Bhaktapur's royal squares before the crowds

We leave Kathmandu at about 7 am so that we reach the old city as shopkeepers raise their shutters and women carry offerings to the morning shrines. The walk begins in Durbar Square, whose wide brick courtyard is framed by the 55-Window Palace, built under the Malla kings, and by temples in stone and timber. The Golden Gate, a gilded doorway crowned by the goddess Taleju and the bird Garuda, leads to the inner palace courtyards; the innermost temple is closed to non-Hindus.

From Durbar Square we walk a few minutes south-east to Taumadhi Square, where Nyatapola rises five tiers above the rooftops and the three-tiered Bhairabnath temple stands beside it. Then the lanes lead east, past shrines, wells and courtyards where grain is drying, to Dattatreya Square, the oldest part of the city. Here the Pujari Math houses the National Woodworking Museum, and around the corner is the famous carved peacock window. The walk is about 2 km in all, on flat brick lanes.

Our guide explains the city's daily life as much as its monuments: why the water spouts sit below street level, how each quarter's Newar community shaped its trades, and how the city rebuilt its temples after the 2015 earthquake using traditional brick and timber. We pause for tea on a terrace overlooking Taumadhi Square before the day groups arrive. The municipal entry fee for foreign visitors is paid at the gate; check current status before you travel.