Traveller reviews

“I had a spare day in Kathmandu and wanted to see some of the city’s cultural sights. I was told that there’s usually a full group on the tour, but I was the only person on this occasion meaning that the time spent at each stop was down to me. Dilip, my driver, was informative and friendly and is also a master of navigating the city’s hectic traffic system! All four sights were fascinating - Pashupatinath Temple and Swayambhunath Temple in particular, and I fully enjoyed the day. Things to note: a tour guide inside each temple is not included in the price.”

“Had an amazing day trip with very experienced driver Subash Devkota. I highly recommend him and Himalayan Social Journey for your next trip.”

“Great tour, we had the chance to see many Kathmandu attractions in one single day. Our driver and guide were very professional and friendly. The tour was also flexible with our preferences and the time we wanted to expend at each site.”

“I had a wonderful tour of 5 days between Kathmandu and Pokhara organized by Himalayan Social Journey company. From the very beginning Usha was extremely helpful and patient to answer all my questions regarding the planning of the tour. I would like to thank in particular my two amazing guides I had in Kathmandu and Bhaktapur. Big thank you to Visnu and Dipendra for all the knowledge they have shared with me. highly recommended!!!!”

“We recently did a sightseeing tour of Kathmandu with a private car/driver, visiting Swayambhunath temple, Patan durbar square, Pashupatinath Temple and Boudhanath Stupa. Our driver was punctual and patiently waited while we took our time at the sights. Overall a great tour seeing the key sights of Kathmandu.”

“The trip to Nepal was incredible thanks to Usha and the team at Himalayan social journey. They organised all the sightseeing tours for Kathmandu and Pokhara with drivers and guides which were all amazing . We had to reschedule a few things and Usha helped us and was very flexible and helpful.”

“We did a 2 week trip to Nepal, hiking in Pokhara and visit of Katmandu valley and it was an amazing journey! It was perfectly organized by Ram and his team and they were always extremely friendly, all of which made us feel pretty confident and enjoy this beautiful country at its best!”

“Ram and his team made our trip in Nepal hassle free and were even fun just to hang out with. We booked an entire month's worth of transport, accommodation and activities which would've caused all sorts of headaches on our own. Deliv is an absolute legend who you might be lucky to have as a driver on a road trip up to Pokhara if you're interested and to/from the airport.”

“I found this trip to be interesting and an educational one.However,I believe that the sightseeing in Pokhara could have involved better planning, especially with regards to the number of attractions viewed.”

“My wife and myself are 4/5 through our 10 day tour and trek and have thoroughly enjoyed our time in Nepal, organised by Himalayan Social Journey. We have done a lot of travel and often find unscrupulous tour companies but this one is first rate. Our entire journey was organised successfully by Ram and his staff. His trekking guides and porters know their stuff, are good at English and bent over backwards to help us. We are 53 year olds and they slowed the walking pace to suit our fitness. All levels are catered for. We did some training before leaving Melbourne which certainly helped but even if we didn't, HSJ would have catered for this also. We only did 3 days of trekking but we certainly could have done more or even less. Thank you Binot and Ganess for your wonderful guiding and caring. HSJ offered to tailor a trek just for us and we found them very honest and versatile enough to change plans at the drop of a hat. If there was one negative it is the hotels during the trek. They are all around two star and have problems with power, hot water, etc. However this was not enough to bother us and this is not HSJ's fault, it's just the way things are in the Himalayas. Our Kathmandu tour guide Basu was both funny and knowledgable and our driver Dilip was very experienced. Thanks Ram for all your organisation. Overall 4 out of 5 for quality, price and variety. Regards, David and Mary Ann Ballard”

“We have just completed a 10 day easy tour with a 3day slightly demanding trek. Beginning in Kathmandu then travelling to Pokhara for the trek, the organisation was excellent with reasonable hotels along the way. Our guide Binod was excellent in his leadership role but fantastic in coping with one member of the group who was self-serving, egocentric, bad mannered and elastic with the truth. The group excluding the previously mentioned person were a pleasure to travel with and this comes after many years experience in group travel. There was only a little evidence of the earthquake where we travelled and it is an interesting and safe place to travel in our experiences here over 33 years. In summary, a great place, a great company and a great guide Binod.”

