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17 Major Tourist Spots around Pokhara, Include in Your Nepal Tour

view of lake, pokhara and world peace stupa seen from sarangkot, sarangkot is one of the tourist spots in Pokhara

View from Sarangkot

About Pokhara

Lake city of Nepal, Pokhara is one of the tourist spots of Nepal visit destinations of Nepal and Phewa lake is famous among many lakes of Nepal and renowned as major tourist spots in pokhara. With approximate area of 500 square kilometer, Pokhara Nepal has around 4 million populations. Pokhara is one of the big cities in Nepal, Which is divided into different sectors of town as lake side pokhara, Naya Bazzar pokhara, medical line, Gurkha settlement pokhara and bus parks.

Among all of these places, best tour attraction is lake side of Pokhara.

Lakeside of pokhara looks cleaner, quiet, fancy and beautiful in comparison to rest of the city.

Breeze of Phewa Lake on the side of the street will pull you towards the lake side.  Let me talk about beautiful city Pokhara, where all Annapurna region trekking either starts or ends.

Major Tourist Spots in POKHARA

Attraction depends upon the people’s prospective and aspect of Nepal visit, although I have tried to select varieties of tour spots from pokhara which will describe tourist spots in Pokhara.

To let you know, all of these places located in pokhara are accessible by car or taxi and use of google map will guide you easily to and from destinations to destination. However a guide is needed for the information about tourist spots in Pokhara.

Major places of pokhara can be categorized according to their type. Some attraction of pokhara are historic and some are really new but still worth a visit while you are in Pokhara city tour. Major places of Pokhara can be tabulated as below:

S.No.Caves in PokharaLakes of PokharaMuseumTemplesAdventure SportsAttraction near PokharaOther Major attraction
1Bat CavePhewa LakeMountain MuseumBindabasini TempleParaglidingDhampus HillWorld Peace Stupa
2Mahendra CaveBegnas LakeGorkha MuseumBarahi TempleZiplinePoonhillSanrangkot Hill
3Guptesor CaveRupa LakeButterfly MuseumJangchung Chholing Monastry, HemjaRafting & BoatingKusma BungeeTibetan villages
Table: Top 3 destination in Pokhara (with proper categorization)

01 – Lake Side Pokhara, Peaceful Lake City

As this section of city is on the side of Phewa lake so the name became the lake side pokhara. Most of the fancy restaurants, pubs, and clubs are located in this part of Pokhara. If you are looking for night party in pokhara and want to have chill beer at the lakeside of Pokhara; go on the lakefront vendors and shops. Pubs like Iris pub, Trishara, Busy Bee are pretty famous of in Pokhara City; where as Godfathers’ Pizzeria, Chilly Bar, Thakali Kitchen would be nice places to have dinner.

Most of these restaurants will be busy with trekkers having good food in Pokhara after many days of trekking Himalaya. If you want to have nepalese food, go to Thakali restaurant and enjoy the meal. There are plenty of places for lunch and breakfast; I bet you will have enough of choice in the menu. You will be served with your favorite dish such as Italian, intercontinental, indian etc.

Picture: Boating in the lake with Locals to witness natural reflection image of Annapurna mountains.

Walking in the main street of lake side from Halan Chwok to Center point serves you all kind of stores and ATM facilities. Walk on the road side or just follow roads towards lake – your choice. But both walk are nice.

In the clear weather of pokhara you can see reflection of the Annapurna mountains on lake and huge Fistail is iconic. Phewa lake is one of the most visited lake, among hundreds of lakes of Nepal.

If you focus your eye on the blue sky you might witness paragliding and ultra-passengers looking beautiful city and those mountains from different orientation. Special events in New Year the city is even more fun .

World’s paragliding competition takes place on the special event with participants across the globe. Day when a participant won the event by stepping on an egg centered on a big circle, while landing during paragliding competition and winning cash reward.

