7 Days: Kathmandu and Nepal
Seven days is enough to hit both of the Kathmandu Valley’s classic hill excursions and still get a real stretch in Pokhara, the actual Annapurna gateway, rather than rushing through on a single overnight. This builds on everything in the 6-day itinerary , arrival, the Everest flight, the Nagarkot overnight and Changu Narayan descent, the Pokhara leg, and slots in a second hill hike to Dhulikhel and Namobuddha before you fly out to the lake. If deep valley monument time is what you’re actually after, that lives in the in-city guide , not here.
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 | Dhulikhel, Namobuddha hike | ~$70 guided or NPR 90 bus |
| 5 | Fly to Pokhara, Phewa Lake | 25 min flight |
| 6 | Pokhara: World Peace Pagoda, paragliding | paragliding extra |
| 7 | Sarangkot sunrise, fly back, 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, the card readers here are unreliable enough to plan around. Prepaid taxi counter into Thamel is 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 required), and if any trekking is on your radar beyond this trip, confirm your agency is TAAN-registered with a real office rather than a Thamel doorway pitch. A documented fake-helicopter-rescue insurance fraud scheme is currently working through Nepal’s courts, so this is worth getting right, not just checking a box. Dal bhat for dinner, early night.
Day 2: Everest flight, then up to Nagarkot
The Everest scenic mountain flight goes first thing, 50-60 minutes, roughly $165-300 depending on airline and season, departing around 6:30-8am with a guaranteed window seat and a mid-flight rotation so both sides of the cabin see the range. Build in slack for the rest of the day, weather delays are routine on this route.
Head out to Nagarkot by early afternoon, 1.5-2 hours from the city at 2,175 meters, and settle in for sunset. Save the real energy for tomorrow morning.
Day 3: sunrise, the Changu Narayan descent, back to Kathmandu
Up before dawn for Nagarkot’s ground-level Himalaya sunrise, Everest included on a clear day, a genuinely better payoff than yesterday’s flight for a fraction of the cost. Hike down toward Changu Narayan instead of driving back, roughly 12 kilometers over 4-5 hours through Newar farmland to the valley’s oldest Hindu temple site, quiet and largely tourist-free. Transfer back into Kathmandu by evening.
Day 4: Dhulikhel and Namobuddha
Head east to Dhulikhel, about 1.5 hours out, a quieter hill town with its own mountain views and a good starting point for the roughly 4-hour walk to Namobuddha, an important Buddhist pilgrimage monastery around 1,750 meters. Completely different pace and crowd from Nagarkot, and worth it precisely because most visitors skip pairing the two. Arrange a road transfer back to Kathmandu for the evening.
Day 5: fly to Pokhara
A 25-minute flight lands you on the shore of Phewa Lake by mid-morning. Ease into the afternoon with a boat out on the lake and a walk along the lakeside strip, and book a paragliding slot for tomorrow if you’re up for it, this is one of the world’s genuinely great paragliding launches with the Annapurna range right there as the backdrop.
Day 6: Pokhara properly
Full day here. If you booked paragliding, today’s the day. Take a boat across to the World Peace Pagoda for the climb and the view, and use the afternoon to wander Lakeside at a pace Kathmandu never really allows. This is as close as a non-trekker gets to Annapurna’s actual pull, and it earns every hour you give it.
Day 7: Sarangkot sunrise, then fly back and depart
Get up before dawn for Sarangkot, Pokhara’s sunrise viewpoint over the Annapurna range, arguably a better view than Nagarkot’s given how close the mountains sit from here. Build real slack into your return flight to Kathmandu, mountain-route flights delay for weather often enough that a tight same-day international connection is a genuine risk. Head to Tribhuvan International once you’re back.
Before you go, and if you’ve got more time
No metro anywhere on this route, taxis and ride apps (Pathao, InDrive) handle Kathmandu, Pokhara’s compact enough to walk or grab a quick local taxi. If seven days somehow isn’t enough and you’re chasing wildlife over mountains, Chitwan National Park (rhino and tiger safaris, Tharu village culture) is a genuine two-day extension by short flight or road, and Lumbini, the Buddha’s birthplace, sits further out again in the Terai, usually worked into a longer loop through Pokhara and Chitwan rather than added onto this trip alone.