Our story & art
Our Story & Art
We're a small place, run by two people, for a reason.
How this began
We started this place in 2021, after leaving city careers behind to return to the Himalayas. It's grown a lot since then — but the reason for building it in the first place hasn't changed: giving people something real, on a mountain, honestly.
What we're not
We called it "The Aipan Resort" back then. We were new to the industry, and every other property in the area had "resort" in its name — so we did too, without thinking too hard about it.
A few years into actually running the place, we realized the word didn't fit. We're not polished, and we don't have a long list of amenities — that was never the plan. What we actually offer is closer to a retreat: slower, simpler, more personal. So we renamed it — not just cosmetically. It was us being honest about what this place actually is, rather than what we assumed it needed to sound like: authenticity over luxury. Less about amenities, more about giving you something real — a mountain village, honestly presented, exactly as it is.
Meet Adi & Kajal
Both of us were in corporate careers before this — and both of us are originally from Uttarakhand. There had always been a pull to come back to the mountains and build a life here instead. What actually got us moving was COVID-19: sent home to work remotely, we found ourselves back in the state we were from, and it stuck. We'd already been thinking about starting something of our own before the pandemic — COVID just confirmed it.
What keeps us here, day to day, is people — meeting travellers, hearing where they're from, learning from them, and in turn trying to get guests invested in the Himalayas too: in leaving the place, and the communities in it, a little better for having visited.
Finding this place
It wasn't Chopta we set out to find, exactly — it was a place. Somewhere we could build something on our own terms, host people in peace, and make them genuinely feel good about being there. We found this particular spot after hiking about 500 metres up from the road, to what was barely more than a small construction at the time — not yet a property, not yet anything. The moment we arrived, we felt it. We figured if we felt that good about the place, other people would too.
Chopta turned out to be a bonus. With Tungnath right there, the same guests who came for the quiet and the detox started visiting the temple and the trek as well — and over time, the retreat and the valley grew into each other. Today it's hard to separate the two.
Why Aipan
Aipan is a traditional folk art of the Kumaon region — hand-painted in geru, our region's brick-red clay, and white rice paste. It isn't a design we invented for the brand. It's traditionally painted on thresholds, on temples, at weddings — a living ritual art passed down through generations of Kumaoni women, Kajal among them.
That's why we named the retreat after it. Aipan is a fading tradition in much of the region, kept alive today by artists like Kajal and the women she trains. When you stay with us — and especially if you sit down to paint a piece yourself — you're not just seeing the craft. You're part of keeping it going.
What we believe
“Luxuries are a city thing, views are the mountain ones.”
That's Adi's line, and it's the whole philosophy in one sentence. This isn't a resort dressed up as a mountain experience — it's a mountain experience, honestly presented, luxuries and all the things attached to them left at the bottom of the hill.
That's also why we tell you upfront about the walk in, the lack of WiFi, the cash-and-UPI-only payment, the real altitude — not to warn you off, but because we'd rather you know exactly what you're getting before you book than be surprised by it after you arrive. The guests who come anyway, knowing all that, tend to be exactly the ones this place is for.
Come meet us
The best way to understand this place is still to come see it. Message us, ask us anything, and we'll tell you honestly whether it's a fit.