🇳🇵Nepal

The visa on arrival, which is most people's route

• Nationals of all but 13 countries can buy a tourist visa on landing, at Kathmandu and at the land borders with India and China.
• The fees are in US dollars: USD 30 for 15 days, USD 50 for 30 days, USD 125 for 90 days. They are per person and the clock starts on the day you enter.
• Multiple entry is included in all three, which matters if you plan a side trip to India or Bhutan and come back.
• Your passport must be valid for at least 6 months beyond the date you arrive.
• Fill in the application online before you fly. The Department of Immigration form can be submitted up to 15 days before arrival; you land with a submission receipt and skip the kiosk queue entirely.

The three queues, in order

1. The kiosks, in the arrivals hall, if you did not apply online. They print a receipt with a barcode. They jam, and there is no one to fix them.
2. The bank counter, where you pay. This is the one to prepare for.
3. The immigration desk, which takes the receipt and the payment slip and stamps you in.

• Bring clean US dollar notes. Cards are accepted and the terminal works most of the time, and when it does not there is no cash machine before immigration.
• Torn, taped or heavily marked dollar bills get refused at the counter, as do pre-2009 series notes at some windows.
• Other major currencies are usually accepted at the visa counter - euros, sterling, Australian and Canadian dollars - at a rate you will not enjoy.
• Nepali rupees are not accepted for the visa fee.

Who pays nothing, and who cannot use it

• Indian nationals need no visa at all and may enter on a passport or on an Indian voter ID card. Flying in, carry the passport.
• Chinese nationals pay no visa fee, under the tourism arrangement between the two countries. The visa itself is still issued on arrival.
• SAARC nationals - Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Pakistan, Sri Lanka - get a free 30-day visa once per calendar year. Afghanistan is excluded.
• Children under 10 are free.
• Thirteen nationalities cannot use the visa on arrival at all and must apply at a Nepali mission in advance: Afghanistan, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Iraq, Liberia, Nigeria, Palestine, Somalia, Eswatini, Syria and Zimbabwe, plus holders of refugee travel documents.

Extending, and the ceiling nobody mentions

• Extensions are applied for online through the Department of Immigration and then collected in person in Kathmandu or Pokhara.
• The cost is USD 3 per day, with a 15-day minimum of USD 45.
• You may stay 150 days in one calendar year, total, however you slice it. That is a calendar year, not a rolling one, so a January arrival resets on 1 January.
• Overstaying is treated as an offence, not an oversight: a daily fine, and at the extremes a bar on returning. Sort the extension before the visa runs out, not at the airport.

Where your nationality lands

• Trekking permits are separate from the visa and are covered in the section on getting around. Nobody sells you both at once.

• Antiquities may not be exported. Any object that could be over a hundred years old - a statue, a thangka, a carved window - needs a certificate from the Department of Archaeology, and the airport checks for it.
• Electronic cigarettes are prohibited to import.
• The allowance is 200 cigarettes and one bottle of spirits per adult, with a value cap on other goods.
• Cash above the declarable threshold must be reported, and taking Indian rupees in denominations above the permitted notes is separately restricted.
• Trekking gear is not restricted, but drones need permission and are barred over much of the Khumbu and the national parks.

Insurance, which is not optional here

• Your policy must name helicopter evacuation and cover the altitude you are actually going to. A trek to Everest Base Camp tops out around 5,550 m.
• A rescue flight costs USD 3,000 to USD 10,000.
• Helicopters want a guarantee of payment from your insurer before they lift, so carry the insurer's 24-hour number and your policy number where a guide can read them.
• Check the policy does not exclude trekking above a set altitude, which the cheap ones do at 4,000 m.

Altitude sickness

• Ascend slowly and sleep low. Above 3,000 m, gain no more than 300 to 500 m of sleeping altitude a day and take a rest day every 1,000 m.
• Acetazolamide (Diamox) helps you acclimatise; it does not make you safe. Talk to a doctor before you go.
• Descent is the treatment. 500 m of descent usually turns a bad night around.
• HACE and HAPE kill. Confusion, stumbling or breathlessness lying down means go down now, at night, with someone.
• Alcohol and sleeping pills make it worse.

Where to go when ill

• CIWEC Hospital in Kathmandu is the clinic foreigners use, with a Pokhara branch, and it knows altitude illness and traveller's diarrhoea better than anywhere.
• Nepal International Clinic and Mediciti are the other Kathmandu options.
• Outside the valley, facilities are basic to none. Serious illness means getting to Kathmandu.
• Pharmacies are everywhere and sell most things over the counter. Bring your own supply of anything you actually depend on.