“Strongly recommend this agency to all of you here. I had very nice experience on my trip to Nepal in early April - Good arrangement, experienced guides and drivers, and reasonable price. Ram respects a lot on our own ideas on this trip. We do not have plans to trek, and Ram does not force us to do, instead, we finalized an itinerary for a relatively relaxing tour, no trekking but just a half-day hiking in Pokhara. All these experience made us feel very comfortable.”

“We booked a 14 day luxury trek of Nepal and honestly had no idea what we were in for. Sure there was a very detailed itinerary given but being a novice to the world of trekking left us slightly worried. I am so pleased to say that from the minute we landed in Nepal we had an absolutely fabulous time. We were guided through the manic streets of Kathmandu, Pokhara and the magnificent Himalayan mountains by our trusted guide Binod and his team. The trek was hard at times but the feeling of achievement you get once you've reached the top is wonderful and knowing you can take your time, whether it's just to soak up the scenery or take a breather is comforting. The whole experience was wonderful and would fully recommend Himalayan Social Journey to anyone wanting to see and experience the wonderful little treasure that is Nepal.”

“Just returned from a fabulous trip to Nepal what a beautiful part of the world so blessed to have visited. 🙏 So lucky to have an awesome group to travel with only 9 of us and we all got on exceptionally well which made the journey so much better. Our guide Mingmar Sherpa was fantastic he looked after us so well and we all rate him 10/10 👍👍 I do feel though that the company in in itself is very unorganised and a lot of things that where on the itinerary didn't happen. Not sure if this was the company or just Nepal?? On day one we were given a tour of Kathmandu which was to be included but when on the bus we were asked to pay several extra fees to enter temples, we were also not given any toilet stops until we had to ask later in the day and were also not offered a lunch stop so we were all quite exhausted, hungry and thirsty by late afternoon and didn't get to see the final Buddha temple we were supposed to. Please note this tour was run by a guide from another group not our guide as I'm sure the day would have run more smoothly with Mingmar as our guide. Two of the accomodation places were 5 star rated, one in Pokhara and other on last night in Kathmandu, but positioned so far from the local areas that I feel these let the trip down and would have preferred a more simple accomodation closer to the centre of these places. In general a fantastic trip and would go on a longer one next time as long as Mingmar Sherpa was the guide 😊👍👣👣👣🙏”

“Just the two of us went on a 5 day Annapurna Trek we had a Guide called Prakash who was very good knew the track well and was good company also spoke eniglish enough to understand and have a laugh Prakash was good at finding birds as we were very interested in finding them ,once he knew what we wanted and took great interest in looking in the bird guide to help identify . We had a porter named Pradip who was amazingly fast with his pack and also was very nice and helpful We enjoyed the Trek mostly the 12hour day was very hard but our guide Prakash was very patient .....I have to say only one accomodation was very ordinary The scenery was beautiful and when the clouds cleared the snow capped mountains were breath taking The food was ok same menu all the way through ,after every day you get a drink which was well deserved Pokhara was very cosmopolitan a beautiful city all the people in Nepal were very friendly The roads in Nepal are very exciting some people would find very scary ...the roads are being done up so all the roads are very slow and bumpy ..long time to anywhere but here are cafe,s all the along the roads All in all good holiday we were in Nepal for 15 days If there was anything wrong they made great efforts to fix which was lovely ..nothing too much trouble”

“This was our 1st experience on a guided group tour. It was throughly positive, we met some lovely people & we enjoyed it immensely. A big thankyou to our guides, Raju & Prakash, they were very knowledgable & organised everything perfectly. They are also very good dancers! Cheers & thanks to our porters on the trek, amazing! The Annapurna trek was challenging at times, take your time, you have plenty of it, & enjoy the scenery! We chose to fly back to Kathmandu from Pokhara. As much as the bus trip is "interesting", an 8hr+ return trip on the Nepalese roads was not missed! Be prepared for some absolutely amazing scenery, not so reliable hot showers & lack of phone reception. We even managed to follow a rhino walking through the town one evening! Go with no expectations, an open mind & a sense of adventure & you will be richly rewarded!”

