How to Go from Kakarvitta to Kathmandu – Bus Tickets, Times, Fares, Options

We had arrived in Kakarvitta (also called Kakarbhitta or Kakadbhitta) from Darjeeling.  Our next plan was traveling from this Nepalese border town, Kakarvitta to Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal.   The distance between Kakarvitta and Kathmandu is 600 kilometers (372 miles). The roads are truly dreadful. Even in the dry season.  We needed the Kakarvitta to Kathmandu bus service and information about this route is limited.  There are several companies providing a bus service from Kakarbhitta to Kathmandu you can now (finally!) book these bus tickets online, details follow.

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Easiest Way to Get the Bus from Kakarvitta to Kathmandu

What’s in Kakarvitta?

Kakarvitta is like any border town.  Plenty of places to eat, plenty of places to stay, none of them very appealing or appetizing, and nothing else to do apart from getting the hell out of town.  After you walk from the border there’s an easy-to-find bus station with a plethora of buses (large and small) waiting for their next trip.  You can get all the details of how we crossed the border from India to Nepal here.

If you decide that you want to stay in Kakarvitta before making your way onward to Kathmandu, then the Hotel Ringji is the closest to the bus station.

Distance between Kakarvitta and Kathmandu

The Kakarvitta to Kathmandu distance isn’t that great, but the roads are seriously bad.  The journey is 600 kilometers by road, 300 km as the crow flies, and will take up to 20 hours if you take the bus, or about 45 minutes flying time.  (that doesn’t include getting to and from the airport at either end, but you can assume that flying is going to be a LOT quicker than the bus.  A lot!

Map of Route from Kakarvitta to Kathmandu

How to Go from Kakarvitta to Kathmandu

If you’re wanting to go from Kakarvitta to Kathmandu then you currently have two options, either a bus or a flight.  The bus is by far the cheapest. Flights are at least 8 times more expensive than a bus, and you will also need to consider getting from Kakarvitta to Bhadrapur Airport (its about 18 kilometers, 11 miles).  Mind you, the flight is only about 45 minutes, compared to 15 to 20 hours on a bus. 

Flights from Kakarvitta to Kathmandu

This is the quickest way to get to Kathmandu from this border crossing, but you’ll need to first of all get to the airport.

Kakarvitta to Bhadrapur

If you plan on flying this route, then the closest airport to Kakarvitta is at Bhadrapur, which is about a 30 minute trip.  You’ll need to take a taxi for this and you can find taxis either via your hotel, or at the bus station.

Bhadrapur Airport to Kathmandu Airport (BDP to KTM)

There are up to 20 flights a day (depending on the season), with the first flight leaving Bhadrapur at 08:55 and the last flight of the day leaving at 20:00.   Flights are operated by different airlines – Yeti Ari, Hahn Air Systems and Buddha Air all have regular services.

Check flight times and prices from Bhadrapur to Kathmandu here.

Kathmandu Airport to Kathmandu

Kathmandu has grown a lot over the years, but its only about 3.5 kilometers (2.2 miles) from the airport gate to the city center, so it depends on where you are staying as to the cost of your transport.

You can get a bus for about 30 NPR, or a taxi for about US$2.50 .  For the bus you’ll need to pay cash, are unlikely to get any change and the timetable is not published.  It’s the Sajha Yatayat bus that you need. 

There are prepaid taxis (pay at the airport – head straight to the pre-paid taxi booth in the arrivals hall) for a set rate, or negotiate with your driver, or take a metered taxi.  For metered taxi’s you’ll pay a base rate of 60 NPR, then 49 NPR per kilometre.  Rates are higher after dark.  And you should assume that from Kathmandu Airport to Kathmandu city center is about 300 NPR.

You can also pre book (and prepay ) a taxi from the airport to Kathmandu here.

Bus from Kakarvitta to Kathmandu

There’s a heap of choice of buses that go to Kathmandu from Kakarvitta.  But they’re all round about the same time!  Kakarvitta to Kathmandu bus timings are roughly twice a day – the late afternoon (anywhere between 3:30pm and 6 pm) and early morning (4 am-5:30am).   You can now book the buses – there are small mini buses and larger buses available.

