The old city is not one place. It's a handful of small neighbourhoods, each with its own trade, its own pace, and its own reason for existing. This is a guide to what's actually in each one, and why it matters.
01 / 5
Trekking gear and travel, layered over old trade streets
The city's main travel hub, known for trekking gear, North Face and outdoor brand shops (official and otherwise), fancy jewelry, garments, and ethnic items. Underneath the tourist sheen, Thamel still sits on old trade routes that once fed the valley.
02 / 5
A Buddhist square hiding in plain sight
Shreegha is the old Newar name for the area around Kathesimbu, the Buddhist stupa tucked just south of Thamel. Prayer flags, butter lamps, and the sound of bells mark the small square, and the surrounding shops still supply monasteries across the valley with robes, incense, and ritual items. Most visitors walk past it without knowing it's there.
03 / 5
A Newar courtyard that never stopped working
Janabahal is one of the old city's many bahals, a courtyard monastery that has doubled as a working neighbourhood for centuries. Lokta paper, Newari food including the savoury lentil pancake known as bara, and shops selling Nepal's national dress still line the surrounding lanes. The trades here are family businesses, passed down in the same courtyards for generations.
04 / 5
Lassi stalls, glass beads, and old shopfronts
Known for lassi stalls, jewelry, clothing, and cosmetics. One of the city's classic old trading intersections, and a good spot to pause and watch the flow of the old city before heading into the smaller lanes that feed off it.
05 / 5
A Muslim settlement that has made beads for Hindu brides for generations
Just off Indrachowk, in a lane that most tourists walk past, sits the glass bead market. Kathmandu's Muslim minority have made colourful glass beads here for generations. The iconic green bead necklaces given to Hindu brides are made in these workshops, and the wholesale stalls behind them supply shops across the valley. A small, working settlement inside the old city, with its own rhythm and its own story.
Swoyambhunath, the Monkey Temple, sits on its hill west of the old city. It is the oldest and most sacred of the valley's Buddhist sites, and the walk up its 400-plus steps is one of the things almost every visitor to Kathmandu ends up doing.
Fewer visitors know that for people who couldn't make the climb, the old city built a replica. Kathesimbu, tucked into the lanes just south of Thamel, was constructed so that the sick, the elderly, and the otherwise unable to make the pilgrimage to Swoyambhu could still gain the same merit without leaving the city. It was modelled directly on the hilltop stupa, with the same proportions, the same symbolic carvings, and the same arrangement of smaller stupas around the base.
That is why Kathesimbu is sometimes called the "little Swoyambhu." It isn't a copy for tourists. It is a working substitute, built for the people of the old city, and it has been quietly serving that role for centuries while Kathmandu grew up around it.
These neighbourhoods sit close together. You can walk the core of old Kathmandu in an afternoon if you know which direction to head.
01
Most visitors begin here because it's where they're staying. But the old city begins the moment you step off the main tourist strip and into the lanes that run south.
02
Just south of Thamel, the noise drops. Kathesimbu stupa sits quietly in its square, surrounded by prayer flags, butter lamps, and the small shops that keep the monasteries supplied.
03
The commercial heart of old Kathmandu. Newar courtyards, lokta paper, spices, copper, cloth, and the lassi stalls that have stood at Indrachowk for decades.
04
Tucked behind Indrachowk, the glass bead workshops are still run by the same families who have supplied Hindu brides for generations. Small, working, and easy to miss if you don't know it's there.
Prefer to walk it with a guide?
Same neighbourhoods, same trades, but narrated by a local guide. Tips-based, daily at 9 AM and 2 PM from the Garden of Dreams.
Longer pieces on the places and traditions you'll pass through. Written by the same guides who walk these neighbourhoods every day.
For fifteen days this October, Kathmandu empties, villages fill, and the sky turns into a battlefield of kites. A practical guide to Nepal's biggest festival.
Read more →Old CityA quiet lane just off Durbar Square where gold teeth have been made for kings, brides, and generations of Newar families. A small story about a street most visitors walk past.
Read more →Whether you're dreaming of trekking in Nepal, exploring ancient temples, or discovering hidden valleys, we're here to make it happen.
✦ Free consultation • No obligations • Expert advice ✦