| Windamere Hotel | |
|---|---|
| Windamere hotel | |
| Location | Observatory Hill, Darjeeling. |
| Opening date | 1930s |
| Rooms | 46 Rooms[1] |
| Website | Official site |
Windamere Hotel, built in the 1930s, is a heritage hotel situated on Observatory Hill, in Darjeeling, India.
The hotel started out as boarding house for bachelor British tea planters in Darjeeling, in what was then British India, in the late 1930s. It was acquired by Tenduf La, a Sikkimese of Tibetan descent, who turned it into a hotel with the name Windamere. The hotel became more widely known as Darjeeling became India's summer capital. It expanded and took over a new wing, formerly the Loreto Convent, where the actress Vivien Leigh had spent some years in childhood.[2]
In 1959, Palden Thondup Namgyal, Crown Prince of Sikkim, met his future wife Hope Cooke for the first time in the Windamere Hotel.
The hotel is also known for its the views of the tea plantations below and of Mount Kangchenjunga, the third highest peak in the world. In 2007, The Sunday Times named it as one of the "world's best colonial hotels".[3]