Helen van Berkel finds staying with a local family in Nepal one of the most enriching travel experiences of her life.
Getting there: It's about an hour's bus trip from Kathmandu over sometimes bumpy roads. I was travelling in Nepal with boutique tour operator Crooked Compass.
The check-in experience: Sari-clad women met our tour bus and led us, accompanied by drums and symbols, to the headquarters of the Panauti Homestay organisation. After food (a bright yellow boiled egg, a lentil patty and a deep-fried locally caught fish) you are introduced to your host family and walk back to their house. Your luggage goes on a rickshaw.
Price: US$25 a night.
The accommodation: Our house, one of about 20 in the programme, was a narrow, four-storey brick home with lino-covered mud floors, accessed via ladders. On the ground floor was a modern European bathroom and the owners' bedroom; next were the two daughters' bedrooms; then our rooms, complete with a private living area. The kitchen/dining/living area was on the top floor, directly under the tin roof.