Tucked away on the top of a hill overlooking Kalimpong, West Bengal, is the delightful Kalimpong Park Hotel. Once the summer hideaway of the Maharaja of Dinajpur, the Kalimpong Park stands majestically with the valley spread all around it and the snow-capped Kanchendzonga range to its left.
If the view leaves you breathless, the hotel itself is quite a sight to behold. After a pleasurable drive past cute and neat homes adorned with flowers, you climb up a hill to the top and the front door of the hotel. Its wooden floors and staircase hark back to an era when a crackling fireplace would welcome visitors on winter nights. Now the fireplace has been replaced by an iron stove, but the welcome is warm as ever.
We stayed in the heritage section of the hotel. Our place of stay had three rooms – one large room with a high ceiling, another smaller room and a closet room where we could change our clothes. The bathroom was attached. The rooms had wooden floors, wooden walls and the main bed was also, wooden. It was nice to feel the creak of the floorboards and the cosy warmth of wood. The bathroom, however, was modern with tiled floors and warm and cold water. We were even blessed with a view though there was no veranda or terrace to really appreciate the hills from our room
For that we had to go downstairs. And we were never disappointed. Be it morning afternoon or night, the mountains stood like guardians watching over us and the quaint town of Kalimpong. But a hotel is as good as the people who run it and we were not given any chance to think otherwise.
Since we went in winter, the staff of the hotel did their utmost to make us feel warm. Keeping the rooms clean, providing us with room heaters and making sure we were well-fed with tasty and hot food. Their happy nature seemed infectious and we had long conversations on various topics.
The hotel has been blessed with a beautiful garden and a host of flowering plants. A short walk from Kalimpong Park will take you to a monastery and the Morgan House. But if you just want to sit and do nothing, this is the place. Looking out towards the Kanchendzonga range and the valley, you can be forgiven for losing track of time. That is until the ever-smiling staff reminds you that it is time for a meal or tea.
The tariff is reasonable and depends really on your choice. If you are willing to just relax and recharge your batteries, Kalimpong Park is the place. Silence here is truly golden. After the chaos of Calcutta, we found the emptiness more than welcome. It was the main attraction out of a host of attractions. For that we would love to go back over and over again
