Panauti Community Homestay

We stayed here one night, and we had read the great reviews, and therefore had big expectations for the experience. But when we stayed there we felt like there was quite an odd vibe and like the host didn’t really want us there. She wasn’t rude but not very talkative. The stay included cooking class and city walk. But the guided walk through the city was a bit disappointing as we felt like a lot of stuff about the community and the town wasn’t really explained. Especially the cremation ceremony at two temples in the city. We did go to a small museum in the city inside a tempel where the guy at the museum was really sweet and explained everything there was in the museum with great passion. We were also disappointed with the cooking class as we mostly stood watching her cook and just say “now I put this in”. We thought we were gonna be way more involved and learn more than we did. We took part in making the flatbread but she kind of kept taking over, so you felt like you were more in the way of her cooking then part of a class, and also that you felt like you were doing it wrong without being giving a chance to learn how to do it right. She also gave us henna and a sari where we maybe thought she was gonna explain what it is for and maybe we were gonna take part in something while wearing it as we have seen it in pictures from their website, but we just put them on to take pictures in our room. The place itself was very nice tho. The room and bathroom was clean and comfortable and the food we had was great. We also payed extra for a guided hike to Namobouddha where we were gonna see a ceremony with the munks at the temple. The guide was sweet but we again felt like there was a lack of explanation to a lot of stuff. And we came while the ceremony had begun and we felt like we were maybe disrupting it a bit when we walked in as we hadn’t been told anything about what the ceremony was. So all in all it’s not a bad place but we just didn’t feel as welcome as we’d expected and compared to some of the great reviews we saw our stay did not match their experiences. We also realize we were there for a short time and therefore we maybe missed out on some experiences due to lack of time.

The most amazing experience you can ask if you want to experience Nepali culture. Kumari is one of the nicest people we’ve met and she made our stay unforgettable. The room is spacious and all is very clean yet simple and basic as you would expect from a home stay which is meant to characterize Nepali lifestyle. Her niece and nephew are adorable and we enjoyed a lot with them also. All n all I highly recommend!!

This was an amazing experience, our home stay family was so welcoming, friendly and sweet. The twin room we had at mina’s lovely home had everything we needed, it was cosy and the bathroom was great with hot water for a shower. The food was AMAZING and it was centrally located in Panauti. We learnt so much about the Nepalese culture and how families live whilst staying here, i can’t imagine it being any better - we had a fantastic time!