6 Days: Kathmandu and Nepal
Six days is the point where I’d actually swap out the second valley hike for a genuine trip beyond it. This keeps the arrival day, the Everest flight, and the Nagarkot overnight with its Changu Narayan descent from the 5-day itinerary , but trades Dhulikhel for two days in Pokhara instead, the actual Annapurna trekking gateway and, frankly, a better use of your remaining time than another Kathmandu-valley hill town. If you want the deep in-city version instead, that’s the in-city guide ’s territory.
Book these before you go
- The Everest scenic mountain flight on GetYourGuide : clear-weather morning slots go first.
- A Nagarkot hotel with a mountain-facing room on Booking.com : sunrise-view rooms are the first to sell out.
- A Pokhara paragliding slot on Viator : clear-sky mornings fill up fast in peak season.
| Day | Focus | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Visa, gear, agency check | $30-125 visa |
| 2 | Everest scenic flight, Nagarkot overnight | $165-300 |
| 3 | Nagarkot sunrise, Changu Narayan descent | - |
| 4 | Fly to Pokhara, Phewa Lake | 25 min flight |
| 5 | Sarangkot sunrise, World Peace Pagoda, paragliding | paragliding extra |
| 6 | Fly back to Kathmandu, depart | 25 min flight |
Day 1: land and get organized
Visa on arrival before baggage claim: $30 for 15 days, $50 for 30 days, $125 for 90 days, cash US dollars only. Prepaid taxi counter into Thamel runs a fixed NPR 700-800, skip curbside touts quoting NPR 1,500 while holding your bags for leverage.
Get a tourist SIM from Ncell or NTC (passport in hand), and if you’re extending into any actual trekking down the line, confirm your agency is TAAN-registered with a real office, not a Thamel walk-in. A live fake-helicopter-rescue insurance fraud case working through Nepal’s courts is exactly why that distinction matters right now. Dal bhat for dinner, early night.
Day 2: Everest flight, then up to Nagarkot
The Everest scenic mountain flight departs early, 50-60 minutes, roughly $165-300 depending on airline and season, around 6:30-8am with a guaranteed window seat and a rotation so both sides of the plane see the range. Give the rest of the day breathing room, weather delays are routine on this route.
Head to Nagarkot by early afternoon, 1.5-2 hours out at 2,175 meters, and settle in for sunset over the range. The real moment comes tomorrow.
Day 3: sunrise, the Changu Narayan descent, and back to Kathmandu
Up before dawn for Nagarkot’s ground-level Himalaya sunrise, Everest included on a clear day, genuinely the better payoff of the trip so far next to yesterday’s flight. Hike down to Changu Narayan instead of driving, about 12 kilometers over 4-5 hours through Newar farmland to the valley’s oldest Hindu temple site, quiet and virtually tourist-free. Transfer back to Kathmandu by evening and pack for an early flight tomorrow.
Day 4: fly to Pokhara
A 25-minute flight puts you on the shore of Phewa Lake by mid-morning. Spend the afternoon easing into Pokhara’s completely different pace, a boat out on the lake, a walk along the lakeside strip, and if you’ve got the nerve, book a paragliding slot for tomorrow, this is one of the world’s genuinely great paragliding launches with the Annapurna range as your backdrop.
Day 5: Pokhara properly
Get up before dawn for Sarangkot, Pokhara’s sunrise viewpoint over the Annapurna range, a real rival to Nagarkot and arguably the better of the two given how close the mountains sit from here. Spend the rest of the day on the World Peace Pagoda across the lake, reachable by boat plus a short climb, and if you booked paragliding, this is the day for it. This is also as close as a non-trekker gets to feeling Annapurna’s actual pull, and it’s worth every bit of the flight to get here.
Day 6: fly back and depart
Build real slack into this morning, mountain-route flights delay for weather often enough that a same-day connection to an international departure is a real risk, not a remote one. Fly back to Kathmandu, use any spare hours for last souvenirs in Thamel, and head to Tribhuvan International.
Before you go
No metro anywhere on this route, taxis and ride apps (Pathao, InDrive) handle Kathmandu, while Pokhara’s compact enough to walk or grab a quick local taxi. If you’ve got one more day to spare, the 7-day itinerary works in a second Kathmandu-valley hill hike before you fly to Pokhara.