Bhaktapur
ASIA · SIESTA SIDE
The valley's best-preserved city and the only one you wander car-free: brick lanes, five-tier pagodas, potters at their wheels and king curd in clay pots.
The plan
Bhaktapur Durbar Square
The 55-Window Palace, Golden Gate and Taleju complex. Entry NPR 1,800 covers the whole old city; extendable with your passport.
📍 Map & photos · €€
Nyatapola Temple
Nepal's tallest pagoda, five tiers on a stepped plinth guarded by wrestlers, elephants and lions. It rode out 2015 intact.
Pottery Square
Rows of drying black clay pots and potters still throwing by hand. Early morning is the working hour.
Dattatreya Square
The oldest quarter, with the carved Peacock Window down a side alley and far fewer visitors than the main square.
Juju dhau
'King curd' - buffalo-milk yoghurt set in unglazed clay, sold from shops across the old town for around NPR 50-100.
📍 Map & photos · €
Getting there
Local bus from Kathmandu
Buses run from Ratna Park and the Bhaktapur bus park all day, roughly 45-75 minutes for a handful of rupees.
Taxi, 40 minutes
Around 13km east of Thamel. Agree the fare first, or ask your hotel to fix a return with waiting time included.
Down from Nagarkot
Nagarkot is 40 minutes uphill. Many people take the sunrise up there, then drop into Bhaktapur for the day.
When to go
Best time to go
October to April - dry, clear, and the Himalaya visible from the higher rooftops.
Cheapest months
Monsoon months, June to September, when the day-trip coaches thin right out.
Priciest & busiest
Bisket Jatra in mid-April and Dashain in October; rooms inside the old city sell out.
If you've got one day
Morning
Enter at the Durbar Square gate before the coaches arrive, and have the 55-Window Palace almost to yourself.
Late morning
Walk down to Taumadhi Square and climb the plinth of Nyatapola for the view over the tiled roofs.
Lunch
Newari khaja set - bara, choila and beaten rice - at Newa Lahana, or a rooftop with a temple view.
Afternoon
Pottery Square, then east through the lanes to Dattatreya Square and the Peacock Window.
Evening
A clay pot of juju dhau, then dinner on a Taumadhi rooftop as the square empties and the lamps come on.
Nearby & day trips
Changu Narayan
The valley's oldest temple, 6km north on a hill ridge. Easily paired with Bhaktapur, or walked down from Nagarkot.
Nagarkot sunrise
Forty minutes up the hill for the Himalayan panorama; stay the night to catch it properly.
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