Patan and Bhaktapur: guided tour or on your own?
4 min read
The short answer
If you want both cities in one day with someone explaining the carvings and the courtyards, book the Private Patan & Bhaktapur Heritage Tour. If you only care about Bhaktapur and want a Himalayan viewpoint on the same trip, the Bhaktapur & Nagarkot Day Tour with Lunch fits better. Going alone works too, and the last section says for whom.
What is on each tour
Patan and Bhaktapur are two of the three Durbar Squares in the Kathmandu Valley’s UNESCO listing, which UNESCO describes as the old royal centres of Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur. On the private tour, the page lists Patan Durbar Square with Krishna Mandir, the royal palace complex and the Golden Temple, then Bhaktapur with the Golden Gate, the 55 Window Palace and the five-tiered Nyatapola Temple, with Pottery Square “if time permits”. It runs for 6 hours with hotel pickup, a private vehicle and an English-speaking guide.
The day trip skips Patan. It spends one and a half to two hours in Bhaktapur (55-Window Palace, Nyatapola, Golden Gate, Dattatreya Square, Pottery Square; the description says about 1.5 hours, the itinerary 2), then drives to Nagarkot for Himalayan views from the View Tower on clear days, and also lasts about six hours including travel. It comes as a private or group option, and the page says the group option uses a shared tourist coach.
The tours compared
| Tour | Duration | Covers | Group | From price | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Private Patan & Bhaktapur Heritage Tour | 6 hours | Patan and Bhaktapur | Private | €31.56 per person | 4.8 / 5 from 88 reviews |
| Bhaktapur & Nagarkot Day Tour with Lunch | 6 hours | Bhaktapur and Nagarkot | Private or small groups | €4.51 per person | 4.8 / 5 from 119 reviews |
Entrance fees and lunch
Neither tour includes the monument tickets: both pages say the fees are paid on the day, the Bhaktapur tour in local currency. The Nepal Tourism Board’s fee list gives foreign visitors NPR 1,000 for Patan Durbar Square (including the Patan Museum) and NPR 1,800 or US$18 for Bhaktapur Durbar Square; children under 10 enter Bhaktapur free. The tour pages quote their own estimates, about NPR 3,100 for both squares on the private tour and NPR 2,000 for Bhaktapur on the day trip, so bring enough rupees in cash. The Bhaktapur and Nagarkot tour includes a light lunch box (the page names a muffin, donut, banana, seasonal fruit, juice and bottled water), and its description adds a Nepali or continental lunch at a hillside restaurant depending on the option, so check which one you book; for the private Patan and Bhaktapur tour, ask whether lunch is part of your booking, since its personal-expenses line mentions meals and drinks.
Who should not book
The Bhaktapur and Nagarkot page says it is not wheelchair accessible and that moderate walking is required at Bhaktapur Durbar Square. The private tour’s page asks for comfortable shoes, a sun hat and sunglasses. Bhaktapur’s squares are on foot, and neither page promises step-free access, so check with the operator if you have limited mobility.
When to go alone instead
A guide earns the price where stories are hidden in the carvings and rituals: the tour pages sell exactly this. You do not need one if you are happy to wander the squares with a map, if you already know the Newar architecture, or if you want to stay for hours somewhere rather than the one and a half to two hours the day trip allows in Bhaktapur. Going alone does mean arranging your own transport to Patan, which the Nepal Tourism Board places 5 km southeast of Kathmandu, and to Bhaktapur, 12 km east on the Arniko Highway, and paying the entrance fees at each square yourself. Look up current transport options locally.
Our recommendation
For two cities with a guide, take the Private Patan & Bhaktapur Heritage Tour. If you are short of time for the valley’s squares and prefer a hill view with lunch, take the Bhaktapur & Nagarkot Day Tour and leave Patan for another time.
