Wellness and Spas in Nepal

Nepal’s hot springs are simple concrete pools fed by natural springs, usually right beside a river, and almost all are on trekking routes. The name Tatopani simply means “hot water”, and several villages share it.

• Tatopani, Myagdi: the best known, on the Kali Gandaki below Ghorepani, reached by road from Beni or as part of the Ghorepani loop or the lower Annapurna Circuit. Pools sit by the river with lodges selling cold beer alongside. Entry is a small fee, about NPR 150 for foreigners at last report.
• Jhinu Danda: a 20-minute walk down from the village to pools on the Modi Khola, a favourite last stop on the way back from Annapurna Base Camp. Entry is a small community fee, about NPR 150 to 300.
• Singa Tatopani: near Beni in Myagdi, larger pools popular with Nepali visitors for their supposed healing powers.
• Tamang Heritage Trail: hot springs at Tatopani above Syabrubesi, on a short trek near Langtang.
• Chame: small hot pools beside the Marsyangdi on the Annapurna Circuit.

Kopan Monastery, a Tibetan Buddhist monastery on a hill north of Boudhanath, is the best-known place in Nepal to learn meditation. It runs short introductory courses through the year and its famous one-month November course, which in 2025 cost USD 750 in a dormitory with all meals. Courses fill up, so register early on the monastery’s website. You can also visit for a day to walk the grounds and join a talk.

Lumbini, the Buddha’s birthplace in the southern plains, is lined with monasteries built by Buddhist countries from Thailand to Germany. Several host meditation retreats, including vipassana courses at Panditarama in the monastic zone, and the area is quiet and flat for walking meditation. Go between October and March; from April to June the Terai is very hot. See our Nepal temples guide for the sights.

Pokhara is the easiest place in Nepal for yoga. Lakeside has daily drop-in classes, and retreats on the hillsides above Phewa Lake and Begnas Lake run from three days to a month, combining hatha yoga, meditation, vegetarian food and short hikes with views of the Annapurnas. Packages usually work out at about USD 60 to 150 a day with a room and meals; 200-hour teacher training courses take three to four weeks. Pokhara is also the natural place to recover after a trek, with massage studios all along the lakeside road.

Thamel in Kathmandu and Lakeside in Pokhara have dozens of massage studios offering Nepali, Tibetan, Ayurvedic and Thai-style treatments, plus “trekkers’ massage” for sore legs. Seeing Hands Nepal, a social enterprise that trains blind and visually impaired massage therapists, has two clinics in Thamel and is a reliable choice. For a proper spa day, the five-star hotels in Kathmandu, such as Dwarika’s, have full spas with Ayurvedic treatments at international prices.

For a few quiet days without a formal course, the ridge-top villages on the rim of the Kathmandu Valley are an hour or two from the city. Nagarkot, east of Bhaktapur, has resorts and guesthouses facing a long stretch of the Himalaya, with sunrise views on clear autumn and winter mornings and easy forest walks between hotels. Several of these resorts add yoga sessions and simple spa treatments to a room booking.

Singing-bowl sessions, in which a practitioner plays bronze bowls around and on the body, are sold all over Thamel and around Boudhanath. They are a pleasant hour of sound rather than medicine. If you want to buy a bowl, the shops around the stupa let you try several before choosing; hand-hammered bowls cost far more than cast ones.

Hot springs are best from October to May, when the trails are dry; in the monsoon some pools flood when rivers rise. Retreats in Pokhara and the Kathmandu Valley run all year, and the monsoon months of June to September are quieter and cheaper, though cloud hides the mountains.

Prices change, so check before you go. For regional options, see wellness in South Asia and wellness around the world.