Pokhara is famous for adventure sports and paragliding in pokhara is one of the highly appreciated adventure sport.

Boating in pokhara is another famous activity of Pokhara Nepal. World peace stupa (white color dome style building above the phewa lake on the sky line) on one of the hill top looks nicer from the lake side. Tonight grab a beer and stay chilled with your mate in front of the lake or reserve your table on one of many lake front restaurants.

02– World peace Stupa

White color stupa seen from the lake shore of pokhara was Built by Japanese on believe of story; Buddha’s first man Ananda once meditated here. This stupa is tall enough to twist your head up to the sky and takes you on its half the height.

Picture: View of Phewa Lake & Mountain from World Peace Stupa. This is one of 100 peace stupa built by Japanease monk around the world.

From the basement of stupa itself view of Phewa Lake, entire pokhara city and stunning mountains behind small hill looks unbelievable decoration of nature in pokhara.

The view gets even better getting up on stupa to the height of three story house.

If you are travelling pokhara in spring, flowers in the garden of World peace stupa are nicer, this might be a best Nepal photography.

World peace stupa is nice suit for photographers traveling Nepal, for best photo from evening shot. If you are hungry while visiting world peace stupa in pokhara, there are nice view restaurants with best view; just on the side of stupa entrance. From those eating places; view of lake and mountain of pokhara is amazing.

How to go to white stupa of Pokhara (world peace stupa)?

You can take a taxi to take you there or rent a motorbike for a day and drive around pokhara by yourself. If you do not want to bother just book a transport from the reception of hotel you stay.

Or you can take boat from lakeside and hike for 30 minutes uphill to get to stupa. This might not be a best Nepal hiking even for hike haters.

REMEMBER stupa closes 6PM and opens 8AM only. Best hike is in the morning hen weather of pokhara is clear and we can see the view of the lake and the reflection of the Nepal Himalaya on the lake. This hike is best hike and considered as a famous short treks in Nepal or trekking Himalaya.

03– Pokhara International Mountain Museum Pokhara

Pokhara Mountain museum is not old museum; they started this museum to keep the record of all the historical moment of mountaineering in Nepal and all mountain of the entire world.

This mountain museum keeps all the information about Everest the world highest peak, first climbers of major mountains of Nepal, gears used by the climbers and most of the related facts about the specific mountains.

Apart from those detailed information about the mountain, this gallery has presentation everyday; of people, culture, and tradition of the people of that region. Museum talks about how simple are their life and what they rely on.

Picture: International Mountaineering Museum Pokhara has icon of Mt Fishtail 6693meters

If you are looking for a day activity, visit to Mountain museum at Pokhara could be a good idea. It has all the details written on the side of each element which will help you to guide yourself on one by one basis. A day will be spent completely in this museum.

Even though this museum is in the gateway of Annapurna Mountain range, it talks about Mt Everest, Mt Manaslu, Mt Dhaulagiri, Mt Kanchanjunga and all most all the 8 thousands all around the world. This will be a best day spend for those who are interested with the mountain.

04– Bindabasini Temple (a Nepal History)

BIndabasini is a hindu temple in Pokhara, Lekhnath; it is temple for goddess Bindabasini. Bindabasini is the incarnation of goddess Parbati (Goddess Parbati is wife of god Shiva). This temple can be one of the historic tour destinations while you are on your Nepal visit to Pokhara. This temple is on the top of small hill and hence you need to climb few stairs to get to the temple platform.

Once you get to the temple premises there are many temples, each of them representing different gods. Ram, Sita, Krishna, Hanuman, Naryan, Shiva, Ganesh and many other temples are in the temple premises of this tourist attraction in pokhara.

Bindabasini temple build 350 years ago by last king of kaski is built in dome style. Kaski in the history of Nepal, used to be a powerful kingdom of 24 states. At that time Kaski kot used to be the palace and this hindu temple was built with a story.

