The hardest thing about Dashain for a visitor is that its centre is a living room. The public ceremony is thin, spread across a handful of days and places, and if you are in the wrong one you may see nothing but closed shutters.
These are the nine places we would send someone, with what each offers and on which day. The festival's sequence is in the fifteen days of Dashain; the dates are in our Dashain calendar.
The Nine, at a Glance
| Place | Best day | What you see | From Kathmandu |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kathmandu: Tundikhel and Durbar Square | Phulpati; Maha Navami | The army parade; the Taleju temple open | In the city |
| Bhaktapur | Maha Navami; the tika | Mohani and the Navadurga masked dancers | 40 minutes |
| Gorkha | Days before Phulpati; Maha Ashtami | The palace the Phulpati leaves from | 5 hours |
| Manakamana | Maha Ashtami | Nepal's busiest pilgrimage temple, by cable car | 3 hours |
| Dakshinkali | Maha Ashtami; Maha Navami | The festival's sacrificial side | 1 hour |
| Pokhara | Maha Navami; days after the tika | Bindhyabasini temple; village swings | 25 minutes by air |
| A hill village homestay | The tika | The festival as families keep it | 5 – 7 hours |
| Khokana | Days 7 – 10 | Shikali Jatra, in the village that skips Dashain | 40 minutes |
| The Terai towns | Days 7 – 10 | Durga Puja: clay idols, lights and fairs | 20 – 35 minutes by air |
In the Kathmandu Valley
1. Kathmandu: Tundikhel and Durbar Square
The state's Dashain. On the seventh day the Phulpati arrives from Gorkha and the army parades at Tundikhel with bands and gunfire. On the ninth, the Taleju temple in Durbar Square opens for its single day of the year, with a queue that fills the square. Between the two, the old city empties and becomes a pleasure to walk. Full detail in Kathmandu during Dashain; a Kathmandu day tour covers the square.
2. Bhaktapur
The Newar festival of Mohani, kept in the best-preserved medieval city in the valley. For nine mornings its people visit the shrines of the nine goddesses that ring the town, and on the tenth day the Navadurga — masked dancers who embody those goddesses — emerge for the first time in the year. It is the most distinctive Dashain in Nepal. See Bhaktapur during Dashain and our Bhaktapur day tour.
3. Dakshinkali
A temple of Kali in a forested gorge south of the city, and the place most associated with animal sacrifice. On the eighth and ninth days the queue stretches up the hillside. It is not for everyone, and it is the truest picture of what the festival's middle days are about. Read animal sacrifice at Dashain before deciding; the Pharping and Dakshinkali tour pairs it with the quiet Buddhist caves nearby.
4. Khokana
A Newar farming village south of Patan that famously does not celebrate Dashain. Instead it holds Shikali Jatra, a five-day festival of its own in the same week, with masked dancers and a procession to the shrine on the hill above the village. If you want ritual without sacrifice and without crowds of visitors, this is the one. It is on our Bungamati and Khokana tour — see the guide.
On the Road West
5. Gorkha
The hilltop palace of the Shah kings, five hours from Kathmandu, is where the royal Phulpati has set out from for centuries. Its Gorakhkali temple is one of the festival's main sites of worship, and the palace itself — part fort, part temple, on a knife-edge ridge with Manaslu behind it — is worth the climb at any time.
6. Manakamana
The temple of the wish-fulfilling goddess, on a ridge above the Trishuli, reached by cable car from the Kathmandu–Pokhara highway. At Dashain it draws more pilgrims than anywhere else in the country, many of them leading a goat. Both are covered in Gorkha and Manakamana during Dashain; either can be added to the drive on our Kathmandu & Pokhara Tour.
7. Pokhara
The Bindhyabasini temple is the centre of the town's festival, the island shrine of Tal Barahi its gentlest corner, and the ridge villages above the lake — Sarangkot, Kaskikot, Dhampus — the place for swings with a Himalayan backdrop. See Pokhara during Dashain and the Pokhara day tour.
In the Villages
8. A hill village homestay
If you want to see Dashain itself — the dark room with the jamara, the goat, the tika given by a grandmother to thirty relatives in turn — it has to be in a house. Community homestays make that possible without an invitation. Ghalegaun in Lamjung and Sirubari in Syangja are Gurung villages that have hosted guests for years; Bandipur is a Newar hill town where the festival is kept in the bazaar.
You will be given a tika, fed several times, and put on the swing. Our Ghalegaun, Sirubari and Himalayan Village tours can each be dated for the festival; the etiquette is in receiving Dashain tika.
In the Terai
9. The Terai towns
On the southern plains the same festival looks entirely different. Here it is Durga Puja: neighbourhood committees build temporary pavilions housing painted clay figures of the goddess killing the buffalo demon, lit and decorated for nine nights, with fairs around them. On the tenth day the figures are carried in procession and immersed in a river or pond.
Janakpur, the old capital of Mithila and the city of Sita, is the most atmospheric place to see it, and is a stop on our Hindu Pilgrimage Tour. Closer to the usual routes, the towns around Chitwan keep the festival in the same style, and it combines easily with a Chitwan safari — see our Chitwan guide. October on the plains is warm and humid; go for the evenings.
Putting Them Together
No one trip covers all nine, but four or five fit comfortably. This is the route we would suggest for the 2026 festival.
| Date (2026) | Place | For |
|---|---|---|
| Fri 16 Oct | Kathmandu | The Ason markets at their busiest |
| Sat 17 Oct | Kathmandu | The Phulpati parade |
| Sun 18 Oct | Khokana, then Bhaktapur | Shikali Jatra; Mohani in the squares |
| Mon 19 Oct | Drive to Gorkha by way of Manakamana | The cable car and the temple; the roads are clear on this day |
| Tue 20 Oct | Gorkha Durbar; drive to Bandipur or Ghalegaun | The palace on Maha Navami |
| Wed 21 Oct | Village homestay | The tika |
| Thu 22 Oct | Pokhara | The lake, the swings on the ridges, and on to a trek |
From Pokhara the natural continuation is a short trek — see Annapurna treks during Dashain. Photographers should also read photographing Dashain, or let the Nepal Photography Tour do the timing.
