How to get Thamel from Kathmandu Airport

Kathmandu airport/ Tribhuban International Airport is the only international airport in Nepal located in the capital. Many new comer tourists for Nepal get confused with how to get Thamel from the airport. Those who get connected with trekking and travel companies do not really get enough information and those who come independently do not have good preparation how to get Thamel from airport. Even sometimes they are hassled and misled. So, it good to know how to get Thamel from Tribhuvan International Airport.

Trivhuban International Airport/ Kathmandu Airport is 5.4 km away towards east from Thamel. It is close from Thamel but due to heavy traffic, it takes 30-40 minutes to get Thamel from the airport. The most common problem faced by the tourists is luggage miss. They need to spend, sometimes, hours to find their luggage and sometimes the problem becomes more worse and the luggage gets lost. So, we need to be very watchful about our luggage while travelling to Nepal.

Ways of getting Thamel from Trivhuvan International Airport/ Kathmandu Airport

1. By Prepaid Taxi

Kathmandu Airport arranges the prepaid taxi sand by at the arrival. You can pay to the counter and get the receipt. You will pay 8 USD to drop you at Thamel or Lazimpat from Kathmandu Airport.

Tell your destination at the prepaid taxi counter at the arrival of Kathmandu airport and they will safely drop you to your destination. For these , you have to communicate with Nepalese people working at the prepaid taxi counter and deal with it. Have polite communication and tell your destination clearly to he driver.

2. By Local Taxi

Relatively, it is more complicated to deal with local taxi. First they will quote the price like Rs. 1000-1500. At this time, you have to bargain to make it less. They can make it to 700-800 but very hard. While getting in a local taxi, make safety of your valuable things and equipments like mobile, wallet or purse, camera and the like.

3. By Private car or van

Private car or van is also possible from Kathmandu airport to get Thamel or Lazimpat but we need to ask the people at the arrival and watchfully deal with it. Thye will charge you 7-10 USD depending on the group size.

4. By local bus ( Not recommended)

Getting local bus from airport is complicated from Kathmandu airport to Thamel or Lazimpat. Actually, we do not get local bus directly from Kathmandu airport to Thamle. For this, we first need to come to the main road walking out of the airport and get the local bus. We need to have some Nepali currency change. The local bus charges you 15-20 rupees. Before getting the bus, we need to ask to what destination is the bus moving. Your best destination closer to Thamel or Lazimpat is Ratnapark first. Tell them that you are going to Ratnapar and then you again need to catch second bus to get Thamel or Lazimpat. It means you need to change two different buses to get Thamel or Lazimpat.

We need to take care of our valuable belongings while riding local bus from the Kathmandu to Thamel or Lazimpat. The local bus is normally too crowded.

We don’t want you in trouble, so, we suggest to use prepaid taxi to all the independent travelers who come in Nepal to get wither Thamel or Lazimpat.

Those who are already booked their trip to Nepal via trekking and travel companies will be received by private car or van at the Kathmandu airport by the representative and dropped to their destination.