http://www.makemytrip.com/international-flights/

Perfect! Thanks for the link...exactly what I was looking for.

Our total trip just got a day longer. Might add the extra day to Nepal.

Has anyone here done a short trek in Nepal? By "short" I mean 1 to 3 total days. (I know the famous treks are more like 10-14 day excursions.) Easy to moderate difficulty: I've run some difficult (hilly) marathons and done some semi-tough trail running but zero in the way of actual climbing and won't have done any high altitude training before this trip.

we used the guys at itournepal.com, they were awesome to organize whatever you like.

I am going to use this company too for my upcoming short trip to Nepal. So far so good, good response and clear on descriptions.

Anyway, my main question here is I am in a bit of a dilemma choosing a hotel in Kathmandu. I am split between 3 hotels for 2 nights before I fly to BKK

- Hyatt Kathmandu- am planning on using my remaining Hyatt points (and purchasing some) for my stay. Read that location is quite good, close to also Bodha.
- Radisson - am hoping to also use my points, though not showing possibility for this option as yet. Also seem to free WiFi even for non elite members.
- Crowne Plaza - Am Plat with PC, but I saw that it is really in the middle of nowhere.

Any advise here? Am leaving in 2 weeks time.

Cheers!

I am in the process of arranging a trip with itournepal.com. Looks like a cool itinerary...2 days of guided tours in and around the Kathmandu Valley, 2 full days of trekking, and then another day of tours on the final day with some free time in back in Kathmandu before we depart.

Price was very competitive...communication is good with one minor caveat I'm wondering if I should be concerned about: they haven't yet sent me a full itinerary showing the hotel confirmations.

Right now, I have award rooms booked at the Hyatt. But apparently it's out in the countryside and my wife and I are kind of looking forward to staying in a standard (read: spartan) hotel in Thamel...just for the experience. That said, I don't want to cancel the Hyatt until I see a confirmation.

I've already sent one follow-up email. I'll probably send another one this week. Trip is early October...before their big festivals...but still a fairly busy time in Kathmandu, or so I'm told...

oo.. I did not even bother to ask about the hotel accommodations from them since it will mainly be around Pokra and tea houses around the Annapurna trek. Am only using them for this trekking+Pokra arrangement. Planning in Kathmandu to make my around myself (just 2 days in Kathmandu). I hope that all goes well with them. [If you want to confirm your trip, you will need a down payment - maybe they will send you the full confirmation after that?]

I was actually planning to coincide my trip with the Daisha festival, but in the end I decided no too as I don't want to end up in a city overcrowded with people and facilities closed.

Btw, I am thinking of booking now a non-chain hotel after seeing some really good review from Tripadvisor, the Tiber International hotel. Seems a steal in what they are asking and what I get in return compared to the overprice Hyatt or Radisson.

Cheers!

If you have points, Hyatt is good value, just 5K points/night. There are few Hyatts that "cheap".

But there is something to be said for pinniped's plan to stay in Thamel. There are a lot of small cafes and shops there, whereas the Hyatt is further out, near one of the major temples.

The Hyatt would be pretty good for a business/official visit, keeping well-pressed, cool and getting ferried to meetings. It could also work well as an R&R stop on the way home from a trek-trip. But for a tourism visit focussed on KTM it's far from the best choice. Same goes for the Crowne Plaza - perfectly nice chain-hotel but way out of where you (probably) want to be as a tourist.

Thamel hotels don't have to be spartan: no doubt some of them are, but others are delightful places to stay. Here Tripadvisor can be you friend: the site has its problems but in general a hotel/guest house with hundreds of reviews doesn't get get into the very top-rated group if it's a flop-house.

Hi,

Just for those interested with getting tours/arrangement by itour.

General: All questions and enquiries answered promptly. at times just need a reminder, but all answered in time. Detailed information on what you get and see in the tour is well provided including the hotels that you will be staying (excluding those during the trekking period).

For the trekking part, the guides and porters are not fixed. They have a pool of guides and porters. For my trip this time, my guide was a bit passive. I had to take the effort to ask and get information out from him. While the porter, that turned out to be a more informative source.

tipping: I was not sure how much to provide a tip to both the guide and porter, but based on different sources on the internet, I just did a quick average of 5 euro's per day. [The guide indirectly indicated that it should be 20% of I was not sure what amount]. This is quite an amount for the 4 days, about 2 months apartment rent according to information from the porter.

