What makes the teahouse treks pleasantly surprising?

Doesn’t matter if you are trekking on a well-established route or off-the-beaten trail, you are welcomed to stay in the houses of the locals, interact with them, have homemade cuisines, and move ahead in the trail. Here, in Nepal, this is the most popular form of treks, the teahouse trekking. You are on foreign land, yet the locals welcome you as their relatives with whom they are meeting after a long time; the warmth of hospitality and the coziness of a homely environment remains added by the smiling nature of the hosts. Isn’t that a great experience for a trekker in this enchanting nation? Then try this form of trekking.
While the teahouses of the Everest and Annapurna region are quite comfortable, the trekking areas of Makalu, Kanchenjunga, and similar other trails are a bit basic than the well-established trail. No matter the trail and the region you are trekking, the excellence of hospitality remains the same, and the richness of culture, tradition, and culinary varieties is never dull and boring.

What makes the teahouse treks pleasantly surprising?

Three things actually: people, cuisine, and environment/ambiance. You will be pleasantly surprised to experience the warmth of the local hosts, the ever-smiling hosts that are actually eager to share their experience, their cultural peculiarity and specialty, and more enthusiastic to get informed about the foreign culture. The inquisitiveness always makes the interaction a fun-filled experience.
The other delicious part of teahouse treks is the unique taste of Nepalese cuisines, which are purely authentic made by locals. If you are a foodie with a fine sense of taste and uniqueness in cuisine, you will just love the foods served. Locally brewed beverages add to the taste and richness of meals. The popular cuisines are the meal of Daal Bhat (rice and lentils), the salt butter tea in the Everest region, apple wines in Marpha areas which are world-famous.
The inner environment of teahouses in trekking trails is an exceptional one. Even the British Royal, Prince Harry couldn’t help himself staying in the home of locals in this visit to Nepal. The teahouses offer the same ambiance as the home-stays organized by the locals. The traditional setting of the kitchen, soft humming of Buddhist mantras, and variety of incense sticks used to make the ambiance quaint scented, and relaxing. You got to try the teahouse trekking guys. With the warm hospitality of the host and the availability of necessary items, you will just love this form of trekking.

Teahouse trekking in different trekking trails

Nepal offers a wide variety of trekking trails in the trekking regions extending from the far eastern corner of the nation to the western areas and so is the diversity of the facilities available, the comfort of teahouse trekking, and the diversity of cuisines, flavor offered by the hosts. Basically, teahouses in trekking routes are pretty great. The feeling of home-stay, interaction with other fellow trekkers in the restaurant area of the teahouse, and warmth from the stove while eating make the teahouse trekking in any trail an amazing experience. However, there are some differences in the level of facilities available on different trekking trails. Let’s explore these differences.

Everest region trails (Everest Base Camp Trek, Everest Three Pass Trek, and others), Annapurna region trails (Annapurna Base Camp Trek, Annapurna Circuit, Poonhill trek, etc) offer a wide variety of excellent teahouse accommodation to the trekkers. The trekkers get sufficient varieties of foods including the local food and the range of beverages including beer and a wide range of menu items besides foreign dishes and modern toiletries facilities.

Manaslu Circuit Trek and Langtang Trek offer trekkers with a moderate number of teahouses in quality that varies from basic level to the good level of facilities. Good quality teahouses offer relatively cozy stays and standard facilities.

Kanchenjunga Base Camp Trek, Phoksundo Lake Trek, Makalu Base Camp Trek are some of the trekking regions that offer very basic tea-houses to the trekkers.  You don’t need to get worried about the ‘simplicity of the tea-houses. You will be comfortable with the facilities available, provided you don’t have the expectations as per the standard of your native place. In the trekking trail of Everest Base Camp Trek via Jiri, the tea-houses are of basic facilities till you trek from Jiri to Lukla while on the remaining sections you will have excellent tea-house accommodation available en route to Everest Base Camp.

Thus, you must experience the uniqueness in the local culture, lifestyle, cuisine, and values that teahouse treks have to offer in Nepal. You will surely get enchanted with the different environment and warmth of the hosts they offer while they try to make your accommodation a relaxing one. Go for teahouse trekking guys!