Kathmandu

• Winter inversion smog · Jan 1 – Jan 31 · holiday

  Cold air traps Indo-Gangetic haze across the valley; mountain views often gone, AQI in the red.

• Holi · Feb 26 – Feb 18 · religious

  Colour-throwing across Thamel and Durbar squares - joyous but messy; bring clothes you can ruin.

• Bikram Sambat New Year · Apr 2 – Apr 15 · festival

  Nepal's own new year sends streams of pilgrims along the sacred Bagamati river between Kathmandu and Patan — a slow, devotional promenade through the valley's holiest ground.

• Bisket Jatra (Nepali New Year) · Apr 9-15 · festival

  Bhaktapur's chariot festival marks the Nepali New Year - pole-raising rituals and tug-of-war crowds.

• Buddha Jayanti · May 7-13 · religious

  Buddha's birthday - Swayambhunath and Boudhanath thronged with butter-lamp offerings.

• Vesak · May 28-Jun 3 · religious

  Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and passing marked in one day - temple visits, lantern-lit processions and acts of merit.

• Monsoon Season · Jun 4 – Sep 2 · festival

  June through August delivers 65% of Kathmandu's annual rainfall, turning mountain roads treacherous and making the flight to Pokhara the sane alternative to overland travel.

• Peak monsoon · Jun 25 – Jun 12 · holiday

  Mountain views shut out for weeks, trekking flights regularly grounded - green and quiet, but planning is fragile.

• Teej · Sep 3 – Sep 23 · religious

  Kathmandu's most vibrant women's festival: married women blaze through the streets in crimson wedding saris while unmarried women dance through the night praying for their future husbands.

• Indra Jatra · Sep 10-16 · festival

  The Kumari (living goddess) wheeled through Durbar Square - ancient ritual, the city out to watch.

• Dashain · Oct 1 – Oct 21 · religious

  Nepal's biggest festival - sixteen days; many shops close for a week mid-festival, Kathmandu emptied of locals.

• Post-monsoon trekking peak · Oct 8 – Oct 11 · festival

  The clearest mountain views of the year - Everest and Annapurna lodges full, flights to Lukla in demand.

• Sakimana Punhi · Oct 22 – Oct 11 · religious

  A full-moon Newari observance in the Kartik month that keeps the indigenous festival heartbeat of old Kathmandu ticking well past Dashain season.

• Tihar · Oct 29-Nov 4 · religious

  Festival of lights - homes lit with oil lamps, dogs and cows garlanded, brothers honoured by sisters.

• Diwali · Nov 5-11 · festival

  The festival of lights - rows of diyas, fireworks and sweets; the brightest, most celebratory week of the Hindu year.

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