Happy House

Located in the mountainous town of Phaplu, Happy House is a low-slung sanctuary of stone and timber founded in the early 1970s by Ang Tawa Lama, a descendant of the region’s original Sherpa settlers, and Count Guido Monzino, an eccentric Italian explorer who, in 1973, summited Everest accompanied by 6,000 porters carrying silver cutlery and gambling tables.

It quickly evolved into a repository for the “mountain literati”—Sir Edmund Hillary visited often, affectionately dubbing it his “happy place”. Today, Happy House is an intimate and soulful hideaway with 10 contemporary guest rooms, a yoga pavilion and a truly remarkable living room adorned with frescoes depicting gods, protectors, birds, flowers, rivers and wheels of life by Khapa Rinzi, a Sherpa master of the monastic art of thangka painting.

Guests can enjoy hiking the surrounding mountains, visiting remote monasteries built by the Lama family, and home cooked meals by staff who have been caring for the family for generations. It’s a place that truly lives up to its name.