Cedar Inn — Hotel in West Bengal

First and foremost, I would like to profoundly & humbly convey profusive gratitude to the Hon'ble General Manager of Cedar Inn, Mr. Sanjay Nangia, his entire staff, and the front desk team, Ms. Sneha Lama & Ms. Pradhan, on behalf of my entire family, for making our stay at The Cedar Inn one of our most benevolent and resplendent one.

Starting from our arrival where we all were greeted warmly by Mr. Nangia and his team with the traditional scarfs, and whilst we were checking-in, we were warmed by both the warmth of Darjeeling Tea and the staff. Our entire duration was entrenched in warmth, compassion, kindness, and above all, unyielding hospitality by Mr. Nangia and all the staff members of Cedar Inn who went beyond the call of duty to make us feel comfortable and above all, at home. Truly, it has raised the yardstick of graceful stays in Darjeeling and its ancillary areas. From the staff at the dining hall, Mr. Arup, who was always making sure that our dining experience was as seamless and an absolute gala affair, to the housekeeping members, every single individual is an absolute sapphire of a person. Might I also mention the scrumptious culinary offerings that kept our taste buds in a forever jubilation. We had an irrevocable jubilant time there.

Secondly, the rooms were the piecè de resistancè, since each and every one of them offered a strategic and baffling view of the entire Kanchenjunga Pass. Waking up at 0530 hrs. during a vacation is surely worth the view we had till late noon. The rooms have all the necessary modern amenities, with a fireplace and separate sitting area (note that we stayed in an executive suite) and the bathrooms are quite spacious with the housekeeping staff always going around and making sure that they are necessarily stashed with towels and toiletries. No other hotel shall offer you the promise of staggering views that Cedar Inn does. It truly lives up to its name and oath.

Third, the reception, apart from the sitting area near the rooms, are adequately decked with a wide variety of books, something that literature enthusiasts shall surely enjoy over a cup of warm Darjeeling Tea. The sitting area near the room opens to a back balcony which houses the hotel's own Greenhouse and truth be told, its a stupendous marvel with a wide variety of flowers and other succulents The hotel itself is ornamentalized with countless blooming flowers, which thus adds to its benedicted charm. It also has a niche souvenir shop, where patrons can buy Cedar Inn memorabilia. Here, I would like to add one more instance of the hotel's gratifying warmth where, upon getting a diary for myself, they gave away three lapel pins as a complimentary gift. Needless to say, the staff are spectacularly affectionate and thoughtful.

Fourth, we were rather lucky that during our stay, the hotel had organised a Jazz Night, which marked the anniversary of the Managing Director, Mr. Tenzing Wangpo Bhutia, guru attaining nirvana. The entire evening was an immaculate gala affair, where the guests lighted butter lamps in the honor of the revered guru and then proceeded to enjoy various culinary offerings in the warmth of the bonfire and an amazing jazz band. The Hon'ble Managing Director always made it a prodigious point to personally interact with each and every single guest, making them feel welcomed and cared for. His kindness and wisdom are boundless.

Fifth, I would also like to mention the free shuttle service the hotel offers for guest's till the nearest drop-off point bang on at the Mall Road. Mr. Jeevan, the shuttle service driver, is an another gem of a person.

Finally, I would like to sequester my sincerest gratitude to the General Manager, for being at his toes 24×7, specially curating our itineraries, and making sure that we do not face any sort of difficulty or duress during the entirety of our stay, as remarked by Mr. Nangia, he is indeed "married to the job," and I'm glad that it has a husband like you.

P.S. We dearly miss Tushy (pardon if I made a mistake in the name) the doggo...

Memorable Stay. Awesome Staff. Bad experience with their cab driver.

Stayed with my family, including 2 kids, at Cedar Inn (for 3 days) a few days back. Overall a pleasant & enjoyable stay. Almost all of the staff is warm, cooperative and accommodative.

Staff Sneha in particular was very helpful and always ready to go out of the way to help & provide suggestions (even for sightseeing options). Even Sanjay (GM) was courteous and made it a point to ensure that all guests were looked after. They even have a lady (who apparently heads HR and PR) meeting all guests 1-by-1 during dinner at the restaurant to check with them if they are having a good stay. Commendable job by the top management / hotel owners to instil the sense of customer service so deeply with all its staff.

