Women-only Nepal: Kathmandu, Chitwan and Pokhara

1. Day 1: Arrive in Kathmandu

   Tribhuvan International Airport to your hotel in central Kathmandu

   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Kathmandu
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Tribhuvan International Airport (KTM) on the eastern edge of Kathmandu. Most visitors pick up a tourist visa on arrival in the hall before immigration, so allow time for that queue. A driver meets you outside arrivals and takes you about 30 minutes across the city to a central hotel within walking distance of the old lanes of Thamel and Asan. The day asks nothing of you: sleep, or walk to the Garden of Dreams, a restored early 20th-century garden a few minutes from Thamel, for a quiet hour. At 6:30 pm your See Sight Tours woman guide meets the group in the hotel for a frank briefing on the days ahead: temple dress and the customs some shrines keep, photography, the two short flights, the lodge at Chitwan and the hike above Pokhara. Then we walk a few minutes to an early welcome dinner of dal bhat and Newari dishes, and you are back at the hotel by about 9 pm.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Tribhuvan International Airport (KTM)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide on dress, conduct and the days ahead
   • Early welcome dinner near the hotel

   Free time: Free until the 6:30 pm briefing; an early night

   Activity: Plan to land by about 3:30 pm to reach the briefing; later arrivals are met and your guide briefs you at breakfast.

   

2. Day 2: Swayambhunath, Kathmandu Durbar Square and Patan

   Swayambhunath to Kathmandu Durbar Square, then Patan

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Kathmandu
   Day 2 details

   After a slow breakfast we leave at about 8:30 am for Swayambhunath, the stupa on a wooded hill west of the city, still well ahead of the midday crowds. Climb the long eastern stairway, about 365 steps past monkeys and stone Buddhas, to the white dome and the painted eyes of the Buddha on its gilded tower. Then down into the old city to Kathmandu Durbar Square: the Hanuman Dhoka palace, the Kasthamandap pavilion rebuilt after the 2015 earthquake, and the Kumari Ghar, home of the Kumari, a girl worshipped as a living goddess, whose life your guide explains. We cross the Bagmati River to Patan for a sit-down lunch, at a women-run kitchen where we can confirm one with your dates, then spend the afternoon in Patan Durbar Square with a local guide: the stone Krishna Mandir, the courtyard of the Golden Temple and the Patan Museum in the old palace. All three are part of the Kathmandu Valley World Heritage Site. The evening is free.

   Included

   • Swayambhunath in the morning
   • Kathmandu Durbar Square with a local guide: Hanuman Dhoka, Kasthamandap and the Kumari Ghar
   • Sit-down lunch in Patan, at a women-run kitchen where confirmed
   • Patan Durbar Square with a local guide: the Krishna Mandir, the Golden Temple and the Patan Museum

   Easier option: Drive up to the western entrance of Swayambhunath and skip most of the stairway.

   Free time: Evening free

   Activity: About 4 to 5 hours on foot on brick paving and temple steps. Cover shoulders and knees, and take shoes off where asked.

   

3. Day 3: Bhaktapur, Pashupatinath and Boudhanath

   Kathmandu to Bhaktapur, then Pashupatinath and Boudhanath

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Kathmandu
   Day 3 details

   We leave at about 8:30 am for Bhaktapur, about 13 km east, to reach its squares before the day visitors. The old Newar city has kept more of its brick lanes and carved wooden windows than anywhere else in the valley. Walk through Durbar Square to the Golden Gate and the 55-Window Palace, on to Taumadhi Square, where the five-tiered Nyatapola temple of 1702 stands on its stepped plinth, and down to Pottery Square, where potters still throw pots on wheels and dry them in rows in the sun. After a sit-down lunch, try juju dhau, Bhaktapur's sweet set curd. In the afternoon we drive back west to Pashupatinath on the Bagmati River, the most important Hindu temple in Nepal. Non-Hindus may not enter the main temple, so we watch from the terraces across the river, where sadhus sit and cremations take place on the ghats; your guide explains the rites. We end at Boudhanath in the late afternoon, walking the kora clockwise with Tibetan pilgrims as the butter lamps are lit.

   Included

   • Bhaktapur with a local guide: Durbar Square, Taumadhi Square and the Nyatapola temple, Pottery Square
   • Sit-down lunch in Bhaktapur
   • Pashupatinath from the terraces across the Bagmati River
   • Boudhanath stupa and the evening kora

   Easier option: Rest at the hotel after lunch and meet the group at Boudhanath for the evening.

   Free time: Dinner free around Boudhanath or back in central Kathmandu

   Activity: About 4 hours on foot over the day. Non-Hindus watch Pashupatinath from across the river; please do not photograph the cremations.

