Overview

For a coffee connoisseur, Nepal offers the chance to experience one of the rarest ocffees in the world. The unique climate and terrain allows for a very high quality coffee to be grown which has a very distinct taste. The Arabica beans are grown here between 900-1800 meters in some of the most picturesque farms one could think of.

This trip takes you up close and personal with this cofee, while the Himalayas create the backdrop, almost as if they do not want to take the joy of the mountains away from you. You meet the farmers, help in the farm (depending on the time of year, either harvest, tend, sort), visit the production chain processes and end up drinking that very coffee, which was roasted right in from of your eyes.

This trip will change your perspective about the coffee staring at you right now! Period.

Itinerary Outline

Day 1: Kathmandu
Day 2: Trip around Kathmandu
Day 3: Kathmandu to Begnas Coffee Farm
Day 4: Begnas to Pokhara
Day 5: Travel to Bandipur
Day 6: Bandipur to Patan
Day 7: Himalayan Java Coffee

Detailed Trip Itinerary

Day 1: Arrival into a New Land! Welcome to Nepal!

You will be collected by a representative from the company at the airport, and brought to your hotel in the city of Patan, about 30 minutes drive (due to traffic) from the international airport. Here you can choose to rest after the long journey, or wander amongst the centuries old temples at Patan Durbar Square, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. You will experience the surreal feeling of the time standing still here. We will round off this eventful day with an early traditional welcome dinner, so that you can hit that bed just in time.
Overnight in Kathmandu Hotel.

Day 2: More to see! The UNESCO Heritage Sites of Bouddhanath, Pashupatinath and Swayambhunath

After a lazy breakfast, we start the day with a drive to the largest Stupa in Asia, Bouddhanath, where it is quite quickly evident that there are several different types of Buddhism being practiced in Nepal, and in Tibet, as this area in the meetin ground of almost every community practicing Buddhism in Nepal. Later after making the three customary circumbulations of the Stupa, we take a walk for about half an hour through backstreets to reach the serene forests around one of the most religious sites for Hindus worldwide, the Shive Temple complex of Pashupatinath. Here you experience the full circle of a Hindu lifestyle. Situated in the banks for the sacred Bagmati, Pashupatinath is a place you come from birth to death, and at any given point, you will see all of that happen in front of you. Guaranteed. It will leave you stumped.

After a local lunch, at a place of convenience, we will take some rest, before going in the afternoon to climb the staris to one of the oldest Stupas, Swayambhunath, situated on a hill with a very picturesque look over Kathmandu valley. The multitudes of monkeys give it its apt nickname "Monkey Temple".
We go back to the hotel after this, for a well-deserved rest.

Day 3: Everything starts with the seed! The Coffee Farm of Begnas, Pokhara

We take an early flight into Pokhaara(20 minutes, try to siton the right side to see the mountains!), nd get into awaiting vehicles for a 45 min - 1 hour ride to the farm near the picturesque lake of Begnas, with a backdrop of three 8000+ peaks showing in the background. This is where your Coffee Trip really begins. With a cup of freshly roasted and brewed coffee (Nepali Style), you sit to talk with the Big Daddy of the Farm, Suriya Adhikari and his lovely wife. This farm is the centerpeice of the Royal Everest Organice Cooperative, where over 170 small farmers bring their red cherries(in varying amounts), where they will be weighed, sorted, washed, peeled and dried before being sent to Kathmandu. The biggest markets for Nepali coffee at the moment are Japan and Taiwan.

Suriya is the "Big Daddy" here. He introduced the farmers to coffee, and created mechanisms through which the small marginal farms could bring their coffees in and contribute into export out of this country. He singlehandedly made this into a product well worth investing in.
We stay overnight at this farm and enjoy the hospitality of this wonderful couple.

Day 4: Goodbye Farm! Hello Pokhara

We start with the roosters today and go on a small half hour hike to Kaskikot, for majestic views rarely seen by foreigners, as one comes here very rarely. As we walk back after the mesmerizing view of the Arnapurna Massif, we meander through villages. Back at the farm, we have some more moments to ask questions, enjoy some more coffee, and bind the newfound friendships. Then we move back toPokhara, where one can opt for a yoga session, a massage, and for the one still not tired after the walk in the morning, a one-hour to the Peace Stupa.
Overnight in Pokhara(Alternative:Skip Pokhara and stay back in the farm; or vvisit the coffee farm in Bayali where the Nepal Blue Mountain Coffee is produced, the most expensive and fairest produced coffee in Nepal).

Day 5: Understanding an old trade route! Bandipur

After breakfast, and for early risers, another mesmerising look at the mountains, we board our transport to drive about three hours to the mountain village of Bandipur, where in the calm of this amazingly serene village, we can digest what we just experienced in the last few days. Bandipur is on the old trade route between India and Tibet, and remnants of that heritage are still evident in some of the preserved buildings
Overnight in a small lodge in Bandipur.

Day 6: From the farm to the factory!

We do have to come back to Kathmandu Valley. After an early breakfast and about four hours later, we reach our lunch place that awaits us in the historic city of Bhaktapur. Afterwards we have time to wander around this preserved living heritage. Then, it's time to get down and dirty and get into Lamaji's coffee factory, which is amazingly simple, but in the main sorting, storing and pakcing hub for Royal Everest Coffee. Here we see the final processes before the coffee is ready for export, or retail.
Overnight in Hotel in Patan.

Day 7: Coffee roasting anyone?

Time that we get to the end of the line. We visit Anand Gurung's Himalayan Java, where the coffee is freshly roasted and packed, and also tasted and consumed, it being one of the best coffee houses in Nepal. We hear from Anand about the coffee from the consumer side of things. The Himalayan Java is the only place one can also do a Barrista Course in Nepal.
We round all this with a dinner where we all get together to enjoy each others company.

Day 8: Home Sweet Home. Free till departure.