Kathmandu city tour - World Heritage Sites

The Kathmandu Valley is not one World Heritage Site but seven monument zones inside a single listing, and four of them stand in Kathmandu itself. This is a six-hour circuit of those four, with a guide who can tell you what you are looking at and a vehicle to cover the distances between them.

The Durbar Square at Hanuman Dhoka was the court of the kings who ruled the valley, and it is less a square than a dense collection of palaces, courtyards and temples pressed up against the old city. Woodcarving is everywhere — struts, window screens, doorframes — and the Kumari Ghar, home of the living goddess, opens onto one of the courtyards. Some of what stands here was rebuilt after the 2015 earthquake, and some of it is still being rebuilt.

Swayambhunath sits on a hill west of the city, reached by a long stone stairway or by road round the back. The stupa is the oldest Buddhist monument in the valley, its dome whitewashed, its spire painted on all four sides with a pair of eyes that look out over the rooftops. Monkeys hold the hillside and the prayer flags run down it, and from the terrace the whole of Kathmandu lies below in the haze.

Boudhanath is the largest stupa in Nepal and the centre of the valley’s Tibetan community. Its mandala base is enormous, and the ring of monasteries, shops and cafés around the perimeter fills through the day with people walking the circuit clockwise, turning the prayer wheels set into the wall.

Pashupatinath, on the banks of the Bagmati, is the other pole of the day — a Hindu temple precinct sacred to Shiva, with cremation ghats along the river and sadhus on the terraces above. The main temple itself is open only to Hindus, but the complex around it, and the view across the water, is where most of what happens here takes place.

Six hours is enough for these four at a reasonable pace, but not enough to linger everywhere — your guide will keep the day moving. The exact selection and order are set by the operator and confirmed with you.

Each site charges its own entrance fee for foreign visitors and these are not included unless your booking says so; they add up, so budget for them. All four are active places of worship: dress modestly with shoulders and knees covered, remove shoes where you are asked to, and be careful with photographs — at Pashupatinath in particular, cremations are family funerals and not a sight to photograph.

Swayambhunath’s main approach is a long, steep stone stair; there is vehicle access to a higher entrance if that is a problem, which is worth mentioning when you book.