Overview
This Sailung tour heads to a quiet corner of Nepal east of Kathmandu, where a grassy ridge on the Dolakha and Ramechhap border rolls away in a hundred small green hillocks. Over three days you drive out along the Araniko Highway to Charikot, the hill town at the heart of Dolakha, and visit the revered Bhimeshwar temple before climbing to the Sailung ridge at 3,146 metres. You spend a night high on the plateau so you can be there for sunrise, when the sun lifts over a long Himalayan skyline from Everest and Gaurishankar to Langtang above the sea of hillocks. It is a gentle, off-the-beaten-track escape of temples, ridge walks and big morning views, well away from the usual valley crowds.
The itinerary
- Drive east from Kathmandu on the Araniko Highway through Dhulikhel to Charikot, roughly five to six hours, with a lunch stop on the way
- Visit the Dolakha Bhimeshwar temple, an unusual shrine with no roof over the deity and a long pilgrimage tradition
- Dinner and overnight at a lodge in Charikot, with views towards Gaurishankar
- Drive from Charikot towards the Sailung side, leaving the highway for a rough hill road up to the ridge, with lunch on the way
- Reach the roadhead and walk the last stretch, one to two hours, up to the Sailung viewpoint at 3,146 m
- Wander the open plateau of grassy hillocks, then dinner and overnight in a simple homestay or lodge near the ridge
- Walk to the ridge before dawn for sunrise over the hundred hills and the Himalayan skyline
- Pick out Everest, Gaurishankar, Numbur and the Langtang peaks on a clear morning, then return for breakfast
- Descend from the ridge and drive back to Kathmandu, a long day on the road with a lunch stop
- Dinner in Kathmandu, then drop-off at your hotel, where the tour ends
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Things to carry
- A warm insulated jacket, hat and gloves for cold ridge nights
- Comfortable walking shoes or boots for the ridge and rough ground
- Sunglasses, sun hat and sunscreen for the bright plateau light
- A daypack, refillable water bottle, torch and any personal medicines
- A camera or phone and a power bank for the sunrise and hillocks
Good to know
Complete guide
Sailung is one of those places Kathmandu keeps almost to itself: a high, grassy ridge of endless hillocks on the Dolakha border, with a Himalayan sunrise most people never make time for. Paired with the old pilgrimage town of Dolakha and its Bhimeshwar temple, it makes a quiet three-day escape into the eastern hills. Here is how the trip works.
What the Sailung tour covers
The route runs east from Kathmandu to Charikot and Dolakha on the first day, crosses to the Sailung ridge for a night on the second, and returns after sunrise on the third. Three days is deliberate: with the roadhead six to seven hours out and the last stretch on rough hill road, this is a trip built around one great viewpoint and the drive it takes to earn it, not a packed sightseeing loop. For a mountain sunrise far closer to the city, the Nagarkot sunrise and Bhaktapur tour delivers a Himalayan dawn in a single morning.
Charikot and the Dolakha Bhimeshwar temple
Charikot is the busy hill town where the trip pauses on the way in, with wide views towards Gaurishankar. Just below it lies the old Dolakha bazaar and its Bhimeshwar temple, an important and unusual shrine whose main deity sits under open sky and is said to change with the fortunes of the land. It is a genuine working pilgrimage site rather than a tourist set piece, and a good introduction to the culture of these eastern hills before you climb higher.
The Sailung ridge and its sunrise
The reason to stay the night is the ridge at first light. Sailung tops out around 3,146 metres in a rolling plateau of a hundred grassy hillocks, and at dawn the whole eastern Himalaya lines the horizon above them, from Everest and Gaurishankar to the Langtang peaks. Days here are for slow walks between the mounds and small ridge-top shrines; nights are cold and simple, spent in homestays or basic lodges, so warm layers matter.
Who this trip suits
This suits travellers who like their views hard-won and their crowds absent: pilgrims, hill walkers and anyone happy to trade comfort and long drives for a genuinely off-the-map ridge. It is not for those short on time or wanting polished hotels. If you enjoy a quiet valley-rim walk to a viewpoint but want something far gentler and nearer home, the Changu Narayan to Nagarkot hike is an easy day-scale alternative.
