Chakrata, Uttaranchal

Multiple trips in 2007

[About Chakrata] [Getting There] [Where to stay] [Hotel Snow View] [What to do] [Photo Gallery]
[Jagatgram] [Deo Van] [Koti Kanasar] [Daragadh] [Hanol] [Kathiyan] [Lakhamandal] [Sahia to Kwano]

Hotel Snow View

Built in 1836, it is one of the first buildings to have come up in Chakrata. It was built and is now still run by the same family – six generations down the line!!!
It is reached by a private “hair raising” road, about half a kilometer off the main road, around a kilometer from the Chakrata Gate.
The building is beautiful and colonial from the outside. The view from the garden is fabulous, with forest fresh air all around.

Front View of Hotel Snow View

Click here to see it's backside !!

It has around 8 suites, one “Honey Moon Suite” and a big Hall. Rates vary from Rs 550/- to Rs 950/- with a bit of bargaining allowed.
The “Honey Moon Suite” is a very very small and claustrophobic room. Stay there only if you want to spoil your honey moon!! The hall is big and can house 10 – 15 beds.
The suites consist of two interconnected bed rooms with a bathroom attached to one of them. So, even if there are only two of you, take the Suite if you want to be comfortable. The rooms can hardly be described as “colonial” and have tiled floors. Beds are fairly clean and comfortable. Bathrooms have dirty buckets and broken mugs. Food quality is average and is served in plastic dishes. Tea sets don’t seem to exist anywhere in vicinity!!! A visit to the kitchen will put you off, so stay far from it.
One queer ritual the hotel follows is that is turns off tap water at pack up time at night. So, if you need water in the middle of the night or if you are an early riser, the taps are bone dry!!! Either you fill up your buckets before you go to bed or wake up the poor room boy and ask him to turn the water on. Staff is helpful but sad looking!

Download Predawn sights and sounds : 50MB AVI File

The most beautiful view from the hotel is at sunrise:

Most important: If you decide to stay in the hotel or even visit it, please go around it and see the backside of the hotel. It is full of plastic waste and rubbish is piled sky high!! The whole area has a rotten stink. Villagers living adjacent to the hotel are really troubled by this and their animals fall sick by eating the plastic garbage. Their pleas to clean up the area have fallen on deaf ears, as did my plea of getting the area cleaned up. So, if you go there please walk around the back of the hotel, see the pile, photograph it and speak your mind to the management. How can anyone pollute such a beautiful place with so much impunity!!!!!! Help preserve the beauty of Chakrata.

Backside of the Hotel

From the garbage pile leads a beautiful jungle track to a village about half a kilometer away called “Kacharkhanna”. It is a really beautiful place and from there, if you are adventurous you can descend down the hill to another village called “Khoya”. It takes half an hour of walking down and an hour back.

Beautiful Jungle track

What can one say?

Village Kacharkhanna

On the whole, Hotel Snow View is fairly OK for the price and of the limited lot of hotels, seems the best bet. For bookings you can visit their website or call 01360 – 272241 / 272242

[About Chakrata] [Getting There] [Where to stay] [Hotel Snow View] [What to do] [Photo Gallery]
[Jagatgram] [Deo Van] [Koti Kanasar] [Daragadh] [Hanol] [Kathiyan] [Lakhamandal] [Sahia to Kwano]