Day 1 · Kathmandu airport (KTM) Dhulikhel
From Tribhuvan up to the valley's eastern rim
- 25 km, about 1 h
- High point 1,550 m
- Sleep at 1,550 m
- Easy

Your guide and driver wait at the arrivals exit at Tribhuvan, and the car turns east onto the Araniko Highway, past the brick towns of Bhaktapur and Banepa, 25 km and about an hour to Dhulikhel. Before you flew, we sent the Sanctuary your health notes, medicines and food preferences, so the resident Ayurvedic doctor begins already knowing the basics. Your bags go straight to the suite. The consultation comes at about 15:30: observation and conversation, and a reading of your dosha that shapes your meals and practice for three days. At 16:30 you sit in the Crystal Room, a chamber of quartz and amethyst, for a guided meditation. Then up to Zero Zone, the Sanctuary's highest point, to watch the light on the snow peaks go from gold to grey. At dusk a priest lights the arati at the Shiva Linga maze to mark the start of your stay. Dinner is at Nature's Flavours, cooked from the Sanctuary's own farms.
The momentA priest's flame moving along the maze of eighty-four lingams as dusk settles on your first evening.
InsiderKeep a warm layer in your cabin bag: the rim sits about 200 m above Kathmandu, and Zero Zone turns cool the moment the sun has gone.
If the weather turnsIf you land after 15:00, the consultation moves to tomorrow morning, dinner comes to your terrace, and we ask for the arati at tomorrow's dusk instead.
- Meals
- Dinner
