Swat Serena Hotel: Traveler Reviews

A comfortable, welcoming hotel in the Swat Valley. Set in extensive gardens the Serena has very pleasant and comfortably furnished large rooms in a colonaded anglo-indian style building which has been attractively converted into the best hotel in the valley. We had an 'executive' room with separate dressing room, large well equiped bathroom and windows offering views on two sides, well worth the additional Rps300 compared with a standard double. (Our room was Rps 6500 inc taxes and b/fast)The beds are very comfortable, the rooms are warm (split reverse cycle a/c units) and have free internet, cable TV, coffee/tea making and fridge.The hotel has two, two storey collonaded wings and what looked like a block of motel units at the rear. These appeared to be closed at the time of our visit which was definitely off season. There's what in summer would be a pleasant swimming pool, a small rather tired looking "health club" and the old Wali of Swats residence being restored in the grounds.Service is good, the staff friendly and helpful, the manager very keen to make us comfortable providing little extras like tea on arrival, fruit basket and cakes/biscuits. The restaurant is a bit gloomy, particularly when empty but the food is adequate although not gourmet. There was a chinese buffet theme whilst we were there (it being Chinese New Year) with a reasonable selection, although it got boring by the third night and the attempt to produce a chinese atmosphere in the palled. However, breakfast was good, with attentive staff, the fresh home grown orange juice and home made jams were a nice touch but why cant Pakistanis make decent toast?The Serena is in Saidu Sharif about 3km of the main valley road, quite close to the Swat Museum and some of the early buddhist remains. It's a quiet location far removed from the noise and bustle of the bazaars ar Mingora. There's a small handicraft shop in the hotel which has a reasonable range of local produce (we didnt compare prices) and a very helpful manager who was a font of useful information.