Sukoon….Peace…Calm…this is how I would like to describe my this travel experience. Recently, I got a chance to travel to Srinagar, Switzerland of India. Few years back when while I was visiting Slovenia, I was impressed with the scenic beauty of the country. Well, in Srinagar I couldn’t but help comparing the beauty with Slovenia, and, realized that the place rightly called Switzerland of India.

I would be sharing details of Srinagar and places around it in my next few blog but today I just want to share about “Sukoon” at Dal Lake. Sukoon is the name of the house boat where I got a chance to stay and experience, as the name suggests, Sukoon. The stay at Sukoon was the beginning of my Srinagar trip and I would not be wrong in saying that this is place where I first felt the feeling of calmness, peace after the maddening pressure of work from home, covid and travel.

In Srinagar, you would see that houseboats are anchored in Dal Lake and Nageen Lake, Dal is on the more visible and open part of Srinagar, Nageen lake is, you can say, a bit more covered behind commercial buildings, so taking a house boat in Dal Lake makes more sense if you want to enjoy more of open scenic views during the day and at night from the deck of your house boat

Sukoon is the luxury houseboat owned by AB Chapri Retreats, https://www.abchapriretreats.in/sukoon-houseboat/You can see the Zabarwan Ranges and the calm Dal Lake from the Sun Deck of the house boat. You can make reservations for the house boat before reaching Srinagar, once you reach Srinagar, you can contact Mr Bashir, who is the point of contact on the house boat, and, he and his family lives in a smaller house boat adjacent to Sukoon, with other workers of Sukoon. Sukoon has it own speed boat to ferry its guest from Ghat No 19A of Boulevard Road to the house boat, you just have to give a call and in 5 minutes the boat is there to pick up.

Check in time is 12:00PM and check out time is 11:00AM, though, if the room in which you are staying is not booked for the day, Mr Bashir would let you know just in case you want to delay the departure by few hours. Sukoon has 5 rooms, 4 of which are named Mughal Garden, and, the 5th room, which is the biggest room is named Shalimar Garden, though other 4 rooms are also quite big has four post bed, and, a hot tub and shower area. The best feature is the Sun Deck of the house boat, once you check in, and have had lunch you can go to the deck and have peaceful under the sky and enjoy the sun and scenery.

In the evening, if you want you can go to Boulevard Road, by the same house boat, to see around. Do visit Le Delice at Ghat no 9 when you are taking a stroll in the evening, they have the most beautiful Lemon Tarts and Red Velvet Pastry to boost off ,https://www.101india.com/travel-food/kashmiri-french-couple-opened-only-french-bakery-srinagar,

If you are in mood for our good old Maggi, you can have it at the floating restaurant in Dal Lake, when I was there they were anchored next to Sukoon only. For Dinner, I would suggest, that you select Kashmiri Thali in the house boat, where they serve you a smaller version of Wazwan, which is a multi course Kashmiri Cuisine. And, after dinner do not miss the view from the sun deck.

See you soon with more of my Srinagar Experiences, till then, do enjoy my other blogs at https://vagabondexplorer.com/