Nepal Attractions: 22 Top Places to See, from Kathmandu to Everest

Hanuman Dhoka, the old royal square, has more than 50 temples and shrines around the palace, among them the Taleju temple that Mahendra Malla built in 1549, opened to the public for one day a year at Dashain, and the Kumari Ghar of 1757, home of the living goddess.

The white dome with the gilded spire and the painted eyes stands on a hillock 3 km west of Kathmandu and is the most recognisable silhouette in the country. The Tourism Board repeats the tradition dating it to 460 AD, and visitors have called the place the Monkey Temple since the 1970s.

Eight kilometres east of downtown Kathmandu, Boudhanath is the largest stupa in the valley and the heart of the Tibetan quarter: three terraces, a thirteen-level spire, a ring of monasteries and rooftop cafes, and pilgrims circling clockwise all day. Its superstructure was rebuilt after the 2015 earthquake.

Nepal's most important Hindu temple stands on the Bagmati at the eastern edge of the city, in a walled complex of shrines and cremation ghats, World Heritage since 1979; the present temple dates from 1697. Non-Hindus are not admitted to the sanctum and are directed to the east-bank terraces, from where the aarti and the cremations on the ghats are watched.

Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche founded this Gelug monastery on the hill above Boudhanath in 1969 and held the first month-long meditation course here in the spring of 1971. Day visitors are welcome without signing up for anything — morning prayers, the prayer wheels, the garden and a cafe with the best terrace view of the valley on this list.

Patan, officially Lalitpur, lies immediately south of Kathmandu across the Bagmati, 5 km from the centre, and has the most harmonious of the three durbar squares. The centrepiece is the Krishna Mandir of 1637, all of stone, with 21 gilded spires — by the Tourism Board's account the first Shikhara-style building in Nepal. Opposite it the palace courtyards house the Patan Museum and its Newar bronzes.

Bhaktapur, 12 km east of Kathmandu at 1,401 m, is the best preserved of the valley's three old towns, with no main road through its brick lanes. The 15th-century Palace of 55 Carved Windows stands on the durbar square, and a few minutes away, on Taumadhi, rises the Nyatapola: built in 1702 by King Bhupatindra Malla, five tiers, about 33 m high, the tallest pagoda temple in Nepal and still standing after 2015.

On a ridge above Bhaktapur stands the quietest of the seven monument zones. The Vishnu temple is a two-tiered pagoda, rebuilt in 1702 after a fire, in a courtyard crowded with Licchavi stone carving — a 5th-century Garuda and a slab that the Tourism Board calls the oldest inscription of its kind found in Nepal.

About 30 km east of Kathmandu, on the rim of the valley, Nagarkot exists for one reason: the mountains at dawn. The Tourism Board states that the panorama from the view tower takes in five of the world's ten highest peaks, Everest among them, though haze often hides it and October to December gives the best odds. Almost everyone stays overnight; combine the trip with Bhaktapur.

Halfway between Kathmandu and Pokhara, Bandipur sits on a saddle at 1,030 m. Newar merchants grew rich here on trade with India and Tibet; then the highway of 1972 bypassed the town, leaving the bazaar with its slate roofs, carved windows and the small Ganesh shrine on the main square. Walk up to the Thani Mai temple for a 360-degree view of the town and the Annapurna range.

This is where Nepal began. The fortified palace on the ridge above the bazaar, at about 1,000 m, was the seat of the hill kingdom from which Prithvi Narayan Shah set out to unify Nepal, and the start of a Shah reign that lasted 239 years. Built under King Ram Shah, it runs along the crest in brick and carved wood; the walk up from the bazaar takes about an hour, and Gorkha is four hours by bus from Kathmandu via Kurintar. No official hours or fee is published, so ask at the gate what is accessible.

Pokhara is the base for the whole Annapurna region, and its heart is Phewa — the second largest lake in Nepal and part of the Lake Cluster of Pokhara Valley, a Ramsar wetland since 2 February 2016. Ten minutes of rowing from the Lakeside shore brings you to the islet with the two-storey pagoda of Tal Barahi, the most visited temple in the city. Access is free, but there is no published boat tariff, so settle the price first.

On the ridge along the southern shore stands the white Shanti Stupa, built by the Japanese order Nipponzan Myohoji. The reason to climb is the view back across Phewa to the Annapurnas. The Tourism Board describes the classic approach — a boat across the lake, then about an hour on foot; taxis take the road from Chhorepatan instead. Free, open 6:00–18:00 as of 8 November 2026.

