ULTIMATE NEPAL TRAVEL GUIDE! 🇳🇵 Everything You Need To Know!

Namaste guys, today's video is sponsored by Surfshark but more about them later in the video. Today's video is going to be a video that hopefully will be quite helpful for a lot of people. So this video is going to be everything that you need to know before you travel to Nepal. So I know it can always be a bit difficult to find out the correct information that you need online. It can take plenty of research to find out the best time of year to go, what visas you need, what's the food like, what activities can you get up to. So in this video we are going to cover all of that about Nepal. What a day to be alive! Just to give you guys some information about myself, I was actually traveling in Nepal this year from the months of February to May. Had an absolutely incredible time and was there for four months doing a variety of things. My last memory is actually getting stuck in the lockdown but it is what it is. It was still an amazing time so hopefully I will be able to give you some good information so that you have everything you need to know before you go. So let's jump into it. I think the first thing that most people want to know about any country before they actually arrive or they plan a trip is what is the best time of year to go to Nepal. From all the research that I've done online the best time of year to go to Nepal is October to December and the worst time of year to go is June, July and August because that is when the monsoon rains absolutely come down. Made it back to safety but drenched. The rain's got me. It's not going to be much fun because you won't be leaving your hotel very often because you'll be getting absolutely soaked. This is the worst rain I've seen so far. A lot of the trekking and other activities are all sort of suspended while they wait for the monsoon rains to pass by. If anyone's wondering by the way why I'm saying Nepal instead of Nepal because it is actually pronounced N-E-P-A-L. Nepal is like any other country out there. You do need to get a visa but the great thing is it's very easy to do because when you arrive into Kathmandu airport you can actually get the visa on arrival which saves you a lot of stress looking online to try and pre-organize the visa before you actually arrive into the country. So the visa on arrival is really a great perk about going to Nepal. There are three main tourist visas that people usually go for and they are the 15-day visa, the 30-day visa and the 90-day visa. Myself I got the 90-day visa because I knew I wanted to stay there for quite a long time and do lots of trekking. That 90-day visa will cost you $125. The 30-day visa will cost you $50 and the 15-day visa will cost you $30. So obviously it completely depends on how long you're looking to stay. If you had just planned to stay in Nepal only for a couple of weeks but then realized actually you want to stay longer and your visa was going to expire you can go to two of the immigration offices. There is one in Kathmandu and one in Pokhara where you can go and easily extend the visa just by filling in a form and you know paying a bit of money to cover the rest of the days that you wanted to stay in the country. A few tips that I would give you for when you actually do arrive into Kathmandu to do your visa on arrival is to bring some US dollars in cash because I stupidly thought there would be an ATM which there is but the ATM did not accept my card so I wasn't able to get cash out and I also tried to use the card machine maybe 10 times and it didn't work because the signal in the airport isn't very good. So make sure for God's sake that you bring some US dollars with you to get that visa on arrival because it will save you a lot of time and a lot of hassle which is what I experienced. So a huge thanks to Surfshark who are the sponsor of today's video. If you don't know who Surfshark are or what they offer then Surfshark is a VPN provider which stands for Virtual Private Network and it's basically a service that allows you to send your information and your data from your computer, laptop, tablet or whatever it may be through an encrypted wall which will keep all your personal information safe. Nowadays the modern era that we're in we're always looking to connect to public Wi-Fi whether that's in cafes, restaurants or airports which can be quite dangerous. It can be extremely easy for a hacker to get hold of all your private sensitive information when you're connected to a public Wi-Fi. However that's why Surfshark come in and they keep all of your sensitive information safe and secure and keep the hackers away. Another great benefit of using Surfshark when you're traveling around the world is the fact that in many countries you are restricted to what websites you can and can't go on. You can simply change your location from one country to another and access all of the content that you would from your own home. A great example of this in Nepal I couldn't access a lot of the TV shows here in England on Netflix however I could simply change my location to England and have access to everything. Surfshark offers a 30 day money-back guarantee and another great thing is that you only need one account to use on your laptop, your iPad, your phone. So one account and you can use it on unlimited devices. So if you would like to check out Surfshark then please check the links in the description and you can enter the code WILL at checkout for 85% off and three extra months free which is absolutely incredible. And a big thanks to Surfshark for sponsoring today's video. The next thing we're going to talk about is the currency in Nepal but give me one second because I do actually have a note. So the currency in Nepal is the Nepalese rupee. This is 1000 rupees which is the highest note that they have. I believe this equates to or equals to about six pounds which is around eight dollars. They have five, ten and fifty rupees as well but I would say that when you go to shops and things like