The Orchid Retreat is a family operated Home Hospitality Guest House. We are situated in Kalimpong, in the Darjeeling Himalayas. We provide simple and clean lodgings admits serene surroundings and wholesome home cooked meals.

The Orchid Retreat was conceptualised many, many years ago. However, we started operations in 1995 with two cottages built in the garden area of our flower nursery, Ganesh Mani Pradhan & Son. We did not have any formal background in the hospitality trade but in a region where hospitality is a way of life it was not difficult establishing norms on how to run our facility. Early on we decided that we would project our facility as a Retreat for guests who would like to take up lodgings and get away from the daily grind. Hence, there are no telephones, intercom sets or T.V. in the cottages and rooms.

We have a total of ten rooms available, six in independent cottages and four in a duplex building, all situated within the garden premises, offering accommodation for twenty adults on a twin sharing basis.

Facilities :

The Orchid Retreat offers lodgings in six cottages and a four roomed duplex building. These cottages are spread out in the garden and each cottage  hosts two adults in double bed or twin bed format. Total accommodation available is for 20 adults in ten rooms on a twin sharing/double bed basis. Each  room has an attached  bathroom, shower with running hot and cold water and western style toilet facilities. The rooms are spacious and comfortable without being ostentatious. Ceilings are of woven bamboo strips and most of the construction material  used are bamboo, stone masonry and mud plaster. All rooms have spacious verandahs with seating arrangements. All the cottages face due south with a panoramic view of mountains across the Relli Valley through a canopy of evergreen and deciduous trees.

The cottages are built to blend in with the garden and the flower nursery. At any point of time throughout the year, guests are exposed to a variety of flowering plants. Of course, there are also the birds and the butterflies and and a family of foxes that make their home somewhere in the wooded area.  Birds, both migratory and resident are seen in numbers in the garden throughout the year.  Below the cottages, the terraces are being  landscaped into an arboretum as a depository for  growing and studying local flora, mainly Palms, Orchids, Hedychium, Curcuma and a host of other  plants. Many exotic species of plants from various parts of the world have been introduced.

There are no television sets, telephones or inter-com in the cottages to distract the guest. Our office is in the main house and offers e-mail and telephone facilities. A small but growing library with volumes on flora, fauna and natural history pertaining to our region are also available in the office. We are not licensed to serve alcoholic drinks and beverages. However, we have no objection to guests who bring in their own supply of alcoholic drinks and beverages for consumption in the privacy of the rooms.

Meals are served in the dining hall in the basement of the main house. We do not have room service, except in exceptional cases where the guest is not feeling well. Only early morning "wake-up" tea/coffee is served in the cottages. There is no restaurant. Meals are fixed menu and mostly of ethnic cuisine and in consultation with food preferences of guests. Water supply in the cottages is from a privately owned natural spring which supplies our establishment with clean potable water throughout the year. Drinking water served during meals and available in the cottages is boiled and filtered.

Lodgings are offered by prior booking only and we do not, at present, entertain walk-in guests. This so because hospitality at The Orchid Retreat is still looked after by the family and we need a full day to have rooms and other requisites spruced up for guests. Lodgings can be booked either directly or through Travel Agents/Tour operators. On the rare occasion, visitors who walk in with recommendations from guests who have previously lodged at The Orchid Retreat are offered hospitality if cottages are available.

What we do not have, at the moment, are facilities for accepting payment through Credit Cards. Money Changing Services are also not available with us. We do, however, accept Travelers Cheques.

Room View