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Overview
- Duration:10 days 9 nights
- Tour Type:Group, Road Expedition
- Language:English, Hindi
This 10-day curated Nepal small group tour moves through the country’s living cultural heart before opening into the quiet vastness of the Annapurna foothills. You begin in Kathmandu with slow evenings at Boudhanath and a welcome dinner at Dwarika’s, then trace the medieval courtyards of Bhaktapur and the Newari lanes of Kirtipur. A short flight to Pokhara marks the shift into the mountains, where three days of gentle trekking through Ghandruk, Landruk, and Dhampus bring you face to face with the Annapurna range. The journey closes with a lakeside pause in Pokhara and a final evening back in Kathmandu.
Designed to balance comfort with immersion, the experience alternates between thoughtfully chosen boutique stays and community homestays. Meals move from heritage dining to simple, home-cooked dal bhat after a day on the trail, while cultural walks, workshops, and local interactions are woven seamlessly into the journey.
Cost per person based on Number of Pax
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Minimum 6 Pax: 88500 INR per person
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10 Pax - 15 Pax: 80,000 INR per person
Group Trip Departure
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11 Sep 2026 to 20 Sep 2026
Highlights
- Cultural Immersion Across Kathmandu Valley
- Evening Walk & Meditation at Boudhanath Stupa
- Heritage Dining Experience at Dwarika’s
- Mask Painting & Pottery in Bhaktapur
- Newari Cooking Class & Local Spirit Tasting
- Ranjana Lipi Calligraphy Workshop
- Scenic Flight with Himalayan Views
- Sunset Boating on Phewa Lake
- Annapurna Foothills Trek (Ghandruk-Landruk-Dhampus)
- Gurung Village Stay & Mountain Lodge Experience
- Suspension Bridge & Forest Trail Walks
- Panorama Views of Annapurna & Machhapuchhre
- Community Homestay in Dhampus
- Lakeside Leisure Time in Pokhara
- Curated Farewell Dining in Kathmandu
Itinerary
Expand allDay 1 Kathmandu
- Travel: Airport transfer (30-45 mins)
- Accommodation: Boudha Boutique Hotel, Boudha
- Your Nepal small group tour begins gently. After landing at Tribhuvan International Airport, a private transfer takes you to Boudha, one of Kathmandu's quieter residential quarters anchored by the great stupa of Boudhanath. Check in and take a few hours to settle.
- As evening falls, join a meditation walk around the stupa itself. Boudhanath is one of the largest stupas in the world and a functioning centre of Tibetan Buddhist practice. At dusk, monks complete their circumambulations, butter lamps are lit at the shrines around the base, and the whole structure is reflected across the surrounding rooftops. It is an unusually quiet introduction to a city that can otherwise feel relentless.
- Dinner is at Dwarika's Krishnarpan Restaurant, considered one of the finest heritage dining experiences in Nepal. Set within Dwarika's Hotel, a landmark property dedicated to preserving Newari craftsmanship, Krishnarpan serves a multi-course Nepali tasting menu in a setting of reclaimed wood carvings, terracotta tiles, and candlelight. The meal is a considered welcome to the food and ceremony of the country.
Day 2 Bhaktapur
- Travel: Kathmandu to Bhaktapur and return (approx. 45 mins each way)
- Accommodation: Hotel Traditional Bhaktapur
- Bhaktapur is the best-preserved of the three medieval kingdoms of the Kathmandu Valley, and a full day here rewards slow movement. The city's relationship with craft is immediate and unperformative. Potters still work in Pottery Square as they have for centuries. Woodcarvers are at work on temple facades.
- The morning begins with a mask-painting workshop, a tradition rooted in the production of ceremonial masks for Newari festivals. You will work with local artisans on your own piece, using the same pigments and techniques passed down through generations of craftspeople.
- A guided walk through Durbar Square follows, taking in the palace complex, the 55-Window Palace, and the Nyatapola temple. Pottery Square provides a natural interlude, where you can watch wheel-thrown work drying in the sun, then continue to the courtyard tea houses for a pot of ju ju dhau, the famous sweet yoghurt of Bhaktapur, served in small clay bowls.
- The evening is spent in Bhaktapur itself rather than returning to Kathmandu. Hotel Traditional Bhaktapur sits within the old city and maintains the architectural character of its surroundings, with brick facades, carved window frames, and interior courtyards. Staying inside the city walls means you can experience Bhaktapur after the day visitors have left.