“My friend and I did the 14 day Nepal trip with Himalayan Social Journey and we had such a beautiful and authentic experience. We were the only two people in our group so we got our lovely guide Sankha all to ourselves. Being very inexperienced trekkers, he helped us along when we needed it and always told us what was ahead so we knew what was coming. He was able to offer so much local knowledge and his English was fantastic - he even taught us some Nepalese! We encountered some bad weather near the end of our tour and the team at HSJ were happy to accomodate our wishes to stay longer at Pokhara for no additional cost. Being two women traveling alone, I always felt safe with our guide and porter and their knowledge of the landscape and the guesthouses and towns. With their knowledge we were able to craft a holiday that was unique and meaningful. Highly recommend Sankha as a guide and the whole team at HSJ were great both before and during our tour.”

“Just completed the 19 day India & Nepal tour with HSJ. The trip went off without a hitch, generally everything went off with impeccable timing. There was a small hitch at the start with the driver an hour late picking us up from Delhi airport but if that’s the only problem we had in 19 days then we did pretty well. The accommodation in Delhi (Crowne Plaza) was very nice however it’s location is way out of the centre of Delhi & over an hour & half from the airport. The traffic in Delhi is out of this world, something to be mindful of. Agra, Varanasi were tremendous, the train trip overnight from Agra to Varanasi was an experience but when you get to the train station get a local porter to help, it’s worth the 400 rupees. All of the iconic destinations we visited were great in India, in short, there isn’t enough space here to describe them. Nepal was fabulous again the trekking part of the trip worked very well no hiccups from HSJ point of view. We flew back to Katmandu from Pokhara on recommendation of HSJ as the bus trip back takes 6-8 hrs. We had a tour of Pokhara & Kathmandu which were all again great. Our guides in all the places we visited in India & Nepal were all very well versed in their knowledge of the venues we visited they were all helpful & understood our questioning. At the end of the day HSJ gets a 9 out of 10 for arranging a great tour. Thanks”

“HSJ helped us to organise our itinerary and attended to our requests to make changes to the plans and hotels promptly even till the last minute before our departure date. The trip was well organised from the moment we arrived and were met at the hotel by the owner who briefed us on our itinerary. The team including the guides and drivers were professional, knowledgeable and friendly. We also liked that they added a welcome dinner that introduced us to the local Nepalese culture and food. And when our heli rides were cancelled due to bad weather, the refunds were made without us having to even make a request - no hassle at all. We will certainly recommend HSJ. If there is any suggestion we can add is that HSJ provide more information to travelers e.g. regarding the ride to Pokhara. We were initially booked for a bus ride and flight was optional. We were told the bus ride is 6 hours and we thought its a good way to see the country side. But we were not told the road is going to be a torturous 6 hours to a possible 12 hours (if bad traffic) rolling and rocking endlessly on what the Nepalese call the dancing road. Well you will probably feel nauseous with a big headache after being thrown about on a bone rattling ride. And if you have weak bladders like me and my husband, not sure any toilet on the bus, its not funny. Thank goodness we eventually changed our plan and chose the 30 mins flight option. So all these information can help first time travelers make better decisions.”

