Inside Six Senses Vana, a Newly Revived Ayurvedic Retreat in the Foothills of the Himalayas | Vogue
"The experience of staying at Six Senses Vana—and it really is, as any visitor will quickly discover, an experience—begins well before you actually arrive. There’s the information you’ll be asked for in the weeks ahead of your stay, so that the team can begin preparing your custom health and wellness plan, whether for the minimum break of five days or (in the case of the lucky few who can afford it) for a month and upwards. There’s the lengthy pilgrimage it takes to get there, which will, most likely, see you land at Delhi airport, before being collected in one of the resort’s plush minivans to navigate the city’s infamously traffic-clogged streets. A few hours later, you’ll pass through the teeming city of Dehradun; on its outskirts, you’ll begin the slow climb up winding roads to the foothills of the Himalayas, before pulling down a discrete side road and plunging deep into a forest of towering sal trees. As soon as you step through the doors of the arrival pavilion, you know you’ve crossed a threshold of some kind. My “guest experience manager” for the week floated in with a detox tea and provided me with a set of thick linen kurta pajamas to change into, before I received a red string to tie around my wrist as a blessing and had a dot of vermillion powder swiftly applied to my forehead. Next, I was whisked away in a golf cart along the leafy pathways that snake around the 21-acre property, and led into the architectural marvel of a building that serves as the beating heart of it all. But with barely a moment to gawp at its cavernous, light-filled central atrium, all soothing neutrals and tasteful hanging sculptures, it was time to begin addressing the real reason for my visit—by taking a trip to the doctor." - Liam Hess
