Sheetalvan Resort surrounded by colorful orchards of Apples, Pears, Kiwis, Almonds & Cherries @ Kotgarh, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh

During my sabbatical I was out for Kinnaur trip along with one of the great bikers in India. During our back journey, we thought of going via Kotgarh, which is popular area for finding best quality apples and other fruits. Around these orchards, there is a beautiful place for relaxed stay with peaceful environment all around. This Photo Journey shares some o the quick shots taken at Sheetalvan Resort. Let's check out.

I have lot of things to tell about this place and not sure which one should be the first thing to start. I think I should start with the owners and one of the best couple I have met. Varsha and Gaurav, who personally take care of this whole resort along with great set of folks. This resort is spread over unimaginable area of land on hills. A small portion of whole area is used for cottages and rooms. Most of the part has orchards of apples, pears, Cherries & Kiwis.

A place like Sheetalvan, which is surrounded by great beuty all around makes it a best choice to spend a relaxing vacation to take rest from fast moving life of cities. It was really great to be there and the hospitality brings much more value when Himachali people are there to help you with stuff you need.

Let me control my emotions and share some information about the place. The first fact is that it's called as 'Sheetlvan Orchard' instead of 'Sheetalvan Resort'. Somehow Resort has caught my mind. 



Entry of Sheetalvan has a huge compound having apples trees all around and initially you may feel that you have entered into wrong place. We walked inside and noticed few parking lots on right side and few cars were parked out there. After these parking areas, there is a steep road which leads to main cottages.



There is enough place to park vehicles near cottages as well. Just in front of this open space, we noticed a building which looked like a old himachali styled house. Since I also belong to Himachal, it was easy for me to conclude as well. I was quite curious to explore it from inside. But it was time to settle down and have some water. 



All the cottages have lot of plants all around with colorful flower and nice aroma. Sheetvan is there on facebook as well, so you can connect through - https://www.facebook.com/SeetalvanOrchard



We entered into common area with all our bags and it was time to have some snacks & relax after long ride. This common area of Sheetlvan is well equipped with stuff we usually need. Elegegant furniture aligned indoors and in a roofed balcony. 


Here is another view of common area at Sheetalvan. This whole space is full of books, magazines, games and some other interesting stuff.



Aneesh choosing between the seats by checking out the outside view he may get from different alternatives available. 

After some rest, Gaurav joined us and we thought of taking a tour of orchards around the cottages. btw, here we are talking about more trees inside the campus which are different from huge orchards at the entrance of Sheetalvan. It was quite challenging for me to find out a place from where I could click photograph of all cottages, because it was surrounded by trees. In above photograph you see second storey of new cottages of Sheetalvan and this point was located after 15 minutes of walk. and of course, it's shot with a zoom lens.

There were some almond trees across the cottages. Gaurav asked us to have few and try. It was really delicious and of course, far more than what you see in the above photograph :). We got few more for folks at home.

Then a variety of trees came on the way and Gaurav started interviewing us. Being a Himachali, I was not able to accept that I don't know about these and hard time guessing these trees/fruits. Anyways, the fruit you see in above photograph is pear.

Some colorful mushrooms at Sheetalvan Campus but these were not eatable. They were looking awesome. I could not capture them well, as most of these shots are taken very quickly while walking down the orchards. In these orchards we saw apple, pear, kiwi, cherries, apricot, almond & pulm. I am sure that I must be missing few more names here :). Gaurav/Varsha, please comment back with other names...



After a quick walk around the orchards/farms, it was time to relax and have some tea. It was time to have some more discussions about Biking, Himachal & many other topics. btw, the seating area above is used for evening bonfire. Almost every cottage has similar but relatively smaller areas with appropriate seating arrangements. Apart from these seating areas, there are of course sufficient seating areas in balconies to enjoy amazing views of hills. 



After tea break, we headed towards rooms and thought of exploring different cottages as most of them has different styles and interiors. Most of the rooms are quite spacious with huge balconies with appropriate stuff to relax. Interior decoration with done with local stuff and this I want to keep as suspense, because many of things inside rooms really surprised me and I don't want to spoil that for others.

And now it was the great moment when we moved towards the old looking himachali house. What can you expect by looking at this corridor of ground floor? Keep your thoughts reserved with you and start exploring this with us.

This building had extra spacious suites. A common area at entrance connected to a room & seating room. The whole space inside was redone without destroying the feel. It was really awesome !!!

Here is the room of this suite... Sheetalvan has really well maintained rooms with appropriate stuff ready for guests. This suite also has a kitchen attached.

Near to these cottages, there is a huge house which is well connected with other parts of Sheetalvan Orchard. This is house of Gaurav & Varsha, the owners of Sheetalvan Orchards !!! More about Sheetalvan can be known through their official website @ http://www.seetalvanorchard.com/

I am already planning my next visit to Sheetalvan soon and hope stay for longer period of time now.