Four days in Pokhara: the softest landing anywhere in the Himalaya

Three nights by the lake: sunrise at Sarangkot, a rowing boat on Phewa Tal, the pagoda on the ridge, and the caves and the mountain museum on the far bank.

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Length
4 days, 3 nights
Where you stay
Pokhara
Places
8 across 4 days
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Pokhara is where Nepal lets you off. After Kathmandu's traffic and dust it is a lake, a line of cafes along one shore, and the Annapurna range standing up behind the ridge like a piece of theatre. On a clear morning you can see a wall of snow from a breakfast table, thirty kilometres away and four thousand metres above your head.

It has been the resting place at either end of a trek for fifty years, which is why the food is good, the beds are comfortable and nobody minds if you do nothing for a day. It is also a proper Nepali town away from the lake, with a bazaar and a bus park that most visitors never see.

Three nights covers the ridge at dawn, a day on the water, the caves and waterfall on the far side of town, and a last morning out at a quieter lake on the road east.

Highlights

  • A wall of eight thousand metre peaks, reflected in a lake at seven in the morning
  • A mountain shaped like a fish tail that nobody is allowed to climb
  • Paragliders launching off a ridge and landing on the lakeshore an hour later
  • A waterfall that vanishes into a hole in the ground and comes out in a cave

Where to stay

Pokhara, three nights

A valley at about eight hundred metres, with a lake in it and the ground behind rising to nearly seven thousand within a day's walk. That compression is why the mountains look impossible here: there are no foothills in the way, so Machhapuchhre appears to stand directly behind the town.

The place was a trading post on the salt route from Tibet, gained a road link only in the 1970s, and has grown into Nepal's second city on the back of trekkers, paragliders and Nepali honeymooners. Lakeside is entirely given over to visitors. Walk half an hour east and it is a bazaar town like any other.

Day by day

Day 1 in Pokhara

A boat on Phewa Tal, and the first look at the range

However you arrive, the first thing to do is get on the water. Rowing boats are hired by the hour from the jetties along the shore, with or without an oarsman, and the lake is calm in the late afternoon.

Row out to the island shrine in the middle, then keep going to the far shore, where the forest comes down to the water and the only sounds are birds and the occasional monkey.

The mountains are usually clearest first thing, so do not be disappointed if the skyline is hazy this afternoon. Tomorrow starts early.

  1. 15:30

    Phewa/Fewa Lake (Phewa/Fewa Tal)

    Visit

    The second largest lake in Nepal, with forested hills on the far side, the Annapurnas behind them and a small two-tiered temple on an island near the eastern shore that people row out to with offerings. Hire a boat for an hour or three; the going rate is posted at the jetties, and life jackets come with it.

  2. 19:30

    Dinner on Lakeside

    Eat

    The strip runs for a couple of kilometres and the good places are spread along all of it. Thakali for the first night, and a table outside; the evenings are mild here even in winter.

With more time: The lakeside path at the northern end is the quiet stretch, with the water on one side and paddy on the other. It is a good hour's walk before dinner and it is where the town does its own evening promenade.

Day 2 in Pokhara

Sarangkot before dawn, and flying off the ridge

Up at half past four. The ridge above town is a forty minute drive by taxi, or a hard two hour walk if you would rather earn it, and the point of being there is the twenty minutes when the sun hits the snow before it reaches the valley.

The same ridge is one of the best paragliding launches in the world, and the flights go from mid morning once the thermals build. Twenty to thirty minutes in the air, landing by the lake, and no experience required.

Afternoon on the ridge across the water, at the white pagoda you can see from the whole of Lakeside. Boat across and walk up through the trees, or take a taxi round if the legs have had enough.

  1. 05:00

    Sarangkot

    Visit

    A ridge village at about sixteen hundred metres, half an hour above the town, with a viewing tower at the top and tea stalls that open in the dark. Annapurna South, Hiunchuli, Machhapuchhre and Lamjung Himal come out of the dark one at a time. Dress for cold; it is a different climate up there before the sun arrives.

  2. 10:30

    Parahawking/Vulture Restaurant

    Visit

    Tandem paragliding launches from the same ridge through the middle of the day, and this is where parahawking began: flights alongside trained birds of prey, run to raise money and attention for Nepal's vultures, whose populations collapsed after a veterinary drug poisoned the carcasses they fed on. Book the day before, and take the earlier slot for smoother air.

  3. 13:30

    Late lunch by the water

    Eat

    Whatever is nearest to where the paraglider put you down. There are cafes the length of the shore and none of them will hurry you.

  4. 15:00

    World Peace Pagoda (Shanti Stupa)

    Other

    A white stupa on the ridge across the lake, put up by Japanese Buddhist monks and opened in 1999, with the Annapurnas on one side and the whole of Pokhara on the other. The walk up from the boat landing takes about forty minutes through forest. Stay for sunset and take a torch for the way down.

With more time: If the morning is cloudy and the ridge is pointless, the Gurkha memorial museum in town is the wet weather option: uniforms, campaign medals and the story of how a hill people from this district ended up in the British and Indian armies for two hundred years.

Day 3 in Pokhara

The waterfall, the cave under it, and the mountain museum

A day on the south side of town, which is easily done on foot and by short taxi hops and is the part of Pokhara that has nothing to do with trekking.

The waterfall and the cave face each other across the road, and they are the same water: it drops into a sinkhole on one side and reappears underground on the other, which is more dramatic than it sounds and considerably wetter after rain.

Then the mountain museum, which is much better than the average provincial museum and is the right preparation if you are walking anywhere afterwards.