   

4. Day 4: Fly to the Terai and Chitwan

   Kathmandu to Bharatpur by air, then by road to Sauraha

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Sauraha (Chitwan)
   Day 4 details

   After breakfast we transfer to the domestic terminal for the flight to Bharatpur, about 25 minutes over the hills to the Terai, Nepal's flat, hot lowland. By road the same trip takes five to six hours on winding highways, so the flight gives you back most of a day. From Bharatpur it is about 30 minutes by road to Sauraha, the village on the north bank of the Rapti River at the edge of Chitwan National Park, Nepal's first national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1984. Our lodge for two nights is a short walk from the river, and lunch is waiting. In the afternoon we walk through a Tharu village with a naturalist, a woman where we can confirm one. The Tharu are the indigenous people of the Terai, and their mud-plastered houses, grain stores and painted walls are unlike anything in the hills. Where we can arrange it with your dates, the women of a Tharu family invite us in for tea and talk about daily life. We finish on the riverbank at sunset, then dinner at the lodge.

   Included

   • Flight from Kathmandu to Bharatpur
   • Transfer to Sauraha
   • Tharu village walk with a naturalist, with tea at a Tharu home where confirmed
   • Sunset on the Rapti riverbank
   • Lunch and dinner at the lodge

   Optional experiences

   • Tharu stick dance performance in Sauraha in the evening

   Activity: Sauraha is at about 150 m, so days are warm even in winter; mornings from December to February are often foggy and cool.

5. Day 5: Canoe at first light and a jeep safari

   The Rapti River and Chitwan National Park

   • By boat
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Sauraha (Chitwan)
   Day 5 details

   An early start: at first light we board long dugout canoes, each cut from a single tree trunk, and drift down the Rapti with a naturalist. Watch the sandbanks for mugger crocodiles and, if we are lucky, the rarer fish-eating gharial, and the banks for kingfishers, herons and storks. From December to February mist often lies on the river at dawn and lifts by mid-morning. We are back at the lodge for a late breakfast, and the middle of the day is free to rest in the shade. In the early afternoon we drive into the national park by open jeep for about four hours, along forest tracks and the edges of the tall grasslands where the greater one-horned rhinoceros grazes. Spotted deer, sambar, wild boar, gaur and sloth bear also live here, and so do Bengal tigers, though they are seldom seen. We are back at the lodge around sunset for dinner. We do not offer elephant rides on this trip.

   Included

   • Dugout canoe on the Rapti River with a naturalist
   • Jeep safari in Chitwan National Park, about 4 hours
   • Chitwan National Park entry
   • All meals at the lodge

   Free time: Middle of the day free at the lodge

   Activity: The four hours of the jeep safari are inside the park, not road travel. The canoes sit low on the water: you step in from the bank and stay seated. The jeep tracks are bumpy; tell us if you have back problems.

6. Day 6: To Pokhara by way of Bandipur

   Sauraha to Bandipur, then on to Pokhara

   • Drive about 5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Pokhara
   Day 6 details

   Today is the one long road day, about 160 km and five hours of driving in all. It is over our usual four-hour cap because there is no regular flight from Bharatpur to Pokhara, so we split it into two halves of about two and a half hours with a long stop in Bandipur. If you are up early, join the optional bird walk along the river before breakfast. We leave at about 9 am, cross the Narayani valley and follow the Trishuli River up to Mugling, then turn west on the Prithvi Highway. At Dumre a side road climbs to Bandipur, an old Newar trading town on a ridge at about 1,000 m, whose main bazaar is closed to traffic. We walk the stone street of tall brick houses, have a sit-down lunch and stroll to the Tundikhel viewpoint, where on clear days the Himalaya stands along the northern skyline. From there it is about two and a half hours to Pokhara, arriving by late afternoon. The evening is free at Lakeside.

   Included

   • Drive from Sauraha to Pokhara with your guide
   • Walk through Bandipur's car-free bazaar to the Tundikhel viewpoint
   • Sit-down lunch in Bandipur

   Optional experiences

   • Early bird walk with a naturalist in Sauraha before breakfast

   Free time: Evening free at Lakeside

   Activity: The road climbs and winds for most of the day; if you get carsick, ask for a front seat and take something before we leave.

   

7. Day 7: Sunrise at Sarangkot and the Peace Pagoda

   Pokhara to Sarangkot and back, then across Phewa Lake to the World Peace Pagoda

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Pokhara
   Day 7 details

   We leave the hotel before dawn, the exact time set by the season's sunrise, for the 30 to 40 minute drive up to Sarangkot, a ridge at about 1,600 m above Pokhara. From the viewpoint the Annapurna range lights up from the summits down: Dhaulagiri far to the west, Annapurna South, the fishtail peak of Machhapuchhre almost straight ahead, and the Annapurnas and Lamjung Himal to the east, with Phewa Lake in mist below. Back at the hotel for breakfast, then mid-morning we take a wooden rowing boat out on Phewa Lake, stopping at the two-tiered pagoda of Tal Barahi on its small island, and on to the south shore. From the landing a stone path climbs through forest for about 40 minutes to the World Peace Pagoda, a white Buddhist stupa with a view back over the lake and the city to the mountains. Lunch is a sit-down meal by the lake, and the afternoon is free.

   Included

   • Sunrise from Sarangkot
   • Boat on Phewa Lake with a stop at Tal Barahi temple
   • Walk up to the World Peace Pagoda
   • Sit-down lunch by the lake

   Optional experiences

   • Tandem paragliding from Sarangkot in the afternoon
   • The International Mountain Museum
   • A yoga class at Lakeside with a woman teacher, where one is confirmed

   Easier option: Ride up to the World Peace Pagoda by vehicle and walk only the last few minutes.

