There are tourist bus services and local bus services from Kathmandu Thamel area to Pokhara city. The Local bus departs from a different area which you would have to take a taxi from.
You can book a tourist bus from 350-450 ruppee - depending on the company you go with. They will be from a minvan to a bus - where if seats are not booked, they will load on many extra locals.
The local bus you cannot book. You have to take a chance to turn up at 6.30am in the morning.
The ride is 6hours long with MANY many stops along the way. Sometimes you barely drive for 30 minutes before stopping again. This can be a bit annoying.
The bus drivers can be a bit crazy on the small turns. The drive is all gorgeous mountains with one side of a drop of about 500m. However they still drive a bit nutty so be ready to close your eyes if you are not used to this style of driving. Indeed at the June-August the drive can be dangerous due to mud slides - one bus was run off the road the last few days. So maybe if your driver is a bit more crazy than normal - say something. I dunno.... hard to tell...
You can get off the bus either at the local busy area where you see many markets, stall the locals live here. Then the bus passes by the local airport and come to the lakeside area of Pokhara. Where you are dropped off.
Pre=booking accomodation is not really needed as there are ALWAYS taxi drivers and people trying to take people to their specific guesthouse. High season will be hard to bargin prices which would be from 400 to 1000 ruppees a night. However from June-Aug you can get a NICE private room with cable tv and private bathroom for 200 ruppee a night. You just have to bargin and be willing to walk away with a smile.
Please note that nearly ALL touritsty things to buy are MUCH more expensive than in Kathmandu. Food is more than double the price sometimes tripple the price. Things like the treking gear etc is also nearly double. So buy supplies and souveniers in Kathmandu. Although there you need to bargin too as they will initially ask for double what they will be willing to sell for.
Anyway Ciao for now!
