The best beach, lakeside and riverside hotels in India

What is it: In the countryside outside Coimbatore, this three-bedroom, single-key villa from CGH Earth SAHA sits on the banks of a slow river, with a private pool and design built on local craft. 

Why we love it: The backyard is an avocado orchard, so breakfast comes straight off the trees outside your window. Inside, repurposed sari fabric turns up in the upholstery and soft furnishings, cane-woven chairs and baskets are everywhere, and Karaikudi enamelware does double duty as pots and storage bins in saturated colours.

Each bedroom – Forest, Water and Ceramics – takes its cues from the land around it, so the design shifts subtly from room to room. The walls carry photography curated by The Pollachi Papyrus, documenting the surrounding village and the neighbouring Anamalai Tiger Reserve. Meals follow Konganadu cuisine. The kitchen will happily rework the menu around your tastes and dietary needs rather than serve a fixed spread.

Time Out tip: Slow travellers will want to stay put. Resist for half a day and ask the team to arrange a visit to the surrounding craft villages, where you can watch Kanjivaram silk saris woven on handlooms, see palm jaggery made by hand and watch coconut thatch being woven for roofing.

Address: Kalathusalai, Marchanaickenpalayam Village, Athupollachi, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu

Price: From around ₹20,000 per night for the whole villa, including meals and taxes

Nearest airport: Coimbatore International Airport, approx. 40km / 1hr drive

What is it: Three bedrooms that are all yours, direct beach access and a sea-facing yoga pavilion angled for both sunrise meditation and sunset drinks, on the Maharashtra-Goa border.

Why we love it: Redi sits in a fishing village of cashew and coconut trees just north of Arambol and Keri, and it’s largely spared the crowds of North Goa a few kilometres away. Stella Maris makes the most of it: three bedrooms, direct beach access and a sea-facing yoga pavilion angled for both sunrise meditation and sunset drinks. The elevated sun deck is where guests keep returning, the kind of spot that turns a regular breakfast into the reason you remember the trip.

The pet-friendly policy is no token gesture. Dogs can run the beach and join private cabana dinners set up on the sand under the stars. SaffronStays' usual add-ons are on offer, from barbecue nights and a Local Thali experience to a candlelight dinner for two, alongside kayaking and beach walks arranged through the caretaker. Music is kept in check, which keeps the neighbours happy. Tiracol Fort, at the mouth of the Tiracol River, is an easy half-day trip if you can be persuaded off the sand.

Time Out tip: Book the beach cabana dinner for your last night.

Address: Stella Maris Beach House, Redi Beach, Redi, Taluka Vengurla, Sindhudurg, Maharashtra

Price: From around ₹22,320 per night

Nearest airport: Manohar International Airport (Mopa), North Goa, approx. 45–55km / 1.5hr drive. Dabolim (Goa International) Airport is the other option, approx. 85km / 2hr drive

What is it: Perched on Kralsangri hill above Dal Lake, with the Zabarwan mountains stacked up behind it, Taj Dal View has one of the best hotel views in India. Across six acres of hilltop, the interiors go all-in on Kashmiri craft.

Why we love it: Papier-mâché ceilings, hand-carved walnut furniture, Jamawar fabric in the headboards – so even the corridors feel like they belong to the valley. All 84 rooms and suites have a private balcony, and the outdoor infinity pool (open May to October) is positioned to frame the lake and mountains together.

Jade Dragon serves proper Sichuan and pan-Asian food, an unexpected find this far from the nearest Chinatown. All-day Vista covers everything else, and Tulip Lounge is built around kahwa and Kashmiri confections, best taken on the terrace as the light goes gold over the water. The spa runs Ayurvedic treatments with locally sourced ingredients, and the massage uses saffron and walnut oil.

Time Out tip: Skip the hotel's own shikara add-on. Instead, ask the concierge to arrange a private early-morning ride with a boatman who'll serve breakfast on the water. You'll glide past Dal Lake's floating vegetable market while it's still at work, before the tourist shikaras head out.

