Nepal: London to Kathmandu
Back in September 2024, Ewan took an unforgettable trip to Syria with NomadMania, an amazing community for adventurous travellers. Experiencing off the beaten path destinations like Syria inspired both of us to plan our next big adventure together with NomadMania. After watching their website closely, we finally found the perfect trip, an epic journey to Nepal. We knew this was a dream destination well known for its stunning mountains, rich culture, and vibrant cities like Kathmandu.
We knew this Nepal trip would be a major milestone for our family. We were leaving the kids with their grandparents for a whole four weeks and spoiler alert, the kids had an absolute blast being spoiled with chocolate and all the love from Grandma and Grandad!
Because there’s so much to see and do in Nepal, between exploring the lively streets of Kathmandu and crossing borders into India, we’re breaking our adventure into multiple blog posts. Honestly, we have so many stories to share, we’re not even sure how many posts it’ll take!
Bev and Ewan
Getting Ready to Go
Our trip was organised by NomadMania in collaboration with Gaze Nepal. If you haven't heard of NomadMania before, they’re an awesome community for travel lovers. They organise trips to places that aren't your typical tourist hotspots and help people explore parts of the world that often get overlooked. If you love travelling (no matter how many countries you’ve ticked off), definitely check them out.
Now, full honesty: travel days make Bev super anxious and flying is not her favourite thing to do. Luckily, we were flying in business class thanks to our British Airways companion voucher, which also meant access to the lounge at Heathrow’s Terminal 5. A big win, especially since Bev’s dad dropped us off extra early before heading to his best friend’s funeral.
Pro tip: if you're travelling to India, sort your visa well in advance! We did ours online months before but completely forgot to print the official approval page. Luckily, T5 has a handy shop where you can print documents for a small fee. Our only issue was at check-in where staff were confused because we didn’t have the photo version of the visa (apparently it is sometimes required, sometimes not). Long story short print both versions if you can, just to be safe!
We’ve been to the T5 business lounge before, but this time we really made the most of it. Without kids in tow, we actually got to relax! We tucked into a full English for breakfast, fruits and hot drinks, pasta and salad for lunch, and even nachos for dinner. Plus, we squeezed in a couple of naps between meals — pure bliss.
Journey to Kathmandu
First, we flew to Delhi, then had a connecting flight with Air India to Kathmandu. Because we booked separate flights, we had to exit and re-enter security in Delhi, but it wasn’t nearly as stressful as we’d feared.
Once we landed in Kathmandu, we tackled the visa-on-arrival process. The self-serve machines were a bit of a faff (definitely not as smooth as the Indian e-visa online system), but a lovely lady helped us out. After getting our visa sticker, we breezed through immigration and set out to find a prepaid taxi and a Nepalese SIM card.
We were told prepaid taxis were the safest bet to avoid scams, and honestly, it just made life easier. We paid a bit extra for an air-conditioned car... though "air-con" might’ve just been an open window. Either way, we got to our first hotel safely!
Our First Stop
Our first hotel was a treat, the Holiday Inn Resort at the top of the city, tucked into the mountains with absolutely stunning views down the mountain. This was our little slice of luxury before the real adventure, and less luxurious locations, began.
Even though we were exhausted, we made ourselves stay awake and headed out to meet Stuart, another NomadMania traveller who’d been in Nepal for a few days already. We followed one of Lonely Planet’s walking routes around Kathmandu, spotting gorgeous temples, colourful buildings, and lots of cows. I had totally forgotten that cows are sacred animals here until about the fourth one we had to dodge in the street!
After a drink and a good wander, we headed back to the hotel and were fast asleep the second our heads hit the pillows.
The next day was a chill one. Bev went for a massage at the hotel spa, a stroll to some nearby shops, and finished with an absolutely delicious dinner at the onsite restaurant. Two starters, two mains, naan breads, and drinks all for just £28! It was the perfect way to unwind before the real tour kicked off.
We soaked up our last night of pure comfort before the adventure properly started.
Exploring Kathmandu
After checking out, we moved into a more central hotel and dropped off our bags before heading straight out toward Durbar Square. We spent a lovely few hours wandering the square, chatting with locals, browsing stalls, and soaking in the vibrant chaos of Kathmandu. We met a group of Sadhus who blessed us and happily posed for photos with us. Not long after, we found ourselves stopping again — this time with some locals who, judging by their excitement, probably hadn’t seen many tourists before!
Later that day, we met up with Stuart again for another Lonely Planet walk — before rushing back to the hotel just in time to meet the rest of the NomadMania group and our guide for the tour.
And just like that, our Nepal adventure had officially begun!
We were already loving the energy of Nepal and couldn't wait to see what the next few weeks had in store. Meeting the rest of the group and our guide made everything feel real, and the adventure we had been planning for so long was finally here!
Stay tuned for the next post where we'll dive into the start of our NomadMania tour full of temples, culture, and a few unexpected surprises along the way.
Bev and Ewan
