Every guide, including mine, tells you to come in October. But plenty of people arrive in July, and the city does not stop being beautiful because it is wet.
At a glance
- Rain
- Mostly at night
- Mountains
- A few mornings a month
The rhythm of a monsoon day
Most rain falls overnight and in the early hours. Mornings are often dry and washed, the hills an unreasonable green, cloud sitting on the ridges. Rain builds through the afternoon. Plan the day around a dry morning and an indoor afternoon, and carry a real rain jacket, not a poncho.
What works
- Davis Falls at full force, the one time of year it earns its reputation.
- The lake is full and warm; rowing in light rain with cloud on the water is its own thing.
- The International Mountain Museum and the cafés: long afternoons.
- Rice planting in the fields around Pame and Begnas in June–July, the most photogenic agricultural moment of the year.
- Prices: rooms are at their lowest, and you can negotiate.
What doesn’t
Paragliding is mostly off. Sarangkot sunrise is a lottery. The Kathmandu road suffers landslides — allow an extra day either side of a bus journey. Trekking to ABC is wet, leech-ridden and viewless; the Mustang side of the range, in the rain shadow, is where trekkers go in these months.