Bhaktapur is the third of the Kathmandu valley's old royal cities, and it is the one where the city itself is the monument rather than a square inside it. Kathmandu has grown into a capital of a million and a half people around its old core; Bhaktapur, thirteen kilometres east, has stayed a brick town of narrow lanes, open squares, carved windows and temples, with a population of about eighty thousand and a Newari character that the other two have partly lost. You can walk the whole of it in a day and it takes two to see properly.
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The valley was three kingdoms until the eighteenth century, which is why there are three Durbar Squares within twenty kilometres of each other, all UNESCO listed, all built by rival dynasties trying to outdo one another. Bhaktapur's is the quietest and the most intact. It is also the city that suffered worst in the 2015 earthquake outside the epicentre area, and a good deal of what you will see has been rebuilt in the decade since or is still under scaffolding.
What Is Here
The Nyatapola, shown at the top of this page, is the tallest temple in Nepal: five tiered roofs on a five-stepped plinth with paired stone guardians climbing each level, built in 1702 and one of the very few buildings in the valley that came through 1934 and 2015 essentially undamaged. It stands on Taumadhi Square with the barrel-roofed Bhairavnath temple beside it.
Durbar Square holds the Golden Gate, the fifty-five window palace and the stone Vatsala temple, and lost several structures in 2015. Dattatreya Square, further east, is the oldest part of town and has the Peacock Window, the most famous piece of carved woodwork in Nepal, down a side alley with a brass shop under it. Pottery Square is what it sounds like and is still working: clay is thrown, dried in the open in rows and fired in straw kilns in the square itself, and it is the best place in the city to spend an hour doing nothing.
And the food has two things you should eat here specifically: juju dhau, the king curd, a buffalo-milk yoghurt set in clay pots that Bhaktapur is famous for across Nepal, and the Newari feast dishes, which are a genuinely distinct cuisine from the dal bhat served to visitors elsewhere.
Bhaktapur Against Patan and Kathmandu
All three are in the valley and a visitor usually sees two. Kathmandu's Durbar Square is the most damaged, the most crowded and the most embedded in a working modern city, and Thamel is twenty minutes away. Patan, or Lalitpur, is twenty minutes south of Kathmandu and is the metalworking city: the Krishna Mandir in stone rather than brick and timber, the best museum in the country in the old palace, and a quieter square than Kathmandu's. Bhaktapur is the whole city rather than the square: you buy a ticket to enter the town, the lanes between the squares are the point, and the pottery and the juju dhau exist nowhere else in the same way.
If you have one day, Bhaktapur. If you have two, Bhaktapur and Patan. The entry ticket for Bhaktapur is one of the more expensive in Nepal for foreign visitors and is valid for several days if you ask for it to be extended, which is worth doing.
Getting There and Getting Around
Bhaktapur is about forty minutes to an hour and a half from Kathmandu depending entirely on traffic, by taxi, by ride-hailing app or on a local bus from Bagbazaar or Ratna Park. Most people day-trip from Kathmandu, and staying the night is the better choice: the town empties of visitors in the late afternoon and the squares in the early morning, with the pottery starting and the light low on brick, are the reason to be here.
Inside the town there is no traffic to speak of in the old core, which is the other pleasure of it after Kathmandu. Everything is walkable and the surfaces are brick, stone and the occasional open drain.
When to Go
October and November are the best months in Nepal and this is not a close call. The monsoon has cleared, the air is washed, the Himalaya is visible from the valley rim, and the festival calendar is dense. March and April are the second window, warmer and hazier. December to February is cold and clear and quiet. June to September is the monsoon, when it rains most afternoons, the mountains are invisible for weeks and the brick lanes are slick.
Two things about the valley climate that catch visitors out. The first is the cold: Bhaktapur sits at about 1,400 metres, December and January nights go to around two or three degrees, and heating in guesthouses is rare to nonexistent. The second is the air. From roughly November to March the Kathmandu valley suffers severe air pollution, trapped by the surrounding hills, and the readings are among the worst of any populated valley in the world. Bhaktapur is better than central Kathmandu and is not exempt, and a mask is a real item rather than a token one.
Gai Jatra in August, the festival in the third image on this page, is Bhaktapur's biggest along with Bisket Jatra at Nepali new year in April, when a chariot is hauled through the streets and a pole is raised and dropped. Both are extraordinary and both make accommodation scarce.
Is Bhaktapur Safe for Women Travelers
UK FCDO: Nepal has NO ADVISED-AGAINST AREAS ANYWHERE and NO regional-risks page at all, so the whole country is open. What the advisory carries instead is unusually practical and unusually serious, and it is about transport and trekking rather than about crime: NO NEPALI AIRLINE MEETS INTERNATIONAL SAFETY STANDARDS, trekking is legally regulated and a guide is mandatory in national parks, and insurance must cover helicopter rescue. On terrorism the wording is the mild form. It notes that political protests and strikes are fairly common, can start at short notice, may lead to violent clashes and can bring curfews and transport disruption.