that they won't always accept the thousand rupees because a lot of the shops don't have the change in cash to then give you. So if you can always try and break down the cash into smaller notes so it's more easy for you to buy things. Now Nepal for me is absolutely one of the cheapest countries that I've personally ever traveled to and I think that's going to be quite common for a lot of people watching this. Obviously it is a developing country so if you are coming from the western world like myself you can really get your value for money out there and your money does go a long way. When I was actually traveling throughout Nepal trekking and things like that I was roughly spending about 15 pounds a day. So as you can see there spending 15 pounds on breakfast, lunch, dinner, accommodation, transport is pretty damn good. So yeah your money does go a long way and that is why I love traveling to a country like Nepal because you can really extend the budget that you've got. A great app which I personally use all the time especially when I'm traveling is an app called Currency. Hopefully you can see it there. Focus! It's just a currency converter so I can just put in a thousand rupees and then it converts it into pounds so you can obviously see how much you're spending. One thing that I will say is when you go to places like Tamil which is Kathmandu where you will buy a lot of your trekking gear make sure you barter down and haggle the prices for a lot of the things that you buy because the prices will seem pretty sky high. But you know just negotiate a bit get the price down and then both you and the shop owner get a good deal. But please do it with respect because there's nothing worse than a foreigner coming into another country trying to rip off a local person who's just trying to make a living. So of course when you're actually traveling you need somewhere to sleep. Now Nepal has a variety of accommodations from hostels to five-star resorts and hotels so it obviously completely depends on what kind of traveler or holiday you're looking for. I won't go into too much detail because I think a lot of people know about accommodation. I would recommend booking your first few nights when you arrive into the country just so you can relax your mind and ease your way in because it can be a bit overwhelming especially when you arrive into a place like Kathmandu. A few apps that I use to book my accommodation are Hostelworld because I usually stay in hostels with dorm beds and also booking.com because again you can also find some different variety of accommodation there. I will put on the screen the average of what different hotel rooms and dorms will cost you just so then you can see what costs what and yeah how much you should be paying. So the next thing we're going to talk about is food. Now food is a massive part of the Nepalese culture from Newari food to Tibetan food to just the classic Dal Bhat. Oh it's spicy! Spicy! If you don't know what Dal Bhat is then I'm sure you will do as soon as you land into the country because there is a saying in Nepal that goes like Dal Bhat power 24 hour and Dal Bhat is basically the local traditional Nepalese meal. Dal Bhat usually consists of a massive plate of rice, some sort of curry whether that's vegetable or chicken or buff and then a dal lentil soup which is absolutely delicious and then you often have these little crackers or what's the chapati or a dried chapati something like that and the great thing about Dal Bhat is once you finish one portion they will give you another portion and it keeps coming and coming and coming. Honestly the last month in Nepal I think I put on a lot of weight because yeah I was eating Dal Bhat every night but it's great value for money and it tastes absolutely delicious. One food that I wasn't able to try was the Newari food. Loads of people commented on my videos and sent me messages saying Will you have to try Newari food. Now if you are in Kathmandu that is the place to try it so I've heard so yeah make sure if you're in Kathmandu you get some Newari food in your belly. Now in Nepal there are so many different places to go to just aside from trekking for example you have places like Kathmandu which is full of history or things like Pokhara which is more nature and beautiful surrounding mountains and then you also have places like Chitwan which is a national park and then if you go west or east then you get into the really remote places of Nepal where not many tourists go and then of course you have the incredible mighty Himalayas. I think I will make a separate video on the top 20 things to do in Nepal so keep an eye out for that because that should be a good video to watch if you're wondering what you can do in the country. So I just quickly want to touch on trekking. Now trekking is obviously one of the biggest attractions when it comes to going to Nepal for a lot of people. I think that's probably why 95% of people actually go to the country and absolutely why not because the mountains and the Himalayas are absolutely incredible out there. Treks you can do by yourself there was a few treks that I personally did completely alone but other treks you will also need a guide. There are a lot of tour companies and trekking companies that will be able to organize a trip for you so make sure if you are looking into trekking or you want to do a one-day tour around Chitwan or a national park walk or whatever it might be do your research online because there are so many companies that you can go with. I'll link a few on the screen so you can see and yeah make sure you pick wisely. Also be aware that like places in Tamil which is in Kathmandu where a lot of the tourists are there will be people walking the streets trying to sell you day tours. Of course you can go with them but just make sure they're reliable and you know you can get a good service and have a great time in Nepal. Now a popular question that I think a lot of people wonder is is Nepal safe and I can wholeheartedly say yes