There are optional trips available before or after the main trip for maximum utilization of your holidays such as local market visit, shopping tours, family holidays, student travel, volunteering, rock climbing, hunting, honey hunting, boating, fishing etc.
Local Market Visit:
Trekking Encounters offers customized trips for half or full day to experience the daily life of people of Kathmandu. We include places where locals are busy on their daily activities as optional trips. These tours include the visit of Ason, Kalimati vegetable market, Kuleshwor fruit market, local city market or popular departmental stores. New Road is yet another popular market place to shop modern items such as cloths, ornaments, jewelries, electronics etc.
Shopping Tours:
Kathmandu itself is a ‘Shopping Mall’ for unique items. “Shop till you drop” should be your motto as Kathmandu is a shoppers’ paradise. There are many remarkable items of handicrafts which have become immensely popular throughout the world. The excellent workmanship and artistic creations of Nepalese people are truly unique and admirable. Many handicrafts carry religious meanings. The statues of copper, bronze, silver or gold are more demanding including exquisite wood carvings. Wood carved windows are extremely popular and exported largely. Other souvenir pieces are the famous Gurkha knife or Khukuri, prayer wheels, stone carvings, singing bowls, papier–maché masks, thangkas and pauvas, pashmina items, carpets, jewelry and much more till you drop.
Note: All handicraft items above 100 years are termed ‘antique’ and taking them out of the country is illegal and is a serious offense and need a clearance certificate from the Department of Archaeology.
Volunteering in Nepal:
Nepal is one of the under developed countries in the world and volunteer work is an excellent way to contribute directly to the society. We can help you to find a school in or out of Kathmandu where you can teach English or art works, support orphanage or monastery and help with building projects or even volunteer at Eco campaigns. We are closely working with some Schools in Nepal to teach as a volunteer.
Therefore, we have pre-scheduled some itineraries including some trekking tours with a volunteering opportunity for two weeks to three months.
Rock Climbing:
Rock climbing is another challenging sport for outdoor lovers. Most of the areas for rock climbing are available towards the north of Kathmandu Valley in the vicinity of the Nagarjun forest and the Shivapuri National Park. Trip to these places can be combined with hiking, bird watching and nature tours.
Hunting:
Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve in west Nepal allows licensed hunting. It is a prime habitat of blue sheep, ghoral, serow, Himalayan tahr, balck bear, pheasant and partridge. Endangered species here are chir pheasant and red panda. Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation in Kathmandu provides hunting license for a certain time of the year only. Dhorpatan is a four-day trek from Baglung, 72 kilometers from Pokhara. February to April and August to October are considered as the best months to visit this area. Tented camps need to be organized for accommodation.
Honey Hunting:
Honey hunting is an age-old tradition in Nepal. Local honey hunters show their exceptional skills by hanging themselves from the cliffs as high as 300 meters using bamboo ladders and hemp ropes while harvesting the honeycombs. The spectacular honey hunting can be seen on the steep bee cliffs while trekking through the foothills of the Himalayas.
Boating:
Nepal provides excellent opportunities for boating from glacier-fed lakes up north down to the south into the Terai plains. Pokhara is one of the most popular destinations for boating because of the famous lakes like Phewa, Begnas and Rupa. In the Terai, canoeing trips on Narayani, Rapti and Karnali Rivers near Chitwan and Bardia National Parks are available as one of the packages with the jungle safari adventures.
Fishing:
Fishing is also another popular activity in Nepal. There are about 118 varieties of fresh-water fish available in the Himalayan Rivers. The best season for fishing in Nepal’s rivers is before or after the monsoon from February till April and October-November.
Family Holidays:
We tailor Family Holiday packages such as small hiking, cultural tours, Himalayan sightseeing, rafting or boating and jungle adventures for different age groups including children. Optional trips may combine with a main trip as also.
Student Travel:
Nepal has been a destination for student travel in their gap years and during college days for decades now. The capital Kathmandu is not just the hippy’s centre as it was in the 60s and 70s, but it’s a cultural hotspot and the heavenly natural paradise ranging it’s elevation from 65 meters to 8,848 meters with varied climatic conditions and a real natural museum of over 8000 species of flora and fauna. This is a holy land too having the stupas and temples. Lumbini, birthplace of Lord Buddha is yet another uncrowded site that demands a visit.
Flight Bookings:
We also book domestic and international flights for our customers in order to provide a hassle free travel services under one roof. We organize flights even in last moments to the remote sectors of Nepal such as Lukla, Phaplu, Taplejung, Jomsom, Dolpo, Jumla and many other destinations.
Please Contact Us if you have interest on any optional trips mentioned above.