Water and food

• Never drink the tap water, including in hotels and including for teeth.
• Bottled water is everywhere and the plastic is a problem; a filter bottle or purification tablets is better and works on the trail.
• Boiled water is sold by the litre in teahouses and is the standard trekking answer.
• Stomach trouble is close to universal. Eat food that is hot and freshly cooked; be careful with salad, ice and anything reheated.
• Dal bhat is the safe order - it is cooked to death, endlessly refilled and served everywhere.

Before you go

• Hepatitis A and typhoid are the standard recommendations, with rabies worth considering.
• Rabies is real here. Dogs are everywhere and a bite or a scratch means treatment the same day, not when you get home.
• Kathmandu's air is genuinely bad in the dry season. If you have asthma, bring what you need and an N95 for the worst days.
• Take a first aid kit, including rehydration salts and blister care. The pharmacy is a week away on a trail.

In the cities

• Thamel in Kathmandu and Lakeside in Pokhara are where visitors stay, and both have everything from NPR 800 dorms to proper hotels.
• Book the first night only. Once you are here, walking in gets you a better room for less, and you can see it first.
• Ask for a room off the street. Thamel is loud until late and the walls are thin.
• Hot water is a question, not an assumption, and in winter so is heating. Nothing in Kathmandu is centrally heated.
• Check the wi-fi in the room rather than in the lobby, and ask about power cuts if you need to work.

On the trails

• Teahouses are the accommodation and there is no other kind. A room is a plywood box with two beds and a blanket.
• The room is cheap or free if you eat dinner and breakfast there, which is the whole business model. Do not turn up expecting to eat elsewhere.
• Prices rise with altitude because everything is carried up: expect NPR 500 to NPR 1,500 for a room low down, and food that doubles as you climb.
• Hot showers and charging cost extra, per shower and per hour, and both get expensive high up.
• In peak season the popular villages fill by mid-afternoon. Walking further to find a bed at 17:00 at 4,000 m is how people get into trouble - start early.
• Bring a sleeping bag rated for the altitude you are going to. The blanket is not enough above 3,500 m.

Booking and season

• October and November are the busiest weeks of the year, then March to May. Everything is fuller and pricier.
• Monsoon, June to September, is quiet and wet, and lodges in the hills are cheap and half empty.
• Winter is cold but clear. Low-altitude trekking is excellent; high passes are snowed in.
• Booking.com and Agoda work in the cities. Nothing on the trails takes a booking you can rely on, and cancellations are not a concept.

Practical

• A 13% VAT and often a 10% service charge sit on top of the quoted room rate. Ask whether the price includes them.
• Fire safety is poor. Look at where the exit is before you unpack, especially in an old Thamel building.
• Bring a padlock for the teahouse doors, which have a latch and nothing else.
• Homestays in the middle hills are excellent value and are how you actually meet anyone.

Buying a SIM

• Two networks matter: Ncell and Nepal Telecom (NTC). Ncell is the easier buy and the better data network; NTC goes further into the hills.
• The counters are in the arrivals hall at Kathmandu and in every high street afterwards. Thamel is full of them.
• You need your passport and a passport photo. Registration is legally required and the shop does it on the spot; without the photo some sellers will take a phone snap, others will send you away.
• A SIM with a starter balance is about NPR 500, and the data pack is bought on top.
• Data packs are cheap: roughly NPR 500 to NPR 1,000 buys 5 to 10 GB for 28 to 30 days, which outlasts most trips.

Coverage, which is the part that matters

• Kathmandu, Pokhara and the highway towns have solid 4G.
• On the trails Ncell is the one that keeps working: the Everest route to about Namche Bazaar, Annapurna to about Manang, Langtang to Kyanjin Gompa.
• NTC is the better bet in the far west and in remote districts where Ncell never built.
• Above the last village there is nothing, and teahouses sell wi-fi by the day instead. Everest Link and AirLink cards are the usual ones and they are not cheap.
• Download offline maps and your permits before you leave the road.

eSIM

• Saily sells one Nepal plan: 1 GB over 7 days at USD 9.99. That is the honest picture - Nepal is one of the few countries where the eSIM is worse value than the shop.
• It is still the right choice for a two-day stopover, where the passport, photo and shop queue are not worth it.
• For anything longer, buy the local SIM. NPR 1,000 for 10 GB is a different order of price.
• Check your phone takes an eSIM before relying on one, and buy it before you fly.

