Kathmandu to the trails: rupees, load-shedding, trek logistics, when to go, traveler tips, and mobile data via eSIM.
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Nepal is a brick courtyard in Kathmandu, a lake morning in Pokhara, and a trail that turns your week into a walking village. The temples in the Durbar Squares are not a backdrop — they are still at work. Then the bus or the plane tilts toward a ridgeline, and the country becomes tea houses, suspension bridges and a skyline that does not care about your training plan.
The rupee is cash in a lot of places that never met a tap-to-pay logo. Plugs are a jumble of Type C, D and M. Load-shedding still visits: hotel Wi-Fi dies, the street generator starts, and your phone becomes the map. Eat dal bhat until you understand why porters joke it is rocket fuel. Drink the masala tea. Bargain in Thamel without turning it into a sport.
October–November and March–April are the classic trek windows. Monsoon (roughly June–September) is lush, leechy and a bad time to pretend the Annapurna Circuit is a casual stroll. Domestic flights cancel for cloud. Build a spare day or you will hate the mountain that did nothing wrong.
A first trip is Kathmandu plus Pokhara, or Kathmandu plus one trek you actually trained for. Do not stack Everest Base Camp, a jungle safari and a wedding in India into twelve days. Nepal is better when you walk less of it more slowly.
Essentials
Traveler tips
Real advice from people who have been to Nepal, curated by our team with links to the original sources.
Power cuts still happen. Charge when the lights are on, keep a battery pack for the trail, and treat dead lobby Wi-Fi as normal. Cellular often outlasts the router.
TIMS and national-park or restricted-area paperwork depend on the route. Do them through a legitimate agency or the official desks. A man in Thamel with a stamp collection is not the government.
By noon the courtyards are a tour-bus weather system. Stay in Patan or a side street, walk early, and leave Thamel's fake North Face alley for the evening momo, not the whole trip.
Lakeside can be a backpacker strip. The lake at dawn, a walk toward the World Peace Pagoda, and a rest day before or after a trek are the point. Nightlife is optional and louder than the mountain.
Lukla and mountain strips are weather toys. Hold a buffer day, do not stack an international departure on the same afternoon, and have a bus Plan B you will actually take.
TripAdvisor Forums
Kathmandu hotel dispensers and boiled lodge pots are the working system. A filter that only catches bacteria is not enough here; boil, UV or a chemical step, and skip the plastic-bottle mountain if you can.
View sourceTripAdvisor Forums
The air on the high Annapurna passes is dry enough that a headache is often thirst. Guides who say one litre will do the crossing are guessing; start the climb already hydrated.
View sourceFAQ
Often. Cellular usually lasts longer than the lobby router. Unlocked iPhone XS / Pixel 3 / Galaxy S20+ on a Nepal eSIM keep maps when the inverter does not. Screenshot trek permits anyway.
Villages and some ridge tea houses have surprising pockets. High passes, glacier valleys and weather can wipe them. Do not navigate a whiteout on the assumption of a bar of 4G.
City days: 1–2 GB. Trail days may be almost nothing. A 10–15 GB plan is a common shape for a Kathmandu–Pokhara–short-trek mix if you are not uploading 4K every night.
You can, with ID and a queue. An eSIM skips the desk for a short visit. Long treks sometimes still add a local prepaid for the networks the tea houses actually see.
No. Country plans stop at the border. India and China are different listings — and different rules. Read the plan, not the Himalaya on the horizon.
eSIM plans
A taxi pin through Kathmandu's unnamed turns, a Pokhara bus that moved platforms, and a translation of a menu that is only in Nepali: you want data from KTM. An eSIM is online before you hit the prepaid-SIM desk that wants a form and a photocopy.
Install it before you fly, then download offline maps for the trek. Load-shedding will take the guesthouse Wi-Fi. The pass will take the rest.