“Our group of four (family and friend) joined others to enjoy this fabulous trip offered by HSJ. Our guides, Prakash and Shankah were excellent in organising and ensuring our needs were attended to. The accommodation at the resorts was comfortable and offered a variety of cultural and pampering opportunities. The food was very good and to our surprise the coffee was excellent. The scenery on the hiking part of the trip was magnificent. We would recommend that participants take their own warm sleeping bags if travelling in the cooler months. The accommodations are not heated and the bedding provided is not really warm enough. This was a general comment from our whole group of mainly Australians and New Zealanders. A good selection of food was available at all the stops along the way the hike. We are all very well travelled and we all thought the HSJ put together a great trip that offered a variety of experiences in a beautiful environment. We also thought you got value for money on this trip. Highly recommend that you take the flight option to return from Pokhara to Kathmandu. Well done HSJ and a big thank you to our wonderful guides and porters.”

“I traveled with them with my family from Kathmandu to Pokhara. We chose a car as we wanted to be flexible with the itinerary and also have stopped in between. The driver was great and the entire journey was made better by their experience. I would recommend using Himalayan Social journey vehicles and drivers due to their professionalism and experience.”

“My mother and I set out on a private trek of the Mardi Himal trail in November/December 2018, after a wonderful experience with Himalayan Social Journey several years prior, on the Poonhill trek. It really interesting to re-visit the “touristy” destinations in Kathmandu and Pokhara, and our stay at Hotel Holy Himalaya in the Thamel district was conveniently located (it’s in the midst of the tourist area, and a short walk away from lots of authentic eateries!). We learnt from our guide, Pawan, that we were one of the first groups to trek Mardi Himal, but we could not recommend the trek more highly. It offers majestic views of both Annapurna South and Macchapucchre, making the four days of unrelenting ascent seem well worth the effort. The guesthouses were less well equipped and developed than those along the Poonhill trek, which we suspect is probably due to Mardi Himal being a relatively unknown and new trek. Despite this, they were perfectly satisfactory after a long day’s walk - and the hot showers at some of the lower camps being especially welcome! All of the local people we encountered were welcoming and friendly, and happy to share their lives with us, even if only for one day. Cups of masala and lemon/ginger/honey tea were a refreshing break along the trek, as we caught our breath from the serious climbing. It’s a very different experience from Poonhill, where the accommodation was within local villages, as the guesthouses are true trekking stops, rather part of a local village. The food was excellent all the way through, with a large variety of choice - wholesome and sustaining vegetarian options (which we chose to eat due to food safety), and we had no problems at all with any tummy upsets. We also used water filters to clean tap water, which was a convenient and environmentally friendly way to access clean water - highly recommend this approach! The rooms in the guesthouses had firm and comfortable mattresses, and plentiful thick, heavy bed coverings to ward off the cold - we didn’t use our sleeping bags once! Our porter, Krishna, was especially helpful and considerate - when I felt a little dizzy and nauseous at the very top viewpoint, he carefully helped me descend back to High Camp, preventing a tumble down sheer cliffs! The ascent from High Camp to the Upper View Point is not for the faint of heart, with small sections requiring us to crawl on our hands and knees, and a vertigo inducing drop on our side, but again, the view at the top, and sense of achievement is well worth the effort. Our thanks to Pawan and Krishna for making our trek the wonderful experience that it was, and imparting their mountain wisdom and knowledge of Nepal. For those seeking a real adventure - off the beaten track - Mardi Himal is a perfect choice!”

“Our guide Paban and porters, especially Ropesh, were exceptional! They were always extremely helpful and attentive, making sure that no one is left behind throughout the whole trekking journey. Paban is a good leader, being fun and caring as well, the whole crew brought a positive and energetic vibe. This effectively made my trip an enjoyable experience, not just a trek through the pass. I will definitely go back again!”

“We did the 15 day Mardi Himal Trek Adventure. Our guide Prikash and porter Dinesh were excellent. We went from mid June and got in just before the monsoon hit. Perfect time as there were no crowds. Great views in the morning, but mostly cloudy in the afternoon with rain overnight. Kathmandu is crowded and colourful, The mountains are scenic and relaxing, and Chitwan is a slice of African-like safari. Highly recommend.”