Two Weeks in Nepal: City, Trek, Lake and Jungle Without Rushing

With one week in Nepal you choose between walking and sightseeing. With two, you can do both properly. The plan below builds a short trek in the Annapurna foothills into a loop through the capital, Pokhara and the lowland jungle, with spare time where it is most likely to be needed.

At a glance

• Days 1–3: Kathmandu Valley

• Day 4: Travel to Pokhara

• Days 5–9: Trek

• Day 10: Rest in Pokhara

• Days 11–12: Chitwan

• Day 13: Return to Kathmandu

• Day 14: Buffer and departure

Days 1 to 3: the Kathmandu Valley

Day 1. Arrive, settle and walk only as far as dinner.

Day 2. Two anchors: a great stupa and an old royal city. Start with either the hilltop shrine west of the centre at sunrise or the big stupa in the eastern suburbs, then spend the afternoon in Patan's palace square and museum.

Day 3. Go to Bhaktapur for the day, or better, go the previous evening and sleep there. Return by late afternoon to meet your trekking guide, check equipment and pack. Leave unneeded luggage at your hotel.

Use any spare hours to sort out cash, a SIM card and last-minute gear.

Day 4: to Pokhara

Take a morning flight if the budget allows, giving you an afternoon by the lake. Otherwise the tourist bus fills the day. Meet your agency to confirm permits and the next morning's start. Sleep early.

Days 5 to 9: a five-day trek

Three routes fit this window. Choose according to fitness and taste.

The Ghorepani and Poon Hill loop. Forest, big stone staircases, Gurung and Magar villages and a classic sunrise viewpoint at about 3,200 metres. Comfortable lodges and little altitude risk. The best choice for first-timers.

Mardi Himal. A steeper climb along a narrow ridge to a viewpoint above 4,000 metres, face to face with the Fishtail peak. Fewer people and simpler lodges. For fit walkers.

A village circuit. Shorter days linking the ridge-top lodges above Dhampus with the stone village of Ghandruk, never going much above 2,000 metres. Ideal with children or for those who prefer culture to altitude.

All three start and finish within two or three hours' drive of Pokhara, need the conservation area permit and are done with a licensed guide.

Day 10: Pokhara, doing little

Your legs will ask for this. Sleep late, have a long breakfast, hire a boat for an hour, get a massage, do laundry. In the evening, walk the lakeside road as the lights come on.

If you still have energy, the morning could go to a tandem paragliding flight or a visit to the old bazaar north of the tourist district.

Days 11 and 12: Chitwan

Day 11. Travel by tourist bus or private car, five to seven hours. Check in, walk to the river for sunset.

Day 12. A full programme: dawn canoe trip, guided forest walk, midday rest, afternoon jeep safari. In the evening, a Tharu cultural show or simply the sounds of the night from your veranda.

Day 13: back to Kathmandu

Drive or take a short flight from the nearby airport. If you arrive by mid-afternoon, base yourself in Patan or near the Boudhanath stupa for a change of scene from your first nights.

Day 14: buffer and departure

Keep this day free. If everything has gone to plan, use it for shopping, a courtyard walk through the old city or a last temple. If a landslide, a strike or a cancelled flight has cost you a day, this is where you absorb it without missing your plane home.

Adjustments

More trekking, less jungle. Drop Chitwan and extend the walk to nine or ten days. That is long enough for Annapurna Base Camp, or the Poon Hill loop combined with Mardi Himal.

More culture. Shorten the trek to three days and add nights in Bandipur, on the road between the cities, and in Bhaktapur.

Langtang instead of Annapurna. Skip Pokhara altogether. Spend four days in the valley, eight on the Langtang trek by road from Kathmandu, and two spare.

With children. Choose the village circuit, add a rest day mid-trek and keep Chitwan.

What makes two weeks work

The temptation is to add Lumbini, Everest or the far east. Resist it. Every extra region costs a day of travel each way. This plan uses four bases, has two rest days built in and keeps the trek short enough to enjoy. You will come home having walked among the Annapurnas, watched a rhino cross a river and learned your way round a medieval square, without having spent half your holiday on a bus.