When Drew and I visited Nepal this last month, our visit was bookended by Kathmandu where we arrived from India and departed for Dubai. Kathmandu is a vibrant and beautiful city with a dash of chaos that’s definitely worth seeing. While we made sure to stay close to the sights in the tourist-favored Thamel district at the start of the trip, we decided to try out the Hyatt Regency Kathmandu for our last night before leaving Nepal.
Hyatt Regency Kathmandu Bottom Line Review
The property is gorgeous, and by that I mean both the grounds and the building itself. There is a lovely, green walking path surrounding the property and the building has intricate features fitting with Kathmandu’s ornate temples downtown. This attention to detail continues into the beautiful lobby, but once in your room, everything inside feels a bit dated and worn in a once-luxurious kind of way. For instance there are nice hardwood floors and carved furnishings, but the rug is stained and the floor is scuffed – things that don’t impact comfort but someone is sure to notice. If you ask me however, a slightly rundown room is a small price to pay for such a good deal, especially when the rest of the experience is nice, over all.
- Points Price: Category 1
- 3.5-6.5K points per night for a standard room
- 5.5-8.5K points per night for a club room (what we booked.)
- 6.5-9.5K points per night for a standard suite
- 7-13K points per night for a premium suite
- Cash Price: Mostly in the $140-$180 range for standard rooms and $190 – $220 for club rooms.
- Points Value: Great points value!
- Resort/Destination Fee: None.
- Parking: Free Parking.
- Turndown service: None.
- Housekeeping: Daily housekeeping.
- Internet: Free
- Dining:
- The Café: This is currently closed for renovations.
- Rox Restaurant: Open from 7am – 10pm. This is where the breakfast buffet is, which I’ll describe more below.
- The Living Room: This is a sort of lobby bar area with light food and snacks. In lieu of a club lounge, (which was suspended for COVID), there is a “happy hour” benefit in this lobby area where Globalists can get a set menu of complimentary snacks and drinks.
- The Terrace: This is a casual cafe area by the pool.
- Spa: Club Oasis, open from 9 am to 8:30 pm. (I did not sample this.)
- Fitness Room: I did not visit the gym to confirm whether or not the recent renovations are complete yet or not.
- Hyatt Globalist Elite Benefits:
- Welcome Gift: Unfortunately the hotel didn’t see our status on file ahead of time, so it’s possible they would have had a welcome gift for us if they had, but as it was, they did not.
- Suite Upgrade: We were upgraded from a standard club room to an executive club room.
- Club Lounge: The private club lounge was suspended for COVID and has not reopened yet, so instead of a club lounge there is a “happy hour” benefit in the lobby restaurant “The Living Room”. The happy hour includes a set menu of snacks and drinks. For our visit, this featured chicken or veggie sliders, potato croquettes, chicken nuggets, local beers and wine.
- Free Breakfast: Free breakfast at the Rox Restaurant’s breakfast buffet. (The buffet at Rox was supposedly suspended for COVID as well, but this is open again). Breakfast was a bit chaotic and maybe understaffed but to be fair, this could have been impacted by a private wedding they hosted on property that weekend. For instance we had to be very proactive about asking for coffee and table settings, and there were breakfast items I saw others eating that I still have no idea where they found them or how they ordered them.
- 4PM Late Checkout: We did not have opportunity to use this, but could have requested.
- Free Parking: Yes
- Would I stay again? If I had a short layover where I didn’t intend to sight-see at all, I’d certainly stay again. Otherwise I’d prefer being in the Thamel area.
Hyatt Regency Kathmandu Images and Captions
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I had an outstanding stay here a year pre-covid. I stayed on the Club floor. The Club had a tremendous breakfast. The head chef also visited and asked me if there was anything I really wanted. As a result he invited me to come to the main dining room the next day. I did so and my favorite items were prepared and ready for me every day thereafter. The “Happy Hour” in the Club had great appetizers and top shelf drinks. There were often two trainees there who had helped preparing the food. I felt no need to go to dinner afterward. I highly recommend this Hyatt.
https://www.gq.com/story/ram-bornjon-miracle-meditating
just re-reading this story…the writer stayed at the Kathmandu Hyatt…..maybe you and Drew enjoy.
I was there in 1990. Everyone got food poisoning. Stick to boiled food. Daal Bhat is as safe as it gets. (Rice n lentils)
Timely, I’ll be there next week. Any other hints about KAT? What are best resources?
I’ll be totally honest…we got food poisoning as soon as we got to Kathmandu so despite finding the city really intriguing and worth exploring, my primary KAT recommendation is to be cautious where you eat. :'(
It’s actually a good neighborhood for about a half day of tourist site-seeing. It’s easy walking distance to one of Kathmandu’s UNESCO WHS –Bouddhanath Stupa. I really enjoyed exploring the square around there for a morning.
Sounds like I should have given the area more of a chance!
i remember my stay in Nepal now! 15+ years ago. The place itself was a local place – nice, quite nice is my emotional impression,or rather nice enough. Though I have no visual recollection, I do remember the barking dogs…..very annoying.
The Hyatt looks top class. But really – $150/night for Kathmandu? But if you got the points and the yearn to burn! And since you have Globalist…why not! Drew still at TPG?
Plenty of 4 star and some 5 stars (Out of 10 or so on Booking) come up for much less then $150. So perhaps not quite the great redemption…?
Thankfully there are no “7 star” hotels like in India. hahaha
That’s a great point and I thought about mentioning the fact that the cash price (after fees especially) is not necessarily all that competitive with other hotels in the area. The $45 fees are really what push it over the edge. (And “no” on your other question.)
just checked and I see the Kathmandu population has nearly doubled since I went in 2004. And I see the Hyatt is kind of isolated on its own patch of land compared to say the Radisson 5-star or Soaltee (another 5-star) – on google earth. So for peace & quiet, that allows you to recharge to tackle the “big city chaos of Kathmandu”..maybe it is worth even more! Good choice!
This was a beautiful property and the food was excellent. Thanks for sharing your photos and letting me reminisce about my stay.
It really is beautiful!
I haven’t been to Nepal, but the cash rates seem pretty high if the prices are anything like next-door India. Nice points stay, though! The way you’ve quoted the range of points it’s looks like this location never has off peak nights?
That’s my mistake – they do have off-peak which I hadn’t noticed on the points calendar. That’s updated now. Thank you!