If you are visiting Nepal, Pokhara is a must visit place. From Pokhara most of the people start their trekking of Annapurna circuit, Mustang etc. However the Pokhara itself a beautiful place with picturesque view of Phewa lake where you can witness the shades of Annapurna South, Machapuchare (fish tail) if the sky is clear. Do you want to know what to do in Pokhara? In this post I will tell you about top 10 things to do in Pokhara, Nepal in one or two days span of time.
Before going into the details of things to do in Pokhara, here are some useful information to reach Pokhara from Kathmandu:
How to reach Pokhara:
By road:
Though Pokhara is only 200 km from Kathmandu, if you travel by road it will take min 7-8 hours to reach there as the road condition is not good. There are no train route in Nepal, so if you want to travel by road you have to take either bus or private car. Its better to avoid travelling at night. To read my bus travel experience in Nepal (Pokhara to Muktinath) please read the post.
By air:
There are Buddha air, Yeti Airlines which offer decent rates for flight if you book at least 15-20 days ahead of the journey date. The journey from Kathmandu to Pokhara is 25 mins, but sometimes because of bad weather, it may takes longer.
From the flight you can see all the Himalayan range top view and while landing you will get the bird eye view of Phewa lake and Sarangkot hill. So at least for one way you can book flight to witness these experiences.
When I visited Kathmandu in May 2019, the flight ticket cost 3300 NPR and return ticket cost me 5000 NPR. (1. 6 NPR= 1 INR). The bus fare for the local buses was 1500 NPR. So the choice is yours.
Where to stay at Pokhara:
For staying I recommended near Phewa Lake. This is the main market area and if you stay nearby the lake, anytime you can take a walk beside the lake or just sit and watch the beautiful lake. There are many hotels, guesthouses, homestay, you can book from www.booking.com.
Here is my referral code through which you will get $10 cashback for each booking.
Read: If you want to travel solo, read my post about how to prepare yourself for Solo Travel
How to explore the places:
Pokhara is a small place and within 10 km all the places to visit are there. So for exploring the nearby you can just walk, or hire a bike (cycle), scooty or you can take taxi. Taxi is quite costly and for 2-3 km also they will ask 200 NPR to 300 NPR. So based on your budget and time availability you shall choose the option.
Here are the top 10 things to do in Pokhara, Nepal-
1. Boating in Phewa lake:
This is one of the best activities in Pokhara. If you are travelling in group of 6—10 people you can hire a larger paddle boat for which the per head cost will be less. If you are travelling solo or in a group of 2-3 persons, you can take a small boat. If you want to take driver, the rate will be different. These small colourful boats parked at the side of the lake is the most popular view to capture.
After Boating in Dal lake Kashmir, this was the first Boating which I enjoyed most. May be that is the reason, some people call it as Dal lake of Nepal.
The day I reached Pokhara, it was clear day, so I witnessed all the snowy Himalayan ranges from the lake. Also you can see the sky full of paragliding in the backdrop of Annapurna ranges. This quiet boat ride in Fewa Lake was one of the memorable part of my Nepal trip.
Read: Here is the post of Dal Lake and other places to visit in Srinagar, Kashmir
2. Visit Tal Barahi temple:
This is the second best thing you can do in Pokhara. Tal Barahi temple is situated in a small island in the Phewa Lake and can only be reached by boat.
While Boating you can drop at the temple and then again proceed. The temple is small and there are lots of pigeons whom you can feed. From the temple you can see a glimpse of World peace Pagoda.
3. Hike to the World peace Pagoda:
If you have 3-4 hours time you can do this hiking. Situated almost 1000 meters, from this place you can have a bird eye view of Phewa lake and Pokhara city.
There is two ways you can reach World peace Pagoda. One way is by hiking for 2 hours and another is first Boating in Phewa lake and then take a drop at the beneath of the hill and take a shorter hike of about 30-40 minutes.
There are packages available for the Boating and guiding to the temple. Here is the boat hiring rate for Fewa (Phewa) lake-
4. Visit Devi’s falls and Gupteswar Mahadev Cave:
I would not suggest this place if you don’t have much time as I didn’t like the place much. The water falls was still better than the cave. The cave is just opposite of the Devi’s falls. These place are almost 3 km from Pokhara city.
Both the places are average, so if you enough free time, then only it’s recommended to visit those places.
5. Go biking in and around city:
If you love biking/cycling, Pokhara is a perfect place. You can take a cycle at 100—150 NPR/hour or hire a bike at 700—1000 NPR/day. You may have to bargain.
6. Do shopping :
If you are going for any trekking from Pokhara, then you may want to do some last minute shopping of trekking gear or raincoat or jacket, hand gloves. For shopping you need to bargain. Most of the shops are beside the Phewa Lake. I bought one trekking stick for my upcoming Ghorepani poon hill trekking. While returning I bought some embroidery t-shirts for my daughter.
7. Relax at the Basundhara and Komagane park:
The Basundhara and Komagane parks are the parks beside Phewa Lake. In the evening I returned to Pokhara from my Ghorepani poon hill trek, I was too tired to explore further so I just laid down in the park area. I was watching the local people playing football, kids playing.
8. Hike to Sarangkot:
If you have one full day in Pokhara and you are not going to further visit Muktinath or do any trekking from Pokhara from where you will get the better view of Snow-clad Mountains, I would suggest to visit Sarangkot. This is small hill near Pokhara from where you will get clear view of Annapurna South and Machapuchare.
You can reach Sarangkot by car, bus, bike or just hike for 2-3 hours. You can even stay there for one day so that you witness beautiful sunset or sunrise.
9. Do paragliding/bungee jump/ river rafting:
There are many activities which you can enjoy such as Paragliding, Zip flyer, Bungee jump at Sarangkot or river rafting in Kali Gandki River. The fees for paragliding for 30 mins is 6000 NPR Rates of May 2019). You can also book it for 45 mins or 60 mins.
10. Taste the yummy Nepali food:
If you are foodie and not from Asian countries, then you will definitely love the dal Bhat taste. Actually I also liked dal Bhat taste but for us (Indian), dal Bhat is also a staple food we take most of the days, do it was nothing special for me.
That’s all about top 10 things to do in Pokhara. Do you want to know about Muktinath yatra? Here is my post about Muktinath yatra.
Read more: Ghorepani Poon Hill trekking which the best 6 days is trekking for beginners.
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