11-day routing in Nepal. Full per-day details (distance, elevation, lodging, ride briefings) sent to confirmed riders closer to departure.
Day 1
Welcome to Kathmandu! Settle In and Explore the Local Bazaar
We will be waiting for you outside the airport so we can save you from the mad crowd and take you straight to your hotel. The Manaslu Hotel is situated just outside the tourist district of Kathmandu, Thamel.
In the afternoon (depending on your arrival time) we can take you on a bazaar walk exploring the secret alleys and ancient courtyards of Kathmandu that most visitors don't get to experience.
In the late afternoon we will have a guide meeting and talk about the ride ahead of us before putting bikes together and making sure we are ready for tomorrow's ride.
Tonight we'll treat you to a traditional Newari dinner (the Newars are the original inhabitants of the Kathmandu valley) at one of the capital's tastiest restaurants and prepare you for the adventure ahead.
Accommodation: Hotel Manaslu. Meals: D.
Day 2
Conquer the Scar Route in the Shivapuri National Park
Rise and shine! Today, we'll transfer out of town in the early morning to the start of one of the most (in)famous trails in and around the Kathmandu valley, the Scar Route, to really jump-start your Nepal mountain bike vacation. The trail starts in Kakani where we'll be treated to our first real views of the Himalayan Range; on a clear day the mountains seem up-close and gigantic. We'll climb for about half an hour from Kakani and enter the Shivapuri National Park. The singletrack trail really begins once we're in the park: it climbs for the first 4 km/2.5 mi but then becomes a fast, technical downhill on a skinny jungle trail for the next 4 km/2.5 mi. After the downhill section, the trail joins a small jeep trail contouring around the park boundary to Danda Gaun, where we'll have a delicious Nepali lunch waiting for us in a lovely garden.
After lunch, we'll bike a short 1 km/half mile climb on a tarmac road through the Nepal army staff college to the start of another gnarly singletrack ride. It is a 5 km/3 mile section where the first half is a very gradual climb with some fun technical bits and the second half is a flowy, quick downhill. We then climb on a jeep trail for 4 km/2.5 mi before starting the final singletrack descent into the Kathmandu valley. It'll be a fast-paced, 5 km/3 mi downhill run that ends up at the Boudhanath Stupa where we'll spend the night in a nearby hotel.
You'll have the evening to wander around the stupa — a dome-shaped structure erected as a Buddhist shrine — and have dinner and drinks in one of the many great restaurants overlooking the shrine.
Stats — Distance: 32.49 km/14 mi · Max 2238 m · Descent 700 m · Ascent 922 m.
Accommodation: Hotel Shambaling. Meals: B, L.
Day 3
Epic Enduro Riding in Nagarkot
Once again we load up the jeeps in the morning and transfer out to the Kathmandu valley rim above the stunning expanse of the valley floor, this time on the eastern side at Nagarkot. Here we will most likely be able to mountain bike a loop of the Ranger Trail; this MTB trail is inside the Nepal Rangers training area, so if they're doing exercises, we'll ride another one of the many other great trails around Nagarkot. We do a few loops of the trails in the area, riding a trail the second time is always better.
Nagarkot is the home of the trails used for the Asian Enduro Race held in Nepal, so after lunch we'll shred one of the trails used for this race down toward Nala in the valley deep below Nagarkot. From there, we'll climb towards Dhulikhel where we'll spend the night in a lodge with unbelievable views of the main Himalayan Range.
Stats — Distance: 18.89 km/11.74 mi · Max 2095.7 m/6875 ft · Descent 895 m · Ascent 322 m.
Accommodation: Dhulikhel Lodge Resort. Meals: B, L, D.
Day 4
Transfer to Phaplu
We've got a big day ahead of us, so we'll leave Dhulikhel in the early morning. We'll take most of the day to drive to the Solu Khola river area; first, we follow a Japanese-built road through the mountains to the Sun Kosi River. We then follow the river down for a while before crossing it and climbing up to Okhaldhunga. From there, it's about a 3-hour drive on a smooth blacktop road that climbs from 1560 m/5117 ft at Okhaldhunga up to 2800 m/9186 ft at Sigane. As we near Sigane, the jagged peaks of the Numbur Himal section of the Himalayan Range will come into view, a section of the Himalayas we will come to know very well over the rest of your mountain bike vacation.
At Pattale, we'll unload the bikes for a super-fun ride to the Solu Khola (river) way below in the valley to get our wheels moving and hearts pumping after a long day in the jeeps. Down at the river, we load back up and drive the last 30 minutes up the mountain to our beautiful, quaint tea house in Phaplu, which will serve as our home for the next four nights.
Stats — Distance: 10.25 km · Max 2880 m/9442 ft · Descent 1080 m · Ascent 470.9 m.
Accommodation: Camp/tea house (Lake Side Retreat). Meals: B, L, D.
