Pokhara, the main touristic hub in Nepal

Profile of Pokhara, the main touristic hub in Nepal  

Pokhara is the main touristy hub, located in Kaski district in western development region in Nepal. Geographically, Pokhara is a valley situated at 200km west of Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal.

Pokhara presents a outstanding view of beautiful mountains to its visitors. The Annapurna mountain alone offers five different attractive peaks. Dhaulagiri, Machapuchre and Manaslu are among the breathtaking mountains for the tourist to enjoy with their fantastic view.        

Pokhara is a starting point to many short and long-distance trekking destinations in Nepal, including Lomanthang, Thorang-La-Pass, Tilicho Lake in Manang, Dhampush, Pothana, Ghandruk, Sikles, Pune hill and Annapurna Base Camp. Besides, rafters in Kali Gandaki and Seti river pass via Pokhara.  

The Muktinath temple in Mustang, Gorge in Kali Gandaki river, Manakamana temple, the heavy Rhododendron forest in Ghodepani are other main surrounding touristic places.

Phewa Lake, on the lap of the Himalayas, is one of the attractions of Pokhara. The lake looks magnificent with the reflection of the beautiful Fishtail mountain. Its beauty is amazing also in the night. Phewa lake is best for the boating and kayaking learners. Because of its wonderful scenery, hills and mountains, boating in Phewa lake is really enjoyable.   

Lekhnath is the town with largest number of lake in Kaski district where the very popular touristic city Pokhara is situated. In Lekhnath, there are seven lakes such as Begnas, Rupa, Maidi, Dipang, Nureni, Khaste and Gunde. These lakes are slightly isolated from the main Pokhara town which is why are not polluted.  

There are many other sightseeing places in Pokhara, including the David Fall, Mountain Museum, Tibetan Refugee Camp, the holy Bindabasini goddess temple, Peace Stupa on top of a hill and Mahendra Cave etc. Sarangkot  hill in the north of Pokhara valley allows you to enjoy the sunrise and mountain views. Views of Phewa lake and township are fantastic from here. Sarangkot is a popular paragliding take-off point.

Paragliding, Zip Flyer and Ultra Light Flight are well famous adventure activities in Pokhara. Tourists can feel like touching the mountains while flying with paragliding, Zip Flyer and Ultra Light and enjoy the view of Pokhara valley and Phewa lake.  

There are 14 two-five star hotels in Pokhara. In addition, Pokhara have 300 tourist standard and 200 ordinary hotels.  There are 157 travel and 204 trekking agencies in this touristy city.

There are 28 colleges in Pokhara. Out of them, 16 colleges are under Tribhuwan University, nine  under Pokhara University, one each under Purbanchal University, Kathmandu University  and Singapore University. 

There are 15 hospitals in Pokhara. The western region zonal hospital, Manipal medical college and Gandaki medical college are the main big hospitals.

Cha Cha Hui children's Park is situated in Himaltol in Pokhara. A resort has  established recently within the park. Resort with children's park is reportedly the first resort in South Asia.

A total, 125,673 households are in Pokhara. The total population in Pokhara is 492,098 (236,385 male and 255,713 female). The Gurung, Magar, Newar and Sherpa are the main ethnic groups. Pokhara is a home of a diverse population as because of growing tourism , people from all over the country, including some Indian traders, have moved to Pokhara.

Pokhara is almost self-dependent on vegetable production. The Sardikhola, Hemja, Ghachwok, Lahachwok, Purunchaur, Bhalam, Bharatpokhari, Pumdi Bhumdi are key vegetable farms that supply vegetable in Pokhara. The Malepatan, Majheripatan and Kundahar are the vegetable farms within Pokhara town.

An estimated number of seven hundred thousand of internal and external tourists visit Pokhara annually. And the number of visitors to Pokhara has been increasing  every year.                   

French citizen, Mauris Harjog, British citizen Colonel Jems Roberts and Swiss Tony Hagen have written books about Pokhara and its surrounding villages.