Your money goes a long way in Nepal. Off the tourist routes, it can actually be hard to spend US$5/£3 a day, however willing you might be to pay more. On the other hand, Kathmandu and some of the other tourist traps can burn a hole in your pocket rather faster than you might have expected in the Third World. The cost of seeing Nepal, then, depends in large part on the proportion of time you spend on and off the beaten track.
While even in the capital it's still possible for a budget traveller to keep to US$8/£5 a day, the figure can effortlessly balloon to $20/£13 or more simply by trading up to slightly nicer hotels and restaurants. If you like to travel in greater luxury, you should expect to spend $40 or more per day, depending mainly on standard of accommodation
Typical costs
The price of
accommodation
varies considerably, depending on where you stay and when. Really basic rooms (ie, the kind Nepalis stay in) can almost always be found for $1.50/£1 or less. Prices aren't automatically higher in tourist areas, but...
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Nepalese money
Nepal's unit of currency is the
rupee
, which is divided into 100 paisa. At the time of writing, the
exchange rate
was Rs68 to the US$ (£1=Rs110). The Nepalese rupee floats freely against most other currencies but is generally...
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Travellers' cheques and credit cards
Travellers' cheques
are of course more secure than cash, and in Nepal they bring a slightly higher official exchange rate, just about offsetting the one-percent commission you pay when buying them. Any major brand will do.
US dollar
...
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Banks and moneychangers
Using
banks
in Nepal is, by South Asian standards, surprisingly hassle-free. Numerous private banks and two quasi-government ones (Nepal Bank and Rastriya Banijya Bank) all vie for tourists' business, as do a horde of government-registered
...
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Getting more money
If you run low on funds in Nepal, by far the best way to replenish them is with a
credit card cash advance
. Some private banks (notably Nepal Grindlays) issue cash advances against Visa/Mastercard, and they typically charge no commission if...
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