Day 3 Kirtipur
- Travel: Bhaktapur to Kirtipur (approx. 45 mins)
- Accommodation: Kirtipur Community Homestay
- Kirtipur sits on a hilltop southwest of Kathmandu and is often overlooked in favour of Bhaktapur or Patan. That relative obscurity is part of its character. The town is compact, largely car-free in its upper lanes, and has a strong sense of local life carrying on without much interest in tourism.
- Check out this morning is light, with just a day bag, as luggage can be sent ahead. The morning's first activity is a heritage walk with a member of your host family, moving through the old quarter to temples, water spouts, and viewpoints over the valley.
- A Ranjana Lipi workshop introduces you to one of Nepal's most visually distinctive scripts, historically used for Sanskrit and Newari texts and still practiced by a small community of scholars and artists. The script's flowing, decorative forms have a quality closer to visual art than to functional writing as usually encountered.
- Lunch is a full Newari meal, cooked at the homestay and served in the manner of local hospitality, several small dishes rather than a single plate. The afternoon includes a momo cooking class, a hands-on session learning to fold and steam dumplings. The day ends with aila tasting, the local grain spirit distilled in Newari homes, alongside conversation with your hosts.
- Tonight you stay at the Kirtipur Community Homestay. Rooms are simple and clean, the family is present, and the distance from Kathmandu's centre gives the evening a genuine quietness.
Day 4 Pokhara
- Travel: Flight from Kathmandu to Pokhara + transfers
- Accommodation: Pokhara Batika, lakeside
- An early breakfast before the short flight west to Pokhara, Nepal's second city and the main gateway to the Annapurna region. The flight itself, on a clear morning, gives the first views of the Himalayan range: Manaslu, the Annapurnas, and Machhapuchhre, known as Fishtail for the twin peaks that give it its shape.
- After landing and transferring to the hotel, the afternoon is calm by design. Pokhara Batika sits on the eastern lakeside of Phewa Lake, one of the largest lakes in Nepal and the reflective foreground for views of Machhapuchhre across the water. Check in, then walk the lakeside promenade at your own pace.
- In the late afternoon, take a boat out on the lake for the sunset. The light at this hour on Phewa turns the Annapurna range into a sequence of colours moving from white through copper to deep red. It is one of those views that rewards patience and does not require any particular effort to reach.
Day 5 Ghandruk
- Travel: Pokhara to Kimche by road (2.5-3 hrs), then trek to Ghandruk (1.5-2 hrs uphill)
- Accommodation: Ghandruk Lodge, Mountain Lodges of Nepal
- The trekking days begin. An early breakfast at the hotel, then a drive south and west through river valleys to the village of Kimche, where the trail starts. The ascent to Ghandruk is steady and uphill throughout, climbing through terraced fields and rhododendron forest, with the Annapurna South and Hiunchuli massif coming into closer view as you gain altitude.
- Ghandruk is one of the largest Gurung villages in Nepal, sitting at around 2,000 metres and commanding unobstructed views across to the Annapurna range and Machhapuchhre. The town has a long history as both a cultural centre and a trekking hub, and the Mountain Lodges of Nepal property here is one of their flagship properties, designed to complement rather than overpower its setting.
- Arrive in the afternoon with time to walk the village, visit the Gurung museum if open, or simply sit on the lodge terrace and let the mountains settle into their evening shapes. Dinner is at the lodge.
Day 6 Landruk
- Travel: Trek from Ghandruk (3-4 hrs)
- Accommodation: Landruk Lodge, Mountain Lodges of Nepal
- Today's trek is varied and consistently rewarding. From Ghandruk, the trail descends steeply to the Modi Khola river at the valley floor, crossing on a suspension bridge that sways slightly over the glacial current below. From there, the path climbs back up through a combination of stone terraces and dense mixed forest before arriving at Landruk.
- Landruk is quieter than Ghandruk, a smaller village perched above the Modi Khola valley with a similarly commanding position and fewer trekkers. The Mountain Lodges of Nepal property here maintains the same approach as Ghandruk: local stone construction, solar heating, and food that draws on regional produce.
- The afternoon can be spent walking the village lanes or resting on the lodge terrace. Annapurna South and Hiunchuli remain prominent across the valley. It is worth being outside at dusk.
