When we came to these hills
looking for a quiet home —
we didn’t think we would
also find ourselves.

Dear traveller,

When we came to the hills of Kumaon seven years ago looking for a quiet home, we didn’t expect to find ourselves too. This discovery led us to build Kua Koeeli — for travellers like us, in search of wonder and space for their creative selves.

We built Kua Koeeli with this core mission — to bring you closer to your sense of curiosity and the inspiration that follows.

We found the site for Kua Koeeli on a dreary monsoon afternoon, in the bowl of a densely forested valley — wild grass to our knees, a steep slope dropping into a thicket, and somewhere below, a seasonal stream gurgling with the confidence of the rains. It was love at first sight, which has only deepened on every successive trip over the years.

We have seen apricot blossoms turn the breeze into a canvas, mist rising after a night of rain, a leopard gone before we could register it was real, hares in the headlights, a million stars the moment we turned them off, a lone firefly making its way through the dark towards friends.

We have been lucky. We are grateful.

Three kilometres of dirt road separates Kua Koeeli from the world you are leaving behind. The journey gets a little bumpy, the signal a little patchy — and something in you begins to loosen.

You arrive through a small zen garden — pebbles, stepping stones, silence.

The foyer holds you briefly before the building opens up into vaulted ceilings and large windows. The warmth of the birch ply interiors against the cool terrazzo floors restore you.

Every comfort has been considered keeping sustainability in mind. Sun provides power, rain provides water, heat pumps keep both the water and the floors warm. Double glazed windows hold that warmth in and keep the noise out. And there are two kitchens, in case you feel like whipping yourself up a meal.

Works of art inhabit the living spaces. Nature fills the gaps — birdsong fills the silences, light dances on the walls throughout the day. The hills outside are always present on the large glass panes and their blue lingers long after the light is gone.

Two suites and a garden bedroom, set a few steps apart, sleep up to 6 guests. The hillside is unsparing but the house is gracious.

The garden bedroom sits apart from the suites, a few steps down the garden path. Clad in local stone outside and painted pink and white inside, it deviates delightfully from the all wooden interiors of the other suites.

The garden outside aspires to return to forest someday — filled with native trees like pangar, utees, baanj and baransh. For now it winds along the terrain leisurely towards the seasonal stream, with fruiting trees, berry bushes and herbs at every bend — a food forest for the guests and the birds alike. This is what you are coming to.