Foreign Currency and Credit Cards:
Payment in hotels, travel agencies, and airlines are made in US Dollar or Nepali Rupee.
Credit cards like American Express, Master and Visa are widely accepted at major hotels, shops, and restaurants in the gateway cities, but not in many areas along treks. When you change your money into Nepali Rupee, keep the receipt until you leave Nepal. The receipts may be needed to change left-over Nepalese Rupees into your home country currency or US dollars at the airport. However, only 10 percent of the total amount may be converted by the bank. ATM is widely in use in Kathmandu Valley and Pokhara and save your receipts.
Most banks, hotels and the money exchange counters provide services for exchanging US Dollar or your currency into Nepali rupee.
Exchange rates are published in English dailies such as The Rising Nepal, The Kathmandu Post, The Himalayan Times, and Nepalnews.com online news. Nepalese Rupees are in denominations of 1000, 500, 100, 50, 20, 10, 5, 2 and 1. Coins are in denominations of 10, 25 and 50 paisa. One rupee equals 100 paisa.
Time and Business Hours:
Nepal is five hours 45 minutes ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).\
Banks are open from Sunday through Friday from 10AM to 3:30PM. Most Business offices are open from 10AM to 5PM Sunday through Friday. Government offices are open from 9AM to 5PM Monday through Friday.
Embassies and international organizations are open from 9AM to 5PM Monday through Friday.
Most shops open after 10AM and close at about 8PM. Saturdays are the main weekends in Nepal, so banks, embassies, and many business services are not available.