Festivals · 18 Aug 2026 · 6 min
When to book around Dashain and Tihar — and when the house is closed
Half of Nepal goes home for Dashain. The other half hosts. Here is how to read a listing calendar so you do not arrive to a locked courtyard.
Dashain is not a long weekend. Whole families leave the city for the village, and many homestays close for a week because the host is on that bus too. Tihar, a fortnight later, is the opposite in the Kathmandu valley: lamps on every roof, and the houses that stay open are the ones you actually want.
On HimaGo the blocked nights are the host’s own dates, not a platform guess. If a Patan courtyard shows a grey week in Ashwin, it is usually Gorkha or the Tarai, not a pricing trick. Book the nights on either side, or ask for Tihar — the oil lamps on a Newari roof are the reason people come.
Festival weeks also move the rate. The amber dots on the calendar are real tithis, not marketing. A three-night stay that includes Indra Jatra in Patan will cost more than the Tuesday after, and the listing will have said so before you paid.
