Reviewed 16 July 2015
Onewin
New Delhi, India
We stayed only a few hours, from around 6.30 pm to noon the next day, which is probably too little time to assess any place, especially a nature/atmosphere destination such as Riverside. There wasn’t an option — we planned late and they were full up by then, but we needed a place for at least a night in the course of a drive-through in Kumaon, and having visited their other property, Solitude in the Himalayas, for 4 nights in October 2014, we weren’t going to try any place else without first checking if they could host us. Himalayas had no rooms to offer, but Riverside had, just for a night.
I posted a review of Himalayas on Tripadvisor and gave it five stars, and I would say Riverside is smaller in scale but possibly classier — it’s newer than Himalayas, and it looks like the owners have worked very hard to create a boutique gem even prettier than the earlier enterprise. So, each bedroom and bathroom fitting, bedspread and cushion cover, wallhanging and item of decor at Riverside seems to have been picked with even greater attention to detail than at Himalayas, with the goal of an even more refined aesthetic, and a clearly visible attempt to raise the bar of classiness higher. There is some breathtaking innovation, like a waterfall in one of the bathrooms we had and, in another, an outdoor bathing area with a lovely hand pump. It is all spectacular and, for those with an eye for aesthetics, very, very pleasing.
The staff and standards of hospitality are topnotch, as we’d seen at Himalayas. It started from the time I first rang our friend from October 2014, Prithavi Raj Singh, the general manager of the two properties, seeking help and guidance for the visit, followed it up with a request to the owner, Manish Chandra, to enable the web site to condone a technical irregularity with the booking process, and finally ran into another friend from Himalayas, a young man called Vicky, who, I was amazed to realise, recognised not just us and our car, but also enquired after a friend who had been with us on the earlier trip, but wasn’t on this one. These personal touches at any hotel make you feel happy and wanted, and you want to keep returning to them.
As the Riverside web site says, you park your car on the main road (the resort has an arrangement for a secure parking space where Vicky, who met us on the highway, took us) and trek about 25 minutes along a rocky mountain stream to the resort. It isn’t a difficult trek (for anyone who isn’t either very old or very young, arthritic, or does not have a physical disability) but you’d do well to wear sports shoes/sneakers and, because you clamber over rocks while going back and forth across the stream (thrice, I think), it helps to keep both hands free for balance.
The trek ends in a tight little valley over which the resort (four buildings and vegetable patches) is spread, lying at the foot of a sheer rock face perhaps 1,000 feet high, with a rocky river gurgling alongside. The whole effect is idyllic and peaceful, and though I personally preferred the greater height and openness of Soulitude in the Himalayas, this is a totally different setting, is extremely pretty indeed.
The food was one of the highlights at Himalayas, and Riverside largely matches up. The spread is much more limited — understandable, given the remote location — but, like at Himalayas, prepared by a gifted chef. I have to make a special mention of a daal that was served for dinner, and of the potato subzi from the morning’s poori bhaaji, both of which were outstanding.
In all, an extremely satisfying few hours at Riverside, and a pity we couldn’t stay for longer. It was also rainy and windy, which, though all very pretty, ensured we couldn’t spend time at the river. Coming back for sure. And finally, thanks all round again to everyone involved in running the operation — Manish (also for the very gracious return guest discount), Prithavi, Riverside manager Bhanu Pratap Singh, young Vicky, and all the rest whose names I could not ask.
Stayed June 2015, travelled with friends