Wildcrest Nature Resort by awsmberg stays

Wildcrest is built along the slope rather than stacked up: single-storey cottages with green roofs, set in rows down the hillside and linked by paved paths through clipped hedges and lawn. The Shivaliks are on every side.

The pool

It sits on the terrace at the centre of the property, on the edge of the drop, looking straight down the river valley towards the hills. In the evening the sun goes down behind the ridge at the end of the garden, and that is where everyone is when it does.

Near the town, above it

Rishikesh is close enough for the ghats, the evening aarti and the rafting put-ins, and far enough that the resort is quiet at night. That combination is the whole reason to stay up here rather than in town: you choose when to be in the middle of it, and then you leave.

The rooms are air-conditioned, with wooden floors and a television; the larger ones have more space again. Tell us your party size and we will tell you which cottages suit.

What people do

Walk — the forest paths behind the cottages are the part guests underestimate. Sit by the water. Go down for the river and the bridges and come back up. Practise yoga somewhere quiet if that is what brought you, with no programme to join if it is not.

Rafting is arranged locally in the seasons the river allows; the team will tell you plainly whether it is running rather than sell you something that is not.

Who it suits

Families. Groups coming for a rafting or yoga week. Anyone who wants the hills and the river without the town around them all day.

Practicalities

Walking shoes, and something warm for the evenings — it is cooler up here than in town, and winter mornings are genuinely cold. More on staying near Rishikesh.