Practical

• Keep your passport handy when you buy, not in the hotel safe.
• Roaming is expensive on most foreign plans and Nepal is rarely in a bundle.
• A working phone is how you pay for nothing here. It is how you book buses and call your guide; payment is still cash.

Sockets in Nepal are Type C, D and M at 230 V, 50 Hz - round-pin outlets in the Indian pattern, in two sizes, plus two-pin holes for Europlugs.

• A Europlug fits the small holes of a Type D socket. It is common, it is loose, and it is the reason so many Nepali sockets are scorched.
• Indian plugs work here. British, American and Australian ones need an adapter.
• Trekking lodges charge by the hour from solar and micro-hydro, and a power bank is worth more than any adapter above Namche.
• 230 V, so American 120 V-only appliances need a converter.
• Voltage swings are real in Kathmandu, which is why locals run computers through stabilisers.

The basics that stop you looking rude

• Namaste, palms together, is the greeting and works in every situation.
• Eat and hand things over with the right hand. The left is for the bathroom.
• Take your shoes off entering a home and most temples, and never point the soles of your feet at a person or a shrine.
• Do not touch anyone's head, including a child's.
• Walk clockwise around stupas and mani walls, keeping them on your right.
• Beef is off the menu - the cow is sacred, and killing one is a criminal offence.

Temples and photographs

• Pashupatinath does not admit non-Hindus to the main temple courtyard, and no leather is allowed inside - belts and bags included.
• Cremations at Pashupatinath are not a photo opportunity. Watch from the far bank if you must, quietly.
• Ask before photographing people, especially sadhus, who will then ask for money.
• Drones need permission and are banned outright over Kathmandu, near airports and in national parks. The fines are serious.

The calendar, the clock and the week

• Nepal is UTC+5:45. A 45-minute offset is unique to Nepal and every airline booking will surprise you.
• The official calendar is Bikram Sambat, currently in the 2080s, so official dates and festival dates are not the Gregorian ones.
• Saturday is the weekly holiday. Government offices and many businesses close; Sunday is a working day.
• Dashain in September or October and Tihar a fortnight later close the country for days: shops shut, buses fill, and Kathmandu empties as everyone goes home.
• Book transport well ahead around Dashain, or do not plan to move.

Power, plugs and connectivity

• 230 V, and the sockets take types C, D and M. A universal adaptor is the only sane answer.
• Load shedding is over - the scheduled national blackouts ended years ago - but cuts still happen, and hotels run inverters for a reason.
• Charge everything when you have power, and carry a power bank on the trails where charging costs money.

Behaviour and the law

• Dress modestly: covered shoulders and knees at temples, and it is noticed everywhere else.
• Public affection is not done. Holding hands is fine; more is not.
• Cannabis is illegal despite the shops' hints and the history, and foreigners are prosecuted.
• Homosexuality is legal and Nepal is the most liberal country in the region on this, with same-sex marriage registration allowed since 2023, though public affection draws the same disapproval as it does for anyone.
• Bargaining is normal in markets and never aggressive. Fixed prices in supermarkets and restaurants.

Small useful things

• Toilet paper is not standard. Carry your own, and expect a bucket and tap.
• Rubbish disposal on the trails barely exists. Carry your wrappers back down.
• English is widely spoken in tourism and much less so off it.
• A little Nepali goes far: dhanyabad for thank you, kati parcha for how much.

Cash, and how much of it

• The Nepali rupee (NPR) is pegged to the Indian rupee at 1.60, which has held for decades and makes the exchange rate boringly stable.
• Nepal runs on cash. Teahouses, taxis, buses, small restaurants, permits at a checkpoint: cash, in rupees.
• ATM fees are the thing to plan around. Nepali banks charge roughly NPR 500 per withdrawal on a foreign card, on top of whatever your own bank takes.
• The per-withdrawal cap is usually NPR 25,000 to NPR 35,000. Nabil Bank and Himalayan Bank sit at the top end, which is why people queue at them.
• Take the maximum every time. Two big withdrawals cost half what four small ones do.
• ATMs run dry around festivals, especially Dashain, when the whole country wants cash at once.

Cards

• Hotels, established restaurants, trekking agencies and supermarkets take cards. Most other places do not.
• A 3% to 4% surcharge for paying by card is normal and openly quoted.
• Amex is close to useless. Visa and Mastercard both work.
• Tell your bank you are travelling. A blocked card in a cash country with a NPR 500 ATM fee is a bad afternoon.

