Bandipur

Famous as mini Bhaktapur outside of Kathmandu valley – Bandipur is a village with best example of culture, tradition and nature at once. While you are at Bhaktapur Durbar Square or old Bazar of Bhaktapur city – it is more a city and less nature. But Bandipur is just opposite. Most of the current residents of Bandipur are originally traders from Bhaktapur in the history, who traveled to Bandipur and settled here as a trader till today.
Sunrise and sunset at Bandipur are famous as it is golden view of the nearby hills and the valley seen from Bandipur.

Variation, Famous & Selected tour in Bandipur is – 7 days Adventure Tour

Bandipur means the village of Magars, whose chieftains ruled numerous principalities of today’s central Nepal, originally inhabited the surrounding region, known as Tanahun. Till 17th century, Tanahu was a powerful country that of Magars.
Bandipur is located at height of 1030 meter of 3378 feet in Tanahu district of Nepal. One can stop by Bandipur while traveling to Pokhara from Kathmandu.
This hilltop settlement of Newar community has been attraction of Nepal tourism – equally among foreign tourist as well as domestic tourist visits this village or suburb located in the pristine location. From Bandipur you can see nature very close, the valley view, scenery of highway that you drive to Pokhara and Chitwan or Lumbini, it is also gateway to a huge cave.
56 kilometer or 35 mile in distance from Kathmandu; Bandipur can be a best weakened trip destination for one living in Chitwan, Pokhara, Lumbini or Kathmandu. From Pokhara Chitwan and Lumbini – Bandipur is100 to 140 kilo meter or 65 to 85 mile in road distance.
Kathmandu to Pokhara or Lumbini or Chitwan road journey needs a twist at Dhumre Bazzar, to get to Bandipur. You need to drive along the hill road across the jungle and villages to get to the settlement. At Bandipur, the accommodation range from a resort to small hotels.
Siddha Baba cave is 2 hours away from Bandipur village and this cave is largest cave of South East Asia. Also in 4 hours distance from Bandipur you can hike to a rock climbing destination at Bimalnagar. Bandipur invites travelers to experience its unique offerings: rich in hill culture, green mountain views, and village hiking routes for a day or more along trails that take you through tribal villages, verdant forests, and hilltop shrines that once doubled as fortresses. Magar and Gurung ethnic groups dwell the hillsides growing rice, millet, corn and mustard on terrace fields which is beautiful to hike around.
Bandipur has reserved its age-old cultural attributes – temples, shrines, sacred caves, festivals, and a Newari architecture that heeds back to the Kathmandu Valley of old. It is because following the conquest of the Kathmandu Valley in 1768 by King Prithvi Narayan Shah, many of the Newar shifted to different hills like Bandipur, to get out of the valley. Some of them traveled to Bandipur, from where they began to meet the needs of an increasingly mercantile British India and the Himalayan hinterland. By then Bandipur was main route of traveling – but after modern road construction to connect Kathmandu with Pokhara, Lumbini and Chitwan road bypassed Bandipur. Thus, the road’s alignment was a blessing – while many Newar hill towns lost their uniqueness after modernization, where Bandipur retained its originality.
In the 1800s, travelers & traders came from Tibet with musk pods, mountain herbs, animal skins, and horses and Calico, tobacco, glassware, and kerosene came in from British India.