The Kumaon

The Kumaon

Ten suites at The Kumaon are built in pairs, stacked down a ridge above Almora, each with floor-to-ceiling windows facing the valley and the mountains ahead, and a traditional wood-burning bukhari for cold nights. The dining room is cantilevered over the valley, glass and steel suspended in air, its tables aligned to frame India's second-highest peak while the kitchen sends out black soybean daal, millet flatbreads, and a bhaang chutney of ground cannabis seeds, the Kumaoni kitchen's own specialty. This is a five-structure hillside property, not a hotel in the conventional sense: reaching between suites means walking a slope, and the setting is a ridge above town, not a city center address. That suits a traveller who wants trails through cedar and oak forest to ancient shrines, a hike down to the Kosi river for a swim, or an afternoon at Kasar Devi, the ridge locals call Cranks Ridge, where Timothy Leary and Bob Dylan once sat. It does not suit anyone chasing a fast city base or expecting a large hotel's roster of restaurants and bars; Almora's old market town sits seven kilometres off, and getting here means arranged transport from Kathgodam or Ramnagar station, or Pantnagar airport. Spa treatments, a library stocked for slow afternoons, a barbecue area, and free parking round out the practicalities. Pets travel for a small per-stay fee, extra beds cost extra depending on room category, and check-in runs from noon. With only ten suites and listings from Mr & Mrs Smith and Tablet Hotels rather than a chain loyalty programme, The Kumaon reads as a considered outpost above the plains, not a resort trying to be everything. Ten suites stacked down a ridge above Almora, a cantilevered dining room aimed at Nanda Devi, and a bhaang chutney that's the kitchen's own specialty define The Kumaon. It suits hikers and slow travellers, not anyone wanting a city base or a big resort's buzz.