Picture: View of the Mt Fishtail (Holy Mountain) & Holy temple of Pokhara

Siddhinarayan Shah, 10th king of Kaski, pokhara and Lamjung kingdom of that time dreamed of goddess Parbati in his dream. Parbati came in the form of Bindabasini in king’s dream and the goddess said that the people will be happy if Siddhinarayan built temple in her name. After the order from Goddess in the dream king decided to send people from his kingdom to Bindanchal if India. King’s people went to get the statue from india, statue of goddess Bindha (incarnation of Parbati).

Literal meaning of the temple is Bindha the incarnation of goddess and Basini the local dweller of the place. In your Nepal visit you will go to many temples of various gods, there your guide will explain kinds of stories. Most of them are mythical story, but all of them has theory and somewhat makes believable.

Once you get to Bindabasini temple you will see 6 different temples at the same place, it might be a main reason to visit Bindabasini Temple while traveling pokhara.  Every god has their own special meaning and here as well, Bindabasini temple symbolizes the power of spiritual strength. Bindabasini temple has sacrifice of animals during Tuesday and Saturday of the week.

05– Seti river (famous for sighting river (George))

Every one visiting Pokhara go to this attraction even though it has not much to see.

To make you clear this river comes from the base camp of fishtail, or the water coming to this river is from the glacier. So the color of the water in this river is white (approximately white). There is a bridge inside the park where you can see the deep George of river. Rock scouring by the river looks interesting in this attraction point of pokhara. Among all, this River George is right beside the Gorkha museum, so why not a quick look.

Like all the attractions of Nepal, this river has also a story behind the construction of the bridge. This bride is also called Dr. K I Singh bridge, the reason behind this name was the story of K I singh associated in the story. Once this man was freedom fighter for the people of Pokhara, he used to advocate against the government and their wrong policy. During his campaigning he was chased by government Police, while running away from Police this gentle man jumped and crossed this river and escaped from the police. In the memory of this freedom fighter this bridge is constructed and now this bridge serves as one of the exit point from pokhara towards neighboring village.

06 – Gorkha museum

Gorakha museum is a famous among the locals and academic tours. If you are thinking about taking your students to Nepal for tour, this could be a great choice for the knowledge of your students. This museum preserves the history of Ghurkhas working in different part of the world. Life of Ghurkhas here and there, how are they serving in the different battalion and how is their hometown. It basically talks about the culture tradition and life of Ghurkas people.

Ghurkas museum is a great way to know Ghurkha’s you have been hearing for so long.

This attraction is really famous among the locals, but now a days trekking company in Nepal like Nepalgram Adventure is promoting this kind of museum to spend a good day at pokhara sightseeing tour. Ghorkha museum of pokhara is near Seti river or also called seti George attraction for tourist.

07 – Bat cave

Bat cave and Mahendra cave of Pokhara are next to each other. Among many other cave in the city pokhara, this bat cave is famous among all of them for the reason that, this cave has Bat in it. Bat will be hanging on the ceiling of the cave of Bat cave.

Picture: Bat inside the cave  of Pokhara, Photography is not permitted nowadays.

People who loves caving during their Nepal tour they go to this; bat cave for the reason they can get to see the cave and enjoy the adventure of exit from the cave.

Exit from the cave is really narrow and this can be a good adventure for those who are looking for caving in Pokhara. While visiting pokhara this can be your perfect choice of caving.

08– Mahendra Cave

Among all the cave in Pokhara, Mahendra cave was the first time excavated ever. This cave was in existence from the year 1976 and it is inaugurated by King Mahnedra. The name of the cave was given under the name of the king who inaugurated this landmark of pokhara.

At the end of the cave there is a small Shiva Linga and platform for the temple of Ganesh. Underneath the temple there is a small pond for holy water. People visiting Mahendra cave offer this holy water, the god and take it to their house. This is one of the famous destinations for the local tourist, so do not amaze looking at the few number of Tourist visiting this cave.

