What Are The Hiking Options Around Kathmandu?

Kathmandu city is surrounded by hills from all sides and offers excellent short hiking options around its perimeter. These short hikes around Kathmandu valley would suit all those hikers who enjoy exploring the villages, greenery and have an enjoyable walk in just a day or couple of days. These ethnically rich traditional villages are also an opportunity to learn, explore and immerse in natural as well as cultural highlights.

While climbing around the surrounding hills, don’t miss the chance to spectacle stunning distant views of peaks without much effort. Basically, among others, hiking sites like NamoBuddha balthali, Champadevi, Phulchowki, Kakani and Chisapani, etc. is popular and recommended option who wants to see more of nature, culture and hiking adventure in less possible time.

Champadevi Hike

Trip Facts:

• Champadevi hike takes us from central Kathmandu to southern Pharping
• The maximum altitude we gain will be approximately 2350m above sea level
• We will be hiking for a maximum of 4 to 5 hours a day

Trip Highlights:

• Grab an opportunity to visit a popular Pharping monastery for Buddist cultural insights
• On a clear day, beautiful views of nearby Himalayas are seen including Langtang and Ganesh Himal range
• A hike consists of walking through pine forests, a gradual ascends and descends.

Champadevi hike takes us towards the southern border of Kathmandu valley and entry to Makwanpur. Visit around the monasteries, the stupas, sceneries. Our walk begins from a local site called Pharping that lies south of Kathmandu, and hiking up the trail for a couple of hours to reach Champadevi. From the top of the hills, great views of Annapurna and nearby Himalayas are seen. In this way, after having our lunch, we will follow the same route for around one and a half to return.

Phulchoki Hike

Trip Facts:

• Phulchoki hike takes us from central Kathmandu to southeastern Phulchowki
• The maximum altitude we gain will be approximately 2800m above sea level
• We will be hiking for a maximum of 3 to 4 hours a day

Trip Highlights:

• Grab an opportunity to visit a popular botanical garden
• On a clear day, beautiful views of the nearby Himalayas are seen
• It is also a popular bird-watching area with great landscape and historical sites

Phulchoki hill is among the tallest site surrounding Kathmandu that reaches up to altitude of 2750m. In terms of vegetation, most diversified one is found at Phulchowki hill. We move in after having our breakfast and after a couple of hours' drive, we will be at Godawari, from where our hike starts. A botanical garden is one of the major highlights. In this way walking through tropical thick forests, we get excellent views of Annapurna  and Gaurishanker with nice city views too. We have our lunch here and return to Kathmandu via Godabari.

Kakani Hike

Trip Facts:

• Kakani hike takes us from Kathmandu to northwestern Pharping
• The maximum altitude we gain will be approximately 2073m above sea level
• We will be hiking for a maximum of 4 to 5 hours a day

Trip Highlights:

• Grab an opportunity to taste local recipes of rainbow trout fish at a local restaurant,
• On a clear day, beautiful views of the nearby Himalayas are seen
• The hike consists of walking through pine, oak, and rhododendron forests

Kakani is just 30 kilometers approximately northwestern of Kathmandu. The trekking trail is reached after a couple of hours' drive to beginning site. This is also the popular picnic sites for local inhabitnats where the place called Bhanjyang. View tower is built over there to enjoy great city and landscape views around. We have our lunch at Bhanjyang and take around 3 hours drive back to Kathmandu. Kakani is just above 2000meters above sea level with fine views and great destination for a day hike.

Namo-Buddha Hike

Trip Facts:

• Namo-buddha hike takes us from central Kathmandu to eastern located Namo-Buddha monastery via Araniko highway and Panauti.
• Maximum altitude we gain will be approximately 1800m above sea level
• We will be hiking for maximum of 4 to 5 hours a day

Trip Highlights:

• Grab an opportunity to visit popular Namo-Buddha monastery for Buddist cultural insights
• On clear day, beautiful views of nearby Himalayas, landscape are seen from nearby Dhulikhel heights, view tower and Namobuddha monastery
• Hike consists of walking through cultural Newar villages, pine forests, rivers, temples and farmlands of Panauti.

Namo-Buddha is basically a name of a monastery,stupa and hence the name of place now. Plenty of Buddhist cultural insights are seen after visiting here. At nearly 1800m of altitude and 40 kilometers east of Kathmandu, we can get to Namo Buddha directly on a vechicle or hike through beautiful village of Panauti. We hike around the lunch site of Panauti, a typical Newari village with plenty of rice and paddy fields, rivers that offers hiking options to all. In this way, after having our lunch, we stroll around the holy site and return to Dhulikhel and get back to Kathmandu in about 30 minutes.

Godawari Hike

Trip Facts:

• Godawari hike takes us from central Kathmandu to south eastern botanical garden where we get to see various beautiful flowers and other floral highlights
• Maximum altitude we gain will be approximately 1550m above sea level
• We will be hiking for maximum of 2 to 3 hours a day

Trip Highlights:

• Grab an opportunity to visit popular botanical garden
• On clear day, beautiful views of nearby Himalayas are seen
• Hike consists of walking through botanical garden, ancient temple and
• Walk through the paddy fields, pine, rhododendron trees and local settlements

• Popular bird watching destination for avid bird watchers

The Godavari Hike begins from the village called Chapagaun at Patan city nearby Kathmandu. After walking for around 3 hours and reaching at an altitude of 1550m, we get excellent views of Kathmandu city including distant views of nearby Himalayan range. The trekking trail also consists of walking through culturally rich villages that gives us insight into local traditional views of life. Walking through beautifully built botanical garden, don’t miss your chance to enjoy excellence of flowers and floral beauty. Also it is well known site for bird watching where more than 350 species of birds are found.