Kathmandu & Pokhara

Currency budget Nepal

Cash country outside the tourist hotels. Change money at the licensed booths in Thamel, which post competitive rates — the banks are slower and no better. Indian rupees are accepted in some places but the 500 and 2,000 notes are not legal here.

ATMs & cards

Nabil, Standard Chartered and Himalayan Bank machines take foreign cards, with a fee of about 500 rupees and a limit of 35,000. Draw before a trek: there is nothing above Pokhara.

The fee is about 500 rupees a withdrawal and the limit is 35,000, so take the maximum. Licensed exchange booths in Thamel post competitive rates and are the sensible place to change notes. Draw everything you need before a trek.

Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.

Safety all of Nepal

Crime against visitors is low and mostly touts and overcharging. What is genuinely dangerous is altitude on a trek — acclimatise on the schedule, not faster — and the roads, which are mountainous and driven hard. Domestic aviation has a poor record and the EU bans Nepali carriers from its airspace, which is a fact worth knowing when choosing the bus.

Our own assessment, not a sourced index.

Entry & visa Nepal visa rules

Health & emergencies all of Nepal

Required to enter

• Yellow fever certificate, but only if you are arriving from a country where yellow fever is present

Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.

Food tip

Dal bhat is the national meal and comes with unlimited refills, which is the point on a trek — "dal bhat power, 24 hour" is a joke every guide makes and means it. Momos everywhere, steamed or fried. And Newari food in Patan, which is a separate cuisine and is far less known than it should be.

Nightlife

Thamel’s bars for the trekking crowd, a live music scene that is better than it has any right to be, and Pokhara’s lakeside doing the calmer version.

• Thamel — the bars, the trekking shops and the crowd between them
• Lakeside, Pokhara — a beer looking at Annapurna
• Jhamsikhel — where Kathmandu’s expats and professionals drink
• Boudhanath — the rooftop cafés around the stupa at dusk, which is not drinking but is the evening

Closing: Midnight by curfew in Kathmandu; loosely enforced in Thamel.

A beer in a bar: 350–600 NPR

Power cuts are less common than they were but the good bars still have a generator, and the ones that do not go dark mid-round.

Getting around

• Taxi — agree the fare first; meters exist and are never used
• Domestic flight — Kathmandu to Pokhara in 25 minutes, and the safety record of Nepali aviation is a real consideration
• Tourist bus — Kathmandu to Pokhara in seven hours on a road that is slowly improving
• Walking — how Thamel and the Durbar squares are seen, and how the Himalaya is
• Airport: Tribhuvan (KTM); Pokhara (PKR) for the domestic hop

Internet speedall of Nepal

Ookla publishes no mobile median for Kathmandu, so there is no figure here for what a phone gets.

Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for Nepal, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.

Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026

Must-see

Nearby day trips

Say a few words

Nepali

• Hello / goodbyeनमस्ते (Namaste)na-mas-TAY
• Thank youधन्यवाद (Dhanyabad)DHAN-ya-bad
• Yes / Noहो / होइन (Ho / Hoina)ho / HOY-na
• How much is it?कति हो? (Kati ho?)KA-ti ho

Written in Devanagari, like Hindi, and close enough to it that a little Hindi travels. Namaste is used for hello, goodbye and thank you all at once, and is always accompanied by the hands.

Religion

Hindu majority, with Buddhism inseparable from it

Around 80% Hindu and 9% Buddhist, and in the Kathmandu valley the two share temples, festivals and deities in a way that resists tidy separation. Nepal was the world’s last Hindu kingdom until 2008. Leather, including belts and bags, is barred from some temples.

Do's and don'ts

Do

• Say namaste with palms together, which works for hello, goodbye and thank you
• Walk clockwise around a stupa, a mani wall or a temple — always
• Take shoes off before entering a temple or a home
• Give and receive with the right hand, or with both

Don't

• Do not point your feet at a person, an altar or a shrine, and do not step over anybody
• Do not touch anybody on the head, including children
• Do not photograph inside temples where it is signed, or at cremations at Pashupatinath
• Do not give money or sweets to children on trekking routes, which the guides will ask you not to do and mean it