Ekaanta

Ekaanta's calling card is a private ghaat, direct access to the Ganges from the retreat itself. In Haridwar, one of the country's holiest pilgrimage cities, guests step from the retreat straight down to the river for morning yoga and Pranayama, evening Aarti, music and riverside storytelling, all on their own stretch of stone.

Solitude, by design

The name comes from Sanskrit and means tranquillity and solitude, and the whole place is built around that idea: chosen quiet rather than isolation. Founded by Shradha Lohia with co-founder Saumya Lohia Agarwal, a Claremont McKenna economics graduate who passed through Goldman Sachs before building a wellness retreat on the riverbank, Ekaanta pairs a heritage building, kept and adapted with restraint, with doctor-guided Ayurvedic programmes covering everything from gut cleansing and sleep disorders to a dedicated seniors' retreat.

Several rooms are named for virtues: Samtaa, Advait, Karuna, Samarpan, Achal.

Those names translate as balance, unity, compassion, surrender and steadiness, which tells you how seriously the philosophy runs through the rooms. The Ekaanta Suite is the signature stay; Premium and Deluxe Ganga View rooms face the river, some with private balconies; city-facing rooms take the quieter side; and Prasanna Kutir is its own distinctive category.

The kitchen and the clinic speak the same language

Jivana, the riverside restaurant, serves sattvic cuisine prepared without onion or garlic, with ingredients sourced from the Garhwal region: millets, winter greens, mountain herbs. For programme guests, meals are calibrated to their constitution in consultation with the Ayurvedic physician. Beyond the table there is guided forest immersion linked to the Rajaji landscape, birdwatching, open-air films and live music by the water.

We would pick Ekaanta for the rare combination it offers: serious, personalised Ayurveda inside a city of genuine spiritual gravity, with the Ganges not as scenery but as the daily rhythm of the stay.