American Business Magazine ‘Forbes’ has listed Pokhara as the cheapest city in the world to travel. On a list entitled “The 20 Best Value Cities for Budget Travelers”, Pokhara was placed in the first spot of the list. According to the report, tourists can spend their day on as little as USD15.84 on the beautiful city of Pokhara.

Tourists enjoying at the Lakeside of Pokhara

Popular as an adventure hub of Nepal, Pokhara caters a wide range of attractions for travelers. Holding some magnificent lakes with the backdrop of Mount Fishtail, Pokhara is also the gateway to the trekking in Annapurna Region.

 

A photo posted by MetaMick (@metamick) on Jun 11, 2016 at 9:15pm PDT

“On Earth there is no heaven but there are pieces of it”, a beautiful quote by Jules Renard and probably the quote came into authors mind during the visit to a place like Pokhara. Pokhara is truly a piece of heaven on Earth.

A town lying 200km west from Kathmandu, Pokhara is one of the major tourism hubs in Nepal. A destination fully gifted with natural wonders was not at all affected by the earthquake 2015. Comparatively smaller than Kathmandu, Pokhara caters wide variety of activities for travelers.

In today’s post, we have listed five reasons why Pokhara is a must travel destination in Nepal.

Adventure hub

With huge options of flying adventures like Skydiving, Paragliding, Ultralight Flights, Bungee Jumping, Pokhara welcomes large number of tourists every year. Rafting is another thrilling activity, Pokhara offers.  Pokhara is one of the few destinations in the world catering the wide range of adventure activities.

Landscape

Pokhara is popular for its beautiful landscapes in and around. A valley surrounded by hills and famous landmarks like Begnas Lake and Phewa Lake where the elevation suddenly changes taking you to a hilltop like  Sarangkot; ideal spot to observe the thirst healing sunrise falling on giant Himalayan Ranges. Mountain views including Annapurna, Dhaulagiri and Fishtail from any place around the city as the backdrop of Phewa Lake are the pleasurable sights for anyone’s eyes.

Serene and peaceful

Well facilitated as Kathmandu but comparatively more serene and peaceful Pokhara is one of the best places for your holidays in Nepal.  Less busy roads and well managed urban life allows travelers to be lost in the natural beauty of Pokhara.

Affordability

Pokhara is one of the cheapest places to chill out compared to other tourist hubs across the world. The accessibility to various things in a reasonable price is also the reason Pokhara is in the bucket list of many budget travelers.

Gateway to Annapurna

Whatever the above reasons are, most of the tourists choose to go Pokhara because it is gateway to the globally known trekking region Annapurna. The trekking to Annapurna begins from various points around Pokhara, which lets travelers to plan their stay at Pokhara.

We would not hesitate to call this tour the Best of Nepal Tour because it incorporates the best of Nepal’s culture, wildlife, nature and adventure.

The country better known for Himalayas and the adventurous walking activities to the elevated landmarks closer to the Himalayas also caters equally fascinating culture, rich wildlife, matchless urban nature and the thrilling adventures. And the Best of Nepal is a blend all these wonderful highlights Nepal caters without trekking to the elevated regions.

Our Best of Nepal Tour takes you to three major cities of the country i.e. Kathmandu Pokhara and Chitwan. These cities of Nepal are the biggest tourist hubs known for the contrasting extraordinary treasures they house.

The tour is also considered the best of Nepal because travelers have plenty of options for lavish stay as three towns house the best hotels and restaurants of the country, with all the modern facilities and amenities.

Let us see why we call this tour the Best of Nepal Tour

Kathmandu – where culture is older than the countries like USA & Australia

If you are entering Nepal via air, you need to tolerate Kathmandu. The first experience of Kathmandu for many is not good. The sights, sounds and smells of Kathmandu for most of westerners definitely give them the cultural shock. However, travelers slowly begin to like Kathmandu.

The metropolis choke full of traffics and pedestrians has so much to offer. The cobbled maze streets of Old Town Asan that lead to the site of artistic and cultural Heritage Square – the Kathmandu Durbar Square cater abundant opportunities to understand the culture of this ancient town. The city known as the melting point of Hinduism and Buddhism also houses the largest Hindu shrine of the country, Pashupatinath and two major Buddhist stupas – Boudhanath and Swayambhunath.

Moreover, the neighboring towns Bhaktapur and Lalitpur are not less fascinating culturally and artistically as all these towns went through tough Art War with each other for centuries. Additionally, the culture of native community of all three cities, Newars is wonderful aspect to observe in Kathmandu.