09 – Sarangkot sunrise/sunset view point

One of the most visited sights of pokhara, Sarangkot is a perfect view point for both sunrise and sunset. From the top of the sarangkot we can see all the Himalaya range from mt Annapurna to mt Ganesh Himal. Apart from the stunning view of the mountains, sarangkot view tower is in the scenic spot, from where we can see entire pokhara valley and the Phewa lake next to it. As world peace stupa is located in opposite direction of this viewpoint we can also see the beautiful village of world peace stupa.

A complete view of Pokhara valley, Phewa Lake, World peace stupa, Mountain range and the sunset or sunrise is amazing from this spot.

Picture: View of Sunrise above the hill of Pokhara Nepal, Sarangkot view point is considered to be the best place for the view.

Anybody visiting to Pokhara must get to this hilltop for a perfect view, it worth perfect.  There are plenty of hotels if you want to plan to go spend a night at this hilltop. Nepalgram also organize the trip to this viewpoint, contact us.

History of sarangkot is from the time of 24 states in Nepal. Meaning of the place is a battle practice center, or a place to practice sarang (sword).

10- Dhampus

Picture: Famous Tail in Annapurna Mountain Range Mt Fishtail is a sacred mountain.

Dhampus at the altitude of 1710 meters from the sea level is a Nepal tour destination for the view of Annapurna Region Trekking. After new road construction from Phedi  Dhampus has been a famous  weekend destination.

Dhampus is in 1.5 hours drive from Pokhara, which means you can drive upto and return back spending some hours on the same day. So people living in Pokhara and around,  visits Dhampus often.

The trail continues through the typical Gurung settlement and terraces rice fields.  Also you will get to witness the massive Mt Annapurna South (7220m), Annapurna II (7937m), Annapurna III (7555m), Annapurna IV (7525m), Fishtail 7993m (Macchpuchhre), Hiuchuli  (6441m) .

11- Australian camp

Tulakharka lately named Australian camp is being a famous destination for those who want to spend a day or two in a place with panoramic view of the Nepal Mountains on one side and the river valleys on the other side. Australian camp is for those, who are looking for easy and short treks in Nepal around Annapurna Region Trekking.

Australian camp is considered an easy trek tours during Nepal Visit, as you can drive to Kade 1440m and hike for 2 more hour.

From Australian camp you will get to witness the massive Annapurna I (8091m) and Manaslu (8193m) and other ranges like mt Annapurna II, III, IV, mt Annapurna South, mt Fishtail (Macchapuchhre), mt Hiuchuli, mt Lamjung himal, Buddha himal and some other unnamed peaks. The trail ascends from kade to Australian camp through local villages.

Picture: Near Pokhara very Near to the Mountains @Australian Camp

Australian camp has local guest house accommodation with hot/cold shower, modern toilets, and attached room with toilet. Food at Australian camp is from the local menu, you can choose from their menu and available Neplease food will be your choice.

The food and accommodation is neither exactly like in the trekking zones nor like in the city of Pokhara. Eating and sleeping in Australian camp will make you feel in the mountain of Annapurna Region Trekking in your Nepal Tour. This Nepal Tour point near pokhara is a trending hiking spot among locals and foreigners. If you have spare time in pokhra, spending a night in Australian camp could be a perfect idea.

12- Tibetan refugee camp

While doing pokhara city tour, most of the tour and Trekking companies in Nepal or companies in pokhara takes to this tourist spot. This camp is famous; because of its story behind. What is the story?  This village very near to the city of Pokhara is residence of Tibetan refugee.

People here are from Tibet. When there was conflict in Tibet, a mass of people fled from Tibet and entered Nepal. This was the time then when Dalai Lama was exiled. As border of Nepal is connected with Tibetan border in upper mustang by Korola border, people who were running away from Tibet entered through this village Lomanthang. Lomanthang is a village that lies in the upper mustang region Nepal Mountain.

