On 13th February 2024, I started my West Nepal Tour. It was a complete family tour. Pokhara was the only place of western region I had been to. This time, I visited many popular destinations in West including Muktinath, Jomsom, Pokhara, Lumbini, and Chitwan. Also, on this tour, I did bungee jumping at The Cliff, paragliding, and elephant riding during Chitwan Jungle Safari.
8 days West Tour Itinerary
I’m breaking down each day of my tour and detail the highlights with some photos. Also, I’m including some helpful tips for you that might be of help for you to plan the tour to places I’ve been to. Here it goes!
Day 1: Drive from Kathmandu to Kurintar. Visit to Manakamana Temple. Drive to Pokhara via Tanahu (Whole day)
We started our 8 days long West Nepal Tour at 6 am on a new scorpio. I was excited for this trip. I had planned doing multiple adventure sports, making good videos, and photos.
As it was early morning, the traffic wasn’t much. Not to mention, the road section between Thankot-Gajuri, was and still is worse.
We had planned to reach cable car around 10, visit Manakamana Temple by 12, and then leave for Pokhara. And we were close to our schedule.
Since Keyoor got hungry, we stopped at Kurintar. Also for us, it was perfect stop for tea.
We then drove 20 minutes further to Manakamana Cable Car station. Thankfully, there was almost no crowd. We easily got the tickets and within 15 minutes, we reached Manakamana.
Since it was tuesday, there were many pilgrims queuing for their turn to visit the temple. We did pooja on the vicinity of temple, donated some money for the temple, and then stopped at a restaurant for Dal Bhat. Thakali rice at a restaurant was okay!!
From Kurintar, we drove to Pokhara via Tanahu to avoid dusty Prithvi Highway. The road we opted from Damauli to Pokhara via Tanahu was very good. Almost all the road section were blacktopped.
Before reaching Pokhara, we stopped near Pokahra Stadium for ‘Thicheko Aalu’, a must try dish in Pokhara.
The potato fries dipped on spicy tomato and timur sauce (Sichhan Pepper) was so good. Plus, a bottle of coca cola was everything we needed.
We went to the hotel, got changed, and started strolling around Lakeside. Everyone were tired by the long day jeep ride. We went to bed at 9.
Day 2: Drive from Pokhara to Muktinath. Back to Jomsom (195 km/all-day)
We had planned staying in Pokhara for a day before leaving for Muktinath Temple. However, we changed our itinerary and decided to visit Muktinath first, and stay in Pokhara for a day after returning. We started at 6:30 am from Pokhara.
Drive was comfortable. We stopped at Kushma for tea. And after tea, we stopped at Beni Bazaar for oranges.
Past Beni, it was complete off-road till Lete, Mustang. Some sections en route were scary and some were beautiful.
For lunch, we stopped at Dana. Dal Bhat with chicken curry was amazing. The Thakali taste was there on the lunch.
After lunch, we drove for 20 more minutes to Rupse Waterfall. It was beautiful.
Past Rupse, we stopped at Muktinath Temple. Our scenic drive was getting smoother and panoramic as we approached Lete. From Lete, the road till Jomsom was amazing. I was busy capturing landscape photos.
The road to Muktinath from Jomsom was amazing. On top, few kilometers of blacktopped road till Muktinath Temple was great. The drive was just like in a movie. A jeep over 80 km/hr on high altitude with great mountain panorama felt so good.
The sun was nearly setting by the time we reached Muktinath Temple. Thankfully, there wasn’t any wind during evening.
From Muktinath, we drove down to Jomsom and looked for a lodge to stay overnight. We found Sunrise Hotel in Jomsom, near airport, budget friendly and good.
The dinner was good. The sleep was good. A bit headache due to cold. But felt blessed after visiting Muktinath Temple, long awaited destination.
