Never more than four rooms
Five would mean a manager, then a front desk — and then you are in a hotel. Four is what one family kitchen can cook for without it becoming catering.
About the house · since 2016
About Berinag Home Stay.
The building
Our house, built around 1940
Built by the family’s grandfather around 1940 — dry-stacked stone, half-metre walls, deodar beams from the slope behind. The first floor was added in 1979. The old byre fell in the 2013 rains; in 2021 we rebuilt it from its own stone as the Stone Cottage.
- c. 1940Built
- 500 mmStone walls
- 4Guest rooms
- 11Guests at most
- 1,740 mAltitude
- NorthFacing the peaks
First principles
What makes our homestay different
And have not changed in ten years — they are the reason the place still feels like a house.
Everyone from the valley
The cook, the drivers, the milk, the men who rebuilt the byre — all live within four kilometres.
No lying about the weather
We tell you the visibility odds for your dates before you pay. If they are bad, we say come another month.
Who looks after you
A family-run stay, with a local team
Everyone who works here lives within four kilometres. You will meet them all within a few hours of arriving.
Your hosts
Welcome · walks · local knowledge
Bookings, pickups, sunrise walks and every question about the valley — answered by the family who own the house.
The kitchen
Chulha · terraces · dairy
Three home-cooked Kumaoni meals a day, from the terrace garden and our own cows. Diets planned with you.
Crafts & culture
Handloom · pankhi wool · festivals
Pankhi blankets woven on the family handloom, and a seat at the village festivals when they fall during your stay.
Walking guides
Trails · birding · photography
Local guides who grew up on this ridge — they know where the waterfall is and where the leopard sleeps.
A day in this house
A typical day at the homestay
Your day is yours to plan — this is simply the rhythm of the house around you.
- 05:15
The shed
The family milks the two cows. If you want to learn, be there — nobody will wake you.
- 07:00
Tea at the doors
On a steel tray, with the weather report — and so what the day can be.
- 08:30
Breakfast, then out
Roti, ghee, pickle. Then the walk, the farm, the tea garden — or nothing.
- 13:00
Lunch, then the hole
Nothing is scheduled until five, deliberately and permanently.
- 17:00
The fire, Oct–Mar
Lit because the house is cold. the handloom comes out by the fire.
- 19:00
One table
Everyone, including us. This is the part people remember.
- 21:00
The house goes quiet
The family turns in. In winter the telescope comes out.
Come and see whether it suits you. Three nights is usually enough to know — and most people stay five.