Nepal National Park & Conservation Area Entry Fees (Per Park, NPR)

Nepal protects 20 areas under the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act, 2029 BS (1973 AD): 12 national parks, 1 wildlife reserve (Koshi Tappu), 1 hunting reserve (Dhorpatan) and 6 conservation areas, together covering about 23.39 percent of the country. Every visitor above ten years of age must buy an entry permit for each protected area they enter, and the price depends on nationality: Nepali citizens pay a token rate, nationals of SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries pay a middle rate, and all other foreigners pay the highest rate.

Two institutions collect these fees. The Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC) manages all national parks, the wildlife reserve and the hunting reserve, plus three conservation areas (Kanchenjunga, Api Nampa and Krishnasaar/Blackbuck). The National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC), a non-governmental trust, is authorised to collect entry fees for the Annapurna, Manaslu and Gaurishankar conservation areas, which fund conservation and community programmes in those regions.

Fees are charged per person per entry, so if you leave a park and re-enter on another day you normally need a new ticket; trekking permits such as ACAP, however, cover the whole continuous visit. Children below 10 years enter free everywhere. The rates below are the official schedule published by the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) and the collecting agencies, verified as of mid-2026; they have been stable for several years, but always confirm at the counter before a trip.

The table below gives the official per-person, per-entry fee for every DNPWC-managed national park, wildlife reserve and hunting reserve, in Nepali rupees (NPR), in the order Nepali / SAARC national / other foreigner. Note that DNPWC counters add 13 percent value added tax (VAT) on top of these base rates, so the Chitwan National Park entry fee of NPR 2,000 becomes about NPR 2,260 at the gate, and a Sagarmatha National Park permit of NPR 3,000 comes to about NPR 3,390.

The pattern is easy to remember: the two busiest mountain-trekking parks and all remote Himalayan and mid-hill parks (Sagarmatha, Langtang, Rara, Khaptad, Shey Phoksundo, Makalu Barun and the Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve) charge foreigners NPR 3,000 and SAARC nationals NPR 1,500; the Tarai wildlife parks other than Chitwan (Bardiya, Banke, Parsa, Shuklaphanta and Koshi Tappu) charge NPR 1,500 / NPR 750; Chitwan sits at NPR 2,000 / NPR 1,000; and Shivapuri Nagarjun, the day-hike park on Kathmandu's rim, is the cheapest at NPR 1,000 / NPR 600. Each of these areas has a full profile on this site under /conservation/ — for example /conservation/chitwan, /conservation/sagarmatha and /conservation/langtang.

The ACAP permit fee in Nepal — the entry permit for the Annapurna Conservation Area, the country's largest protected area and its most popular trekking destination — is NPR 3,000 for foreigners and NPR 1,000 for SAARC nationals, with tax already included, while Nepali citizens pay NPR 100. The National Trust for Nature Conservation charges exactly the same tax-inclusive rates for the Manaslu Conservation Area (MCAP) and the Gaurishankar Conservation Area (GCAP). Unlike national park tickets, these permits are issued once per trek and remain valid for the duration of a single continuous visit; they are non-transferable and non-refundable.

Two NTNC rules are worth knowing before you travel. First, permits can be bought in advance online through the trust's ePermit portal (epermit.ntnc.org.np), by trekking agencies through a separate system, or in person at permit counters; buying online adds a 2.9 percent payment-gateway charge but lets the permit arrive by email. Second, NTNC states that double fees are charged for permits issued at check-posts inside the conservation areas — so a foreigner who arrives at an Annapurna checkpoint without a permit pays NPR 6,000 instead of NPR 3,000.

The three DNPWC-administered conservation areas are cheaper for foreigners. The Kanchenjunga Conservation Area, the Api Nampa Conservation Area in Darchula and the Krishnasaar (Blackbuck) Conservation Area in Bardiya each charge NPR 2,000 for foreigners, NPR 500 for SAARC nationals and NPR 100 for Nepalis. For the Annapurna Conservation Area entry fee for SAARC nationals — one of the most-searched questions among Indian trekkers — the answer is NPR 1,000 per person, one-third of the foreigner rate.

Nepal's standard 13 percent VAT applies to DNPWC park-entry tickets, and the official fee schedule is quoted exclusive of it. In practice this means a foreigner's Chitwan ticket costs NPR 2,000 plus NPR 260 VAT, or NPR 2,260 in total, and the Sagarmatha National Park permit costs NPR 3,000 plus NPR 390, or NPR 3,390 — the figure trekkers actually pay at the Monjo gate on the Everest Base Camp trail. The same 13 percent applies proportionally to SAARC and Nepali rates at DNPWC counters.

