Patan, Bungamati and Khokana Day Tour
The city of artisans, then two Newar villages south of the valley where the crafts are still the economy
Patan, Bungamati and Khokana Craft Heritage Day Tour
Patan is the one most people underrate. It is smaller than Kathmandu and less photographed than Bhaktapur, and it has the densest concentration of Newar architecture anywhere, plus the Patan Museum, which is the best museum in Nepal by a distance and the only one in the valley that properly explains what you are looking at everywhere else.
South of Patan the valley floor runs out into farmland and two villages that have made the same things for centuries. Bungamati carves wood and is the winter home of Rato Machhindranath, the rain god whose chariot festival is the oldest and longest in the valley. Khokana presses mustard oil in wooden mills and has a street plan that is essentially medieval.
This day is for people who have already seen the headline monuments, or who want to see craft being made rather than sold. It is also the quietest of our Kathmandu day tours. You will not be in a crowd after mid-morning.
Both villages were badly damaged in 2015 and both are still rebuilding. That is part of what you see, and we do not dress it up.
Trip Summary
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Included
- Hotel pick-up and drop-off anywhere in Kathmandu or Patan in a private air-conditioned vehicle
- Government-licensed English-speaking guide for the full day
- All monument and temple entry fees listed in the itinerary
- Bottled drinking water through the day
- All government and local taxes
- Entry fees for Patan Durbar Square and the Patan Museum
- Lunch at a Newari restaurant in Patan
- Arranged visits to working metalwork and woodcarving courtyards
Not Included
- International and domestic flights
- Nepal visa, available on arrival at Kathmandu airport
- Hotel accommodation in Kathmandu
- Travel insurance
- Camera and video fees where a site charges them separately
- Personal expenses, drinks and souvenirs
- Tips for the guide and driver
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Detailed itinerary
Patan, Bungamati and Khokana Craft Heritage Day Tour
09:00 | Pick-up
A civilised start. Nothing on this day needs a dawn alarm.
09:30 | Patan Durbar Square
The royal square, the Krishna Mandir carved entirely in stone, and the bronze and stone work that makes this the most concentrated piece of Newar craftsmanship in Nepal.
10:30 | Patan Museum
Housed in a restored palace wing and worth an hour on its own. The collection of Hindu and Buddhist bronzes is superb, and the labelling actually teaches you how to read the iconography, which changes how every temple you see afterwards looks.
11:45 | The metalworkers' courtyards
Off the square, behind the tourist shops, the bahals where families still cast bronze by lost wax and beat copper. These are working courtyards and we visit by arrangement rather than wandering in.
12:45 | Lunch
Newari food in Patan. If you want to try the proper version, this is the place for bara, chatamari and a yomari if the season is right.
14:00 | Bungamati
Twenty minutes south into farmland. The village is built around the Rato Machhindranath temple on a central square, and the woodcarving workshops around it supply the restoration work going on all over the valley. The temple was destroyed in 2015 and has been rebuilt.
15:15 | Khokana
A fifteen minute walk or a short drive from Bungamati. Khokana presses mustard oil in traditional wooden mills and the smell of it is the first thing you notice. The main street is a single wide thoroughfare with houses either side, a medieval layout that survived because the village stayed poor. The Shikali Mai temple sits outside the village in the fields.
16:30 | Return to Kathmandu
About forty five minutes back, arriving late afternoon.
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