The advisory names two Kathmandu neighbourhoods specifically. It records that women have been sexually assaulted in tourist areas such as THAMEL and SANEPA, and advises caution especially when alone after dark. Thamel is the main backpacker district and where most visitors stay, which is precisely why naming it is more useful than a general statement: the risk is not somewhere else, it is on the street you are staying on, late, and the practical answer is a taxi for the last stretch rather than a walk.
Read that Kathmandu-specific warning as a reason Bhaktapur is a good base rather than a reason to worry here. The advisory names Thamel and Sanepa, which are in Kathmandu, and Bhaktapur has nothing equivalent: no backpacker strip, very little nightlife, and a town that is residential and locked up early. A woman walking the lanes alone in the evening is unremarkable, and the most common interaction is being asked where you are from.
No Nepali airline meets international safety standards, and this is the strongest air-safety clause in this guide library. The FCDO states that the UK Air Safety List names all known airlines in Nepal that do not meet international safety standards and are banned from operating commercial services to or from the UK, and then the sentence that matters: CURRENTLY NO NEPALI AIRLINE MEETS THE INTERNATIONAL SAFETY STANDARDS AND SO ALL ARE LISTED. It records that over the last five years there have been a number of separate fatal accidents and crashes involving planes and helicopters, with AT LEAST 100 DEATHS. THIS IS A DECISION RATHER THAN A WARNING, because internal flights are how Lukla, Jomsom, Simikot and Rara are reached and how most trekkers save a week. The honest framing is that the risk is real and quantified, that the alternative is often several days of rough road, and that where a road exists it is worth pricing the trade properly rather than defaulting to the flight because it is quicker. Flights in the mountains are also frequently delayed or cancelled by weather, so carry enough money for delays and never put a mountain flight on the day before an international departure.
What is most likely to cause you a problem here is mundane and worth naming. The brick and stone lanes are uneven, there are open drains and unmarked steps, and the lighting at night is poor, so a torch and sensible shoes do more for you than anything else. Earthquake risk is real and Nepal sits on a major fault: the 2015 quake killed nearly nine thousand people and damaged much of this town, so know where the open space is near your accommodation and check that your guesthouse is a post-2015 or retrofitted building, which the better ones will tell you. Stray dogs are everywhere, are mostly indifferent, and can carry rabies, so do not pet one.
Dress conservatively and it is easy to do. Nepal is not strict by regional standards and Bhaktapur is a working Hindu and Buddhist town rather than a resort: shoulders and knees covered, shoes off at temples, and do not step over or sit on the plinth of a shrine. Photography of people, and particularly of women at a shrine, needs asking.
The Bhaktapur Packing List
A merino base layer, for cold nights and dusty days
Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women is the right first layer in the Kathmandu valley for two reasons that pull in opposite directions. In winter it is the warm layer in an unheated room at three degrees. In spring and autumn it covers your arms for temple appropriateness at twenty-five degrees without the wet-cotton problem, and it goes several days in brick dust without smelling, which matters in a town where laundry means a bucket. One layer covers the valley, a trek and the flight home.
A mask, and a proper one in winter
From November to March the Kathmandu valley's air quality is genuinely bad, regularly in the ranges where health advice is to stay indoors. A fitted respirator-grade mask rather than a cloth one is the difference between a comfortable week and a sore throat and headache for the whole trip. Buy it before you come.
A warm layer and a shell
A packable Marmot PreCip Eco rain jacket covers monsoon afternoons, the wind on the valley rim and the cold early mornings over a base layer. In December and January add something genuinely warm to sleep in, because the rooms are not heated.
Shoes for brick, stone and open drains
Comfortable closed shoes with a bit of grip and a sole you do not mind. The lanes are uneven brick, there are steps without edges and drains without covers, and in the monsoon all of it is slick. A waterproof hiking shoe is more than the town needs and exactly right if you are trekking afterwards, which most people are.
Wool socks
A pair of Darn Tough merino hiking socks earns its place for the unheated-room problem as much as for walking, and for the fact that shoes come off at every temple so your socks are what is on the floor.
A headlamp
A rechargeable headlamp is a genuine necessity rather than a convenience. Power cuts are routine in Nepal, the old lanes are poorly lit, and the surfaces are the kind you want to see.
Water
An insulated water bottle with a filter or purification tablets. Tap water is not drinkable anywhere in Nepal, and the quantity of plastic bottles the valley gets through is a visible problem.
