Best Hill Stations in Nepal

Known For : Sunrise in Nagarkot Nagarkot View Point Tower Nagarkot Panoramic Hiking Trail

Nagarkot is the one hill station you can reach from Kathmandu in under two hours and still wake up to the Himalaya. The ridge sits at about 2,175 m, roughly 30 km east of the city, and on a clear October or November morning the view runs from Annapurna and Manaslu across Langtang and Ganesh Himal to Everest. It is a ridge of hotels rather than a town, so come for the sunrise and the nature trail to the view tower, not for a bazaar. Book a room facing north.

Best Time: October - December, February - March

7 Nagarkot Attractions

Dhulikhel is the valley rim's real town, a working Newari settlement of about 34,000 people at 1,550 m, 30 km south east of Kathmandu on the Araniko Highway. The mountain arc from Langtang Lirung to Dorje Lakpa opens up from the ridge above the old square. Come here rather than Nagarkot if you want streets, temples and a place people live in. The walk out to the Namobuddha monastery takes most of a day.

Chandragiri is a cable car ride rather than a hill station, and it is the fastest Himalayan view in Nepal. The base station at Thankot is about 16 km from central Kathmandu and the cabin lifts you to roughly 2,550 m in about ten minutes. At the top there is the Bhaleshwor Mahadev temple, a deck looking over the whole Kathmandu valley, and one hotel if you want to stay for sunrise. Half a day is enough.

Chitlang is a Newari farming village on the far side of the Chandragiri ridge, about two hours from Kathmandu by road. It was a staging post on the old trade route between Kathmandu and the Indian plains, and the appeal is homestays, a goat cheese dairy and the walk down to Kulekhani reservoir at Markhu. There is no big mountain view from the village. Come for quiet fields and a night in someone's house.

Best Time: Throughout the year

Kakani sits a little over 2,000 m on the north west rim, 29 km from Kathmandu on the road towards Trishuli, and it is the quietest of the valley viewpoints. Ganesh Himal and the Langtang peaks fill the skyline, and the pine forest, the strawberry farms and a small trout farm fill the rest of the day. There is very little accommodation, so most people drive up for a morning and go back.

Phulchowki is the highest point on the Kathmandu valley rim at just under 2,800 m, about 20 km south of the city above Godavari village. It is a day hike or a rough drive to the summit rather than a place to stay. Birdwatchers come for the several hundred species on the forested slopes and everyone else comes in March and April for the rhododendrons. The botanical garden at Godavari sits at the bottom of the same road.

Bandipur deserves a night for itself rather than a stop on the way west. It is a Newari bazaar town on a ridge at 1,030 m, about 700 m above the Marsyangdi river, and its main street is closed to traffic, so the old shophouses and their carved wooden windows are still the whole of it. Annapurna II, Manaslu and Dhaulagiri line up to the north from the Tundikhel ground at the edge of town. It sits on the Prithvi Highway about 140 km from Kathmandu, which makes it the natural place to break the drive to Pokhara.

Daman has the longest Himalayan view in Nepal and the fewest visitors of anywhere with a view that good. At 2,322 m on the old Tribhuvan Highway, the tower here looks along roughly 400 km of skyline, from Dhaulagiri in the west to Everest in the east. It is only 80 km from Kathmandu, but the road is slow and winding, so allow about four hours each way. Nights in December and January drop close to freezing and most rooms are unheated.

Gorkha is where the modern Nepali state started. Prithvi Narayan Shah ruled from the fort above the town before he took the Kathmandu valley in the late 1760s. The bazaar sits at about 1,100 m and the Gorkha Durbar is a steep stone stairway above it, with Manaslu and Himalchuli on the skyline behind. It is around 25 km north of Abu Khaireni on the Prithvi Highway, which makes it an easy pairing with Bandipur on the way to Pokhara.

Tansen was the capital of the Sen kings of Palpa and it is one of the least changed hill towns in Nepal, a grid of brick lanes at about 1,350 m looking across the Kali Gandaki. Palpa Durbar in the middle of town holds the old royal collection, the bazaar still weaves the Dhaka cloth that Nepali topis are made from, and the two hour walk down to Ranighat Durbar on the river is what makes people stay a second day. Tansen is the one town here you can reach straight from the Sunauli border instead of via Kathmandu, 300 km away.

If you want a hill station near Pokhara, this is it rather than Pokhara itself. Sarangkot is a village on a ridge at 1,600 m, about 40 minutes up from Lakeside by road, with the Annapurna range and Machhapuchhre filling the northern sky and Phewa Lake below on the other side. It is the main paragliding launch in Nepal. Stay the night rather than driving up hopefully at five in the morning.

Known For : Phewa Lake Devi's Falls Sarangkot

Pokhara is not a hill station. It is a lake city at about 820 m, warm for most of the year, and it is on this list because it is the base that every hill town west of Kathmandu is reached from. Phewa Lake, the boats, the Lakeside cafes and the paragliding are the draw, and the Annapurna range and Machhapuchhre are the backdrop rather than something you climb to see. Fly in from Kathmandu in about 25 minutes or drive it in six to seven hours, then go up to Sarangkot for the ridge view.

Best Time: October to April

45 Pokhara Attractions

Ilam is Nepal's tea district and it sits directly across the border from Darjeeling, growing the same leaf on the same hills. The gardens roll between roughly 1,000 and 1,800 m, Kanchenjunga is on the skyline on clear mornings, and Mai Pokhari above the town is a small lake and a Ramsar wetland. The catch is distance: Ilam is about 700 km from Kathmandu, so almost nobody arrives that way. It is easy from Siliguri though, four to five hours by road through the Panitanki and Kakarbhitta crossing.

Poon Hill is not a hill station and you cannot drive to it. It is a viewpoint at 3,210 m reached by a walk of three or four days from Nayapul near Pokhara, sleeping in teahouses at Ulleri and Ghorepani, and the reward is a sunrise with Dhaulagiri and Annapurna South in front of you. It is the standard first trek in Nepal and needs no technical skill, but it is several thousand stone steps and it is high enough that altitude matters. Go in October, November, March or April.