A honeymoon near Manali, on our orchard lawns

Why couples pick Shanag over a Manali hotel

Most honeymoon hotels in Manali town put you on the Mall Road, which in season means car horns until midnight and a balcony that looks onto another balcony. Our Shanag home sits 4-5 km north, above Bahang on the way toward Old Manali and Solang, on open orchard lawns where the loudest thing after dark is the bonfire crackling. You get wooden chalet rooms and stone cottages instead of a corridor of identical doors, and morning light that arrives over the far ridge while you are still under the quilt.

We are higher here than at our Badgran home, closer to the snow line, so from December the peaks opposite go white and you can watch them from bed with a cup of tea. It is a family-run place, not a resort, so no lobby, no queue at breakfast, no room-service trolley rattling past at 8 a.m. Just the two of you, the orchard, and us within a shout if you need anything.

The small surprises we can arrange

Tell us it is your honeymoon when you message on WhatsApp and we will quietly sort a few things before you arrive. Nothing showy, nothing that ends up on a corporate banquet menu, just the kind of touches that make an evening feel like yours.

• A room done up with flowers and candles for the evening you check in, ready before you reach
• A cake from Manali town, egg or eggless, brought up and kept for whichever night you want it
• A table for two set apart at dinner, by the bonfire when the weather holds, indoors by the window when it does not
• A flask of morning tea or coffee left at your door so the first cup does not need anyone else
• A quiet word to the rest of the house to give you the far end of the lawn to yourselves

We will not decorate the whole property or hire a band. That is not us. But a candlelit corner, a cake that actually turned up, and a host who remembered your names on day two is usually what couples tell us they came back for.

Dinner is the reason people book, and it should be

We left corporate jobs in 2021 partly to cook properly, and our stated goal was to make the food at Persimmon a subject spoken of in the town. It is a small family kitchen, not a hotel kitchen, so we cook a set menu each evening rather than hand you a laminated card of 200 dishes. That is the point. What comes out is what we would eat: a Himachali dham on a good day, rajma from up the valley, siddu steamed and served with ghee, trout when the season allows, warm rotis that keep arriving until you stop them.

For a honeymoon we will happily lay it out slowly, course by course, by candlelight, and leave you alone between them. Guests write about our food in their reviews more than anything else, and 4.9 on Google across 141-plus reviews is mostly the kitchen talking.

We remember one couple who asked us not to make a fuss. So we just left a cake in the cold kitchen, lit the bonfire, and disappeared. They found it themselves after dinner. Sometimes the least we do is the most they remember.

— The hosts

Getting the two of you here

Shanag is about 4-5 km north of Manali bus stand, roughly 15-20 minutes by taxi in normal traffic, more in June and New Year season when the town clogs. From Bhuntar airport it is about 55 km, near 2 hours by car. If you are coming up from Delhi or Chandigarh by Volvo, the overnight bus lands you in Manali around dawn and we can point your taxi straight to us. We keep a travel desk, so a car for the day to Solang, Atal Tunnel or the Naggar side is a quick word at breakfast rather than a hunt for a driver.

Parking is free and on the property, so a road-trip couple driving up in their own car has nothing to negotiate at the gate. Hot water runs 24x7, wifi works for the odd honeymoon that also needs to send one work email, and yes, pets are welcome, because plenty of couples will not honeymoon without the dog.

How to hold your dates

There is no online payment and we never publish room prices. You message either of us on WhatsApp with your dates and which room you like the sound of, we confirm what is free, and we hold it for you. That first message is also the moment to mention the honeymoon, any food you cannot eat, and whether you want the cake and the decorated room. The earlier we know, the better we get it ready.