Loft-style room featuring a spiral staircase, and wooden furnishings in Royal Suite at The Dwarika’s Hotels and Resorts

About Dwarika Group of Hotels and Resorts

Showcasing Nepali Culture and Heritage

With hotels in Kathmandu and Dhulikhel, The Dwarika’s Group of Hotels and Resorts is dedicated to providing a unique brand of Nepali culture and hospitality deeply rooted in architectural restoration, cultural preservation, vedic wellbeing and Buddhist philosophy. 

Our history is intertwined with the life and times of our late founder, Mr. Dwarika Das Shrestha. Dwarika Das Shrestha was an extraordinary human being – a true visionary who was acutely aware of his own identity, the changing world around him and his responsibility towards it. His story is one of inspiration borne out of struggle and torment, the relentless pursuit of an aesthetic ideal, and one man’s determination to make a difference.

Parlor with sunlight streaming, featuring a wooden tray with snacks in Heritage Deluxe at The Dwarika’s Hotels and Resorts
Cozy lounge with wooden chairs, decorative vases, and a brick fireplace at The Dwarika’s Hotels and Resorts

In 1952, Dwarika Das Shrestha Dwarika was out jogging when he came upon some carpenters sawing off the carved portion of an intricately engraved wooden pillar. It had been part of an old building which had been torn down to make room for a modern structure. Amidst the rubble, lay the bits and pieces of exquisitely carved woodwork several centuries old, ready to be carted off as firewood.

His ability to see a role for the past in the present and to act upon an idea is what made Dwarika Das Shrestha a real visionary and an inspiring individual. With the help of his wife, Ambica Shrestha, he started exploring entrepreneurial avenues to assist in the development of Nepal’s tourism and finance his passion for conservation. They knew that many people would be interested in coming to Nepal, to tour its heritage sites, and to experience its natural beauty. Towards this end, in 1969, Dwarika Das Shrestha went on to establish one of the first travel agencies in Nepal, Kathmandu Travels and Tours.

What began as an impulsive action grew into a passion, and soon Dwarika’s commitment to saving, documenting and restoring artifacts took on a life of its own.  

In 1964, he decided to construct the first Nepali-style brick building with the collected woodcarvings in his garden. 

He envisioned that ancient Newari-style houses using the rescued carvings would provide them a new lease of life and cultivate an appreciation of Nepal’s ancient cultural history that would endure forever. This was the nucleus out of which later grew The Dwarika’s Hotel and The Dwarika’s Resort. 

For each property, Dwarika Das Shrestha took some of the finest elements of Nepali crafts, and, with the assistance of families of traditional carpenters,  presented them in a way not previously seen.  As soon as he heard that an ancient building was going to be torn down in the process of “modernising” Kathmandu with concrete buildings, he would rush to the spot and buy as many wood carvings as he could.

A skilled craftsman crouches on the ground, chiseling a wooden plank in a workshop near The Dwarika’s Hotels and Resorts
Library lounge with white sofas and vibrant cushions, illuminated by lamps at The Dwarika’s Hotels and Resorts

Dwarika Das Shrestha passed away on 10 February 1992, but his work continues. His vision of cultural restoration and revival based on a strong feeling for the beauty of a historical era remains with us profoundly.

The Dwarika’s Hotel in Kathmandu and The Dwarika’s Resort in Dhulikhel (an hour drive from Kathmandu) are run today by the Shrestha Family