Newars are the families of artists, who designed every tiny creation of the valley bit by bit. They are the families of the celebrators, who throughout the year are involved in celebrating the most vibrant festivals of the country and they are the families of the indigenous cooks, who are admired for cooking the most delicious and traditional Newari cuisines.

Pokhara – from where 8000m+ Himalayan peak loom dramatically in 30 km radius

Pokhara is truly a dream town where everyone likes to settle down permanently. Perfect weather throughout the year, lush green hills that ring the valley and the spectacular views of the Himalayas dominated by Virgin Mountain Fishtail, Pokhara is unarguably a heaven on Earth.

This Lake Town that lies 200km west of Kathmandu is the most popular stopover point for trekkers to Annapurna and Mustang Region to spend significant amount of quality time before and after the trek. The tourist hub in Pokhara, Lakeside that lies in the shore of verdant Fewa Lake is full of life catering live music and colorful souvenir shops.

Apart from soft adventures like boating in Fewa Lake and excursion of caves and gorges of the town, Pokhara is the most popular adventurous hub of Nepal. Among several hilltops that cater the magnificent views of the Himalayas and Sarangkot is one of them. Sarangkot is the most special hilltop in Pokhara because it is from here the Aerial Adventure as if Paragliding takes place.

Besides, the city is also the home to Aadventures like zip-flying, bungee jumping, Ultra-light flights and skydiving. The soft adventures like Mountain Biking and day hiking are also the popular activities Of Pokhara.

Chitwan – where the endangered wild species are sheltered for generations to come

When it comes to the wildlife adventure in Nepal, Chitwan National Park is the first destination most people think of. UNESCO World Heritage, protected park spreads over 932 sq km with wetlands, grasslands and woodlands.

The park caters one of the best wildlife activities of entire Asia. If you are a wildlife lover, Chitwan National Park has plenty of wildlife activities for you. Elephant Safari, dugout canoe ride, Jeep drive, nature walk, elephant bathing and bird-watching tours are the most popular activities of Chitwan National Park. All these activities are full of fun catering you an opportunity to sight as much as species of mammals, reptiles and birds.

However, spotting a wild species in the wilds needs bit of luck. The home to one horned rhino and Royal Bengal Tiger, the park also houses rare gangetic dolphin and 544 species of birds.

Plus, the opportunity to enjoy glimpses of Tharu culture in the neighborhood of Chitwan National Park is an additional cultural activity attached with the incredible wildlife park of Nepal.

Best of Nepal that comprises the three major cities of Nepal- Kathmandu, Pokhara and Chitwan is Nepal’s one of the best selling cultural tours. Kathmandu boasts on cultural heritages, Pokhara wows on natural delights and Chitwan is a wildlife paradise. Recently few of our clients had the Best of Nepal Tour. After the tour, they shared their experiences in Nepal.

The best memory of the trip was flying over the Himalayas, the stay at Bandipur & Tibetan Refugee Camp.

The meeting and handling of Explore Himalaya was excellent, effective and on time. Both the guides in Pokhara and Kathmandu were good. The transport was excellent. The driver who took us to Pokhara was excellent.

I highly recommend Explore Himalaya as a service that takes the hassle out of you. It’s been already an exceptional experience in Nepal.

-Mr. Kenneth Thomas Sutton, Austrailia

Every different place has been memorable for different reasons. We’ve loved the “hustle & bustle” of Kathmandu to the peacefulness of Bandipur and Pokhara and the breathtaking mountain views.

Explore Himalaya’s meeting and handling was great. They met us with smiles on their faces. It was a perfect way to start our trip. All the hotels were clean and fantastic. Our guides Nabu &Prakesh were amazing. They were funny, polite and never boring. Every member of staffs from the driver to manager has been great.  The transport was clean and safe.

100% YES! I will recommend Explore Himalaya to other travelers who are willing to visit Nepal. The whole experience has been mind blowing fun, informative. We loved every minute our stay in Nepal.

It has been an amazing and wonderful experience with great staff. A real credit to Explore Himalaya.

-Ms. Denise Appleton & Ms. Lauren Lidford from United Kingdom

Knudsens from Denmark, Mr. Frederik and Kristian and Ms. Tine through our exclusive country partner Kipling Travel recently explored few places of Nepal. Ms. Tine shared her experience on their holiday to Nepal. The group rated the entire trip with 4 stars.

We have lots of beautiful memories of the holiday. Among them Wildlife Safari on Elephant at Chitwan National Park, sightseeing tour of culturally unique Bhaktapur Durbar Square and visit to the temple of Living Goddess, Kumari at Kathmandu Durbar Square are the best memories of the holiday in Nepal.

Explore Himalaya is the team of professionals. Hotels we stayed in were all great. Guides and other staffs were very helpful and knowledgeable.