I will go to Nepal in May 2011 with my husband and we are hesitating between doing a trek or doing in tour there. We definitely want to go to Kathmandu to visit the temples and then we gonna think between the different national parks or a trek on mount Everest.
what will you recommend? and where did you stay? because we are looking for accommodation, we looked on http://hotel.twenga.co.uk/search_hotel.php?qz=kathmandu and on http://www.kathmandu-hotels.com/, but i'm really confused with all those offers, and it's our first time in Asia, so we don't want "surprises"!!
Trish - I have stayed at Royal Singi Hotel a couple of times - decent mid range hotel, close enough to walk to places of interest - and if you want to go further afield the taxi drivers outside were helpful (and reasonably priced). http://www.hotelroyalsingi.com/
I have trekked the High Passes of Everest + Annapurna Circuit - both good. I found the latter slightly more enjoyable for the greater diversity it offered.
Trish - for hotels why not buy or borrow (from a library) a Lonely Planet or Rough Guide guide book, and then check their recommendations against Trip Advisor's web site.
This might be too daunting if you haven't done a lot of travel in such places, but you can always just turn up and wander around and check-out the hotels yourself. We did this last year. Found a very nice small, clean, quiet hotel and the end of the side street opposite Shona's gear rental shop. Can't remember the street name of even the hotel name, but it was far better than nearby hotels at similar prices. And this was at the beginning of October, probably the busiest time of the year.
Kathmandu Guesthouse would be a reliable (shockingly overpriced) reservable option. You can get a 5* hotel for $100 if it's luxury you want. I'd head somewhere like ...
http://www.ktmpeaceguesthouse.com/tariff.html
...5 minutes from touristy thamel, but those 5 minutes make SUCH a difference. About 5 similar places next to them too.
I preferred EverestBC/KP/Gokyo for rugged high Himalayan views and Annapurna/ABC for a more 'diverse' trek. Don't know about Langtang as i bust myself up 2 hour into it.
If you end up in Pokhara, Sun Welcome restaurant on lakeside is nice. A pokey little local place - cheapest in town but the food is rather awesome. You'll see the same people eating there breakfast, lunch and dinner.
I have not heared so much about Nepal as a tourist place. But it seems a good one for a trip. From your pictures it looks there is a good range of temples there. Architecture of the temples looks great.
