Bhaktapur Durbar Square Tour

This is a guided 1-day tour to Bhaktapur Durbar Square, 14 km east of Kathmandu, with entry fees, an English-speaking guide and private vehicle transport included. It runs all year, for groups of 2 to 15, from USD 35 (was $45).

Visiting Bhaktapur Durbar Square

Bhaktapur Durbar Square (also spelled Darbar Square) is the old royal courtyard of the Malla kings, at the centre of a walled city 14 km east of Kathmandu. It is one of seven UNESCO World Heritage monument zones in the valley, and the one where the medieval street plan survives most completely — the 1934 earthquake and again 2015 took buildings, but not the shape of the city.

Most of what people come for stands within a ten-minute walk of the square: the 55-Window Palace, the Golden Gate, the five-storey Nyatapola Temple in Taumadhi Square, and the pottery yards at Talako Tol where wheels still turn by foot.

What will I see on the walk around the square?

The 55-Window Palace is a 15th-century Newari building named for the carved wooden windows along its upper floor, entered through the Golden Gate (Sun Dhoka), a gilded doorway regarded as one of the finest pieces of metalwork in the valley. In Taumadhi Square nearby, the five-tiered Nyatapola Temple is dedicated to the tantric goddess Siddhi Lakshmi and is Nepal's tallest surviving pagoda. The Dattatreya Temple and the Siddhi Laxmi Temple, both carved stone and timber structures, sit a short walk further on. At Talako Tol, potters still shape clay on foot-powered wheels and leave the pots to dry in rows across the square.

How is Bhaktapur different from Kathmandu or Patan Durbar Square?

Bhaktapur keeps its medieval layout more intact than the other two valley cities, and vehicles are kept out of the core, so it is the one durbar square you can walk without traffic. It is also where Newari craft traditions — woodcarving, stone sculpture and metalwork — are still visibly practised, in the pottery square and in workshops around the main square.

Entry fee

One ticket covers the whole walled city, not just the square — Taumadhi, Pottery Square and Dattatreya Tole are all inside the same zone, and the gates on every approach road sell it.

• Foreign nationals (non-SAARC) — US$15, or the rupee equivalent, set at NPR 2,000 since July 2025
• SAARC nationals — NPR 500
• Chinese nationals — NPR 500
• Nepali citizens — free
• Children under 10 — free

The municipality sets the fee in dollars and re-pegs the rupee figure when the exchange rate moves, so the dollar price is the stable one.

If you are staying overnight in Bhaktapur, ask at the ticket counter when you buy and show your passport — the ticket can be extended to cover a stay of up to seven days. Longer than that needs a visitor pass from the Tourist Information Centre on the square.

Opening hours

Bhaktapur is a lived-in city rather than a gated monument, so the lanes and squares are never closed. What is ticketed is entry to the walled core, and the checkpoints sit on the approach roads — you buy on the way in, at whichever gate you arrive by. Counters are staffed through the day and are quietest first thing.

The square itself is a working part of the city — people live, trade and worship here — so the lanes are busy from early morning. The individual museums inside the palace keep their own days and hours, and close separately.

Getting there from Kathmandu

Bhaktapur is 14 km east of Thamel, along the Araniko Highway.

• Taxi — the simplest option, and the only one that drops you at a gate. Agree the fare before you get in.
• Public bus — services run from Ratna Park and Bag Bazar to Bhaktapur bus park, from where the square is a short walk uphill. Cheapest, slowest, and crowded at either end of the day.
• On a guided tour — transport and the entry ticket are handled for you, which is what this tour includes.

Traffic on the Araniko Highway decides the journey time far more than the distance does. Leaving Kathmandu before 9 am or after 11 am makes a noticeable difference.

How long to allow

Half a day is enough to see the four main squares without hurrying. A full day lets you add the museums, sit for a Juju Dhau — the thick buffalo-milk yoghurt Bhaktapur is known for, served in a clay cup — and watch the potters at work rather than walking past them.

Bhaktapur is also the quietest of the three durbar squares. Vehicles are kept out of the core, so it is the one you can walk without traffic.