Kathmandu Valley Tour – 7 Days

The Kathmandu Valley holds seven UNESCO World Heritage Sites inside an area you could drive across in ninety minutes — the densest concentration of heritage monuments anywhere in Asia. This seven-day tour covers all seven properly, with enough time at each to actually understand what you are looking at, rather than the rushed one-day circuit most operators sell. You will stand in three separate medieval royal cities — Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur — each an independent Malla kingdom until 1769, each with its own Durbar Square of palaces, pagoda temples and carved wooden windows. Bhaktapur in particular remains a functioning medieval town: no cars in the core, potters working the squares, and 55-window palaces built in the 15th century. The religious sites are equally extraordinary. Pashupatinath is the holiest Hindu temple in Nepal, with open-air cremations on the Bagmati ghats. Boudhanath is one of the largest stupas in the world and the centre of Tibetan Buddhism in exile. Swayambhunath, the hilltop 'Monkey Temple', has been a pilgrimage site for two thousand years and gives the best single view over the whole valley. Beyond the city we take you to Nagarkot at 2,175m for a Himalayan sunrise — Langtang, Ganesh Himal, Dorje Lakpa and, on the clearest winter mornings, Everest itself — and to Namobuddha, one of the three holiest Buddhist sites in Nepal, where its monastery sits on a forested ridge above terraced farmland. This tour requires no trekking and no fitness, though there are stairs and cobbled streets. It is the right choice for travellers with limited time, families with young children, older travellers, and anyone who wants Nepal's culture rather than its altitude.