Bhaktapur · Backpacking
Checked 31 August 2026 · 3 official sources
ON A BUDGET
Bhaktapur is a cheap town with one expensive gate: the city entry fee is more than a night's bed, so the whole budget hinges on how long you stay to amortise it.
The city ticket
Bhaktapur Municipality charges non-SAARC visitors USD 15, set at NPR 2,000 since July 2025 (it was NPR 1,800 before that), covering the whole walled old city rather than just Durbar Square. SAARC and Chinese nationals pay NPR 500. If you are staying on, take your passport to the ticket counter and ask about extending it.
📍 Map & photos · $$
Local bus from Kathmandu
Buses leave the Bhaktapur bus park near Ratna Park in Kathmandu all day, take 45-60 minutes and cost about NPR 50 for foreigners (NPR 25 for locals), paid to the conductor on board. There is no ticket office — just get on.
📍 Map & photos · $
Sleep inside the walls
Guesthouses in the old city run roughly NPR 800-5,000 a night, and the cheap end is basic but perfectly fine. Paying the low end and staying two nights costs less than two day-trip tickets from Kathmandu.
📍 Map & photos · $
Stay longer, not shorter
A day trip means the NPR 2,000 ticket is the biggest line in your day. Two or three nights inside the walls spreads it, and gets you the dawn and evening squares that the coach crowd never sees.
What a day costs
Budget bed NPR 800-1,500, local bus NPR 50 each way, a khaja set or dal bhat a few hundred rupees, juju dhau NPR 50-100, tea NPR 30-50 — call it NPR 1,500-2,500 a day once you are here, plus the one-off NPR 2,000 entry. Children under 10 enter the city free.
📍 Map & photos · $