Room We booked a family room for 2 days , and 2 deluxe rooms for a day. Personally I liked the deluxe rooms much better : better view of the valley and more spacious as compared to rooms in family room.

Property Property is good, with lot of green areas and cozy spaces (with green sofas). Just to set expectations, hotels are not huge in terms of overall area of the property in hill stations like Darjeeling. This property is also not huge, but space utilisation is done really well across the property. In terms of location, it's situated almost at the top of the hill : quite an uphill climb if you are walking up (good daily exercise :-) ). 20 mins from Japanese Temple. They do have regular shuttle service to Mall Road.

Food Food was good, and they prepared a lot of options (including kid-friendly items) on ala-carte order. Their ala-carte is much better than the buffet. Room service was prompt (barring one delay where maybe they misplaced the order) and the serving staff was courteous.

Bad experience with one of their cab drivers Had a bad experience with one of the cab drivers that I rented via the hotel (to go to Bagdogra airport) though. They have hotel cabs and drivers on their payroll, but sometimes they also outsource it to some cab partners. This one in particular was from an outsourced partner - a driver named Sunil. For most part of the trip, he was on his good behaviour and talking about high level of ethics & morals that he had (sharing experiences from past). We wanted to stop for lunch before going to the airport, he suggested a restaurant right outside the airport (just next to the main gate). My younger son had vomited couple of times during the ride due to motion sickness. And to our surprise, he said that he will drop us at the restaurant (the restaurant was shabby btw, so bad recommendation) and we can walk our way to the airport terminal. We said that how will we do that with 2 kids, one of which is vomiting right now. After a couple of minutes, eventually he did agree to wait, but we then decided to not have lunch and directly go the airport terminal since we had lost trust in the driver. Imagine this behaviour when we paid 5.5k for the cab, which is the rent for a almost full day cab booking. Having said that, when we raised this complaint to Sanjay, he did apologize earnestly and assured us to take it up with the driver. But would strongly advise against going with that driver (Sunil) and outsourced cabs in general via the hotel - best is to use the hotel drivers (cleaner cars with...

I had the pleasure of staying at the Cedar Inn in Darjeeling, India. The property is at the very top of Darjeeling giving you a breathtaking view of the whole town and the mountain range. The view alone would be worth the stay here, but this place was so much more than that.

Upon my arrival, I was greeted by the staff and the GM of Cedar Inn. They were extremely accommodating and friendly. They gave me great advice on what to visit based on my interests whether those included more touristy destinations or local hot spots; they were a big help in my exploration of the city. They told me about events and destinations I otherwise may have not visited. They also took care of all the travel arrangements, which I can't appreciate enough. They reduced the stress and made everything so much smoother with my sightseeing.

The General Manager, Sanjay, has been in the hospitality industry for over 30 years and with my extended stay here; it's not hard to tell. As far as the service goes, it was world class. I also loved their bar and restaurant. They have a wide selection of eats from their menu for room service, but the restaurant was delicious! They have a new menu selection each day at the restaurant, which was refreshing. The guests at the hotel were great too, I made a really good friend there! I was traveling alone and that was a nice bonus!

The rooms are large, beautiful and clean. The prices are very reasonable for the quality of living and service. The views speak for themselves and the property itself is designed beautifully. I was told a very famous architect designed the building long ago and she was clearly a genius. Google photos of this place or go to their website, it really sold me to stay here initially. I'm glad I made the choice I did because they made my trip to Darjeeling one to remember.

I highly recommend going to the Japanese Monastery. If you wanna do something people don't really know about, ask Sanjay about attending the large monastery down the road for this Buddhist prayer they do with instruments everyday around 4:30pm. We were the only ones there and its not really listed anywhere. I thank hem for telling me about it because it was beautiful to the point I got goosebumps.

A big thanks to Sanjay and the staff for a wonderful experience! There's no doubt that I would stay at the Cedar Inn again if I'm ever back in the...