Accommodation: Furnished with an artist’s eye for detail, Mary Budden Estate is a retreat perfect for nature lovers and for those who enjoy being surrounded by beauty, elegance and color. The Mary Budden Cottage is a typical English cottage with sloping roofs, intimate columned verandahs that opens onto a sit‐out shaded by deodar and oak. This cottage offers three bedrooms – Cosmos, Wisteria and Wild Rose. Each Suite is different, with large attached bathrooms, quality furniture, rugs and throws in cheerful colors. Some en suite bathrooms are provided with ‘bhukaris’ and are really huge indulging spaces with interesting details and fragrant bath amenities. As a single unit with a central lounge and a dining room to seat six to eight people, Mary Budden Cottage can comfortably accommodate up to six adults and two children.
Dining and Amenities: Both the cottages at Mary Budden Estate have their own dining room, however weather permitting there are many options for outdoor dining. Meals served are Indian, select continental and world cuisine, home made by trained cooks who have been with the Chopra family for years. The spacious lounge cum drawing rooms in each of the cottages are lovely areas to relax and unwind while many areas are made for spontaneous leisure to put up your feet, read a book or breathe in the fresh mountain air.
Binsar: Activities and Excursions
Mary Budden Estate is ideal as a 4 Nights destination or more, just the place to unwind away from the pressures of work and city life. There is plenty that you can do while you are here which range from exploratory walks to riding the estate’s munsyari ponies. Excursions like visit to the famous temples at Jageshwar, Gananath and Chittai Bell temple. The estate also has facilities for table tennis and badminton on the grounds.
Binsar is a thickly wooded mid‐altitude forest located at a height of about 2412 m (7900 ft.) on top of the Jhandi Devi Hills, 32 kms from Almora town. The altitude and forest cover lend Binsar a natural beauty and a climate exceptionally pleasant during summers. On a clear day, from Jhandi Dhar (also called Zero Point) inside the sanctuary one can have a 300 kms unhindered views of the Himalayan peaks that include Trishul and Nanda Devi. It is believed that the rulers of the Chand dynasty who ruled over Kumaon enjoyed their summers in Binsar.
Binsar wildlife sanctuary is spread over 47.2 Sq. km and is the habitat of approximately 250 species of birds. Other Himalayan fauna include the barking deer, ghorals, Leopards, Pine Martins, flying squirrel, porcupines etc.
The Binsar sanctuary houses about five private resorts and entry for visitors and vehicles is charged at the Ayarpani gate to the national park. A walk through Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary is an experience that nature lovers would never forget and is fit to be included as a must do for every visitor to India. Walking the ridge to “Zero” point for one of the most stunning views of the Himalayan ranges from Nepal to Kedarnath, through forests aflame with rhododendrons in spring, a picnic lunch in a machan deep in the woods, finding groups of Himalayan magpies gliding just ahead of you, myriad bird species flitting around, a marten pair in joyous dance, there’s magic in the Himalayan forests!