Friends Café

Top choice in Chitwan National Park


This rooftop restaurant is easy to miss, but don't! It's the best place to hang out in downtown Sauraha, at any time of day, with a cool vibe and tunes to match. The handmade menus on beer-carton cardboard reflect the personal touch of the creative owners, who have put new spins on all sorts of mainly Mexican and Italian dishes.

This is also a great spot for coffee and cocktails.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Chitwan National Park attractions

1. Wildlife Display & Information Centre

0.52 MILES

Aimed more at school groups than tourists, this educational centre has displays on wildlife, including a rather macabre display of animals in formaldehyde…

2. Tharu Cultural Museum & Research Centre

0.82 MILES

The informative Tharu Cultural Museum & Research Centre in Bachhauli, the nearest Tharu village to Sauraha, has colourful murals and exhibits on artefacts…

3. Tharu Cultural Museum

1.54 MILES

For those with a serious interest in Tharu culture, there’s a tiny Tharu Cultural Museum in Harnari. It has displays of ornaments and a rakshi distillery…

4. Crocodile Breeding Project

9.76 MILES

A few hundred metres past the park headquarters in Kasara is a crocodile breeding project, where you can see both gharials and marsh muggers up close. The…

5. Shashwat Dham

18.59 MILES

Burned out on ancient sites? Here's a contemporary take on the temple compound, and it's very impressive. The centrepiece is a Shiva temple that resembles…

6. Manakamana Temple

22.95 MILES

A tiered pagoda basking in Himalayan views, the mountaintop Manakamana Temple dates back to the 17th century, but was heavily damaged by the 2015…

7. Silkworm Farm

25.1 MILES

An offbeat choice, a visit to Silkworm Farm takes you through the fascinating process of how silk is produced. The farm comprises orchards of mulberry…

8. Padma Library

25.16 MILES

There's a random collection of beaten-up books here, including a few English ones, but this small library is better known for its striking 18th-century…