Coming on your own

Most of what is written for solo travellers in the hills is either cheerful and useless or frightening and useless. Here is the specific version for this place, including the parts that will not suit everyone.

The things that matter, first

• We live here. The people who answer your message are on the property.
• Food is on site. Coffee & Clouds means you never have to go out after dark to eat.
• Eight rooms. Small enough that somebody notices if you have not come down.

That middle one does more work than it looks like. The single most common problem for a solo traveller in a hill station is dinner — finding it, getting to it, and getting back from it on an unlit road. A kitchen on the property removes the whole question.

What we will not pretend

There is nothing to walk to. No market at the end of the lane, no chemist, nothing open at ten at night. If you are travelling without a car, you are dependent on a taxi you have arranged in advance — tell us and we will help arrange it rather than leaving you to find one at the roadside.

And it is quiet in a way that some people find restorative and others find long. If you are the second kind, a town is a better call, and we have said which town.

Days that work on your own

Surkanda Devi at first light is the one to do alone — it is a climb with a clear destination and there are always other people on the path. Landour is a whole morning of walking with tea at the end of it. The eco parks at Dhanaulti are twenty minutes away and best at opening. And a day with nothing in it at all is a legitimate use of this place; most people who come alone end up spending at least one that way.

Working while you are here

If the trip is really a change of desk, that is the workation version — there is desk space and Wi-Fi, and three nights or more from Sunday to Thursday is 15% less, which makes a solo week here cost less per night than a weekend does.