We landed in Nepal expecting to like it. Within twelve hours we knew two weeks wasn’t going to be enough.

We had an onward flight to India already booked, and the cost to change it was more than the price of a whole new ticket, so two weeks is what we had. That meant moving faster than we’d had been doing, which we’ll talk about as we go, because some of how we planned this was shaped by that constraint. If you’ve got three weeks or a month, lean into the extra time. You’ll need it.

What follows is exactly how we spent those two weeks, what we paid, what we’d do again, and what we’d skip. It’s also the first country in a long time where all three of us walked out the other side talking about coming back. Nepal does that.

Quick Practicalities First

Visas for UK passport holders. Easy. You apply online up to 15 days before arrival, then pay on landing. They take all currencies and credit card. There’s also a cash machine right next to the visa counter at the airport if you need it. Costs are $25 for 15 days, $40 for 30 days, $100 for 90 days.

A small thing that caught us out: the visa system allows you to add a child to an adult’s visa on the same form, but that’s misleading. You actually need to fill in a separate visa application for each person, including children. Kids under 10 are free, but the form still needs doing. I (Bec) didn’t realise this and arrived having only done mine and Oli’s. No drama, though. There are 5 or 6 computer terminals to the right of the immigration doors where you can complete it on the spot. We did Jax’s visa there in about ten minutes.

Requirements: passport with at least 6 months validity, two passport photos, and a confirmed onward flight. They didn’t actually ask to see our onward flight or the photos, but we had it.

How We Planned It

We’re not normally tour-company people. We tend to figure things out as we go. But two weeks is short for Nepal, and we’d met a Nepalese man in Bangkok who runs a tour company called Mandala Tours. He put our itinerary together, sorted drivers, advised on routes, and was on WhatsApp whenever we had questions. For a short trip where you can’t afford to lose half a day to logistics, that was the right call for us at that time.