What practical mistakes do first-time visitors make in Nepal?
The mistakes are usually unglamorous: too little acclimatisation, no buffer days, vague transport plans, weak insurance, underestimating dust and stomach issues, and treating permits like a detail.
Answer
Nepal punishes the small lazy assumptions. The map looks manageable, so travellers cut buffer days. A trek sounds popular, so they underthink altitude. A road journey looks short, so they stack plans after it. A permit feels administrative, so they leave it late. Kathmandu dust, stomach upsets, cold nights, cash needs, gear gaps and slow transfers are not glamorous, but they are often what decide whether the trip feels rough or rewarding. The answer is not to over-engineer every hour. It is to make the important parts boringly solid: insurance, route pace, permits, transport, acclimatisation and one more day than the optimistic version says you need.