Nepal 5 Day Itinerary

Five days in Nepal is barely enough to shake off jet lag before you have to leave, so the itinerary below front-loads the Kathmandu Valley and treats Pokhara as a proper reward at the end rather than a rushed add-on.

Day 1: Kathmandu (Arrival and Altitude Adjustment)

Land at Tribhuvan International Airport and the first decision you make matters more than it sounds: skip the touts shouting outside customs and walk to the pre-paid taxi counter inside the arrivals hall instead. A fixed-fare taxi to Thamel runs roughly NPR 800 to 1,200 (about 6 to 9 dollars), while negotiating with a driver outside the gates can occasionally save a couple hundred rupees but invites the classic “the hotel you booked is closed” scam, where drivers try to redirect you to a guesthouse that pays them commission. Confirm your hotel’s name and address before you leave the terminal and refuse to be talked out of it.

Visa on arrival costs USD 30 for 15 days, USD 50 for 30 days, or USD 125 for 90 days, and you will move through the line far faster with exact US dollar bills rather than a card or a mix of currencies. Kathmandu sits at about 1,400 meters, low enough that altitude sickness is not a real concern here, but the flight and time zone shift still justify a slow first afternoon.

Once you have dropped your bags, ease into Kathmandu Durbar Square, Swayambhunath (the Monkey Temple, worth the climb up its stone steps for the valley views alone), Boudhanath Stupa, and Pashupatinath Temple. Pashupatinath is a working cremation site on the Bagmati River, not a photo backdrop, so keep cameras down near the ghats and dress modestly at all four sites. My opinion: do Boudhanath at dusk when the butter lamps come out and the circumambulating crowd thins, it beats the midday tour-bus crush by a wide margin.

Day 2: Bhaktapur and Patan (Kathmandu Valley Exploration)

Bhaktapur and Patan are separate historic city-states, not neighborhoods of Kathmandu, and each charges its own entry fee at the gate (Bhaktapur’s is the steeper one, aimed mostly at day-tripping foreign visitors). Both reward a full day of aimless wandering through pottery squares and woodcarving workshops far more than a rushed checklist visit. Hire a local guide for an hour at either site if you want the woodcarving symbolism explained; otherwise a slow walk with a map app works fine since both old towns are compact and largely pedestrian.

Get around by taxi or app-based ride between the two towns, and go on foot once you arrive. Dress modestly since both centers are still active religious sites with functioning temples, not museum pieces. If you only have energy for one, I would pick Patan over Bhaktapur, since Patan’s Durbar Square museum and courtyard temples feel less overrun by tour groups at midday.

Day 3: Nagarkot (Sunrise and Himalaya Views)

Nagarkot sits roughly 32 kilometers east of Kathmandu, reachable by taxi or local bus in under two hours depending on valley traffic, and its main draw is the sunrise view over the Himalayan range from the ridge-top lookout tower at 2,164 meters. Most hotels are a short walk from a decent viewpoint, so you do not need to book an organized sunrise tour unless you want transport sorted for you. Go between October and April for the clearest mountain visibility; monsoon season haze from June through September can erase the entire Himalayan panorama behind cloud.

Spend the rest of the day hiking the ridge trails rather than rushing back to Kathmandu immediately after sunrise, since the light on the peaks stays good for another hour or two and the crowds thin out fast once the sun clears the horizon.

Day 4: Chitwan National Park (Wildlife by Jeep, Not Elephant Back)

Chitwan is about 160 kilometers southwest of Kathmandu, a five to six hour drive by bus or a 25-minute domestic flight to Bharatpur followed by a short transfer. Book a package through a lodge that includes jeep safaris, canoe rides on the Rapti River, and a jungle walk with an armed park guide, since Chitwan still has wild rhinos and the occasional Bengal tiger and solo wandering is genuinely unsafe.

One correction worth making here: traditional elephant-back safaris have fallen out of favor across Chitwan over the last decade, with major operators and review platforms dropping them from listings on animal welfare grounds. What has replaced them are elephant walks and bathing experiences led by mahouts, or straight jeep and canoe safaris, both of which are the better choice on ethical grounds and honestly give you closer wildlife sightings anyway since jeeps cover more ground. If a tour operator is still pitching elephant-back rides as a headline activity, treat that as a signal to book elsewhere.

Day 5: Pokhara (Lakeside, Paragliding, and the Annapurna Backdrop)

Pokhara is around 200 kilometers west of Kathmandu, reachable by a 25-minute flight or a six to seven hour drive along the Prithvi Highway. Spend the day around Phewa Lake, renting a rowboat out to the Tal Barahi temple island, and budget an afternoon coffee at one of the Lakeside cafes that face the water. For dinner, momos and dal bhat at a Lakeside cafe run about NPR 300 to 800, while a sit-down meal at a spot like Moondance with a broader international menu lands closer to NPR 800 to 1,500.

If the weather cooperates, paragliding off Sarangkot down over Phewa Lake is the single best-value adventure activity in the country: a standard 25 to 30 minute tandem flight costs roughly 65 to 85 dollars, with longer cross-country or acro flights running higher. Book it the moment you arrive rather than waiting until your last free slot, since flights get grounded on windy or overcast mornings and you want a backup day in hand. Pokhara’s pace is deliberately slower than Kathmandu’s, and after four days of temple-hopping and jeep tracks, that is exactly the point.