Money, SIM Cards and Staying Connected in Nepal

Nepal runs on cash, with cards accepted in the places tourists spend most. Plan to carry rupees whenever you leave Kathmandu or Pokhara.

Currency and cash

• The Nepali rupee (NPR) is pegged to the Indian rupee at 1.6 and trades around NPR 130–140 to the US dollar. Indian 500 and 2,000 rupee notes are not accepted.
• ATMs are plentiful in cities and towns; most cap withdrawals at NPR 25,000–35,000 per transaction and charge a fee of about NPR 500, so withdraw larger amounts less often.
• Change money at licensed counters in Thamel or Lakeside; rates are better than the airport and banks close early.
• On treks there are no ATMs beyond the roadhead (Namche has one or two unreliable machines). Carry all the cash you need plus a reserve for emergencies.

SIM cards

• Ncell and Nepal Telecom (NTC) sell tourist SIMs at Tribhuvan airport and in any town. Bring your passport and a passport photo; registration is done on the spot.
• Data packs are cheap, a few dollars for several gigabytes. NTC has better coverage in rural areas and on some trekking routes; Ncell is faster in cities.
• Coverage on treks is partial: good to Namche and in the Annapurna foothills, patchy or absent higher up. Do not rely on a phone for emergencies above 4,000 m.

Wi-Fi and power

• Hotels and cafés in cities have decent Wi-Fi. On the Everest route most lodges sell Everest Link cards; elsewhere lodges charge a few hundred rupees per device.
• Lodges charge for charging phones and cameras above the roadhead, typically NPR 200–500 per device. A power bank and a spare battery pay for themselves.
• Mains power is 230 V. Sockets are usually type C, D or M; a universal adapter covers all three. Load-shedding power cuts are rare now but short outages still happen.