Varanasi to Kathmandu by car

tfrank

Hi Everybody,
Like to know if someone ever rented a car with driver
to go from varanasi to kathmandu. Having problems to get flight tickets for me and my family . And thinking of drive there insteed. Cost time and and other tips is welcome
thanks for a great forum.
/Tommy

zoltan

Not done it myself. Looking at a few maps, the distance is around 650km one-way.

As you must pay for the return journey of the driver, you can double that distance, so you're looking at around 1300kms.

The approximate rate per km. is rp10. So your cost will be around rp13,000 which is US$304.

I'm not sure about taxes for border crossings (or if there is such a tax). As for the drive time, I think you'd be looking at close to 1.5 days to make the journey.

This could well be cheaper than flying there and, may give you some better opportunities along the way for seeing interesting aspects of life on both sides of the border.

Cheers
Zoltan

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abhi182

there is a tax for border crossings that used to be 100 Nepali Rupee (or ~62 INR) per day for a personal car...
not sure if the rates for Cabs (commercial vehicle) are different...

A far cheaper and perhaps more convenient option would be to take a train to Raxaul (Bihar), cross over to Birganj (Nepal) which is some 5odd kms away and rent a car there....

Perhaps you could also hire a cab to Sunauli/Bhairawha (another border crossing point close to Gorakhpur), cross the border on an auto rick (the tuk-tuk style cabs) and rent a nepalese car in Sunauli

Have never been to Sunauli though but since it is a major transit point, renting cars there should not be a big issue

Having said that, the Birgunj- Kathmandu road is usually in good shape , not sure about the Sunauli- Kathmandu road though