Mid Conifer Cottage

The location is half way up the hill, backed by and looking onto confier forests. Quite charming chalets. There is a stream at the bottom which we couldn't access because the path was slippery at the time of our visit. We could see snow covered peaks from the rooftop terrace where meals can be served. We had breakfast and tea there and really enjoyed the view. The staff try to be helpful. They carried our luggage from the road down a lot of steps to the property. The breakfast was good. We didn't try much of the food as we all had a stomach bug. What we had was adequate. The room and bathroom were very clean. Since the room heater wasn't able to heat the entire space, we asked for hot water bottles which luckily they had. Otherwise we'd have had an uncomfortable night. We saw lots of birds around the property in the morning and yellow throated martens. We're nature lovers and liked the isolation and wildlife around.

The property is 7km from Dalhousie town along quite a poor road. We arrived close to dusk and even with our experienced and skilled driver it was not easy. The property is accessed by going down a lot of steps cut into the hillside. No mention was made of the access road or the steps in the property description or when I communicated with the hosts. After I made the booking, I'd asked if I needed to make a pre-payment. They didn't answer for nearly 2 weeks and suddenly one afternoon as I was busy with work, sent me numerous messages asking for Rs 8000 as deposit within 30min or they couldn't guarantee my booking. They said someone else was making and enquiry for the family cottage I wanted. I made the payment but it was extremely unprofessional. When we arrived we were the only guests there, so clearly they had lied earlier about the other enquiry. On arriving they asked me to pay the balance, which I refused, because I was annoyed that we hadn't been told about the poor road and the steps to the property. I had to ask for towels, soap, toilet roll, the promised room heater. None of that had been put in the room though we arrived at 6.30pm. Then the person there, Surinder, kept going back and forth. Each time he would bring one item and I'd have to ask again for another thing, which he would go back for. The plug points in the room didn't fit the heater plug, so he went to get a bigger heater. The room was split in two levels and the upstairs section had the second bed. It was 4 degree Celcius, but he said they couldn't give us another heater for the upper section. There were no cupboards to put our clothes in, or tables to put our suitcases on. Everything had to be on the floor, the suitcases under the staircase and we had to keep bending to get things from the suitcases. Just one hanger and nowhere to hang it. They hadn't checked that the kettle didn't work. There were no tea making facilities. The chairs were uncomfortable.