Chalets on the hillsideX on Lake
Here, the X is yours to define
A small mystery waiting on a hillside, the kind of place that refuses to explain itself too quickly.
Think of it as an unconventional home that decided, quite firmly, that life is better lived without concrete towers pretending to be holidays. Architecture here keeps an idyllic island mood under thatched roofs, because a hotel in a building is not a holiday. X on Lake is admittedly expansive and expensive to run: the sort of generous madness that only makes sense when you are doing what you love, sharing a lavish 25-acre home and creating a life-as-it-should-be environment, soil to soul.
Stay
One grand villa, a party house, and twenty-five chalets
Scattered across the terraces, every one of them looking out over the lake. Here you choose the scale that suits you: a whole hillside for a celebration, a porch for two, or something in between. The lake is the constant.
X, the pièce de résistance
An award-winning five-bedroom villa of 15,000 square feet with its own infinity pool. Sleeps at least twenty-two.
A-frames on the terraces
Private porches of 400–500 square feet, king beds or two queens, most with a porch jacuzzi, and names borrowed from everything that grows on the farm.
The party house
Its own little pool and a living room that looks straight out over the water. Four bedrooms, room for ten to sixteen. Big parties, smaller budgets.
Xanadu, after darkFood Glorious Food
Dining at Xanadu
Our teak-ceilinged Parsi heritage bungalow, transformed into our dining experience. Lake view, goes without saying. Non-hotel guests are welcome with a prior reservation.
Dine under the stars on the 6,000-square-foot pool deck, dial a dinner to your porch in forty-five minutes, or step into the kitchen for Chef Singh's secrets.
Experiences
A hillside full of ways to move, linger, or simply watch
The land offers the frame. You decide how much of it to step into.
Padel court
Professionally built to international standards. The court is ready when you are.
Farming
Join the planting or harvesting, or simply watch the rice turn green and the wheat turn gold.
Cow watching
The cows and buffaloes enjoy company, and treats, and will often come running to greet you.
Nature trails
One wet, wild acre of berry trees and undergrowth. Peacocks roost here at night.
June to September
The monsoon
Rain on thatch and the soft, saturated greens that follow. The quiet drama of rain.
The rest of the year
Bougainvillea season
A burst of colour across the hillside, and sunsets that become pure colour therapy.
A mandap above the waterCelebrations n Events
A magical location for private celebrations
Some places are built for ordinary weekends. This lake-facing hillside was never one of them.
A hundred guests to stay in a scatter of lake-facing chalets, and four hundred for the evening function. For Navjot celebrations under the open sky, mixed marriages that blend families and rituals, anniversaries that deserve more than a restaurant table. A hotel in a building is not a celebration. This is.
Come for the sunsets. They're free. Everything else has a reason behind the number.Fixed Prices, Free Sunsets · from the blog
Mantras of X on Lake
What we hold to
- ITrue luxury and wealth is the pure air you can breathe, the sound of birds and the sight of cattle grazing. Or playing with grandchildren; that comes pretty high in our definition of wealth.
- IIOwning land comes with a sense of profound responsibility: to cultivate and embellish it, and to respect the contours and the personality of the land.
- IIIWe plant trees for others. Equally, we are grateful for the trees that others have planted for us. I always bless Uttam Fokane for the abundant jambhool crop every summer.
- IVBirdsong is the loveliest sound.
- VLiving in a building or a big hotel is not a holiday.
From the blog
Notes from the hillside
Peacocks, cows, butterflies, sunsets, and why bargaining feels like a personal insult. Written by the owner, in her own voice.
Peacocks n musk deers
Not one, not two, not ten, not even twelve, but fifteen wild peacocks. In that instant, I knew my answer.
Serenading the cows
They are not here for dairy or profit, but purely for the joy of watching them graze over four acres dedicated to them.
Why bargaining feels like a personal insult
No one has ever successfully bargained me down on a sunset.
Gallery
Different people meet different versions of the same land
Perhaps by the end of your stay
« Heureux celui (…) qui plane sur la vie et comprend sans effort le langage des fleurs et des choses muettes. »
Happy is he who hovers over life and understands with ease the language of flowers and voiceless things.
Charles Baudelaire · Pura Vida!
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