Nepalese Teahouses
Leave your tent and food behind while trekking in Nepal. Locals and tourists experience stays in small hotels called teahouses. Known as bhatti in Nepalese, teahouses provide a warm place to rest your head while serving home-cooked meals. The quality of the region’s teahouses varies considerably with competition and number of customers. Popular routes including our Everest Base Camp Trek and Annapurna offer various quality teahouses. The paths less travelled offer very rustic, basic accommodations.
Amenities
Most of the teahouses at lower altitudes boast flushing toilets and hot showers. As you ascend higher up the Himalayas the facilities become more basic. For example, a standard toilet system does not use a flushing mechanism. Instead guests flush using a bucket of water. WWTrek ensures that guests always have at minimum a wash basin and a pot of hot water to clean themselves after a hard day’s climb.
Dining
For dining and socializing, teahouses provide a communal style restaurant area complete with burners that put out the heat. Gather in the communal to warm up while eating, reading or just hanging out. Generally, the burners have a central chimney. However, smoke sometimes escapes the chimney making the communal area very smoky. Although everyone shares the communal area, WWTrek staff bring their own condiments and utensils for you and other guests on the trek.
Rooms
A typical teahouse room includes two beds with mattresses, pillows, blankets, and sheets. Although the linens are included, we recommend using a four season sleeping bag as it gets extremely cold during the night especially higher up on the mountain. We also recommend earplugs as the walls are thin and uninsulated.
Many of the tea houses also have basic access to electricity for lighting and charging devices. Central plug points in the communal area for charging devices like mobile phones, tablets, and eReaders. Be sure to have a backup plan as access to charging points is limited in the busier tea houses where demand is high
Food
Currently, the teahouses on the popular trekking routes offer a vast menu. Beverages range from traditional tea to beer. For breakfast, you can choose between boiled eggs, omelets, and porridge. For dinners, you can choose from a variety of noodle and rice dishes including a mixed vegetable and beef or chicken. We recommend getting Dhal bhat, the national dish, as it is tasty, nutritious, and available at every teahouse. Most of the teahouses also serve basic cheese and vegetable pizzas, garlic soups, chapatti and snacks like Pringles or chocolates.
Keep in Mind
Consider sticking to inhabited areas on the more popular routes to ensure a stay in a good quality teahouse. You may not be able to get any food if you show up after 19:00. Also, during the busier seasons between March to April and October to November accommodations in the best teahouses may be unavailable. Try to book early and avoid settling for lesser quality. Contact our adventure specialist at 801-934-0264 for more information on all of our experiences today.
