Gilgit Serena Hotel

It has all the comforts of a five star hotel. Ambience is good. They always try to incorporate the local architecture in their buildings, its true here as well. Excellent if one can afford it!

Nice, peaceful place outside of town Just outside of dusty Gilgit is this green, peaceful hotel with a nice view over the mountains. Like any of the Serena hotels, the service is excellent and the food is good. We opted for the dinner buffet which was decent. A highlight was the grill to the side with chicken and beef skewers being prepared. The breakfast buffet is quite nice with some local dishes, toast, fruit, omelette, etc. The fruit juices aren't fresh I believe. The rooms are decent but not super spacious (at least our room wasn't, probably due to our budget and being a party of three). We did have a little balcony overlooking the garden with great views of the mountains surrounding the valley. There are some seats spread out over the lawn. A pool would have finished it off (you can dream, right?) There's no barber inside the hotel, but a 2 minute walk will get you to a decent one. He will assume you're a guest at the Serena and charge you accordingly. A thorough scalp massage is included though. Just by the lobby are a bunch of souvenir shops. I believe they are all from the same owner. We had had some trouble elsewhere to find jewelry that wasn't overly flashy/blingy to our taste, but this place had some nice options. Not the most affordable, but seems to be of decent quality. In all, a nice stay at a good hotel. Maybe not the highest price/quality/vibe ratio, but very reasonable.

The place is beautiful but I gave them 3 stars because they don't listen to your complaints about room issues. We stayed for 3 days but our bathroom exhaust fan was not working and they didn't bother to change the room. Plus food is overpriced.