5 Days in Kathmandu and Nepal
Five days is the first version of this trip with room to breathe: a real mountain sunrise, an Everest flight with a genuine weather buffer, and two full days in Pokhara instead of one rushed sampler. Cramming Pokhara into a single afternoon, which shorter versions of this trip have to do, wastes the actual reason to go there.
| Day | Focus |
|---|---|
| 1 | Visa, Nagarkot transfer |
| 2 | Nagarkot sunrise, return |
| 3 | Everest scenic flight, on to Pokhara |
| 4 | Pokhara, Phewa Lake, Sarangkot |
| 5 | Pokhara, World Peace Pagoda, departure |
Book these before you go:
- Your Pokhara lakeside stay on Agoda , since rooms with a Phewa Lake view go first.
- A Sarangkot paragliding launch tour on GetYourGuide , booked ahead rather than arranged same-day at the launch site.
Day 1: land, get legal, get organized. Visa-on-arrival is $30 for 15 days, $50 for 30, $125 for 90, cash only in any reliable sense since the counter’s card readers go down often; filling in the online arrival form ahead of landing shaves real time off the queue. Skip the parking-lot touts for the prepaid taxi counter or an app like Pathao or InDrive into Thamel. If a trek is anywhere in the picture beyond this trip, spend part of the afternoon locking one in with a TAAN-registered agency with a real Kathmandu office, arranged before landing if you can manage it. This is not boilerplate caution: a Kathmandu court opened hearings in April 2026 against 32 people, agency owners and helicopter operators included, over a fake-rescue insurance fraud scheme that billed trekkers’ insurers upward of $19.69 million for evacuations nobody actually needed. By late afternoon, transfer up to Nagarkot, about ninety minutes out, for the night.
Day 2: sunrise, then the flight window opens. Watch the Himalaya sunrise from Nagarkot, 2,175m, best odds on a clear October-November or March-April morning, then head back to Kathmandu with buffer for traffic. Use the evening to confirm tomorrow’s Everest scenic flight and get a proper night’s sleep, since these depart 6:30 to 8am and weather cancellations are common enough to plan around rather than around a hangover.
Day 3: Everest by air, then on to Pokhara. Buddha Air, Yeti Airlines, and Guna Air run early scenic flights past the Himalayan skyline including Everest for roughly $165 to $300 depending on carrier and season, every seat rotated to a window on both sides. If it flies, you’ll be free by mid-morning; from there, fly (about 25 minutes) or drive (6 to 7 hours) to Pokhara, the actual gateway town for Annapurna trekking, not Kathmandu. Settle in lakeside for the evening.
Day 4: Pokhara, day one. Spend the day around Phewa Lake and up at Sarangkot for the paragliding launch and valley views, worth doing regardless of whether it’s followed by a step of Annapurna trekking or not. This is the day most shorter versions of this itinerary have to skip entirely, and it’s the difference between glimpsing Pokhara and actually getting it.
Day 5: Pokhara, day two, then wrap up. Cross Phewa Lake by boat to the World Peace Pagoda, or walk up to Australian Camp for a short taste of what an actual Annapurna trek looks like without committing to one. If your international flight departs Kathmandu rather than Pokhara, factor the return leg into this day rather than assuming you’ll manage it on arrival morning; Pokhara’s own international connections are still limited. Head out with real margin for delays.
Throughout: taxis dodge the meter regardless of the law, so agree a fare first or use an app that locks one in, and there’s no metro anywhere in this country’s cities. If the valley itself, Durbar Squares and Newari food, is what you actually want out of five days, that’s a different trip . For Chitwan added on top of this same route, see the 6-day itinerary ; for a tighter version without the second Pokhara day, drop back to the 4-day plan .