Nagarkot is to Kathmandu what Sarangkot is to Pokhara, the closest place to the city from where you can see the whole range of mountains surrounding it. The village is at 2,200m and offers good views of the Langtang Range of the Himalayas, just to the north. The highest peaks there are the Langtang Liru (7,245m) and the Lunpo Lang (7,064m), and the area is the third most popular trekking site in Nepal. Everest can be seen in the northeast, but you will need an exceptionally clear day for that. If you arrived to Nepal overnight or from an angle in which the mountains were obstructed, a visit to Nagarkot will give you the drive needed to leave a comfortable guesthouse for a demanding trek.
To reach it is simple; the best is to travel first to Bhaktapur (see that entry in this journal) and then to take one of the buses climbing the rest of the narrow and steep way (20NRP for the way up and 12NRP while descending). Bhaktapur’s bus terminal is small, and finding the right bus is no trouble.
Nagarkot is a vacation resort, and all of its small population is dedicated to the tourism industry; few of its buildings are private, and almost each one of them hosts a guesthouse or a restaurant. Accordingly, the prices are roughly threefold those of Kathmandu, but considering that the stays here are limited in time, this is a secondary issue. The steep topography of Nagarkot creates unforgettable sights; in Gantabya, the restaurant at the entrance of the village, you can see the tops of grown-up pines just centimeters away from the window of the ground floor.
Nagarkot exhibits a strong version of a Nepali climate characteristic: huge quantities of dew accumulate on the ground during the night and evaporate in the early hours of the morning, creating a fog that hides the mountains. Hence, to get a crystal-clear sight of the Himalayas, you should stay in the village overnight.
The surrounding area is not an attractive trekking place, unless you are interested in wandering around Kathmandu Valley's plains, and its terrain is different from the one in the more popular trekking areas; thus it is not an ideal location for checking your walking equipment. Yet in the hyperactive Nepali reality, Nagarkot is the perfect place for a relaxed weekend watching mountains.