Bishnoi Dharamsala in Rishikesh

A sacred respite: Rena and her husband run the Bishnoi Dharamsala, a quiet, spiritual home-stay in Rishikesh in the mountain foot hills of the Himalayas. At Bishnoi guest house, it offers the comfort of traditionally furnished rooms with modern facilities to ensure peaceful stay for its guests.

And meals are made according to vegetarian principles, using locally sourced fresh produce to create simple, but delightful dishes. Bishnoi Dharamsala’s big selling point is the fact that it’s peaceful, in a town which is not. This is one of the reasons why the ashrams and high concept resorts are located here at the top of the ‘teaching hill’, that is, if you’re visiting for something other than getting stoned. This is also the place to come if you want to practice meditation, yoga or chanting. It’s true that almost any place can do in this regard, if you’re on retreat, but there is an odd serenity to Bishnoi, and perhaps guests to the ashrams benefit from this in a way that visitors to the ashrams on the other side of town – those places which are a bit more dirty, grubby and commercial – don’t. But whatever side of the hill your retreat is on, a spiritual holiday in Rishikesh gives you an enormous amount of bang for your buck, even though that buck doesn’t go very far.