Eco Holiday Asia

Tharu Homestay and Village Tour

The Tharu Homestay and Village Tour immerses you in the indigenous culture of Nepal’s Terai lowlands. The Tharu people have lived in the Chitwan region for centuries, developing a way of life intimately connected to the rivers and forests. Staying with a Tharu family gives you access to this culture in a way that no safari lodge can — sleeping in a traditional longhouse, eating fresh fish and river crab prepared by your host, and watching the famous Tharu stick dance performed by the family’s neighbors.

Village walks take you through Tharu settlements where the architecture, farming methods, and community organization reflect an ancient relationship with the subtropical landscape. Your hosts explain how their lives have changed since the creation of the national park, and how community-based tourism helps them maintain their cultural identity while benefiting from conservation.

Community Impact

Tharu homestays provide direct income to indigenous families. Cultural performances are organized by the village community. Your stay supports families who are actively preserving Tharu traditions in a rapidly modernizing region.

Explore More

Related experiences:

Plan your Nepal trip: Nepal Homestay Tours | Community-Based Tourism

Ready to book? Contact Eco Holiday Asia or message us on WhatsApp. We reply within 24 hours.

Tamang Village Homestay Tour

The Tamang Village Homestay Tour takes you into the heart of Tamang culture — staying with Buddhist families in hill villages near the Langtang region. The Tamang are one of Nepal’s largest ethnic groups, with a rich Buddhist heritage that includes monasteries, prayer wheels, mani walls, and a spiritual calendar that shapes daily life. Staying in a Tamang village is the most intimate way to experience this culture.

Your host family shares their home, their food (including the distinctive Tamang dishes — dhido, gundruk, and butter tea), and their daily routines. Morning prayers at the village monastery, walks through terraced fields, and evenings around the family hearth create a pace of life that is both restful and deeply engaging. Many of these communities are rebuilding after the 2015 earthquake, and your visit supports their recovery.

Community Impact

Tamang homestays provide income to families who lost homes and livelihoods in the earthquake. Tourism has become a key part of the rebuilding effort, and every visitor contributes to the community’s recovery and resilience.

Explore More

Related experiences:

Plan your Nepal trip: Nepal Homestay Tours | Community-Based Tourism

Ready to book? Contact Eco Holiday Asia or message us on WhatsApp. We reply within 24 hours.

Newari Culture Homestay

The Newari Culture Homestay places you at the heart of the culture that built the Kathmandu Valley’s extraordinary heritage. You stay with a Newari family in their traditional home — in Bhaktapur, Patan, or one of the smaller Newari towns — cooking together, eating together, and exploring the temples, courtyards, and backstreets that your hosts know intimately because they grew up in them.

Newari culture is one of the richest in South Asia: a distinctive cuisine with over 200 traditional dishes, a festival calendar with celebrations nearly every week, artisan traditions in pottery, metalwork, and woodcarving that produced the valley’s famous temple art. A homestay is the only way to experience this culture from the inside.

Community Impact

Newari homestay families share their cultural knowledge and home life with visitors. Your stay directly supports families who take pride in maintaining their cultural traditions in a modernizing city.

Explore More

Related experiences:

Plan your Nepal trip: Nepal Homestay Tours | Community-Based Tourism

Ready to book? Contact Eco Holiday Asia or message us on WhatsApp. We reply within 24 hours.

Nepali Cooking Class

The Nepali Cooking Class starts at a local market where you shop for ingredients with your instructor — fresh spices, vegetables, and the specific ingredients that make Nepali cuisine distinct from Indian food. Then you move to a home kitchen where you learn to prepare the dishes that define Nepal: dal bhat (the national meal of lentil soup, rice, vegetables, and pickles), momos (steamed dumplings), sel roti (sweet rice bread), and seasonal specialties.

Classes are hands-on — you chop, grind, fry, and steam alongside your instructor, who explains the techniques, the ingredients, and the cultural significance of each dish. At the end, you sit down to eat the meal you prepared. Recipe cards ensure you can recreate the dishes at home.

Community Impact

Cooking classes are hosted by local families who earn directly from teaching their culinary skills. Market visits support local vendors. Your class supports women and families who are turning their cooking expertise into tourism livelihoods.

Explore More

Related experiences:

Plan your Nepal trip: Things To Do in Nepal | Community-Based Tourism

Ready to book? Contact Eco Holiday Asia or message us on WhatsApp. We reply within 24 hours.

Nepal White Water Rafting

Nepal has some of the best white water rafting in the world — rivers that drop from the Himalayas through deep gorges, creating rapids ranging from gentle Class II floats to extreme Class V challenges. Our rafting trips run on two rivers: the Trisuli (Class III), which is perfect for first-timers and families, and the Bhote Koshi (Class IV-V), which delivers the intense white water that experienced rafters seek.

The experience goes beyond the rapids: camping on a sandy riverbank, cooking dinner over an open fire, sleeping under the stars in a gorge — this is one of Nepal’s most complete adventure experiences. Our safety-trained guides carry years of experience on these rivers and all equipment meets international safety standards.

Community Impact

Rafting operations employ local river guides, camp staff, and drivers from communities along the river valleys. Your trip supports adventure tourism livelihoods in areas that benefit from the river-based economy.

Explore More

Related experiences:

Plan your Nepal trip: Things To Do in Nepal | Community-Based Tourism

Ready to book? Contact Eco Holiday Asia or message us on WhatsApp. We reply within 24 hours.

