City guide Pokhara – Eat, sleep and party
General information
Pokhara is the second largest city of Nepal. The city has a beautiful lake and is surrounded by the Himalayas. It is the most obvious town in Nepal to visit, if you would like to see the Himalayas without trekking. However, if you would like to go trekking, Pokhara also serves as a good starting point for the popular treks like the Anapurna circuit and the Poon hill trek. The city is mainly visited by hippies, backpackers, tourists who go trekking and locals who are going for a short domestic holiday.
How to get there
Getting there from Kathmandu is either a five to six hour bus drive or a short thirty to fourthly minute flight.
What to do
Pokhara lists endless adventures. You can go rafting on the rivers, mountain biking through the amazing nature, paragliding over the beautiful lake, renting a boat and paddling through the tranquil waters, do some ultra light flying or bungee jumping, hiking to the World Piece Pagoda or you can bring a visit to the Devi’s waterfall or one of the magnificent caves. Read more about my sightseeing experience via this blog post.
Where to party
Pokhara knows many bars and restaurants. Unfortunately for Pokhara, nightlife here closes before midnight because of local rules. All the action in Pokhara takes place in the Lakeside area and for most of the bars the entrance fee is free. You can read about the best bars below:
1) ´Busy Bee´
I experienced this bar as the best bar in Pokhara. Around the afternoon, you can dine and enjoy live music and in the evening you can dance on the music of the disk jockey. In this bar you can find many foreigners and it is a good place to make new friends. No entrance fee.
2)’Club Amsterdam’
Club Amsterdam is a really nice little nightspot in Pokhara where live bands are playing rock music every night and football games are played on television screens. The atmosphere is really nice. They have Bitterballen on the menu and there are pictures of Amsterdam on the walls.
3) ‘Phewa Lake promenade’
There is a nice promenade with some bars around the Phewa Lake. I usually watched the sunset in one of the bars while drinking some cocktails during the happy hours and then moved to one of the main bars in the main street like ‘Busy Bee’, ‘Club Amsterdam’ or ‘The Irish Pub’. Around Phewa lake you can enjoy cheap drinks with amazing views on the lake.
4) ‘All that jazz’
If you are into Jazz, you can hang out in ‘All that Jazz’. The one and only Live Jazz bar in Pokhara. The bar is located above the Punjabi restaurant in the main street. It is a good bar with a wide choice of drinks.
5) ‘The Irish Pub’
This bar is quite big and the atmosphere is a bit boring, but you can play pool for free. The bar is known for the sport matches they show on the big screens. Fine place, if you are looking for a quiet evening. Every night they have live music.
6) ‘Club Nasha’
You can find many dance clubs in Pokhara. ‘Club Nasha’ is one of them. You can have a drink or meal while getting entertainment by the dance moves of local guys and girls on Bollywood tunes.
Where to eat?
Here are some of my favorite places to eat:
1) ‘Lemon Tree’
This place has a good atmosphere. You can go for breakfast, lunch and dinner. You also get free peanuts with your beers or cocktails.
2) ‘Double view’
This restaurant provides an amazing view on the lake. It is known for the good steaks they are serving.
3)’Asian Tree house’
This place is great for breakfast. If you are looking for a lot of food for a very cheap price and good quality you should eat here. For just 240 Rupees (€ 2,00) you will have a huge breakfast consisting of a pancake, 2 eggs of your own choice, bread, jam, butter and a pot of tea. The place looks very local and cheap, but the food tastes good.
4) ‘Phewa Lake promenade’
There is a nice promenade with some bars and restaurants around the Phewa Lake. You can have breakfast, lunch and dinner in every bar and restaurant. They all have a wide choice in Nepali meals and Western meals like sandwiches, pizzas or pastas.
Where to sleep?
During my stay in Pokhara I stayed in two different places. They were both small and cheap.
1) ‘Harvest Moon Guest House’
This place is great. It is managed by a small family and they will help you with everything you wish for. They helped me to book my paragliding excursion (for a cheaper rate) and they arranged my bus ticket for my way back to Kathmandu. The rooms are big and clean. For around 500 Rupees (€ 4,15) per person you can overnight. The place has free WiFi in the rooms and restaurant, hot water and electricity during fixed times. Please have a look at the folder of this guest house:
‘Pequin Guest House’
This guest house is managed by a lovely couple. It is located in a small quiet street in the eastern part of Lakeside. The rooms are spacious and clean, part of them with attached bathroom. They provide hot water and they have a really nice rooftop and lobby. For around 200 Rupees (€ 1,66) per person per night you can overnight.
I hope this information can help you during your stay in Pokhara. If you experienced any other good bars, restaurants or guest houses, please let me know in the comments! I would love to hear about them.
This article is part of the GPSmyCity iOS app. You can download it, read this article offline and obtain travel directions (by foot, car or bicycle) to the places mentioned in this article. Click here to download it.
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