The Original Wellness Retreat

Here, in this issue dedicated to transformational travel, our editorial director, Pilar Guzmán, checks in to the cure hotel that started it all.

- Pilar Guzmán

SOMETHING ABOUT THE VERY NAME-Ananda in the Himalayas evokes all the open-endedness of the mythic mountain range itself. Personified as Himavat, the "King of Snow" and father to the goddess Parvati, the Himalayas are the central backdrop to much of Hindu and Tibetan Buddhist mythology. So when Ananda's founder and managing director, Ashok Khanna, set out 25 years ago to open a premier wellness retreat bringing the ancient spiritual and well-being practices of the region to a modern-day clientele, it was no coincidence that he chose the Himalayan foothills, the legendary meditative home of Lord Shiva and the gateway to the holy Ganges River, as the site. Perched in the foothills at 3,500 feet, en route to ever more sacred pilgrimage sites at higher elevations, Ananda serves for those lucky enough to spend 7, 14, or 21 days there as a kind of geographic and metaphoric base camp for mental, physical, and spiritual evolution.

For people who don't already pray to the gods Shiva or Vishnu, or for whom yoga is a practice that one squeezes in between the last meeting of the day and dinner prep, Ananda is a deep commitment; it requires you to submit yourself fully to its philosophy.