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The house was built in 1973 by Italian explorer Count Guido Monzino together with Ang Tawa Lama, after Monzino’s successful Everest expedition. It later became Sir Edmund Hillary’s base for the Himalayan Trust projects he ran in the region, and he is the one who first called it his “happy place”. The current generation of the Lama family reopened it as a small ten-room hideaway in 2017, with two suites and eight rooms set around terraces, a yoga and meditation centre, an organic garden, a Himalayan library, a sauna and an Ayurvedic spa.
Every wall is hand-painted with traditional Buddhist Thangka motifs, evenings are lit by candlelight and a roaring fire, and the kitchen draws its ingredients from the garden outside the door.
What we love
- There are very few places in Nepal with this kind of provenance; a Sherpa family home that has hosted Hillary, the Italian Everest expedition and generations of Himalayan literati, and still feels like a private house rather than a hotel
- Phaplu is a quieter, more genuine corner of the Everest region than the busier Lukla trail, with monasteries, traditional yak caravans and Sherpa villages a short walk or ride from the door
- The experiences here are properly personal; mountain biking with the local Phaplu Mountain Bike Club, sunrise meditation, singing bowl healing, and quiet days in the library or organic garden
- Mingmar in the kitchen cooks Himalayan home food drawing from the garden outside; some of the most thoughtful and rooted cooking we have come across in Nepal
Getting here is part of the commitment; a 40-minute flight from Kathmandu to Phaplu subject to weather, or around ten hours by 4x4. The lodge has its own helipad, and we can build flexibility into the itinerary around this
The house works best as a proper retreat of three or four nights rather than a brief stop; the experiences, the setting and the slower pace here reward time
What our travellers say
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