Changing money

• Exchange counters in Thamel and Lakeside are competitive and quick and beat the airport by a wide margin.
• US dollars are the easiest currency to change, then euros and sterling.
• Keep the receipts if you want to change rupees back on the way out; the rules ask for them.
• Rupees are hard to spend elsewhere. Change back what you do not need before you leave.

Indian rupees, which changed in 2026

• Since 24 July 2026 you may bring INR 200 and INR 500 notes into Nepal, up to INR 25,000 per person, ending a ban that had run since 2019.
• The notes must be from the post-2016 series.
• INR 2,000 notes remain banned outright.
• INR 100 notes and below have always been fine and circulate near the border as a matter of course.

Small things that cost you

• Break big notes whenever you can. Nobody in a village has change for NPR 1,000.
• Check notes you are given. Very worn or torn rupee notes get refused later and you are the one holding them.
• Tipping is expected in tourism and not much else: NPR 100 to NPR 200 for a porter with your bags, 10% at a tourist restaurant if no service charge was added, and for a trekking guide and porter a day's pay per week is the going rate.
• A 13% VAT and a 10% service charge are added in tourist restaurants, and the menu price is not what you pay.

The Lukla trap, if you are going to Everest

• In the two trekking seasons - roughly March to May and October to November - Lukla flights do not leave from Kathmandu. They leave from Manthali airport in Ramechhap.
• Manthali is a 4 to 5 hour drive from Kathmandu, and the jeeps leave between 01:00 and 02:00 to make the morning flight window.
• Outside those seasons the flights go from Kathmandu as everyone assumes.
• Nobody tells you this when you book the trek. Ask your agency which airport your flight leaves from, in writing, before you plan the night before.
• Lukla flights only fly in the morning and only in clear weather. Build two spare days into the end of any Everest trek, or you will miss an international flight.

Domestic flights

• Buddha Air, Yeti Airlines and Shree Airlines run the network. Kathmandu to Pokhara is 25 minutes against most of a day on the road.
• Foreigners pay a separate, higher fare than Nepali and SAARC nationals. Kathmandu to Pokhara is around USD 120 for a foreign passenger.
• Every Nepali carrier is on the UK Air Safety List and barred from EU and UK airspace. It is a real assessment of the country's oversight, and it is why some insurers ask.
• Book flights, not connections. A domestic delay that costs you an international departure is your problem, not the airline's.

Buses, which are how the country moves

• Tourist coaches on the Kathmandu to Pokhara and Chitwan routes are the sensible option: NPR 1,200 to NPR 2,500, 6 to 8 hours, with a lunch stop.
• Greenline and the tourist operators leave early, usually 07:00, from Kantipath or Sorhakhutte in Kathmandu.
• Local buses cost a fraction and take longer, are crowded, and drive the same cliffs.
• Book through 12Go, a guesthouse or the operator directly. In season the good coaches sell out a day or two ahead.
• Bus accidents are the single biggest physical risk to visitors here. Choose the tourist coach, sit away from the cliff side, and refuse night buses on mountain roads.

Trekking permits, which are separate from everything

• Most trekking areas need a national park or conservation area permit. Annapurna (ACAP) and Sagarmatha are NPR 3,000 each for foreign nationals, plus 13% VAT.
• The Everest route adds a Khumbu rural municipality fee of NPR 3,000 collected at Lukla or Monjo, on top of the park permit.
• Permits are issued in Kathmandu and Pokhara at the Nepal Tourism Board offices, and at some checkpoints. Bring passport photos and photocopies.
• The rule is that trekkers in the national parks take a licensed guide. Enforcement at checkpoints is uneven and has been since it was introduced, but the checkpoint decides on the day, not the internet.
• Restricted areas - Upper Mustang, Manaslu, Dolpo - require a group, an agency and a much larger permit fee, and there is no way around it.

Around town

• Taxis do not use meters. Agree the fare first: most rides inside Kathmandu are NPR 300 to NPR 600.
• Pathao and InDrive work in Kathmandu and Pokhara and end the negotiation. Bikes are cheaper than cars and much faster in traffic.
• Kathmandu's air is bad in the dry season. A ride in an open tuk-tuk in March is a decision, not a saving.
• Renting a motorbike is easy and the traffic is not. You need an International Driving Permit with a motorcycle category; police checks do happen.