Patale Chhango, the local name, means "underworld waterfall": the overflow from Phewa drops into a gorge at Chhorepatan, 2 km from Lakeside, and vanishes into a hole in the rock. Across the road is Gupteshwor Mahadev, a long cave with Shiva shrines inside; its inner section closes in the rainy season, and the management committee's own pages give two different sets of hours, so read the board at the gate. The falls cost 30 NPR and open 6:00–18:00, according to the Pokhara municipal tourism portal.

A former Kaski fort 5 km west of the old bazaar, Sarangkot is the sunrise viewpoint of Pokhara: a panorama from Dhaulagiri (8,167 m) to Lamjung (6,983 m), the Fish Tail of Machhapuchhre in the middle of it and the lake below. It is 11.3 km from Lakeside and at most 30 minutes by car, and the viewpoint charges 50 NPR according to the municipal portal. Sarangkot is also the name every paragliding operator uses: tandem flights go only through licensed companies, in zones set by the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal.

The Tourism Board calls Ghorepani–Poon Hill one of Nepal's most popular short treks and suggests three to four days for it. The route climbs through stone-paved Gurung villages and the rhododendron forest above Ghorepani, which flowers in spring, to the viewpoint on Poon Hill at 3,210 m, where Annapurna and Dhaulagiri turn gold at sunrise. Most people start from Ghandruk, 54.8 km and about an hour and 35 minutes from Pokhara.

The Annapurna Sanctuary is a glacial amphitheatre above 4,000 m, and reaching it is the classic ten-day trek out of Pokhara. Annapurna I (8,091 m) is the tenth highest mountain in the world and was the first 8,000-metre peak ever climbed, by a French expedition under Maurice Herzog on 3 June 1950; the way in passes Machhapuchhre Base Camp. The same permit, guide and TIMS rules apply as for Poon Hill.

North of the Annapurnas the Kali Gandaki has cut what the Tourism Board calls the deepest gorge in the world, between Annapurna I and Dhaulagiri, and the valley beyond is treeless country of ochre cliffs and whitewashed villages with under 300 mm of rain a year — one of the few parts of Nepal worth trekking in the monsoon. At its head, Muktinath is sacred to Hindus and Buddhists alike: a pagoda-style Vishnu temple from the early 19th century, where Buddhists worship the deity as Avalokiteshvara and Buddhist nuns serve alongside Brahmin priests. Pilgrims bathe under the 108 sacred waterspouts beside it.

In the lowlands along the Indian border, Chitwan was declared Nepal's first protected area in 1973 and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since November 1984. It is one of the best places in Asia to see a greater one-horned rhinoceros: the last national census, in 2021, counted 694 rhinos in Chitwan out of 752 in the whole country. Tigers and gharial crocodiles live here too. Game drives, canoe trips on the Rapti and guided walks start from Sauraha; the season is October to March, around 25 °C.

Siddhartha Gautama was born here, and the archaeology is specific about where: excavations of the Maya Devi temple between 1992 and 1996 uncovered a marker stone on brick layers from the 3rd century BC; the temple over it was rebuilt by the Lumbini Development Trust in 2003, and the Pushkarini pool beside it, where the Buddha's mother is said to have bathed, reflects its white walls. A few steps away stands the sandstone pillar Emperor Ashoka raised in the 3rd century BC, 9.41 m of it above ground, inscribed in Brahmi with the king's visit in the twentieth year of his reign. The sacred garden, ringed by monasteries built by Buddhist communities from many countries, has been a World Heritage Site since 1997.

Everest is 8,848.86 m high — the figure Nepal and China announced jointly on 8 December 2020. From base camp itself, at 5,350 m under the Khumbu icefall, the summit is hidden behind Nuptse; the view everyone comes for is from the ridge of Kala Patthar at 5,545 m. Getting there is a two-week round trip from Lukla through Sagarmatha National Park (World Heritage since 1979), with two days of walking up to Namche Bazaar at 3,500 m and acclimatisation days after that.

Two days above Namche, Tengboche is the religious centre of the Sherpa valleys and the most photographed building in the Nepali Himalaya, because of what stands behind it: Ama Dablam on one side, Everest and Lhotse on the other. The original monastery burned down in 1989 and was replaced by a sturdier building. It is the usual night halt after Namche, and the Tourism Board notes that tours are conducted every afternoon. Mani Rimdu, with its masked dances, falls every October by the Tibetan lunar calendar; no admission charge or hours are published.