Welcomhotel By ITC Hotels, Pine N Peak, Pahalgam - Premium Resort Overlooking Lidder River And Snow Topped Mountains

The Best Hotels and Resorts in the World: The Gold List 2026 | Condé Nast Traveler

"A herd of sheep blocks your car that has so far been gliding down the smooth road in Lidder Valley. The fast-flowing river is your constant companion along the turns and bends, ensuring you know the valley is named after it. The two-and-a-half-hour drive from Srinagar to Pahalgam unspools like a primer on Kashmir's greatest hits: mountains so green you’d think someone turned up the saturation; wild horses grazing in meadows; tiny hamlets of wooden homes with carved windows and pitched roofs; and roadside fruit stands with apples piled high. The road winds upward through a pine forest until you reach a hotel that looks like it has quietly grown out of the hillside: the chalet-style Welcomhotel by ITC Hotels, Pine N Peak. Inside, it feels like Kashmir reinterpreted, with its vaulted ceilings, textured walnut-wood doors, and chesterfield sofas upholstered in local fabrics. The kitchen does justice to Kashmir's culinary grammar across three dining venues that offer a plethora of multicuisine dishes. For guests who want wellness indoors, there is a spa with a range of therapies and a well-equipped fitness center. However, the real sense of well-being is in the outdoors, whether it’s an early-morning stroll through the gardens that spill into the forest, soundtracked by the rushing river below; an afternoon walk on the forest trails or through nearby villages that ends with a picnic by the Lidder; or an evening back at the property relaxing by a crackling fire. From $310. —Shunal Khullar Shroff" - CNT Editors