbar Square, about NPR 1,000, largely rebuilt since the 2015 quake with Kasthamandap reopened since 2023-24.

Day 2: Patan over Thamel dining

Spend the morning at Swayambhunath, NPR 200, climbing roughly 365 steps up the east side. This is the genuine Monkey Temple, not Pashupatinath, a mix-up that still shows up constantly in bad travel writing. The resident monkeys will happily swipe unattended snacks.

For the rest of the day, cross to Patan Durbar Square in the separate city of Lalitpur. It’s comparably priced to Kathmandu Durbar Square but better preserved and far less crowded, my honest pick between the two every time. Eat dinner here too: Newa Lahana or Honacha serve real Newari thali, chhoila, and bara for NPR 500-1,200, genuinely better food than anything Thamel’s tourist strip offers.

Day 3: pick your payoff

Here’s the decision point. If you can spare a full overnight before this trip started, Nagarkot at 2,175 meters delivers real Himalaya sunrise views, Everest included on clear October-November or March-April mornings, but it needs that overnight to work, not an afternoon squeeze. Given you’re on a tight three-day trip, I’d skip it and take the Chandragiri Hills cable car instead, about an hour to the base then a ten-minute ride up for $13 one-way or $23 round-trip, faster payoff for the time you’ve got. Either way, spend your final hours grabbing lunch and last-minute souvenirs in Thamel before a farewell dinner.

What to know before you land

No metro exists in Kathmandu, plan around taxis and ride apps instead. Meters are required by law and ignored in practice, agree fares up front or use Pathao or InDrive for locked pricing. Dress modestly at temples, remove shoes before entering, and stick to bottled water the entire trip. If your dates overlap with Dashain in September or October, expect roughly two weeks of businesses closing, and Tihar not long after brings a genuinely great atmosphere with lights everywhere, just budget extra time for transport gaps around both. Keep a small stash of NPR cash on you at all times since card machines outside major hotels are unreliable, and don’t be surprised by an occasional brief power cut, hotels run backup generators as standard these days so it’s rarely worth worrying about. Learning a couple of Nepali phrases goes a long way too, even just a warm namaste at each shop.