Windamere Hotel
A boutique hotel on Observatory Hill, begun as a boarding house for tea planters.
- Neighbourhood
- Observatory Hill, Darjeeling
- Status
- Open
Why we recommend it
Windamere is less a hotel in the modern sense than a preserved way of staying in a hill station. The hotel’s own line is that it has kept its colonial history rather than recreated it, and the routines bear that out: fires lit in the rooms each evening, tea with scones in the afternoon, dinner by candlelight. Travellers looking for contemporary polish will not find it here; those who want the Darjeeling of the hill-station era will find it carefully kept.
The house has its own share of history. It was acquired and turned into a hotel by Tenduf La, a Sikkimese of Tibetan descent, and later expanded into a wing that had belonged to the Loreto Convent, where the actress Vivien Leigh spent part of her childhood. In 1959 Palden Thondup Namgyal, then Crown Prince of Sikkim, first met his future wife, Hope Cooke, at the hotel.
It suits readers with a taste for heritage, railway enthusiasts and anyone who would rather walk into town than drive. For the opposite experience of the same hills, on a working plantation outside town, see Glenburn Tea Estate, the planters’ bungalows above the Rungeet River.
Rooms & Suites
The rooms, suites and cottages are spread across several heritage buildings rather than a single block. Interiors run to dark timber furniture, original claw-foot baths and open fireplaces. The categories rise from Preferred and Superior doubles to Colonial and Royal suites, many of them named for former guests and figures of the region, among them Prince Peter of Greece and Denmark, the Chogyal of Sikkim and the Begum Aga Khan. There are also free-standing cottages and two single rooms.
Two houses have their own character. Ada Villa, the original building, is the quietest part of the property, and its rooms have neither television nor telephone. The Snuggery overlooks the Chowrasta.
Dining
The dining room serves Indian dishes alongside classic English cooking rooted in the Raj era, in a formal setting with traditional service; dinner is by candlelight. Afternoon tea, with scones, is the hotel’s best-known ritual and is served on the lawn. The Bearer’s Bar is the place for a drink before dinner.
Elsewhere in town, OKYTO lists Glenary’s and Keventer’s, both on Nehru Road.
Design
Windamere is a group of colonial-era bungalows and cottages rather than a designed hotel, and its appeal lies in what has been left alone: Victorian-style rooms, period furniture and vintage decoration. The hotel has noted restoration and maintenance work on parts of the property (as of 2026), described as intended to preserve its historic character. The DHR Club, a two-room bungalow dedicated to the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, can be used for private dinners and small meetings.
Location
The hotel is on Observatory Hill, in the centre of Darjeeling, directly above the Chowrasta, the town’s main promenade, and within walking distance of its principal sights. It is also convenient for the mountain railway: see OKYTO’s guide to the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway and its toy train, and the experience page on riding the Darjeeling toy train to Ghum.
- Website
- Official website