The NTNC-managed conservation areas work differently: the trust publishes its ACAP, MCAP and GCAP fees as tax-inclusive, so the NPR 3,000 foreigner rate is the final price (plus the small gateway charge if paying online). Because the two systems quote prices differently, travel guides sometimes report contradictory totals for the same park. The safe rule is to treat DNPWC national park rates as VAT-exclusive, treat NTNC conservation area rates as final, and always ask for an official receipt, which itemises any VAT charged.

Separate from park entry fees, foreign trekkers entering officially designated restricted areas must also obtain a Restricted Area Permit (RAP) from the Department of Immigration, applied for through a government-registered trekking agency; solo applications are not accepted and Nepali citizens do not need a RAP. These fees are set in US dollars and are additional to any national park or conservation area fee on the route — a Manaslu Circuit trekker in October, for example, pays the RAP plus the MCAP and ACAP fees.

The long-standing headline rate applied to Upper Mustang and Upper Dolpo: USD 500 per person for the first 10 days, then USD 50 per day. In November 2025 (Mangsir 2082 BS) the cabinet decided to scrap Upper Mustang's flat USD 500 charge and move to a simple USD 50 per person per day, to be implemented by amending the Immigration Regulations; Upper Dolpo was not included in that change. The Manaslu restricted section costs USD 100 per person per week in the September–November high season (plus USD 15 per extra day) and USD 75 per week from December to August (plus USD 10 per extra day), with identical seasonal rates for the Nar-Phu valley in Manang.

Most other restricted zones are far cheaper. Kanchenjunga (Taplejung), Lower Dolpo, Gaurishankar/Lamabagar (Dolakha), Rasuwa and the restricted pockets of Sankhuwasabha and Solukhumbu all start at USD 20 per person per week, while far-western districts such as Humla, Bajhang, Darchula and Mugu range from USD 50 to USD 100 per week. The full schedule, as published by the Department of Immigration and the Trekking Agencies' Association of Nepal (TAAN), is summarised below.

For DNPWC areas, entry permits are sold at the Nepal Tourism Board's Tourist Service Centre at Bhrikutimandap, Kathmandu, at the NTB office in Pokhara (for the Annapurna region) and at park entry gates themselves — Sauraha and other gates for Chitwan, the Monjo gate for Sagarmatha, Dhunche for Langtang, and so on. Payment is in Nepali rupees, and you should carry your passport (foreigners) or citizenship card (Nepalis), since permits are issued by name and checked at posts along trekking routes.

NTNC permits for Annapurna, Manaslu and Gaurishankar can be bought online at epermit.ntnc.org.np with a Visa or Mastercard, at NTNC counters in Kathmandu and Pokhara, or — at double price — at check-posts inside the areas. Restricted Area Permits are issued only by the Department of Immigration in Kathmandu through registered trekking agencies, which also arrange the mandatory licensed guide. Children below 10 years of age are exempt from entry fees at every national park, reserve and conservation area, a rule stated on both the NTB fee schedule and the NTNC permit portal; there is no separate student or senior discount in the national schedule.

Two further charges commonly appear alongside park fees on trekking budgets. The Trekkers' Information Management System (TIMS) card, administered by the Nepal Tourism Board with TAAN, costs NPR 2,000 for foreigners and NPR 1,000 for SAARC nationals under the revised provision effective 1 April 2023 (18 Chaitra 2079 BS), and must be obtained through a registered trekking agency together with a licensed guide for most trekking regions. TIMS is not a park fee — it funds trekker tracking and rescue coordination — but checkpoints often verify it alongside park permits.

In the Everest region, TIMS has been replaced in practice by the Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality entrance fee, a local-government charge of NPR 3,000 per foreign trekker (raised from the earlier NPR 2,000) collected in Lukla or at Monjo rather than in Kathmandu. So a foreigner walking to Everest Base Camp currently budgets roughly NPR 6,390 in fixed area fees: the NPR 3,390 VAT-inclusive Sagarmatha National Park permit plus the NPR 3,000 municipality fee. Local levies of this kind are set by municipalities and can change with their annual finance acts, so treat them as indicative and re-confirm each season.