Picture: Nepal is shelter to the Refugees from Tibet and Bhutan, pokhara picture from Refugee made Garments.

If you thinking refugee camp with tents, this is not the case here. You will see normal houses and Tibetan people living here for around 100 years.

Tourist visits this Tibetan refugee camp to see the culture and tradition of Tibetan People in Nepal. If you are interest with anthropology tour in Nepal, this touring spot in pokhara can be a great place to stroll. There is a refugee garment factory and Nepali Pasmina production center. If you are willing to buy any of these products from your visit Nepal, better to buy from this village while travelling pokhara. You will support the economy the refugee and get your deal. Even though most of the street vendors selling ornaments in the street of lakeside are from this village, you can still see many shops in this Tibetan refugee camp.

Tibetan Refugee camp in pokhara has its monastery where you can see monk dance in the month of January and February. Jan and feb are the month for major festival of Tibetan people, Loshar. If you are doing Annapurna trekking or short treks in Nepal to poonhill do not forget to do this village tour in Nepal. Among 3 major refugee camp in pokhara this refugee camp is nearest to the city and easily accessible.

This Tibetan refugee camp of pokhara is most visited refugee camp of Nepal as it is in the perfect location. When you visit pokhara city you will visit Davis fall and Guptesor cave. All these tour destination of Pokhara are close by each other. While visiting Davis fall, just opposite of Davis fall is

13- Bungee center near Tibetan Refugee camp

Bungee in pokhara has two major options while doing adventure activities in pokhara city. Local tour companies in Pokhara easily arrange any of the Nepal tour activities in this city of Pokhara. If you are looking for Bungee jump near pokhara, this Bungee center is 20 minutes’ drive from Lake side Pokhara. Nice about this bungee place is you can visit to the Tibetan refugee camp. The local monastery is in the middle of the refugee camp and the Tibetan peoples living in the small houses.

If you want to do bungee in this place, go across the Tibetan refugee camp and you will get the right spot to the end of the village. This bungee spot is shorter than the one in Kusma (1.5 hours bus from here) or the one in the last resort (5 hours bus from Kathmandu). I would suggest you to do bungee in Kusma bungee spot rather than this one.

14- Adventure bungy & swing at Kusma Bridge (highest bridge of Asia)

Kushma is famous as the highest natural suspension bridge of Asia. There are numerous suspension bridge in this region, this might be interesting for your visit Nepal to Pokhara. Kushma bungee spot is 2 hours drive away from Pokhara and is located in the middle of the village. There are three major bridges next to one another. If you love walking on the suspension bridge for free this can be a right spot. Among those 3 major suspension bridges, the main one has bungee and swing.

Bungee of Kushma is very new bungee jumping spot. Kusma bungee in pokhara started from the year 2018. This is considered as one of the Highest bungee jump in Nepal. Natural morphology of river, view of river valley and the mountains around the bridge will give a great adventure feel. This is the recommended Bungee in pokhara.

15- Davis fall a Tragic Beauty of Pokhara

One of the famous underground waterfalls in Nepal, Davis fall is must go tourist spot in pokhara. Davis fall, Guptesor cave and Tibetan refugee camp near SOS school are really close by. One visiting one of these destinations has easy access to all of them. Davis fall is one and only water exit for Phewa Lake. Davis fall can be seen great coming inside Guptesor cave. So one who goes to Guptesor cave must see Davis fall or vice versa.

Picture: Davis Fall in Pokhara with least water flow, in Monsoon fall gets thrice this size

This waterfall is famous because of a story behind it. A tourist named David jumped in this waterfall and he was lost for many days. Tragically he was found dead later. Because of this, in the country where tourists are respected highly, name of the waterfall became Davis under the name of the guy who jumped in.

