The Cheapest Places on Earth: Kathmandu

While those statements are perhaps a slight (but only slight) exaggeration, it's hard not to feel like a Rockefeller when you wander the narrow, bustling streets of Nepal's ancient capital. In this historic maze, a multi-course meal for two costs less than $5, a clean, attractive room is had for $6, and private taxis cost less than public transportation back home. You can stay at whatever hotel you desire, buy all the trinkets that catch your eye, take a trek along the lower slopes of the Himalayas, and rarely ever have to concern yourself with the cost of it all.

The crossroads of the East and the capital city of a tiny country roughly the size of Arkansas, landlocked between China to the north and India to the south, Kathmandu has been a refuge for world travelers for decades. When they first arrive, visitors plan ...