Address: Kralsangri, Dal Lake, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir

Price: From around ₹39,000 per night including tax

Nearest airport: Srinagar International Airport, approx. 19km / 30–40min drive

What is it: A hotel with views of both Varanasi’s rooftops and a river that changes character through the day, from early-morning mist to the packed ghats of evening aarti.

Why we love it: The name and the design both trace back to Sanskrit. Avantika is an old name for Varanasi itself, and the interiors are built around the five elemental sounds Na, Ma, Shi, Va, Ya, standing for earth, water, fire, air and ether. It isn't just decoration: each room and suite takes a different material and colour palette tied to one element, with sophisticated Indian art accents. The hotel is a few minutes' walk from both Kashi Vishwanath and Kaal Bhairav temples, putting the ghats and the pulse of the old city on your doorstep.

Rooms run from Superior Rooms – good for a quiet cup of tea while Varanasi wakes up below – to a signature suite. Dhanushkoti, the in-house restaurant, is entirely vegetarian and worth building an evening around, drawing on old Varanasi household recipes and local produce rather than a generic North Indian buffet. The spa offers Ayurvedic rituals, and the hotel curates its own tours of the city's temples and ghats, so you won't be negotiating with touts once you check in.

Time Out tip: Skip the public ghat, packed for the evening Ganga aarti. Ask staff to arrange a boat from the hotel's own ghat access and watch the ceremony from the water, away from the crowds pressing in on the steps.

Address: K 24/2, 3, 4, 9 & 102, Ramghat, Kotwali, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh 221001

Price: From approx. ₹35,000 per night including tax

Nearest airport: Varanasi (Lal Bahadur Shastri) Airport, approx. 25km / 30min drive

What is it: An array of cottages that are like nods to Khasi thatch huts, set on 45 acres above Umiam Lake.

Why we love it: The upturned, boat-shaped roofs were designed to shrug off the monsoons of the nearby Cherrapunjee–Mawsynram belt, one of the wettest places on earth. Rooms are panelled in red pine, each with a fireplace and a private balcony opening onto the lake, so a cold, misty Meghalaya evening comes with its own reason to stay in.

The Khem Janai Spa is the real draw, with hydrotherapy and traditional Khasi massage using herbal techniques. Dinner at Sao Aiom, which means ‘four seasons’, mixes Northeastern specialities with the usual Indian, Chinese and Continental options, so push the kitchen towards the local dishes rather than defaulting to the familiar.

Time Out tip: Block out a whole afternoon for the Khem Janai Spa and book the hydrotherapy and a Khasi herbal massage back to back.

Address: U.C.C. Road, Umniuh Khawn, Ri Bhoi District, Shillong, Meghalaya

Price: From around ₹15,000 per night including tax

Nearest airport: Shillong Airport (Umroi), approx. 23km or a 30-40min drive.

What is it: Perched on a cliff above the Arabian Sea in Pulinkudi, just south of Kovalam, Surya Samudra is one of the few Relais & Châteaux properties in India.

Why we love it: A coconut grove drops to a private beach, with an infinity pool on the cliff edge so the water seems to run off into the sea. Rather than a single block of rooms, the retreat is a scattered collection of heritage Kerala-style structures, some salvaged and reassembled on site, with terracotta roofs, carved wooden pillars and open-to-sky rain showers that put you outdoors even when you're technically indoors. Categories run from garden-facing Rock Garden Rooms to Heritage cottages of varying vintage (one row is said to follow a 300-year-old architectural style) and the standalone Banyan Tree Bungalow, built for couples who want total privacy.

Wellness is central here, and handled with more integrity than a spa menu. The in-house Niraamaya Spa runs Ayurvedic programmes with its own doctors, therapists and yoga instructors, with sessions held cliffside, beachside or in dedicated pavilions. Café Samsara is the all-day sea-facing restaurant (regional, pan-Indian and global), while poolside bar Madira is built for watching the sun go down, drink in hand. Kathakali performances, temple visits and coastal cooking sessions tie the stay to the region.

Time Out tip: Book a treatment on the yoga platform over the sea rather than in the indoor spa rooms. The cliffside setting does half the work.

Address: P.O, Pulinkudi Road, Vizhinjam, Kovalam, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala 695521

Price: From approx. ₹34,000 per night including tax

Nearest airport: Trivandrum International Airport, approx. 20 km or a 40-minute drive.

