Nepal · Bagmati

Kathmandu: the city you arrive in, and the one you organise from

Arrange your visa on arrival
  • Population:1.5M (city), around 3M in the valley
  • Timezone:NPT (UTC+5:45)
  • Currency:The Nepali rupee, and Kathmandu is one of only two places in the country with reliable cash machines — draw what you need for a trek here rather than expecting to top up later. Cards work at upmarket hotels and some restaurants; everything else, including taxis, permits and the markets, is cash.
  • Key Areas:Thamel — the traveller district, dense and convenient · The old bazaar quarter — working markets, medieval street plan · Patan — restored royal city south of the river, much quieter · Boudhanath — monasteries and ritual life around the stupa

Overview

Kathmandu is Nepal's capital and the entry point for almost every visitor — a dense, loud, endlessly interesting city in a mountain-ringed valley, where the tourist quarter exists largely to get people ready for the hills and the older streets behind it carry on much as they always have.

Culture

The tourist quarter serves every cuisine a returning trekker might want, and does it well — that is what it is for. The distinctive local eating is Newari: spicier, more fermented and buffalo-heavy, built around dishes that appear on almost no tourist menu, and best sought out in Patan or in the old city rather than in Thamel. Momos are everywhere and vary enormously between places that make them fresh and places that steam them from frozen. What to order, and why Newari food differs from generic Nepali cooking, is covered on this country's food page. Festivals: Indra Jatra — chariot processions and masked dances in the old city, Dashain — the major autumn festival; much of the country travels home, Tihar — the festival of lights, with decorated doorways across the valley, Holi — spring colour festival, boisterous in the tourist quarter. Museums: Patan Museum, in a restored palace wing, The National Museum, west of the centre, Kathmandu's Durbar Square museum spaces.

Practical Info

Safety: Kathmandu is a comfortable city for visitors and violent crime against them is rare; the realistic risks are traffic, air quality and the usual crowded-place pickpocketing. Crossing roads takes confidence — join a group and move steadily rather than waiting for a gap that will not come. Air quality is poor for much of the year and worst in dry winter months, which matters for anyone with a respiratory condition. Pavements are uneven and often absent, and street lighting is patchy, so a torch is genuinely useful after dark. Language: Nepali is the national language and English is widely spoken throughout the tourist quarter, by agencies, guesthouses and drivers. Away from Thamel and the main commercial streets it thins out, and a translation app plus goodwill covers most situations comfortably. Currency: The Nepali rupee, and Kathmandu is one of only two places in the country with reliable cash machines — draw what you need for a trek here rather than expecting to top up later. Cards work at upmarket hotels and some restaurants; everything else, including taxis, permits and the markets, is cash.

Travel

Kathmandu is where a Nepal trip starts and usually ends, and travellers tend to arrive with one of two wrong expectations — that it is a serene Himalayan capital, or that it is only an obstacle between the airport and the trailhead. It is neither. The city fills a bowl-shaped valley at around thirteen hundred metres, it is genuinely congested and polluted, and it is also one of the most concentrated and rewarding urban environments in the region, with medieval streets that are still working bazaars rather than preserved quarters. Most visitors base themselves in Thamel, the tourist district, which is honest about what it is: a few dense blocks of guesthouses, trekking agencies, gear shops, bookshops and restaurants that exist to prepare people for the mountains and receive them afterwards. Give the city two or three days at the start — for permits, for gear, for adjusting, and because the valley's heritage genuinely deserves them — and consider giving it more on the way out, when you will appreciate the hot shower and the restaurant menu very differently.

Thamel is a compact grid of lanes north of the old city, and it is unapologetically a traveller district — signs in English, agencies on every corner, gear shops stacked with jackets and sleeping bags, bakeries, bars and bookshops. Purists dismiss it, which misses the point: it exists because everyone heading into the mountains needs the same dozen things within walking distance of one another, and it supplies them efficiently. You can arrange a trek, buy what you forgot, eat something familiar, and sleep, all within a few hundred metres. The noise is real and the touting is persistent but good-humoured, and both drop off sharply a street or two out. Stay here on the first visit for the convenience; consider elsewhere for the last nights, when you will want quiet.

Frequently asked questions

Two to three days, and treat that as a requirement rather than sightseeing time. Trekking permits are issued here rather than at the trailhead and take at least part of a working day to arrange, longer around public holidays; you may need to buy or rent gear; and the valley's heritage genuinely deserves a day of its own. Many visitors also find they appreciate the city far more on the way out than on the way in.

Diplomatic missions in Kathmandu

3 embassies based in this city, grouped by region.

Visaja keeps this page's contact details and visa guidance under continuous review — still, requirements can change at short notice, so confirm the essentials with the mission or the official government portal before you travel.