Day 7 Dhampus
- Travel: Trek from Landruk (4-5 hrs)
- Accommodation: Hemjakot Community Homestay, Dhampus
- The longest trekking day of the circuit, and one of the most scenic. The trail from Landruk climbs consistently to the ridge at Hemjakot, a small hilltop village that sits at around 1,650 metres and is renowned for its panoramic views of the entire Annapurna range from Annapurna I through to Machhapuchhre and Lamjung Himal.
- Ridge walking at this elevation gives a sense of being genuinely above the landscape below. The descent into the valleys on either side, the distant glint of the Pokhara lakes, and the close presence of the snow peaks create a combination that is particular to this section of the foothills.
- Tonight's accommodation shifts from lodge to homestay. Hemjakot Community Homestay in Dhampus is a community-run property where guests stay within working family homes. Dinner is cooked by the host family and eaten together. After several days on the trail, this kind of evening, unhurried, with conversation and home food, tends to be the one people remember most clearly.
Day 8 Pokhara
- Travel: Trek down from Dhampus (1.5-2 hrs), then drive to Pokhara (1-1.5 hrs)
- Accommodation: Pokhara Batika, lakeside
- The descent from Dhampus is straightforward and takes under two hours, arriving at the roadhead where a vehicle waits to return you to Pokhara. The drive back through the foothills has a different quality than the outward journey: the mountains behind you now rather than ahead.
- Back at Pokhara Batika by midday or early afternoon, the rest of the day is unstructured. A spa treatment is available for those whose legs would welcome it. Others may prefer to simply sit by the lake. Pokhara's lakeside has a range of cafes and restaurants for independent exploration. Dinner this evening is at a lakeside restaurant, a relaxed meal to mark the end of the trekking section before tomorrow's return to Kathmandu.
Day 9 Kathmandu
- Travel: Flight from Pokhara to Kathmandu + transfers
- Accommodation: Traditional Comfort, Kathmandu
- A morning flight returns you to Kathmandu. The day is unscheduled by design, an opportunity to revisit anything from the first days or to explore neighbourhoods not yet reached. Thamel, the central travellers' quarter, has bookshops, clothing, and music. Patan's Durbar Square and its concentration of courtyard museums rewards a few hours. The cafes of Jhamsikhel or Sanepa offer a quieter, more local side of the city.
- The farewell dinner is at Avata Wellness, a restaurant focused on Nepali and Himalayan cuisine prepared with a considered attention to ingredients and provenance. It is a fitting close to a journey that has moved between the valley's medieval cities, a lakeside interlude, and three days among the foothills of the Annapurnas.
- Accommodation tonight is at Traditional Comfort in Kathmandu, well-positioned for an early departure the following morning.
Day 10 Departure
- Travel: Airport transfer
- Departure day. Transfer to Tribhuvan International Airport at the appropriate time for your outward flight. Journey time from most central Kathmandu locations to the airport is 30 to 45 minutes, though this can extend during peak traffic hours. Your driver will have the recommended departure time based on your flight.
Includes/Excludes
- Activities and Experiences
- - Welcome dinner: 6-course tasting menu at Dwarika's Krishnarpan Restaurant, one of Nepal's finest heritage dining experiences
- - Farewell dinner: 6-course dinner at Avata Wellness
- - Mask painting workshop at Sano Thimi, Bhaktapur
- - Ranjana Lipi calligraphy workshop at Kirtipur Community Homestay, including a full Newari lunch
- - Momo cooking class
- - Sunset boat ride on Phewa Lake, Pokhara
- - Accompanying guide throughout the entire trip, including the guide's domestic flights
- Accommodation
- - Bed and Breakfast at all hotel properties ( Boudha Boutique Hotel, Hotel Traditional Bhaktapur, Kirtipur Community Homestay, Ghandruk Lodge and Landruk Lodge - Mountain Lodges of Nepal, Hemjakot Community Homestay, Traditional Comfort Kathmandu)
- - Full board at all homestay and trekking lodge properties (Days 5, 6 and 7)
- Other Inclusions
- - All land transfers by private vehicle
- - Accompanying guide's domestic flights
- - ACAP and TIMS trekking permits
- - All heritage site entry fees
- - Client domestic flights
- - International flights
- - Porter fees
- - Tips and gratuity
- - Travel insurance
- - Anything not listed under inclusions
from₹80,000 /group
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