Uma Paro
Paro - Bhutan
Overview
Uma Paro is a 29-room hotel offering five-star comfort and singular style in the wildly beautiful Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan.
The hotel is an inland retreat, dedicated to Uma’s understated philosophy of quiet comfort in inspiring, culture-rich locations. It is also a place for adventure, where the landscape and people won't fail to uplift you. Simply gaze across the valley the morning you awake.
Prices from £2,095 per person
Accommodation
The nine superior doubles feature large, oversized bathrooms and separate showers, DVD players, heated towel racks, minibars and in-room yoga mats.
In the two suites there are separate sitting, dining and study areas, while the eight one-bedroom villas enjoy a private spa and courtyard.
The headline two-bedroom villa have all this plus an even greater privilege of space and endless views.
All rooms have views of the forest, mountains or valley.
Restaurants & Bars
Cuisine at Uma Paro is modern, light and respectful of local nuances, available at the restaurant Bukhari, set among tall pine trees.
Menus revive traditional Bhutanese offerings. Specialities include ‘sicum paa’ or dried local pork with Bhutanese chilli, and ‘bathup,’ a hearty soup based on handmade noodles. The foodstuff is largely organic, grown with a local farmer in the hotels own market garden in the surrounding valley.
Other local produce includes hand-churned butter, hand-moulded farm cheese, apple vinegar, and honey sourced from hives in the wildflower-strewn Bhumthang Valley. Wild mushrooms feature, as well as red rice grown in the fields below.
Also enjoy contemporary versions of neighbouring cuisines, which make use of the charcoal tandoor oven.
Recreation
Uma Paro provides intelligent access to the different layers that make up Bhutanese life. Cultural highlights include the Paro Festival held in April, and the Thimpu festival in October, with other Buddhist activities throughout the year.
Day trips through the nearby Paro Valley might incorporate Taktsang ‘Tiger’s Nest’ Monastery, Drukyel Dzong and a visit to the temple of Kyichu Lhakhang with an orchard picnic. Each site displays Bhutan's Buddhist tradition, brought to life by attending morning puja, or worship, in a local monastery. Other walking destinations include the remote Haa Valley, carpeted in flowers and pines. Uma Paro can organise visits to Thimpu, the key cultural centre in Bhutan after Paro.
In addition, Uma Paro offers overnight camping treks during spring and summer. Guests don’t carry their own gear (horses are provided) and camps are set up ahead of arrival. Food, as with all excursion picnics, are prepared by Uma Paro’s kitchen.
Mountain biking itineraries include gentle downhill runs with more challenging routes down muddy tracks. Uma's guides conduct lessons in the national sport of archery and can arrange a typical Bhutanese lunch or tea at a local farmhouse.
For teenagers, a woodland camp is set in the hotel grounds - wild but safe, they can camp under the stars. Children can also try the national sport of Bhutan, Archery under supervision of expert tutors.
Relax after all the activity in the resorts indoor pool.
COMO Shambhala
COMO Shambhala Retreat is Uma Paro's holistic heart, a place to better physical and mental equilibrium by way of sophisticated, bespoke treatments, including massage and Ayurveda. COMO Shambhala also makes extensive use of natural ingredients and age-old remedies, working with Bhutan's hospital of Traditional Medicine.
Facilities include four in-house treatment rooms, two in the Hot Stone Bath house and a private treatment room in each one of the nine villas and an indoor pool with outdoor sundeck. There is also a gym and a yoga studio overlooking the Paro Valley. Views are unbeatable, and include pine forest, villages, fields and rivers set into a mountainous enclave.
During certain weeks of the year, the COMO Shambhala Retreat hosts international yoga teachers who lead dedicated retreat weeks.