Kakarvitta to Kathmandu Bus Booking

There is no central booking office in Kakarvitta here, there are lots of individual booking offices.  Whether you can get close to them for the sheer number of touts trying to sell you a bus ticket is another matter. Your best bet is to book your bus ticket online. Here are the options.

How to make a Kakarvitta to Kathmandu Bus Booking

If you don’t want to book online, then the best way to make a booking for the bus is to find a bus that is leaving at the time you want to, pick the seats you want, pay, and get a ticket.

When we travelled we were originally going to find somewhere to stay and catch a bus in the morning.  That would mean that we could “see some of the country” on the way across.  However, the persistent gloom and fog that has plagued us in Darjeeling stayed with us all down the mountain.  It’s still here in Kakarvitta.  We made a snap decision on the basis that we probably won’t see anything in daylight anyway and decided to go today and travel overnight mostly.  We also checked with the FCO that there weren’t any problems to be aware of.

We found several buses plying the route to Kathmandu from Kakarvitta – they all park at the bus station – picked a bus that had seats in the middle of the bus.  We checked that they weren’t broken and that the ones in front of us weren’t broken either.  Paid.  We made sure we paid someone who other passengers were paying, not just a random stranger, and got a Kakarvitta to Kathmandu bus ticket with our seat numbers on.  Easy.

Whether you take the bus, or fly you’re going to be exhausted when you arrive in Kathmandu, so we recommend you book your hotel or hostel ahead of time.

Our Trip from Kakarvitta to Kathmandu

It gets dark pretty quickly, so it’s hard to tell the state of the roads.  I rely on how often I bounce off the seat for that.  At least my backside isn’t numb, although it probably is bruised from the bouncing.

I estimate that at least 550 of the 600 kilometers was offroad.  And I don’t want to look at the tires on the bus we traveled on. Sometimes not knowing the answer is just best for your mental health.

Every single time we get off an overnight bus we say never again. I think they must be like childbirth because you forget just how bad it was and you do it all over again.  So it’s probably a good job we don’t have kids, we’d be up to 10 of the little darlings by now if our propensity to keep jumping on bloody overnight buses is anything to go by.

Arriving in Kathmandu from Kakarvitta

Our 17-hour labor is over and we’re here in Kathmandu.  It’s been raining.  There are huge pools of water everywhere.  And the “road” that we’re on appears to be the only road.  There are mud pools and dust everywhere else.

We walk in the direction of Thamel, the budget backpacker district.  We’re guided somewhat by the GPS in the phone, but mostly by helpful folks who’ve clearly seen it all before and who wave us generally towards Thamel.  The maps aren’t great (but you should download Maps.me) and have a sense of where you are.  People here are helpful and will send you in the right direction.  It takes us around 20 minutes with full packs on to get to the backpacker area.

In Thamel, we find our hotel, which gives us hot water, wifi, and a private bathroom.  The warmth after the chill of Darjeeling is worth every cent and the bed, well after the bus, it’s glorious and so we rest, for tomorrow we need to shop for trekking gear.

Map of Bus Terminals and Airports for going from Kakarvitta to Kathmandu

You can also see the full map of Bus Terminals and Airports to go from Kakarvitta to Kathmandu here

The quickest way to get from Kakarvitta to Kathmandu

It is quickest to fly from Kakarvitta to Kathmandu.  It takes about 45 minutes, and even when you add in the time to get to and from the airport at each end, it’s a lot, lot quicker.  You can check flight times and prices here.

The cheapest way to go from Kakarvitta to Kathmandu

The cheapest way to get to Kakarvitta from Kathmandu is to take the bus – you can check the times and prices and reserve seats here.

The best way to go from Kakarvitta to Kathmandu

There were no flight options when we travelled, but it certainly will save you a day of travel time today.  However, I’d still take the bus, only this time I’d try and see something of the country on the way over!  Check bus times to Kathmandu here.

Final Words on How to Go from Kakarvitta to Kathmandu

There aren’t a huge number of options for this route.  And while roads are still not great, they’re a lot better than they used to be.  Today there’s also a flight (or several a day) that you can take, but the buses remain the cheapest options for getting across to Kathmandu.  Happy travels and let me know how you go.

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