Le Méridien Thimphu

The hotel actually noted my birthday and gave me a surprise birthday celebration with cake and song at the breakfast buffet! I was so surprised! That is not the end. After returning from our day tour, we returned to see our room nicely decorated with towel art, balloons and a lovely card from the housekeeper. Thank you Le Meridian!

Le Meridien Thimphu has the price tag of luxury, the service of luxury, but the brand is only mid level. The hotel is small (78 rooms), so they are definitely able to provide luxury level of service. There are not many hotel chains in Bhutan so I would normally be lenient; Hyatt, Accor and Hilton have nothing at all, and Marriott only has 2; strangely they are both same brand, LM. Anyway in the end, I didn’t need to be lenient because the hotel was thoroughly excellent. By scanning the calendar the LM in Thimphu is about 600-800 USD per night pretty much year-round, but if booking a stay of 5+ nights the rate can come down to a more attractive 300 USD per night so this is what I did. They are in effect making it something close to “buy 2 get 5”, making a split stay between the two LMs in Bhutan onerous if both stays are too short – it’s better to book a longer stay at only one of them. I do not think they get many Marriott Bonvoy Ambassador Elites here, and even less so, very young children (because of the nature of the destination). Staff were so friendly and happy to have children as rare guests, the service was better than the vast majority of our luxury hotel stays anywhere in the world. It was like having numerous babysitters available during breakfast or happy hour whenever we needed, many staff offering to entertain children, either taking them to front desk (even in the back office area) or walking our youngest daughter in the stroller to make her fall asleep. In other countries I might be mildly worried about losing sight of her, but not in Bhutan. The executive chef offered to cook us anything we wanted. We saw fish in spicy sauce in the breakfast buffet, we asked if children could have plain fish (no sauce) – no problem, they provided every morning. For happy hour the menu was not very suitable for children so we asked for plain chicken noodle soup (not spicy) – no problem, they were happy to oblige once again. Happy hour was 6-8pm but we were told we could come at 9pm or 5pm if we wanted and it would be fine, whatever was convenient for us. They frequently went off script to please at every step of the way. The hotel originally built a lounge on the top floor but it is not really being used, guests can use the space for meetings but it was otherwise empty. Happy hour was rather served in the bar so I was happy with that. It was very quiet every day, max 2-3 other guests in there. Sometimes we are alone, which almost made it a private happy hour and lounge. Drinks were good, happy hour food menu was limited but at least it was a la carte so hard to complain. We were upgraded to top level royal suite 132 square meters. Such an upgrade for a long stay was great, unlike quick 1-night stays in premium suites where we might not have much time to enjoy. Overall we loved our stay at LM and we will return when our children are older to partake in other kinds of activities that Bhutan has to offer for example hiking.

Received two massages at their spa. Both were excellent! Teneli and Yeshi were both fantastic and took away the aches of hiking the Dragon’s Nest. The 60 minute massages were not long enough. Definitely book the longer 90 minute and do the steam bath afterwards.