What is it: A restored Victorian-era shipyard on the edge of Kochi harbour, with a facade that looks like a colonial trading company rather than a hotel, right down to the original Brunton & Co. name of the shipbuilding firm that once worked here.

Why we love it: Every one of the 26 rooms has a sea view, with period furniture, four-poster beds and deep verandas built for watching ships come in with the tide. The outdoor pool sits at the water's edge, a minute's walk from the Fort Kochi-Vypeen ferry terminal and the giant cantilevered Chinese fishing nets this stretch of coast is known for the world over.

History, the hotel's restaurant, leans into Kerala's spice-trade past, with a menu informed by the Dutch, Portuguese and Jewish influences that passed through this harbour, a sharper reference point than the generic ‘multi-cuisine; spread most heritage hotels default to. The Ayurvedic spa offers daily treatments, and CGH Earth runs walking tours of Fort Kochi's colonial-era streets from the property, so you're not left googling a guide.

Time Out tip: Book a Harbour View Room over a standard one. The price difference is small, and you'll watch container ships and the famous fishing nets swing in and out of the water from bed. Don't miss the complimentary high tea, a classic CGH Earth offering.

Address: Calvetty Road, Fort Kochi, Kochi 682001, Kerala

Price: From around ₹19,200 per night including tax

Nearest airport: Cochin International Airport, approx. 36-45km or a 1-hour drive.

What is it: Twenty-five rooms and suites sit on a 2.5-acre strip between the jungle and Vijay Nagar Beach, in stilted, thatch-roofed two-storey blocks tucked among banana trees and lily ponds.

Why we love it: Tilar Siro comes from the language of the Great Andamanese, combining ‘Thi’ (earth), ‘Lar’ (from) and ‘Siro’ (sea): the land emerging from the sea. It's also the island of turtles, which the tribe once hunted here. The Sea Facing Villa Suite has its own plunge pool. Look closely at the walls and common spaces for the resort's real signature: metal sculptures by Kerala artist Rajeev Valsala Kumaran, known as "Rajeev Wind", who spent three months on site building marine-life-inspired pieces entirely from the resort's own construction scrap – nuts, bolts, discarded paintbrushes, even a dead metal cutter found on the property.

Marakele, named for the archipelago's original name, is the dining room, built under a mango tree and focused on fresh, locally caught seafood. Diving is arranged through Lacadives, with PADI-certified courses for every level. The resort also runs guided birding walks (the Andamans have 242 recorded bird species), intertidal walks with a resident naturalist, and treks through the mangrove and wetland forests where sea mohua trees grow.

Time Out tip: Ask for a room in the villa block. The private pool suite backs onto a quiet stretch of coral beach that most day-trippers to Havelock never find, since the walk down runs entirely through the resort.

Address: Beach No. 5, Vijay Nagar, Swaraj Dweep, Havelock Island, Andaman & Nicobar Islands 744211

Price: From around ₹20,600 per night including tax

Nearest airport: Veer Savarkar International Airport, Port Blair, approx. 46–60km including ferry crossing to Havelock (allow 3hrs door-to-door)

What is it: A handful of large luxury tents on solid wooden decks below Diskit Monastery's giant Maitreya Buddha statue.

Why we love it: It’s where the Nubra and Shyok rivers meet in a high-altitude desert of sand dunes and double-humped Bactrian camels. The design borrows from the hunting camps colonial-era officers favoured on shikar expeditions: four-poster beds, antique steamer trunks, wooden chandeliers, copper bathroom fixtures. But every tent is triple-layered, fire-resistant and fully climate-controlled, with both air-con and heating, which matters at over 10,000 ft. Each tent has its own personal butler and a private patio with a 360-degree view of the peaks.

TUTC deliberately oriented the camp to face the Maitreya Buddha and the monastery beyond, with guest areas on minimal rammed-earth plinths so the camp barely disturbs the landscape. Meals are served in a dedicated dining tent, mixing family recipes with fusion touches, and a small library and Wi-Fi in the reception tent mean you're never quite as cut off as the setting suggests.

