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Vacation Ideas : A Week Under the Dhauladhars – Art, History, Adventure, Nature

Palampur is one of those amazing places that’s blessed with everything – snow peaks, green valleys, streams, weather that’s mostly never harsh, history, culture, art, adventure. 

Explore the amazing fort at Kangra – the oldest continuously occupied fort in the world from the times of Porus and Alexander, and whose cliffsides have an interesting story to tell!

Take the little heritage train to Baijnath to see the old, mystical temple that’s one of the jyotirlingas established by Lord Shiva himself. Head further to Bir and Billing for some paragliding!

The Earth House, Palampur

Nearer Palampur is Andretta, home to art and a pottery school. Many an artist comes spends time here, and you can even sign up for a session of learning how use the potter’s wheel and create your own work of art!

Of course, around The Earth House itself are numerous hikes, treks, village walks that let you explore the hills and streams and dams, the homes and bazaars of a Himachali village, and old temples. It’s just great for your lungs to hike in the fresh air of these hills.

All of this is just 35km from the Dharamshala airport! You could also drive from Chandigarh (245km) or Pathankot to which you can take one of many trains from Delhi – which is about 3.5 hours away by road, or you could take the slower but really lovely Kangra Heritage Railway.

You could easily spend a week in this beautiful valley and will never want to head back home!

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Team Offsites at Linger : A Better Connect

We just got this review – made our day 🙂

Great place for off-sites

16 of us were at Linger for 5 days for a team offsite – and it was a brilliant experience.

The setting is beautiful, natural – complete with fireflies and the chorus of the jungle insects.

The place is simple & basic – so do not go in expecting luxury.
The food was amazing, and the service was fantastic – we were served tea, coffee, lemon tea based on our preferences that the staff remembered on-time, just when we needed it (without even asking)!

Thanks, team Udhyam Learning Foundation. We loved it that you loved it!

We’ve hosted small teams every now and then, and it’s quite a nice feeling to see colleagues bond, become friends, and do things together. We believe the fact that we’re not insular, formal “resorts” helps in this process a lot. Also, most teams end up taking the whole space for themselves, and make it home for 3-4 days – that helps too.

If you’re planning to spend some quality time with your team – brainstorming, or celebrating something, or getting to know everyone better – come over. We aren’t about conference rooms and poolside dinners etc – but we’re about a deeper connect, uninterrupted thought and bonding.

At most places we can host about 20-25 people quite easily. The campsites, the farm at Chettimani, Chiguru, Varshini Estate at Sakleshpur, Balur Estate at Chikmagalur and The Earth House at Palampur are particularly well suited for this – with many common spaces, hikes, and undisturbed environs.

Plan a 3-5 day time out with the team for a reboot. We’ll help all the way.

Reservations :

stay@linger.in or call +91-959-005-0001 or WhatsApp : +91-854-806-5772

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Workations! Go Linger AND Be Productive

I also do a little bit of Product Management on the side, and for one such assignment, had travelled along with a colleague for a couple of days of brainstorming and ideation. We did have access to decent-speed-internet so my colleague’s check-ins happened like they would on a regular day anyway!

Got me thinking that our locations would amazing for teams to head to head to for a week to ideate, collaborate, or even for creative folks to spend 4-5 days at all by themselves. There’s way fewer distractions, no commutes, you feel fresher, and can come up with some seriously new and different ideas while there.

And I was not alone – someone had thought of this independently and came over for those 5 days to Chettimani, Coorg. Thanks to JioFi, it was almost like a regular workday for her and she could collaborate with teams in Europe and Japan. And not only got a lot of good work done, ideas hashed out, but also played with the pups, spent time around the farm, and even did a morning’s trek up Kopatti and back!

So we’re opening up the idea of Workations!

We’d love for you to take a Workation. Let us know if you want to plan this for yourself, or for a small team (3-5 people max) over a whole week – and we’ll set it up for you. We usually discourage folks from staying connected and using devices at Linger, but for Workations we’ll throw in use of a Reliance JioFi device with some limited data as well 🙂

Want to go brainstorm and come back with some inspiration?

Let us know at stay@linger.in 

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Having A Great Team – our USP!

“One of the biggest perks to this place was the team of outstanding staff. The caretaker and cook led us on a 7-hour trek one day up a nearby mountain. The next day they helped set up a driver to take us to Bir-Billing for paragliding, a ride on the local toy train and to Andretta Pottery where we bought some beautiful ceramic mugs. On the last day, the caretaker even invited us to his house where his family cooked us a delicious meal.”

A guest from Palampur recently wrote that on TripAdvisor.

Another wrote this :

“A very friendly staff. Special thanks to the cook – whose name I miss. He got us fresh goat’s milk to try from the local shepherds, manage to find nimbooz in a small village and showed us around in the valley. And not to forget, made some killer paranthas for breakfast.”

And this, for the folks at Coorg, Sakleshpur and Balur:

“The caretakers here are very warm and make you feel at home and are ready to help you in any way.”

“The best part of the whole stay is the hospitality, i have never seen other place more friendly and caring as this one.”

“Hospitality: It was at its best. Our hosts – Padmanabh and Rakesh, guys take a bow. Most wonderful hosts I have ever come across.”

“But the best thing of all……..the staff. They are simply amazing and cater to all your needs with a never ending smile on their face.”

“Very courteous staff, amazing food and never heard a no for anything from the staff. This is not a place that is desperate for business, unlike most of them in coorg. The guests are made to feel at home.”

“Food preferences were asked for every day and the hospitality of the caretaking team quickly became one of the highlights of the trip.”

And so also at the campsites:

“The staff were just superb! They couldn’t have been more helpful and obliging. They plied us with delicious food, snacks, fresh juices, and fresh whole fruit.”

We could go on and on 🙂 Just wanted to acknowledge the awesome jobs our teams are doing, and validating that in India, being hospitable to guests at our homes comes naturally. We hire locally as far as possible, and the teams have a lot of freedom in deciding things on the ground, and we’re proud that each one of them is performing at levels way above what even they imagined they are capable of!

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5 Must Do things on your vacation! Never miss…

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Everyone’s publishing listicles to help you travel better, smarter, etc. So we thought we should to.

Here’s our list

  1. Do nothing.
  2. Seriously, stop planning so much. You’ll figure it out once there.
  3. Go with the flow. Yeah, you don’t have to do anything specific.
  4. Nope, no must-dos, must-sees, must-trys. It’s a vacation!
  5. Yes, do absolutely nothing. Sit back and relax and take it as it comes.

Hope that helped 😀

We’re always around to help you do nothing the best you can – call us at +91-959-005-0001 or mail us at stay@linger.in