There are two major sighting spot of the waterfall. Morphology of the fall is stunning and the breeze of drizzle is chilly. Apart from the water fall there is a small house which symbolizes the traditional house of pokhara from then when David jumped and there is a small gallery to show different costume of Nepali People.

16- Guptesor cave

Picture: Nepal is famous for Cave and the Mountains, This is picture at the bottom of the Guptesor Cave near the Davis fall Exit.

Among many cave of Pokhara Guptesor cave is famous for two major reasons; one, water of Davis fall come inside this cave and has a perfect view of Davis fall and another, this is a holy place for god SHIVA. Davis fall exit was found many  years ago but this temple was found around nineties.

Interesting story about this cave is that, one person living nearby this temple who is astrologist saw dream. In his dream god Shiva came and said there is his statue. The following day, Brahmin went to that place and found exactly what he dreamed, this man is still alive and we can meet him if he is around.

17- Barahi Temple (island of Pokhara)

Barahi is the temple in the middle of the Phewa lake. This temple is named under goddess Baharahi. Goddess Barahi is the incarnation of Goddess PARBATI. And goddess PARBATI is wife of god SHIVA. This temple is island of pokhara and it is a hindu temple. Only hindu can go inside the temple but if you want to see temple from outside you can boat to Barahi island.

Picture: Barahahi Temple, aerial View taken while flying above the Lake in Paragliding.

Small platform in the middle of Phewa lake is accessible by boating for 5 minutes, you can rent the boat near about the temple. Barahi chowk is the place where you can get direction to Barahi Temple. This Boat station in pokhara provides service to those who loves boating in the lakes of Nepal with best view of Mountains in Nepal.

As Phewa Lake in pokhara has great view of Annapurna Mountain Range and its reflection on the lake, people love boating in this lake. Pokhara is also a famous destination among locals as it is famous among foreign tourist. And boating in pokhara is one of the famous activities here in pokhara. You can rent boat for hours and boat around if you love doing so. Some people boat across the lake and it takes 2 hours to travel across phewa lake by boat.

Find it easy getting around Pokhara

If you are staying at the lakeside of pokhara, easy way to get there would be catching a taxi from your hotel and asking them to take you to different tourist spot in pokhara. You can ask any tour agency or trekking companies in Nepal to arrange a tour for you or you can hire a rickshaw to take you around pokhara city.

For example; Mountain Museum – Till this date (2019) the fair fare for taxi from lakeside to this place must be around $10 to maximum. You might need to ask two or more taxi drivers to get the good price but Paying them $10 while traveling wouldn’t be a big issue for most of you. Taking taxi has two benefits, one; you will be able to get to the museum easily without hassle and another you will be supporting the taxi driver, a local driver.

Another way to get there is to rent a motorbike in the lakeside. There are multiple choice to rent the motorbike or mountain bikes, choose one of them and use your google maps to get there. Google maps works fine for this place. If you do not know how to use google maps, go towards the Davis fall or Gupteswor cave or World peace stupa and before you turn right towards the road of World peace stupa there is a main chwok with statue of Gurung people in cultural dress.

Here you must find a direction of Mountain museum showing arrow towards the left. From here this arrow will direct you all the way to the ticket counter of the museum. You can also walk to this place from the lakeside. It would take about 40 minutes to get to mountain museum from the lakeside of pokhara.

How much is the ticket? to different attraction at pokhara city tour in Nepal?

Pokhara is a tourist hub after Thamel in Kathmandu. Here we can find numerous caves, hill tops, sunrise and sunset viewpoints and many museum and temples. Most of them do not cost the entrance fees but major attraction costs little bit of money.

The price of ticket is in between $1 to $4 as the entrance fee. AS like in the Kathmandu UNESCO world heritage sightseeing there is not any ticket like $15 for entrance.

There are many attraction of pokhara which are free, Tibetan refugee camp, Monasteries in Hemja, World peace Stupa does not cost a single penny as the entrance fees. But donation in those places is appreciated.

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