absolutely. It is one of the safest countries that I've personally ever traveled to. In my top five reasons of why you should travel to Nepal I actually put it in there because I truly believe male or female Nepal is an extremely safe country to travel to. The Nepalese people often treat foreigners and travelers almost godlike because they really respect people that come to their country and you know appreciate the incredible beauty of Nepal. What is it? Yak shit. Yak shit. So moving around the country is one of the most thrilling experiences that you might have but that depends on the type of bus that you get. Now 100% you have to get a local bus for at least a day just to experience the real life and you know the tradition of being a Nepalese person because some of the buses and the roads are absolutely horrendous but they're great fun. They might crack your back back into place and you know it's a good laugh and a good story to tell. If you did want to spend a little bit more money then they do have many tourist buses which have AC and padded seats which some people obviously might prefer so of course do get the tourist buses or if you want to go even more privileged and upper class then you can get taxis or jeeps which will of course cost you more money but again it all depends on kind of what you're looking to get out of your trip and I find this crazy. I did not know this before I went to Nepal. There are no trains. That is the first country that I've ever been to where there's no trains. There's no train line. It's crazy. So a few tips that I would give you when it comes to traveling to Nepal are book your first few nights of accommodation in Kathmandu as I said earlier otherwise it can be a bit overwhelming with all the noises the smell and the hustle and bustle because Kathmandu is a very populated busy place. If you are planning on going trekking then you can buy all of your equipment and everything you need in Kathmandu or Pokhara. You don't actually need to buy it before you go because there are so many shops and so much competition that they're selling everything from jackets to boots to absolutely everything you could ever desire they will have it in either Kathmandu or Pokhara so save yourself some money. Yes some of the stuff is fake well probably most of it but it does the job and if you can haggle down and get a good price then you've probably saved yourself some money rather than buying it in your home country. So just to link back with trekking there before you do any trek in Nepal you will need to get a TIMS card and a national park permit. This is absolutely compulsory and you have to get it. There is one office in Kathmandu and one office in Pokhara that you can get these from. They will cost a varying amount from each trek that you do but majority of the time it's well worth it. Another tip is altitude sickness is not a joke so if you do go trekking and you've never done it before and you start to feel AMS acute mountain sickness then for god's sake head down. You can of course buy tablets like Diamox tablets and for god's sake make sure you get travel insurance because the last thing that you want to do is get helicoptered off the mountain and then potentially pay thousands in hospital bills so travel insurance absolutely is a must when you go to a country like Nepal. A few other tips is don't drink tap water because the tap water is not drinkable out there. What I used was a LifeStraw blue bottle which I bought on Amazon for I think around 40 pounds or what you can do is obviously buy the bottled water but then that's a complete waste of plastic and in countries like Nepal they don't have the best recycling service so you know I wouldn't recommend that one. Or the other one would be to just buy those water purification tablets which you can just pop in your water and then it takes about 30 minutes and then the water is safe to drink. Another very important tip is always bring some toilet paper because if you go to some of these local toilets or you catch a bus and the bus stops off on the side of the road and there's nowhere to go you're going to want some toilet paper with you because it is tradition in Nepal they just have a bucket and water that is how they do it so if you're accustomed to using toilet paper make sure that bring your own. When it comes to staying connected and staying online in Nepal i.e. with your phone or on your laptop you can buy an Encel which is the company that I went with sim card from you know either of the major cities and you know you can stay online and it's pretty cheap I think it cost me around 10 pounds and I had about 20 gigabytes of data which lasts me for about a month or even longer and then you can just recharge that card at most of the shops in Nepal. Okay guys so hopefully I've covered everything there about Nepal that you would need to know if I haven't please do drop a comment in the description below or send me a message on Instagram because as I said I spent a good amount of time there I have lots of experience so I'm sure if I've missed anything then of course I will be able to reply to you guys if you have any questions and let you know that information. I have made many videos of my time actually in Nepal of travel vlogs and many separate videos about trekking in Nepal about what to pack when you go trekking and I will probably make that video on the top 20 things that you should do in Nepal so if you need to know anything about Nepal please do check some of my other videos because I'm sure some of them will be able to give you some good information so that you're fully prepared for your trip and that you can really look forward to. Thank you so much for watching guys and I hope you did enjoy today's video please give it a like if you did and subscribe if you are new to the channel because plenty more travel adventures travel vlogs and more videos like this giving you informative information. As always guys stay safe stay positive and I shall catch you in the next one. Peace!