  1. 09:30

    Devi's Falls (Patale Chhango)

    Nature

    A waterfall that falls into a sinkhole and disappears completely into the rock, named after a foreigner said to have drowned here in the 1960s. Thunderous in and after the monsoon, modest in spring, and busy with Nepali visitors on weekends.

  2. 10:30

    Gupteshwor Mahadev Cave

    Nature

    Directly opposite the falls and down a long flight of steps: a limestone cave holding a stalagmite venerated as Shiva, with a second chamber further in where you can look at the underside of the waterfall. Shoes off in the shrine part, and expect to get damp.

  3. 12:00

    Lunch on the way back

    Eat

    The road back into town has local canteens doing dal bhat for a few hundred rupees, which is a quarter of the Lakeside price and no worse.

  4. 14:00

    International Mountain Museum

    Culture

    A serious museum about the Himalaya: the fourteen peaks over eight thousand metres and the expeditions that took them, the geology, and the cultures of the people who live under them, Sherpa, Thakali, Gurung and Magar. Two hours, and a full-size model peak outside for children to climb.

With more time: North of town, two caves in the limestone are worth an hour if you enjoy that sort of thing: one is large and lit, the other is small, unlit and full of bats, and a guide with a torch is compulsory in practice if not on paper.

Day 4 in Pokhara

A quieter lake on the way out

Phewa Tal is not the only lake in this valley, and the ones east of town are what Pokhara looked like before the guesthouses. Begnas is twenty five minutes out on the road towards Kathmandu, which makes it the obvious last morning if you are heading that way.

Buses and flights to Kathmandu leave through the day, and the tourist bus park is on the eastern side of town, so nothing about this morning is a detour.

  1. 08:30

    Begnas Lake (Begnas Tal)

    Nature

    A large, quiet lake among terraced hills, with fish farms, a few simple hotels and almost no traffic. Hire a boat or walk the ridge path between this lake and the smaller one beyond it, which takes an hour and looks down on both. Fried lake fish at the shore restaurants is the thing to eat.

  2. 12:00

    On to Kathmandu or the trail

    Travel

    Tourist buses to Kathmandu go at first light and take seven to eight hours; flights take twenty five minutes and are cancelled in bad weather. For the Annapurna trailheads, jeeps and local buses run from the bus park all day.

With more time: If you would rather not travel today, the lake beyond Begnas is smaller, wilder and reached on foot in half an hour, with wild lotus on the water and nobody else there.

Before you go

Getting here

Tourist buses from Kathmandu take seven or eight hours for two hundred kilometres, which tells you everything about the road. They leave early in the morning, the better ones have reclining seats and stop for lunch, and the scenery along the Trishuli river makes up for some of it.

Flying takes twenty five minutes, costs a lot more and is worth it for the view of the range if the weather is clear. Pokhara has a large new airport, though scheduled international flights into it remain thin, so most people still connect through Kathmandu.

Where to stay, and where to eat

Lakeside is the strip along the northeastern shore of Phewa Tal and it is where almost everyone stays: guesthouses, bakeries, bookshops and enough restaurants to eat somewhere different every night. The northern end is quieter, the southern end is closer to the boats.

Eat Thakali at least once. It is the food of the mountain trading people from the Kali Gandaki valley, served as a large platter of rice with several curries, a soup and pickles, and it is the best version of dal bhat you will find. Otherwise Pokhara does Korean, Italian, Israeli and very good coffee, because trekkers coming off the hill want all of it.

When to go

October and November are the best weeks of the year: the monsoon has washed the air, the mountains are out most mornings and the trekking season is in full swing. March and April are second best, warmer and hazier, with rhododendron in flower on the hills.

In the monsoon, June to September, the mountains are simply not there for days at a time. Winter is clear and cold at dawn and pleasant by noon, and the lake is at its quietest.

If you are here to trek

Pokhara is the trailhead for the Annapurna region, and the permits are bought here: a conservation area entry permit and a trekker's card, both handled by the tourism office in town or by any agency in a couple of hours.

Rules on walking without a guide have tightened in recent years and are enforced at the checkpoints, so confirm the current requirement before you plan a solo route. Kit can be bought or hired on Lakeside for a fraction of what it costs at home, and much of it is what it claims to be.

Pokhara is the one place in Nepal where doing very little is the correct plan. Get up once for the sunrise, spend an afternoon on the water, and let the rest of it happen at the speed of a rowing boat.

From here the trails go north into the Annapurnas, the road goes east to Kathmandu in a long day or south to the jungle at Chitwan in half of one.

Or make it a longer trip

These trips pass through here on the way somewhere else.

Make it your trip

Every stop, day and place here lands in your account as an editable trip. Move the days around, swap a city, add your own bookings and costs, and share it with whoever is coming.

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Common questions

How long should I spend in Pokhara?
Three nights if it is a stop in itself. If you are trekking, add a night at each end: one to sort permits and kit, and one afterwards, which you will want more than you expect.
Will I actually see the mountains?
In October and November, most mornings. In spring, often, through haze. In the monsoon, sometimes not for a week. Whatever the season, the mountains are clearest between dawn and about nine, which is why Sarangkot is an early start rather than a nice idea.
Is paragliding here safe?
It is one of the busiest tandem sites in the world and the established operators fly to international standards. Fly in the morning for calmer air, check that the pilot and the company are licensed, and do not book the cheapest flight on the strip.
Can I do a short trek from Pokhara?
Yes, and the short ones are underrated. Australian Camp and Dhampus can be done in a day or as an easy overnight, and Poon Hill is a classic three or four day loop with a dawn viewpoint over Dhaulagiri and Annapurna. Permits are still required.
Can I change this plan?
Yes. Copy it into the planner and move, cut or add anything; the days, times and places all stay editable.