Windamere Colonial Hotel - Our Story

We started off as 'Ada Villa' – the oldest and most traditional English Boarding House of its kind in the region.

The "lady of the house" looked after all of the needs of Raj types coming up from what was called 'Calcutta' in those days. Kings, Queens, Aristocrats, top Raj diplomats and lastly, Tea Planters, all stayed here and were waited on hand and foot. In 1939, a group of local businessmen decided to acquire Ada Villa and turn it into a Private Limited Company hotel. One of the shareholders was a Mrs. Gertrude Bearpark, who hailed from Windermere in the NW region of England, called 'The Lake District'. There was a Windermere Hotel there, set in Windermere Village, by Lake Windermere. Her associates loved the name, but she protested that using it would make it all very complicated, so refused to go along. Then, the "er" was taken out of "Windermere" and was replaced by an "a". Windamere Hotel was born! Even until today, the way we run our hotel is very similar to the old English Boarding House days – our guests are really our friends - just staying for a few days. Individual care and attention is prevalent at our hotel. We have never renovated, but most definitely have updated and restored the place. We bought 'The Snuggery' in 1958. It was right next door to us and previously owned by HH The Maharajah of Cooch Behar. The only old building is the bungalow, which was also built in 1841.

Finally, Windamere sits on what is a very holy hill, going right back to the days when the whole region was in Sikkim. A lama called ‘Dorje Rinzing’ found our hill to be sacred and laid his shrine here. It is said to still be extremely enervating – so our guests tell us as they relax here!