Ranjit's Svaasa Hotel
Amritsar

Tucked behind ivy-draped walls on a quiet lane just off Amritsar’s Mall Road, Ranjit’s Svaasa is the kind of place you feel before you fully see, a little world apart, suspended between the hushed grace of an old haveli and the soulful hum of a Punjabi household. In a city ablaze with colour, devotion and culinary fire, this boutique heritage retreat offers a rare and welcome exhale.

Family-owned by the Mehra family for over seven generations, this 250-year-old colonial mansion has been restored with reverence by interior decorator Rama Mehra, a labour of love that leans more towards preservation than polish. Antique four-posters, worn brass, original arches, ancestral portraits and the scent of marigolds conspire to slow the pace and recalibrate the senses.

The 18 suites and rooms are each a little different, some with high-beamed ceilings, others with private verandahs or leafy balconies where you can sip masala chai and listen to the birdsong rise above the temple bells. You won’t find marble-clad minimalism here, instead, the interiors celebrate texture and history: old rosewood furniture, hand-embroidered textiles, faded rugs and warm terracotta tiles. It’s charmingly unflashy, and all the more luxurious for it.

Wellness here is woven gently into the fabric of daily life. The in-house spa, once the old stables, offers Ayurvedic therapies and yoga sessions with a personal touch, designed to soothe rather than impress. The garden restaurant serves nourishing, home-style Punjabi fare (fragrant dals, rotis hot from the tandoor, vegetables from the family’s farm) shared around candlelit tables beneath trailing vines.

The hotel is deeply personal, not just in style but in spirit. This is a family who greet you like a long-lost cousin and mean it. It’s the sort of place where guests return year after year, drawn by its quietude, its humanity and its sense of continuity in a world that rarely pauses.

While Ranjit’s Svaasa may lack the sheen of newer, flashier hotels, what it offers instead is substance of heritage and hospitality. It’s a true sanctuary in a city of pilgrimages, perfect for seekers, storytellers and slow travellers en route to the Golden Temple or returning from it, still carrying the shimmer of that luminous experience.

No surprise, then, that Condé Nast Traveller India and Travel + Leisure have sung its praises, a place where luxury lies not in excess, but in emotion.

I dislike feeling at home when I am abroad.
George Bernard Shaw