The small things
Nepali rupees in cash, because the ticket office and most of the town are cash. A scarf for temples, dust and cold. Hand sanitiser, since you will be eating with your hands at a Newari meal if you are lucky. A power bank. And buy the juju dhau in the clay pot rather than a cup, which is how it is meant to be.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Essential Resources for Women in Bhaktapur
Emergency numbers: 100 for police, 102 for ambulance, 101 for fire. Nepal operates a Tourist Police service with its main office in Kathmandu at Bhrikutimandap and a national line on 1144, which is the right first call for a visitor problem. There is a district police office in Bhaktapur. For violence against women, the Nepal Police Women and Children Service Centre operates a helpline on 1145, and the government's national women's helpline is 1145 as well. A written report is needed for any insurance claim and the tourist police will help produce one.
US State Department travel advisory: the Nepal advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/nepal, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
Main hospitals: Bhaktapur has a district hospital and the Bhaktapur Cancer Hospital, which is a specialist facility rather than a general one. For anything serious the answer is Kathmandu, thirty to ninety minutes away depending on traffic, where Norvic International Hospital, Grande International and the CIWEC Clinic are the facilities used by the diplomatic community and by travellers, with CIWEC in particular specialising in travel medicine and altitude illness. For anything major the realistic answer is medical evacuation to Bangkok, Delhi or Singapore, which makes insurance covering EVACUATION rather than only treatment essential in Nepal, and the point applies here even on a valley trip.
Official health authority: the Ministry of Health and Population, Nepal. Insurance must cover EVACUATION rather than only treatment, because anything major means a flight to Bangkok, Delhi or Singapore. If a trek follows the valley it must also cover MOUNTAIN RESCUE AND HELICOPTER COSTS, which a standard policy does not
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Kathmandu.
Official tourism authority: the Nepal Tourism Board, which is also where the TIMS card requirement and the trekking permit rules are published. The Nepal Tourism Board is also where the TIMS card and trekking permit rules are published, which matters if the valley is the first few days of a longer trip
The valley air is bad from November to March. Bring a fitted mask, not a cloth one.
Nights go to two or three degrees in winter and nothing is heated.
Solo women safety assessment: Bhaktapur is one of the most comfortable places in Nepal to travel alone, and part of the reason is what it does not have. Nepal carries NO advised-against areas anywhere and no regional-risks page at all. The FCDO's sexual assault section names TWO KATHMANDU NEIGHBOURHOODS SPECIFICALLY, Thamel and Sanepa, and advises caution especially when alone after dark; Bhaktapur has no equivalent, no backpacker strip and very little nightlife, the town is residential and locks up early, and a woman walking the lanes in the evening is unremarkable. Dress conservatively, which is easy here: shoulders and knees covered, shoes off at temples, do not sit on a shrine plinth, and ask before photographing people. Political protests and strikes are fairly common in Nepal, can start at short notice, can turn violent and can bring curfews and transport disruption, so avoid any demonstration and check local media before travelling between towns. THE RISK MOST LIKELY TO AFFECT YOU IS NOT CRIME. It is the valley's air, which from November to March is among the worst of any populated valley on earth and warrants a fitted respirator rather than a cloth mask. Then the ground: uneven brick lanes, unmarked steps, open drains and poor lighting, which is what a torch and sensible shoes are for. Then the cold, at two or three degrees on a winter night in an unheated room. Nepal is seismically active and the 2015 earthquake killed nearly nine thousand people and damaged much of this town, so ask whether your guesthouse is post-2015 or retrofitted and note where the nearest open space is. Stray dogs are everywhere and can carry rabies. AND THE ONE CLAUSE THAT GOVERNS GETTING HERE AT ALL: no Nepali airline meets international safety standards and all are banned from UK operations, with at least 100 deaths in five years, which matters for any domestic flight you add to a valley trip. Tap water is not drinkable. 100 for police, 1144 for tourist police, 1145 for the women and children service centre, and Norvic, Grande or CIWEC in Kathmandu for anything serious, with evacuation cover for anything worse.
Reading On
The valley's three cities are best read against each other. The Patan packing list covers Lalitpur twenty minutes away, which is the metalworking city with the Krishna Mandir and the best museum in Nepal, and the Kathmandu packing list the capital and Thamel. Beyond the valley, the Pokhara packing list covers the lake and the Annapurna gateway, the Chitwan packing list the lowland national park, and the Lumbini packing list the Buddha's birthplace in the Terai. For trekking, read the Everest Base Camp packing list, the Annapurna Circuit packing list and the Langtang packing list, and note that a permit and TIMS card are required and a guide is mandatory in the national parks. The Nepal travel guide for women and the Nepal packing list carry the country-level advice. For why merino is the layer that works in an unheated room at three degrees and in brick dust at twenty-five, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
