I was recently on a road trip to Kashmir and spent time exploring the Kupwara side of the valley. We were there for a total of 4 days and 3 of these were spent in the JKTDC resthouse Chowkibal. The post below is a brief overview of how our stay at this rest house was and whether or not I would recommend this to other travelers.
The rest house is located at a distance of about 5 kilometers from Kralpora town, in a small village called Reddi. It is in a very silent place, right next to a river, and surrounded by trees on all sides. There is a caretaker in the rest house as well as a cook.
It is, in my opinion, the best place to stay for anyone planning a trip to either Bangus Valley, Lolab Valley, Keran, Tangdhar, or Teetwal. The resthouse is well maintained, easily accessible, and is perfect for someone wanting to spend some time in peace. Read on to find out more.
Accommodation Options in and around Kupwara
Kupwara is one of the places that was most affected by the terrorism and the unrest in Kashmir valley, to the extent that even now, tourism in this part of the valley is still next to none. Almost no one comes in this direction, even though several beautiful and offbeat places in this region are worth visiting.
Due to this, there is a dearth of hotels here. In fact, there are no hotels here except for two very old, badly maintained, and shabby-looking hotels in Kupwara called City Palace and Raj Palace.
So your best bet for accommodation in this region is the JKTDC rest houses and there are a lot of them here. There are a few in the villages in Lolab Valley, one is Kupwara, one is in Kralpora, and the one in Chowkibal. Actually, these are the ones that I know of. I am sure there will be several others as well in other villages.
JKTDC Rest House Chowkibal
This rest house is located between the towns of Kralpora and Chowkibal. It is not exactly in Chowkibal, but rather in a small village called Reddi, about 2 kilometers before Chowkibal.
There are two buildings in this rest house – the old one and the new one. There are rooms in the old building as well but since I did not stay there, I cannot comment on the conditions of the rooms there.
We stayed in the newer cottage and there were a total of 3 rooms in that cottage, the one that is shown in the first picture in this post. Since we were the only tourists there at that time, we had the cottage and the entire rest house pretty much all to ourselves.
What I Liked
The best thing I liked about this rest house is its location. It is in a very green area, almost like inside a forest, surrounded by trees. There is a beautiful small garden in its compound as well and a river right next to it.
The entire location was very peaceful and the only sounds we heard were of trees, air, birds, and water. The experience was simply amazing. It is also a good place to do a bonfire actually. You can just go down to the river and sit down there with your friends, around a small fire.
The rooms were large and spacious. The bed was clean and comfortable enough. There was plenty of space to accommodate all our luggage.
Right in front of the rooms was a dining-hall-type area which was perfect to sit down and chit chat if you were traveling in a group.
The caretaker was a friendly gentleman named Iqbal. He also cooked for us and even though the food was very simple, it was delicious enough. As you can see in the second picture, the rest house also has a parking area that can easily accommodate 3 to 4 cars.
What I Did Not Like
The flush in one of the washrooms was not working when we arrived and that was possibly the only hassle we faced on the first day. Since we arrived a little late in the evening, the caretaker had to wait until the next day to call someone to fix it.
Other than this, there was really no problem at all. The overall setting of the place was such that we ended up sleeping way more than we intended to. There was just no disturbance at all and we all slept like babies till late in the morning.
JKTDC Resthouse Chowkibal – Conclusion
To summarize it all, if you are planning to visit the Kupwara side of Kashmir Valley, I will highly recommend booking the JKTDC resthouse Chowkibal for your stay. You can call Iqbal at Iqbal at 9682649223 and talk to him to confirm your bookings. I hope the information above was of help. If you have any questions, you can contact me on Instagram and I will be happy to answer. You can also consider subscribing to my YouTube channel and asking a question there.