   More active option: Walk back down from the pagoda to Lakeside on the forest path instead of taking the boat.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free

   Activity: Mountain views are clearest from October to February; in March and April haze can hide the peaks.

   

8. Day 8: A day hike in the Annapurna foothills

   Pokhara to Kande, on foot to Australian Camp and Dhampus, then back to Pokhara

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Pokhara
   Day 8 details

   Today is a walk in the foothills of the Annapurnas, without a multi-day trek. Whether the trail needs a licensed trekking guide is confirmed with your dates; if one joins, we ask for a woman. About an hour's drive west of Pokhara on the Baglung road takes us to Kande, at about 1,770 m, where we start up a forest trail to Australian Camp, at about 2,060 m: roughly an hour and a half of steady climbing on stone steps and dirt paths. The camp is an open grassy ridge with a few lodges and a close view of Annapurna South, Hiunchuli and Machhapuchhre, best in the morning before cloud builds. Lunch is at a lodge there. Then we walk on, mostly downhill, through the small settlement of Pothana and rhododendron forest, which flowers red in March and April, to the Gurung village of Dhampus, at about 1,650 m, where the vehicle waits. That is about 9 km and four to five hours on foot with stops. We are back in Pokhara by mid-afternoon, and the evening is free. The trail lies inside the Annapurna Conservation Area; we arrange the permits that apply.

   Included

   • Guided day hike from Kande to Australian Camp, Pothana and Dhampus, with a licensed trekking guide if the rules require one (a woman requested), confirmed with your dates
   • Annapurna Conservation Area permit and any other permit that applies
   • Lunch at a lodge at Australian Camp

   Easier option: Walk up to Australian Camp for lunch and the view, then walk back down the same way to Kande, about 3 hours on foot; or spend the day by the lake in Pokhara.

   More active option: From Dhampus, carry on down the stone staircase to Dhampus Phedi on the valley floor, about another hour and 500 m of descent.

   Free time: Evening free

   Activity: About 9 km and 4 to 5 hours on foot, about 300 m up and 400 m down. Wear shoes with grip and trousers or long shorts, and bring a warm layer. Lodge toilets at Australian Camp are basic.

9. Day 9: Fly back to Kathmandu

   Pokhara to Kathmandu by air

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay in Kathmandu
   Day 9 details

   A slower morning by the lake, then the flight from Pokhara back to Kathmandu, about 25 minutes. Flying east, sit on the left side of the plane for the Himalaya along the northern horizon on a clear day. By road the same trip is about 200 km and six to seven hours, which is why we fly; if cloud grounds the flight, we drive instead, with lunch on the way, and the afternoon becomes a travel day. On a normal day we are back in Kathmandu by early afternoon and drive to a women's craft cooperative in the valley, where we can confirm one with your dates, to meet the women who weave, sew or make paper there and see how the work supports them. There is nothing you have to buy and no commission. Afterwards the rest of the afternoon is yours: Asan Tole, the old market crossroads, or Thamel for tea and pashmina. In the evening the group meets for a farewell dinner of Newari dishes at a local restaurant.

   Included

   • Flight from Pokhara to Kathmandu
   • Airport transfers in Pokhara and Kathmandu
   • Visit to a women's craft cooperative in the Kathmandu Valley, where confirmed
   • Farewell dinner

   Free time: Late afternoon free in Kathmandu

10. Day 10: Depart from Kathmandu

    Your hotel to Tribhuvan International Airport

    • Breakfast
    Day 10 details

    The trip ends after breakfast. A driver takes you to Tribhuvan International Airport, about 30 minutes in light traffic and longer at rush hour, so we time your pick-up to reach the airport three hours before an international flight. Any flight time works, and the hotel can usually hold your luggage after check-out if you leave late in the day. If your flight leaves after about 2 pm, you can take the optional Everest scenic flight in the early morning: about an hour along the Himalaya from Kathmandu, weather permitting, back in time for breakfast. If you would like more time in Nepal, your guide can help you plan a few extra nights in Kathmandu or Pokhara, and the See Sight Tours Everest Base Camp trek also starts and ends in Kathmandu; tell us when you book and we will line up the dates and hotels for you. Your guide says goodbye at the hotel.

    Included

    • Drop-off at Tribhuvan International Airport (KTM)

    Optional experiences

    • Everest scenic flight in the early morning, if your flight leaves after about 2 pm

    Free time: Morning free

    Activity: Book a flight at any time; allow three hours at the airport for international departures.

Wildlife and weather: October and November bring the clearest mountain views and dry trails. December to February are clear and cold at dawn, with Terai fog that can delay the Bharatpur flight and mist on the Rapti. March and April are warm with haze that can hide the peaks, rhododendrons in flower on the hike and good rhino sightings once the tall grass is cut in winter. Tigers live in Chitwan but are rarely seen.

• Kathmandu3 nights
• Sauraha (Chitwan)2 nights
• Pokhara3 nights
• Kathmandu1 night