I was met at the airport and also met when I arrived back in Kathmandu with the bus. My advise, if you are not interested to see the drive (basically just nerve recking drive throught mountain roads) which lasted for nearly 8 hours! I flew into Pokhara and took the bus back to Kathmandu, I would recommend if you can afford it, to just take the flight back especially if you have not much time to spare.

I am currently in Kathmandu, staying at the Tibet International Hotel. I think this is the best value hotel compared to the Hyatt or Radisson. It is way outside of the Thamel area. This would be for someone wanting less of the traffic and noise of the Thamel area. For this place, value for the money you pay is the best among all of the places I checked out. From Thamel to here it is about 300 rupees, but back to Thamel, you can bargain between 150-300.

Hope this small review and info on Kathmandu helps!

Cheers!

Here are some photos for those interested in the Tibet International hotel
Yeti Bar



Outside wall mural

Door decoration

View of the Hyatt from the hotel rooftop


Interior wall decoration

Bathroom amenities

Sitting room area (in the room)


Tea and bar facilities

Bed room section


Rooftop view

Our trip to Nepal was very good - the itournepal.com drivers and guides were all as promised. No hitches at all with the trip.

Our hotel in Thamel was indeed pretty spartan (the Holy Himalaya), but it was functional and we loved being able to walk to all sorts of nearby cafes, restaurants, and shops.

A few things I learned that I wasn't expecting:

- The charge to use an ATM in Nepal is very steep - usually 4 or 5 percent even if you withdraw the maximum amount allowed by the ATM. And a lot of ATM's flat out don't work, even if they claim to be on multiple networks that your own ATM card is on. However, the pleasant surprise is that Thamel moneychangers only take about a 2 percent vig vs. the interbank rate. This makes it one of the few places in the world where the standard advice to use ATM's and avoid moneychangers at all costs doesn't hold. Bring your cash.

- Speaking of cash, USD and EUR are easily changed anywhere. But CAD is not - I had a few moneychangers reject my CAD 20's, even though they have CAD rates posted outside their shops. They also rejected one of my "old" US $10's, so I'm wondering if there are multiple designs to the Canadian $20 note out there. (Mine were light green but very new, making me wonder if they are more familiar with an older design?)

- SIM cards and per-minute international rates were so cheap that it's hardly worth looking for a strong Wifi signal (which you probably won't find) to use Skype. Have an extra passport photo handy - they need it to sell you a SIM. We had reliable service everywhere in Kathmandu and even on our Chisopani/Nagarkot trek.

- You may need to bring your own towels, toiletries, and toilet paper if you're staying in teahouses. We always carry backup soap, shampoo, etc. but the towel/TP thing caught us by surprise. Granted, we only did a short 2-night trek so maybe the bigger, longer treks make this clearer in advance. But it's a question you might want to ask if you're planning a trek. Note that "teahouse" simply means "extremely barebones lodging in a trekking area." Ours in Chisopani had limited running water and, like much of Nepal, limited electricity. We did drink plenty of tea of course, but the lodges aren't really about the tea...they're just places for trekkers to crash for the night.

For the ATM, I think it is because of your Canadian/North America ATM card. For European (well at least for Dutch bank cards), charges were as anywhere worldwide. Indeed about the functionality of the ATM's. I tried to get money from the ATM at the airport, but it did not work. But luckily I had USD with me and had to pay the rest of my dues to itour, they gave me back the change in Nepalis Rupees. That held me until I could find a working ATM.

As for the teahouses, double ^^. I am so used in staying in "luxurious" hotels, that I completely forgot about bring towels for my trek. Luckily I had an extra spare T-shirt which I used throughout my trek as towel. But yes, a very good advise, remember to bring (easiest) those small hotel shower gels/soap and shampoo. Water was not really a problem for the tea houses along the Annapurna trek, only hot water was limited. Remember to also bring a torch/headlamp due to the long blackout periods.

Cheers!

Any recommendation on good places to stay in Pokhara ?

Done some searches, and haven't found anything appealing

Thanks

Is this still active? So we (the Family and me) are thinking about visiting this hidden place of the earth next year! And yes, i would like see lots of Places! Money might be the limiting factor...But with your help, it might still be possible

for hotels, I enjoyed Dwarika's in Kathmandu.

Not sure you will find anything appealing. About the best it gets is the Fishtail, slightly quirky, just a little shabby, and well away from the hubub. And quite unaccountably expensive ....

It has a pool, and the lake, and a cute ferry arrangement to get you across a finger of the lake.

The views are smashing, but that's not exclusive to this hotel!


BTW -What did the good Datu Tony do to upset you ?