Life is more than Bangalore!!

The best weekend get-away from your busy life

Bangalore is a wonderful place - India’s hippest city, smart, innovative, buzzing with creativity. But living in such a cutting-edge environment has its downside – traffic, hassle, tiredness, even burn-out. And there’s no doubt, these twenty-first century urban stresses have been greatly added to by the Covid pandemic.

Fortunately, there exists an easily accessible alternative. A way to leave it all behind for a couple of days and really relax. A way to reconnect with what is really important in your life. A way to recharge your batteries and face the future fully refreshed.

That way is called Neeelshwar Hermitage.

A typical Hermitage daily routine would be:

• Wake up to enjoy a tray of bed tea sprinkled with delicately fragrant fresh flowers; get up to take in the beautiful view from your cottage – a choice of expansive sea views or lushly planted tropical gardens;
• Enjoy an early morning yoga session in the sea-facing yoga hall, before tucking into a healthy organic breakfast, perhaps jazzed up with aromatic coffee from the nearby hills of Coorg;
• Walk for leisurely miles along the golden sands of Kerala’s finest beach, accompanied only by cavorting dolphins and the sea birds wheeling overhead;
• Lunch in the Annapurna, an architecturally stunning and open-sided space designed on the model of the traditional Kerala assembly room. Choose the best of Indian cuisine adapted to your preference;
• Rest gently in a hammock, or on your balcony, or a garden sunbed, or by the infinity pool - all places blissfully free from the tug of electronic demands. Lose yourself in your favourite book or try one from our extensive library, or just take the peace and quiet as a time consider your future direction;
• Take a cookery class, or an extra yoga lesson; go birdwatching; visit a local ashram or spice garden or temple shrine, hidden in ancient sacred groves;
• Swim in the safe, clean sea or take a canoe trip on our lagoon;
• Watch the spectacular sunset and the shy emergence of the twinkling stars overhead;
• Dine al-fresco at the Meenakshi beachside restaurant, soothed by the calming soundtrack of Arabian Sea. The speciality here is the seafood caught the same day just down the beach from the hotel, and skilfully prepared with local Kerala spices or international fusion recipes;
• Retire to your generously spacious room, beautified with traditional artworks, with its stylish garden bathroom open to the starry sky;
• Sleep like a baby, ready to wake up and enjoy it all again tomorrow.

The perfect addition to your stay in The Hermitage is to spend time on our stylish Lotus houseboat. This offers:

• The same high standard of attentive yet unobtrusive service that you get in the hotel;
• Luxury cuisine that caters to all tastes;
• Cruising through the tranquil backwaters, watching the life of local communities drifting gently by as the years roll away and you settle into the unaccustomed joy of just being fully where you are.

A week-end break at Neeleshwar Hermitage is the latest thing in getting back in touch with yourself, but we have to admit that there is nothing new about all this. Lord Krishna gave the same sage advice to the stressed-out hero Arjuna a long, long time ago: ‘Yogasthah kurukarmani’ Bhagavad Gita (2.48): ‘First establish yourself in tranquillity, then get on with whatever you have to do’.

Neeleshwar Hermitage is the place to get your priorities back in order, the best weekend get-away from your busy life.