Homestays and villages in Kumaon

A homestay is a room in a family home, with meals from the family kitchen. Expect clean, simple rooms, often a shared or outside bathroom in the high valleys, and food made from what the village grows.

Kumaon is the eastern half of Uttarakhand: lake towns near Kathgodam, the old Chand capital of Almora, oak sanctuaries like Binsar, the stone temples of Jageshwar and the Johar valley at Munsiyari. Go March to June or September to November. Five to nine nights by train, shared jeep or private car covers the best of it.