Kathmandu in 7 Days on a Budget (Daily Costs)
Seven days: enough time for the valley’s hidden corners, not just the ticketed sites
A week is enough to cover all seven UNESCO zones at an unhurried pace, then add the Newar villages most visitors never reach: Kirtipur, Bungamati, and Khokana, plus a proper buffer day at the end instead of a rushed departure morning. This plan spreads all three Durbar Squares, both major stupas, Pashupatinath, Changu Narayan, and a valley-villages day across seven days without cramming, and it deliberately skips the overnight Nagarkot sunrise trip; that belongs to a different kind of trip entirely, covered with Pokhara, Chitwan, and trekking logistics in the Kathmandu, Nepal guide . For pricing and hours on every site below, see the Kathmandu guide .
Book these before you go:
- Book a Durbar Square tour if you’d rather have the three squares’ history explained than go self-guided, especially once English-speaking guides book up in high season.
- Book a Bhaktapur tour if you’d rather have Pottery Square and the reconstruction history explained on your Bhaktapur day.
- Book Chandragiri cable car tickets ahead of a weekend visit, the base-station queue gets long.
| Day | Focus | Tickets (NPR) | Food (NPR) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kathmandu Durbar Square | 1,000 | 300-700 |
| 2 | Swayambhunath + Boudhanath | 600 | 300-600 |
| 3 | Pashupatinath + Patan Durbar Square | 2,500 | 500-1,200 |
| 4 | Bhaktapur old town | 1,800-2,000 | 300-600 |
| 5 | Changu Narayan + Chandragiri | 1,710-1,760 | 200-500 |
| 6 | Kirtipur, Bungamati, Khokana | 0-200 | 300-600 |
| 7 | Buffer + departure | 0 | 500-1,200 (farewell dinner) |
Landing: visa on arrival at Tribhuvan International, cash US dollars, $50 covers 30 days which suits a week-long stay. Take the prepaid taxi counter inside the terminal, fixed NPR 700-800 to Thamel, skip the curb touts quoting NPR 1,500 or more. Watch for the scam where a driver insists your hotel is closed and tries to redirect you to a commission guesthouse, keep the hotel’s number handy and refuse.
Day 1: Settle in, Kathmandu Durbar Square. Arrive, check in, and spend the afternoon at Kathmandu Durbar Square (NPR 1,000). Reconstruction is real progress, not a finished job, a decade after the 2015 earthquake: Kasthamandap reopened in 2022 and a major temple finished rebuilding in early 2024, but the Nine-Story Tower’s interior is still closed and parts of the palace complex remain under active restoration, so expect scaffolding in places, not a fully polished square. Dinner in Thamel is fine for night one out of convenience, Fire and Ice or 4 Stories are the two spots that hold up against the neighborhood’s overpriced norm, but don’t build the rest of the week around Thamel dining.
Day 2: Swayambhunath and Boudhanath. Morning climb up Swayambhunath, the real Monkey Temple, NPR 200, about 365 steps up the east side, go early before the heat. Afternoon at Boudhanath Stupa (NPR 400), walk the full kora loop around the base rather than rushing it, and consider staying for dusk if your schedule allows, the lamp-lit evening kora is genuinely one of the better unstructured experiences in the valley. Dinner in Boudha at Yangling Tibetan.
Day 3: Pashupatinath and a switch to Patan for food. Morning at Pashupatinath (NPR 1,000). Non-Hindus can’t enter the inner sanctum but the cremation ghats are visible respectfully from across the Bagmati, keep cameras away from grieving families. In the afternoon, cross to Patan for the rest of the day, Patan Durbar Square is better preserved and less crowded than Kathmandu’s version, worth extended time, and the NPR 1,500 ticket bundles the Patan Museum. Dinner at Newa Lahana or Honacha, NPR 500-1,200 for proper Newari thali, chhoila, and bara, a real step up from Thamel.
Day 4: Bhaktapur, the full day. About 45-90 minutes out by road. Entry is NPR 1,800 per the official Nepal Tourism Board site, though mid-2026 reports put it at NPR 2,000, confirm at the gate. It’s the priciest of the three because it covers the whole town rather than just the square, and the ticket runs across multiple days. Give it a proper full day, the Pottery Square and the medieval streetscape are the best-preserved in the valley, try Juju Dhau, its own specific curd, and don’t rush through on the way to somewhere else.
Day 5: Changu Narayan and Chandragiri. Morning taxi out to Changu Narayan, roughly an hour each way, NPR 350-400 entry, the oldest temple in the valley and by far the quietest of the seven zones, worth the trip precisely because almost nobody else makes it out here. Back in the city by early afternoon for the Chandragiri Hills cable car, about an hour to the base then a 10-minute ride, roughly NPR 1,360 round trip for foreigners (confirm the fare locally), temple and valley views at 2,551m without an overnight commitment.
Day 6: Kirtipur, Bungamati, and Khokana. A full day in the valley’s least-touristed corner. Kirtipur is a hilltop Newar town that skipped the tourist development of the main valley cities, cobbled lanes, the Bagh Bhairab and Uma Maheshwar temples, and valley views with a fraction of the crowds at the Durbar Squares. Bungamati, known for woodcarving and the Rato Machhindranath temple, and Khokana, known for traditional mustard-oil pressing, sit next to each other just south of Patan and round out the loop. None of the three charge a real entry fee beyond the odd small temple donation, so this is a cheap day relative to the ticketed zones earlier in the week. Lunch in Kirtipur at one of the town’s Newari specialist restaurants beats anything you’d find back in Thamel.
Day 7: Buffer and departure prep. Use this as slack, not a packed final day. If you’re heading onward to a trek, get your gear from a shop with confirmed TAAN or NTB registration and insurance, not an impulse buy from an unlicensed Thamel storefront; a Kathmandu court is currently hearing testimony in a fake helicopter-rescue insurance fraud case tied to unlicensed trekking operators, so a vetted, pre-booked agency is worth more than it used to be. Remember altitude doesn’t care how fit you are, acclimatize properly regardless if a trek is next. Farewell dinner at Bhojan Griha in Dilli Bazar for a full traditional meal with dance to close the trip.
Getting around the whole week: taxis are legally metered but drivers won’t use it, negotiate before getting in. Pathao, InDrive, and Yango lock in the fare up front, more reliable, though watch for drivers pushing extra cash at drop-off, hold to the app price. No metro or subway exists here, budget real time for Thamel’s narrow, motorbike-clogged streets on foot.
Check Dashain (October 11-21, 2026) and Tihar (November 7-11, 2026) against your travel week, festival season means great atmosphere but also closed businesses and disrupted transport around the main dates. If you’re extending past this week into a trek, Pokhara, or Chitwan, that’s a separate trip with its own permit and season logistics, covered in the Kathmandu, Nepal guide .