Apps worth having

• Pathao and InDrive for rides.
• Maps.me or Google Maps offline, downloaded before you leave the city.
• 12Go for tourist buses.
• eSewa and Khalti are the local wallets, and they need a Nepali bank account, so they are for watching other people use.

Legal to self-drive with a permit; almost nobody does, and for good reasons.

• A car with a driver costs barely more than the car and is what visitors and residents alike use for anything outside Kathmandu.
• The mountain roads are the reason. Landslides, single-lane sections above drops, buses that overtake on bends, and journeys where 200 km takes eight hours.
• Traffic drives on the left.
• The alcohol limit is zero and checkpoints in Kathmandu at night are routine.
• Fuel shortages happen during political disruption, and queues at pumps can last a day.
• An International Driving Permit is required alongside your own licence, and it must be obtained before you fly - Nepal does not issue one for a foreign licence.

The roads, which is the honest number one

• Bus and jeep accidents kill people on these roads every month. Mountain highways, old vehicles, long shifts.
• Take the tourist coach over the local bus and refuse overnight journeys on mountain roads where you can.
• Sit away from the drop side and wear the belt if there is one.
• Do not get on a bike without a helmet, and do not accept a lift from a driver who has been drinking. Both are common and both are ordinary here.

Altitude, which is the one that surprises people

• Anything above 3,000 m is altitude country, and the trails go far higher.
• The rule is 300 to 500 m of sleeping altitude a day above 3,000 m, with a rest day every 1,000 m. Fly to Lukla at 2,860 m and you are already in it.
• Headache, nausea, breathlessness at rest, poor sleep: descend. Not tomorrow.
• Nobody is too fit for this. Being strong makes it more likely you climb too fast.

Protests, strikes and politics

• Demonstrations are common and can turn violent, and the police response can be heavy. Walk away from crowds.
• A bandh - a general strike - closes roads and shops at short notice, sometimes with a day's warning and sometimes none. Nothing moves; taxis included.
• The country is settled after the September 2025 protests and the election of 5 March 2026, and an elected government took office on 27 March 2026. What remains for a traveller is the ordinary risk: crowds, roadblocks and the odd curfew.
• Check local news and your embassy's alerts if you have a flight to catch, because the road to the airport is the road that closes.

Weather and ground

• Monsoon runs June to September: landslides close highways, flights cancel and trails wash out. Trekking in the monsoon is a different sport.
• Nepal is seismically active. Know where the open ground is near where you sleep.
• Wildfire smoke and dust make March and April the worst air of the year in the valley.

Crime

• Serious crime against visitors is rare. Pickpocketing and bag snatching in Thamel, at the airport and on buses is not.
• Drink spiking and methanol in cheap spirits are documented risks. Watch your drink, and be wary of unlabelled homemade liquor.
• Women travelling alone report harassment, particularly after dark in Thamel. Take a taxi rather than walk back late.
• Trekking alone is legally discouraged and practically unwise - most of the trouble on the trails involves someone who was on their own when it started.

Helicopter rescue, and the scam attached to it

• Real rescues save lives, and a fake one is an industry. There have been documented cases of guides and clinics arranging unnecessary evacuations for the insurance payout.
• Do not agree to a helicopter for a mild headache, and do not sign a blank form.
• A genuine emergency is worth every rupee, and your insurer needs to be told while it is happening, not afterwards.

The numbers

• There is no working 112. Dial the specific service.
• The Tourist Police are the useful ones for theft, lost documents and disputes, with desks in Kathmandu, Pokhara and Chitwan and English on the phone.
• An ambulance is transport, not treatment. In Kathmandu a taxi to CIWEC is often faster than waiting.
• Save your hotel's address in Nepali to show a driver. Written English is not always enough.

If something goes wrong

• Theft: report it to the Tourist Police and get the report in writing. Your insurer will want it and no online form replaces it.
• A lost passport means the police report first, then your embassy, all of which are in Kathmandu.
• On a trek, your guide and agency are the first call and the insurer is the second. Give both numbers to someone at home before you leave.
• Tell your insurer while it is happening. A guarantee of payment issued during the emergency is what gets a helicopter into the air.

Worth saving now

• Your insurer's 24-hour assistance number and policy number, written down as well as in the phone.
• CIWEC Hospital, Kathmandu, which answers around the clock.
• Your embassy in Kathmandu, and register with its travel alerts if it offers them.
• Nepal's country code is +977, and mobiles are 10 digits.
• Leave your route and dates with someone at home before any trek. If you go missing, that document is the search.