When Dena Espenscheid answered an advertisement on social media offering a weekend vacation to an unknown destination, her sister warned her she was going to get kidnapped.

For many of us, traveling for days or perhaps weeks high up in the mountains is the ultimate dream. However, due to work or school, we might not have the luxury of taking a week out of our busy schedule to travel for a long time. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t travel at all, we can still make short but frequent trips around the valley in order to get our dose of the wilderness. Here are a few places we recommend you visit.

Nischhal Pradhan was like any other kid who liked taking pictures at family gatherings. He started out by clicking people around him and, in just a few years’ time, evolved into someone capable of capturing brilliant silhouettes, portraits, and landscapes – images that were “Instagram-worthy”. Pradhan interest in photography grew after he joined Kathmandu University for his bachelor’s program and he got to travel around Nepal for various projects and trips.

Innovation, creation and development do not happen overnight. It requires effort, diligence and devotion to fit in the position of novelty. Novelty remains vacant in the absence of recognition. Every innovation is respected and recognized through intellectual property (IP) and plant breeders right is one of them.

KATHMANDU, Aug 2: Representatives of local units have expressed serious concerns over the federal government’s stalling scheduled foreign trips of the local representatives “in an arbitrary fashion”.

Roshan Bista prefers to travel on his bike. He believes that bikes offer the most intimate connection with people and landscape of the places he visits. For him, traveling is more than just going to new places, tasting new delicacies, and collecting new pictures for his Instagram feed. He expects to have a new bike adventure, make new friends, and learn from his experience every time he steps out of the house.

KATHMANDU, May 1: The government has issued a provision barring its officials from taking up foreign trips under the sponsorship of the firms that have secured government contracts.

KATHMANDU, Jan 23: The prime minister's office has directed secretaries of Nepal government to suspend planned junkets of government employees with immediate effect.

ACHHAM, Dec 28: Dambar Swar, a businessperson from the district headquarters Mangalsen once traveled to Nepalgunj via the Mangalsen-Binayak route on his motorbike.

KATHMANDU, September 10:  Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) is found to have spent Rs 5 million on overseas trips for some one and half dozen of its staff over a period of one month.

For many of us, traveling is something that requires elaborate plans. But the best travels are the ones embarked on spontaneously. There are many places around Kathmandu that you can just get up and head to. This weekend choose to do something other than your regular activity and head to one of the following destinations to enjoy a bit of what Nepal has to offer.

KATHMANDU, JULY 24: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's call to stop foreign junkets by government officials  has done little to discourage civil servants from travelling abroad. On July 13, Deuba had instructed newly-appointed Chief Secretary Rajendra Kishor Kshetri to bar overseas trips by top bureaucrats and other officials for attending programs other than those concerning bilateral relations with foreign countries.

KATHMANDU, July 13: Overseas trips involving over 300 government employees have become uncertain following a new direction issued by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba to stop foreign junkets. PM Deuba on Thursday directed newly-appointed chief secretary, Rajendra Kishor Kshetri to stop government officials from attending unnecessary events overseas.

KATHMANDU, July 13: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has directed newly appointed Chief Secretary Rajendra Kishore Chhetri to stop the civil servants from making unnecessary foreign visits.

KATHMANDU, July 12: Most of the foreign trips involving civil servants that occurred in the last two months included programs with little gains such as overseas ‘study tours’, observation visit, reflective events in Europe and America. A government secretary and some other officials were even found to have wasted taxpayers’ money to attend friendly volleyball tournament in Denmark and taekwondo championship in USA.

KATHMANDU, July 11: Government employees have spent over a billion rupees on foreign visits in the last two months. The bill includes over 1,400 trips of civil servants since May 18 this year. Some of the visits are scheduled to take place in the next few weeks.

My friend and I left for Markhu village located in Makwanpur District in the Narayani Zone of southern Nepal on our scooters on a rainy Thursday despite me being hounded by bad memories of roads with lots of puddles and dirt from my last trip to the place a while back. Even back then, the roads till Pharping were pretty good but after we took a right to get to Markhu, the ride got bumpy and uncomfortable. This time around, however, I was surprised to see that the roads were all black-topped and riding the scooter was fairly easy.

KATHMANDU, March 18: Pokhara has made it to the list of the destinations not to be missed in the spring of 2017.

Don’t just snuggle up with a good book and a hot cup of tea during the winter weekends or holidays. Make the best of this time of the month by visiting some places in India that you just can’t during the summer months because of the scorching heat or get away from the cold by relaxing in some sun soaked places.

PARIS, Oct 2: Supermodel Gigi Hadid slipped on the ramp during a Paris Fashion Week show.