Experience nature with NotOnMap The Lost Escape Homestay near Jibhi

The best time to visit the homestay, and Jibhi in the spring or early summer.

Every day we wake up with set agendas for the day — deadlines to meet, children to drop and pick up, meals to be cooked, and finally exhaust into the night to wake up to repeat the same. In the grind of the vocations we so passionately pursue, take a pause. Spend some quality time with yourself and your loved ones in a place which will recharge you for the next few months, and leave a lasting impression on the soul. Have a long weekend coming up, or summer vacation beginning? We know the perfect place for you to unwind at a homestay near Jibhi

Jibhi is a lesser explored, unpretentious village in the Banjar Valley of Himachal Pradesh. Compared to it’s neighboring tourist attractions of Mandi and Kullu, it has succeeded in maintaining it’s a serene and untouched aura. A long journey with a rhythmic view of Apple and Galgal trees will take you to the beautiful village of Jibhi. Jibhi is one of those places which doesn’t need a defined ‘nature trail’, and each direction you begin to walk will become a trail in itself. Plugin your earphones, look outside the window to enjoy fresh air slapping your face and sync with the pace of the majestic mountains. You will catch yourself with a slight smile which is subconsciously constant, as each turn makes you gasp a little.

Stay at NotOnMap The Lost Escape, near Jibhi

The journey might leave you a bit overwhelmed and tired, but the experience has just begun! We are so excited to welcome you to our warm and humble adobe — ‘The Lost Escape’ homestay near Jibhi. As the name suggests, it indeed is a homestay which is cut-off from everything that you have been living around. As ‘crowd’ is replaced by cattle grazing, and ‘restaurant’ becomes the home kitchen, get settled into your comfortable rooms. The homestay is an old house built in wood and stone, in the Himachali style of Architecture. There is something very grounded about old houses — mud plasters, earthy smell, and rustic wooden interiors which make you feel at home immediately. Unpack in our wooden shelves built in the wall, and walk barefoot on the wooden floorboards and let go of the city customs for a while. The homestay has two rooms on the lower level and a duplex above. The duplex is accessed with a wooden ladder, just as any other local house would have.

At NotonMap we believe in preserving the architecture and the associated lifestyle of the local households, and thus there is the provision of a shared bathroom. As the walls and the floor has been plastered (called lipayi in local dialect) with mud, the whole room gets a sense of flowing seamlessness which makes you feel protected and comfortable in a new place. There is a single-shutter window right above the bed which will create a dilemma in the mind — to sleep, or keep staring at the beautiful landscape! The dining area is attached to the kitchen, and there is a cook who will pamper you with food which is sure to increase a few pounds! But don’t worry, as the treks and trails around the property will compensate for the extra food. The eating experience could either be in the porous dining space overlooking the canopy of trees or out in the open. The spaces have been arranged such that there is an effortless choice to enjoy your genre of comfort. The vegetables for your delicious meals are hand-picked from the farms escaping the vicious cycle of fertilizers. After a wholesome meal, take that book which you have been meaning to finish and get comfortable in the semi-open spaces outside your room.

The glass windows frame the picturesque tree and mountain views, as you sit in the transition of the outdoors and the indoors. ‘The Lost Escape’ is an ideal space for fueling the creative energy. The workstation is the balcony in the lap of nature, where the chirping of the birds makes your new work playlist! Take a quiet walk with your loved one, or decrease the much-discussed generation gap with your children, and follow the sound of gurgling water. The sound will lead you to a gorge dancing its way through the rocks, nestled between the soaring pine trees on the backdrop of the Himalayan peaks. The time will appear to move slowly, as you get caught up in the moment — Find a rock, and watch the sunset, and experience the beauty of Jibhi. As you walk back mesmerized, another delicious meal awaits you! Enjoy a wholesome meal under the starry sky and revise your knowledge on the stars and constellations — as this is an experience we rarely get in the cities!

Things to do:

Want a laid-back, relaxed day? Visit the Jibhi waterfalls which are hidden inside the surrounding forest. Paint, read, write, journal or just sit on the wooden bridges looking at the enormous fall of water. Close your eyes to lose yourself in the moment, or click the most Instagram-worthy pictures! It’s heart-warming how Jibhi has so much to offer apart from its scenic beauty. If you are an architecture enthusiast, or a history buff, do visit the ‘Chaini Fort’. It is built in the wood-and-stone Pahadi style of Architecture and is a frequent Vernacular Architecture case-study. It is a 1500-year-old temple dedicated to Lord Krishna and soars 40 meters above the ground. This is the best place to view Jibhi and surrounding areas. The style in which it is built is in the form of interlocking wooden beams, which holds the building together in this earthquake-prone region. The fort gets more exciting as there is a secret tunnel which is free for the travelers to explore. Visit the fort in its pious aura, and reveal some secrets for yourself! 600 meters from here is the Shringa Rishi Temple which is linearly planned and has a good view.

Places to visit:

Places like Jibhi have retained their authentic culture and are not yet a victim of mass-tourism. And it is (thankfully) surprising since the place has spectacular visiting spots.

• Put on your trekking gear and take the 13 KM trek to Jalori pass, which is the epitome of natural beauty. You will find an assorted collection of exotic flora and fauna enroute. As you puff and pant, the sprawl of rhododendron in pinks and purples posing on the backdrop of the great Dhauladhar ranges will keep enticing and encouraging you to go on! Such experiences are which teach us about Mother Nature and it’s minute details more than books ever can. It is a day trek, so pack your lunch, and pick some wild strawberries on the way for dessert. The pass is at an altitude of 3120 M, and the experience gets more magical with snow on the way, in the months of December to later March.
• Another 6 KM trek from Jalori pass is the breath-taking ‘Serloskar Lake’. It is one of those places that catch you off-guard with their mere existence. It is a quiet lake surrounded by pine trees with a peripheral clearing for you to sit and enjoy. Dip your feet in its cool water to rejuvenate your senses, or just sit and a distance and grasp it. We are sure it will be one of those moments where you are so enchanted that you will forget to click pictures, at for the first few minutes.
• If you are an explorer at heart, take a walk in the surrounding villages of Shoja, Ghiyagi or Tandi. Witness how the same lifestyle, dressing style and architectural features of each village is similar but has some uniqueness to each village. Chainiis a village in the vicinity which is said to have the most renowned wooden architecture in Himachal. The rest is left to you, to experience the places through your perspective and senses.

How to reach?

By Air: The closest airport to the homestay is Bhuntar in the Kullu district, 60 km, or a 2 hour ride from Jibhi.

By Train: If you are travelling by train, the closest railway station is at Shimla, 150km, which is 6 hours south of Jibhi.

By Road: As all good things take time, reaching Jibhi is a living example of the same. If you are coming from Delhi or Manali, take a bus to the Aut Village (Aut tunnel). The village is also accessible from Chandigarh or Shimla. From the Aut village, take another bus to Banjar, which is a big town in Kullu district. An hour-long journey will take you to Jibhi from here. The other option is for you to take a local bus from Manali to Jibhi directly. The whole journey will not cost you more than 200 RS.

If you are coming from the plains, keep a motion-sickness medicine with you. Pack warm, as you will feel the temperature dropping as you go higher.

The autumn season has its own charm, and we have a lot of travelers who really enjoyed the stay then. Catch the snow (literally too!) in the winter months of December to February. Whenever you decide to come, try staying for a few days to get a sense of place, and grasp what the homestay and Jibhi have to offer.