What Kathmandu lacks in international-style boutiques, it makes up for in excellent, locally produced handicrafts. Top buys include brassware, woodcarvings, jewellery, pashmina shawls, khukuri knives, hand-made paper, ceramics, masks, Nepali tea, thangkas (traditional Tibetan Buddhist cloth paintings) and hand-knotted woollen carpets.

You can find imported luxury items, including cameras and electronics, in the shops along New Road and Khicha Pokhari, close to Durbar Square. Shops selling brand-name fashions and gems are concentrated on Durbar Marg. In the old town, the bazaar between Asan Tol and Indra Chowk sells spices, dried fruit, incense, brass pots, block-printed fabrics and traditional Nepali clothes.

The tourist district of Thamel is one continuous arcade of shops selling clothes, pashminas, jewellery, antiques and other Nepali crafts. A more upmarket place to shop for handicrafts is the swish Bahar Mahal Revisited Complex, housed in Rana-era palace near the Singh Durbar government offices in the southeast of the city.

Saturday is the official day off in Nepal, but shops that cater to tourists generally stay open seven days a week.