Its always nice when a place matches your expectations, and this one did--it was pretty much what I had always thought a hill station in India should be like. The Windermere is also a lot like the kind of resort you might find on a lake in Wisconsin--or a "camp" in Maine: cozy, rustic little chalets, tucked into the sides of a hill or the gardens of the compound. The grounds are immaculate, and the lodgings homey. This is not a plush hotel--accomodations are simple but comfortable, and everything is spotless. There are no tv's in the rooms, which I kind of liked.
We spent two nights here, but could have easily added a third. The clientele seemed to be a mix of Brits on the elderly side, with some Indian honeymooners thrown in. The web site for the hotel lists a lot of different hiking options, but when I asked about them, the staff seemed flummoxed. Fortunately, I had a print out of the website, which I pulled out. To their credit, the staff quickly understood that what we wanted, and made arrangements with a local guide service to set us up the next day on the perferct hike--a mixture or tea plantation ramble and mountain trek. But if hiking is important to you, I might email ahead to them to request this--we were at the end of the season, and good local guides were available, but we might not have been so lucky in the high tourist season.
If there is a weak spot, it is the restaurant; the food was extremely bland and uninteresting--but that may be a reflection of the tastes of the clientele. It was as if they were working out of some cook book left over from the 1930's.
They seem to be expanding the place at a steady rate, and if they add much more to it, it will take away the charm. There were several new chalets under construction on the hill side below us.