Time Out tip: Most itineraries treat Nubra as a day trip from Leh. Insist on at least two nights, so you can take a sunset camel ride through the Hunder dunes when the light over the Shyok riverbed is at its best, instead of racing back over Khardung La before dark.

Address: Diskit, Nubra Valley, Leh District, Ladakh

Price: From around ₹45,000 + 18% GST per tent per night (double occupancy, meals included)

Nearest airport: Kushok Bakula Rimpochee Airport, Leh, approx. 116-138km or a 5-hour drive over Khardung La

What is it: Set across 14 acres where the Chunnambar River meets the Bay of Bengal, Le Pondy leans hard into French-colonial architecture.

Why we love it: Thatched roofs, wide verandas and wooden furniture that nod to Pondicherry's Franco-Tamil heritage, a long way from the generic beach-resort look. Rooms split between sea-facing units with day beds angled at the ocean and lake-view rooms cooled by the breeze off the Chunnambar, with eight presidential and eight luxury pool villas at the top end for anyone who wants a private plunge pool.

The resort backs onto Paradise Beach, one of Pondicherry's best-known stretches of sand, reachable only by boat or on foot through the resort. That means that before the tourist boats start running at 10 am and after they stop at 5 pm, the beach is effectively private. Smaak handles buffet breakfasts and multi-cuisine meals, with a pool bar and an indoor bar for the rest of the day.

Time Out tip: Book a beachside villa. The antique-pillared beachfront villas come with their own small pool decks. Then plan your beach time around the boats: go before 10 am or after 5 pm, when Paradise Beach empties out almost entirely.

Address: No. 3, Lake View Road, Nallavadu Post, Puducherry 605007

Price: From around ₹13,000 per night including tax

Nearest airport: Puducherry Airport, approx. 11km / 30min drive

You can only reach Cintacor by boat: a 20-minute ride from the mainland jetty at Karwar to Kurumgad Island, a turtle-shaped outcrop the resort has entirely to itself. Nemo's Deck, the main restaurant, sits at the island's highest point, themed around Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and serving fresh-caught seafood with a sunset view. The infinity pool sits directly below, facing the Arabian Sea, which makes a golden-hour swim the obvious photo op.

Jolly Roger's Club is a bar, library and games room hung with prints of old explorers, and it's where evenings tend to end up, while beach bar On the Rocks keeps drinks coming for anyone who'd rather stay horizontal in the sand. Beyond that, the island has nature trails past old fort ruins, dolphin-spotting cruises, and enough water sports – jet ski, kayak, banana boat – to fill a stay that could otherwise be pure lying still.

Time Out tip: If you're checking in late, the 20-minute boat crossing at sunset doubles as a cruise.

Address: S No. 1158, Chittakula Village, Karwar, Uttara Kannada, Karnataka 581352

Price: From around ₹17,700 per night including tax

Nearest airport: Goa (Dabolim) International Airport, approx. 72–90km / 2.5hr drive

What is it: Just five rooms, on two acres of former rubber plantation along the Periyar River, from the family behind Windermere Estate in Munnar. 

Why we love it: Owner Dr Simon John pulled out the mono-crop rubber and planted more than 120 native and tropical fruiting species, which is why the grounds now host over 120 recorded bird species, plus the butterflies guests remember most. The bungalow is built like an old colonial plantation house, with handcrafted teak and rosewood furniture made on site and an infinity pool looking over the water towards the Western Ghats foothills.

Meals are home-style and built around whatever the chef has that day. There's no fixed menu, just a kitchen willing to cook to request, served in an open-air pavilion over the river. The property even turns its food waste into biogas for cooking, a small detail most guests never clock but one that fits the ethos: slow travel, quietly done.

Time Out tip: Ask the kitchen to pack a picnic hamper and take it out on the river by kayak. The property backs onto the Thattekad Bird Sanctuary, so a slow paddle at dawn or dusk is a dream for birders.

Address: Inchathotty, Neriamangalam, Ernakulam District, Kerala

Price: From around ₹17,700 per night including tax

Nearest airport: Cochin International Airport, approx. 52–55km / 1.5hr drive