Ananda in the Himalayas

Above Rishikesh, where the Ganges leaves the mountains, the Maharaja of Tehri Garhwal built a palace at Narendranagar in the early twentieth century. Ananda in the Himalayas, the spa retreat at Narendranagar in Uttarakhand, has occupied the palace estate since 2000, and its guests come for Ayurveda and yoga rather than sightseeing.

History

The town of Narendranagar takes its name from Maharaja Narendra Shah, who moved his capital here from Tehri in 1919 and built his palace on the ridge. A second building on the estate, the Viceregal Palace, had gone up earlier, in 1910, to receive the Viceroy on a visit. Ashok Khanna, the founder of IHHR Hospitality, leased the Viceregal Palace and the surrounding 100 acres and opened Ananda in 2000 as India's first destination spa. The Maharaja's family still live in the main palace next door, and the two buildings share the ridge.

Architecture and design

The Viceregal Palace is the heart of the hotel: reception, lounge, library, billiards room and tea lounge are in the old building, with its arches, verandahs and high ceilings. The spa and the guest rooms were built later, lower down the slope, in a style that defers to the palace. The spa covers some 24,000 square feet, with treatment rooms, a hydrotherapy area and a yoga pavilion. Rooms and suites look across the valley to the Ganges and the roofs of Rishikesh, and the villas have private pools.

Rooms and suites

Rooms are plain by palace standards, with wooden floors, large windows, balconies on the valley side and bathrooms with tubs. Guests spend little time in them; the daily programme runs from early yoga to evening meditation. The villas, with their own pools and gardens, are the choice for longer stays.

Dining

The Restaurant serves a cuisine designed around the Ayurvedic doshas, with menus tailored to each guest's programme and the physician's advice, and the Tea Lounge offers lighter fare through the day. Vegetarian cooking is the strength, and the kitchen can accommodate a strict regime or a relaxed one.

Wellness

Ananda's programmes combine Ayurveda, yoga, Vedanta and international spa therapies. Guests are assessed by an Ayurvedic physician on arrival and given a diet and a daily schedule. Yoga classes run in the morning and evening in the pavilion and on the lawns, and lectures on Vedanta are part of the week. Programmes address stress, weight, sleep, detox and rehabilitation, and run from a few days to several weeks. Treks in the Garhwal hills, white-water rafting on the Ganges and visits to the evening aarti at Rishikesh are arranged for guests who want to leave the estate. The outdoor pool is heated.

Weddings and events

Ananda is a retreat rather than an events hotel, and its calm is the point. Small meetings and corporate retreats are hosted in the palace rooms, and the estate has taken intimate weddings, but large celebrations are not its business and the number of rooms keeps any gathering small.

Location

Narendranagar sits about 20 kilometres above Rishikesh in the Tehri Garhwal district of Uttarakhand, at an altitude of around 1,000 metres, which keeps the air cooler than the plains. Jolly Grant Airport at Dehradun is about an hour's drive, with regular flights from Delhi. Haridwar railway station is roughly an hour away as well, and the drive from Delhi takes six to seven hours. Rishikesh, with its ashrams and the Lakshman Jhula bridge, is the nearest town of any size.