Nepal Mountain Biking Tour

The Kathmandu Valley is one of Asia’s great mountain biking destinations — a compact landscape of forest trails, dirt roads, and single track connecting medieval cities, hilltop monasteries, and terraced farmland, all with the Himalayan range as a backdrop. Our Mountain Biking Tour takes you to the best rides in the valley with a local guide who has been cycling these trails for years.

Routes are adapted to your skill level: gentle rides through the valley floor for beginners, challenging single track descents for experienced riders, and everything in between. Multi-day tours extend into the surrounding hills, combining riding with village overnight stays and cultural sightseeing. Quality hardtail mountain bikes and all safety equipment are provided.

Community Impact

Our biking guides are local riders who know every trail. Lunch stops are at village restaurants and teahouses. Overnight stays support local lodge operators. Mountain biking brings tourism income to parts of the valley that vehicle-based tours bypass.

Explore More

Related experiences:

Plan your Nepal trip: Things To Do in Nepal | Community-Based Tourism

Ready to book? Contact Eco Holiday Asia or message us on WhatsApp. We reply within 24 hours.

Nepal Bird Watching Tour

Nepal is one of the premier birding destinations in Asia — over 900 species recorded in a country the size of Iowa, ranging from the subtropical jungle of the Terai to the alpine meadows of the Himalayas. The Nepal Bird Watching Tour covers multiple habitats over seven days, guided by an expert ornithologist who knows where to find Nepal’s most sought-after species.

The tour targets diverse habitats: Chitwan’s grasslands and sal forests for jungle species, the mid-hill forests of Shivapuri and Phulchowki for endemic and migrant species, and the Pokhara area wetlands for waterbirds. Key target species include the Spiny Babbler (Nepal’s only endemic bird), the ibisbill, the Himalayan monal (Nepal’s national bird), and an extraordinary diversity of raptors, warblers, and flycatchers. Maximum 6 participants ensures optimal birding conditions.

Community Impact

Our ornithologist guides are local birdwatchers who have turned their passion into a profession. Bird watching tourism supports conservation awareness in communities around protected areas and provides income that reinforces the value of intact forest habitats.

Explore More

Related experiences:

Plan your Nepal trip: Things To Do in Nepal | Community-Based Tourism

Ready to book? Contact Eco Holiday Asia or message us on WhatsApp. We reply within 24 hours.

Thangka Painting Workshop

Thangka painting is the sacred Buddhist art of painting deities, mandalas, and Buddhist iconography on cloth — a tradition that has been practiced in the Kathmandu Valley for over a thousand years. In this hands-on workshop, you work with a master Thangka artist in their Kathmandu studio, learning the techniques, iconography, and spiritual significance of this intricate art form.

The workshop begins with an introduction to Thangka symbolism — what the deities represent, why specific colours are used, and how the proportional grid system governs every figure. Then you create your own small Thangka painting using traditional materials, guided step by step by the master artist. You take your completed work home as a meaningful souvenir of your time in Nepal.

Community Impact

Thangka painting is a living art tradition sustained by master artists who have trained for years under senior painters. Your workshop fee directly supports these artists and helps maintain a craft tradition that is central to Nepal’s Buddhist heritage.

Explore More

Related experiences:

Plan your Nepal trip: Things To Do in Nepal | Community-Based Tourism

Ready to book? Contact Eco Holiday Asia or message us on WhatsApp. We reply within 24 hours.

Nepal Village Walk and Farm Experience

The Nepal Village Walk and Farm Experience takes you out of Kathmandu and into the farming communities that surround the valley — walking through terraced fields, visiting working farms, and meeting the families whose labour feeds Nepal. Depending on the season, you may plant rice seedlings, harvest mustard, thresh wheat, or pick vegetables alongside your hosts.

The experience includes an organic lunch prepared with produce from the farm you visit — dal bhat, seasonal vegetables, pickles, and rice grown in the fields you just walked through. This is not a demonstration farm; it is a real working family farm where your visit and interest provide both income and validation for families who are exploring agri-tourism.

Community Impact

Farm visits provide direct income to farming families and help them see their agricultural knowledge as an asset. Village walks support community guides who earn from sharing their neighborhoods with visitors.

Explore More

Related experiences:

Plan your Nepal trip: Things To Do in Nepal | Community-Based Tourism

Ready to book? Contact Eco Holiday Asia or message us on WhatsApp. We reply within 24 hours.

Yoga and Meditation Day Experience

Nepal is the birthplace of the Buddha and the spiritual crossroads of Hindu and Buddhist traditions — a place where yoga and meditation have been practiced for millennia. The Yoga and Meditation Day Experience offers a half-day or full-day practice at a peaceful retreat centre, guided by an experienced local instructor who draws on authentic tradition rather than commercial yoga industry trends.

The session includes asana practice, pranayama breathing techniques, and guided meditation, adapted to your level and experience. The setting — a mountain-view retreat centre in the Kathmandu Valley or Pokhara lakeside — provides the atmosphere that makes practicing in Nepal qualitatively different from practicing at home.

Community Impact

Yoga and meditation instructors are local practitioners who have trained in Nepal’s authentic spiritual traditions. Your session supports their livelihood and the retreat centres that provide a space for practice.

Explore More

Related experiences:

Plan your Nepal trip: Things To Do in Nepal | Community-Based Tourism

Ready to book? Contact Eco Holiday Asia or message us on WhatsApp. We reply within 24 hours.