Outline Itinerary
1Day 1
Day 01: Early morning breakfast in Kathmandu and drive for about 1.5 hour.....
Early morning breakfast in Kathmandu and drive for about 1.5 hour for Sankhu and 4 hour walk to Nagarkot , pack lunch on the way.Overnight in hotel in Nagarkot.
2Day 2
Day 02: Early morning sunrise view, take breakfast , and depart for Nagarkot.....
Early morning sunrise view, take breakfast , and depart for Nagarkot . After 3 hour hike take lunch on Changunarayan and catch the transport for Kathmandu from Bhaktapur.
Description
Nagarkot at the altitude of 2,175 mtr.opr 7200 ft, is the famous hill station in the suburb of Kathmandu Valley. It is 35 km from Kathmandu and 20km away from Bhaktapur. The sunrise and sunset view from Nagarkot is magnificent. So people plan a night’s halt in Nagarkot. Bhaktapur, the medieval city and one of the 7 world heritage sites is on the way. So for the afternoon, one can discover the Newari architecture, culture and lifestyle wandering through the maze like alleyways of Bhaktapur.
This is known as living museum as it still exhibits the medieval look and lifestyle of the people. Majority of the people are farmer and the city is self sufficient. One can see old women weaving their traditional textile, pottery, handmade paper production, wood carving, Thanka Painting and metal sculpting. There are hundreds of monumental buildings around Bhaktapur. Some of them are rented with its latticed window and balcony looking at historical buildings or the tallest temple.
From Bhaktapur it takes about 40 mints to drive to Nagarkot. The road passes through the green fields and climbs through terraced fields towards Nagarkot. The drive is scenic with the green valley view on one side and Himalayas on the other side. Hotels are perched atop the hill facing Himalayas. Walk or drive to the tower at the top of the hill for the best sunset view
The first part of the hiking is an cultural encounter while the second part is more natural as the trail follows the ridge with deciduous forest. The ridge is perched between sweeping valleys of Shakhu towards north and Bhaktapur towards south. The Himalayas appear undisturbed. The walking is easy with gradual downhill and fairly leveled path. It will take about 4 hrs to reach Changunarayan from where one can drive back to Kathmandu.
Nagarkot to Changunarayan hike is amazing to see how the villages along the trail still exhibits countryside lifestyle of Nepal even though it is so close from the city. The best of all is the Himalaya in the backdrop of all these natural settings.
