Of Luxury, Mountains & A Little Bit of Heaven: Our DusitD2 Fagu Escape Above the Clouds

by The Blend Mag Editorial Team

There's a very specific moment when your regular city brain gives up.

For us, it was somewhere on the winding road past Kufri, when the air turned pine-sharp, our phones started losing signal, and dusitD2 Fagu suddenly appeared on a ridge like a glassy cruise ship anchored in the sky. The hotel sits on a hillside above Fagu, wrapped in 360-degree views of the Greater Himalayas, all balconies, clean lines and that faintly surreal feeling of being much closer to the clouds than emails.

Dusit's first India property has been talked about as a "serene Himalayan retreat" with Thai hospitality at its core, and that's exactly what it feels like when you step out of the car: a classic Thai wai greeting, warm smiles, and someone quietly placing a welcome drink in your hand before you even realise you're thirsty.

Check-in happens in a lobby that's all stone, wood and soft lighting, with picture windows framing layers of blue-grey mountains. It's luxe, but not in a chandelier-and-marble way; more like a very chic, very large mountain home that happens to have an indoor heated pool, spa, and the largest banquet spaces in the region tucked away downstairs.

Upstairs, our room sealed the deal. dusitD2 Fagu has around 80 contemporary rooms and suites, each with a balcony looking out over valleys and ridgelines. Ours was done in a palette of soft greys and warm beige, with pale wood floors, floor-to-ceiling glass, a ridiculously inviting bed, and that essential mountain luxury: a couch right by the window so you can do absolutely nothing while feeling like you're doing something profound. The bathroom, with its big shower and plush robes, felt like it was designed by someone who genuinely enjoys long, steamy post-hike showers.

We dropped our bags, stepped out onto the balcony, and there it was: mountains on mountains on mountains. If you're a city kid from anywhere in Asia—Delhi, Singapore, Bangkok, Seoul, you know that specific exhale your body makes when it realises the horizon is finally, gloriously, uncluttered.

The hotel has a trio of main dining spaces: Dusit Gourmet for international and all-day dining, SOI for Thai and Pan-Asian, and Fagu – The Destination Bar for cocktails with a view.

Breakfast at Dusit Gourmet became a ritual. Think: fluffy eggs next to parathas, fresh fruit that tastes like it's actually been outside recently, and a rotation of dishes that swing from local to global, Himachali touches here, Southeast Asian accents there. One morning, a server nudged us towards their Himachali Dham experience; traditional recipes built around lentils, rice and slow-cooked vegetables, reinterpreted with hotel polish and served as a special menu. It's that perfect travel combination: food that feels rooted, but also like it got a degree in hospitality.

Dinner at Soi was a different mood entirely. Perched with the mountains behind you, you get a menu that reads like a love letter between Thailand and the Himalayas, Thai culinary tradition meets the warmth of local spices and produce. Coconut-rich curries arrive scented with herbs, wok-tossed vegetables still have bite, and there's an almost indecent fried starter we still think about when stuck in traffic. It's the kind of place where you order "just one more thing to share" three times.

But the moment that really sold us on dusitD2 Fagu wasn't inside the hotel at all.

One afternoon, the staff quietly suggested a "little picnic" and mentioned a spot that "not many people know about." One hour later, we were bumping down a forest road, pines closing in around us, the hotel receding into a small dot on the hill behind. dusitD2 Fagu actually offers curated outdoor picnics as part of its experiences; complete with baskets and local delicacies, and ours felt like it had been tailored to our food-obsessed souls.

The car stopped at a clearing that looked like the set of a shampoo commercial: soft grass, scattered wildflowers, a view straight across to distant, beautiful peaks. A tent was set, then cute camping chairs, then an entire high-tea situation that would put some city hotels to shame.

There were tiny sandwiches and warm savouries, flaky pastries, tea cakes, and the kind of buttery biscuits that crumble just enough. A pot of hot coffee brewing next to our favourite dish in the whole wide world-maggi. We sat there for hours, doing absolutely nothing except eat, drink and occasionally gasp at how the fog kept tumbling back to us, as if we owned this mountain.

It's easy to call something "heavenly" in a travel story. But a secret high-tea picnic in the middle of the Himalayas with no one else around and zero phone signal? That gets pretty close.

Between meals and picnics, we tried our best to sample the rest of the hotel, purely in the interest of journalism, of course.

There's an indoor heated jacuzzi that might just ruin all other hotel pools for you: long enough for actual laps, warm enough to make you forget how cold it is outside, with big windows facing the hills. The spa, rooted in Dusit's Namm Spa concept, brings traditional Thai therapies to the mountains—think rhythmic pressure, stretches and oils designed more for unravelling city stress than just ticking a spa box.

If you're travelling with family, there's a Kids Club and plenty of space for small humans to burn off energy without you worrying about traffic or malls. If you're travelling as a couple or with friends, there's just enough to do cycling "through the pines", as one curated experience puts it, or local explorations to make you feel active before you happily surrender back to your balcony and room service.

What really anchors everything, though, is the hospitality. Reviews talk about "warm, welcoming, extremely helpful" staff and "clean, stylish spaces with excellent service," and we felt that from the first WhatsApp confirmation to the final goodbye at the portico. There's a particular kind of graciousness; part Thai, part Indian hill-station warmth.

For food-loving travellers across Asia, dusitD2 Fagu is an interesting proposition.

You come for the setting: a five-star retreat in the hills near Shimla, with balconies that look onto Himalayan ridges and an atmosphere that makes it very easy to ignore your inbox. You stay for the flavours: the mix of international comfort and Himachali heritage at Dusit Gourmet; the Thai and Pan-Asian hit of SOI; the curated Dham experiences; the "let's never leave this table" sunsets at Fagu, that absurdly dreamy high-tea picnic in a hidden meadow. And you leave with that rare post-holiday feeling that your shoulders are, somehow, permanently lower than before.

Of luxury, mountains and whatever word you prefer to use for heaven, dusitD2 Fagu manages to deliver all three, with a side of very, very good food.

If you're already mentally packing your bags (we don't blame you), keep an eye on The Blend Mag, we'll be the first to tell you where to eat, sip and daydream next in the high places of Asia.