Meet a local in Nepal | Pyala local travel experience

Personal Encounters while travelling
Our Meet-a-Local activitites are especially recommended. Visit local people to share a cup of tea or even cook a meal together. You visit people in their private homes, see how they live, share their traditions, and exchange information and ideas. Or just have fun together! Eating and cooking together is one thing, but there's even more!

Take a walk through the city and see it through the eyes of a local, get to places you thought you never could visit, meet people, and smell and taste the local food during one of our street food tours.

All these meet-a-local activities are meant to give you a once-in a-lifetime experience!

Some meet-a-local activities might already be included in the tours. Missing something? You can request our local partner for more information!

The historical town Panauti is located within 35 km distance off Kathmandu. It's a friendly town with many holy artistic temples. It’s  surely worth to make a walk through town and to visit these beautiful temples. The Panauti Community homestay is run by women from the local community. The philosophy ‘for women, by women’ is very important, but off course men are welcome too. There are in total currently 15 houses used as a homestay. Setting up these homestays brought a lot of employment opportunities and development for the local women. Since the start of this programme the women can have a more independent life because they earn their own money. In one of the homestays they even started with giving a monthly English language class for free, for the women of the community. This is all made possible by the new earnings from the homestay programme. This is a great example of women empowerment!

The rooms in the homestay are simple but comfortable. Your hostfamily will make all meals for you, traditional Nepalese dishes. If you’re interested in cooking you’re more than welcome to help out and discover the secrets of the Nepalese kitchen.

Within a stone’s throw distance from the Chitwan National Park you’ll find the Barauli community homestay. The homestay consist of 12 cottages built in Tharu style, it is situated in Barauli at Nawalparasi. The cottages are simply furnished but you will surely have a comfortable stay here. Every cottage has their own bathroom, fan and comfortable beds. The breakfast, dinner and lunch are also included. You can eat in the shared dining room and choose from many traditional Nepalese dishes. Definitely try the delicious momo’s, these are a kind of steamed dumplings with a meat- or vegetable filling. This is also an example of women empowerment. The local women from the Tharu community run the homestay. Every cottage has their own nameplate with the name of the woman running the cottage. The women, live nearby the homestay so they can take care of their guests in a short notice. This homestay programme also gave the community new employment- en development opportunities. It’s very important for the Tharu community to keep their traditions and culture alive and to preserve their ancestral occupation. They will happily tell you all about their culture.

The famous Great Himalayan Trail also runs through Humla, the completely northwest province of Nepal located under the shadow of the Tibetan holy mountain Mount Kailash. Humla is a melting pot of people and cultures and during a wonderful hike through the Nyin (Sun) Valley you will be introduced to the rich family life of the Nyin Tibetans. Every night you will sleep with another family and eat with them, until the goal is reached; the monastery Raling Gomba, which is located at 4,300 meters. Also here they celebrate Sage Dawa annually.  

This is definitely a hike you will never forget! For people with a reasonable condition and can take a punch.