We were fortunate to have stayed from 13th to 17th August 2021 at Helen of Troy (HoT) houseboat in Dal Lake under our Club Mahindra membership. HoT is a real hot property coming under the Premium category. It’s 5 rooms, Living room and dining room are well-appointed and quite cozy. The service of Shabbir and others is good.

But the best part of HoT is that you can spend a leisurely evening on the landing deck in the company of its owner Mr. Mubarak. We had extremely interesting conversations with him every evening on all the topics under the sun. His passion for trekking matched ours as we had just finished an eight-day trek to Kashmir’s seven Great Lakes, a trek he has done multiple times.

Overall we felt very comfortable in the homely environment. One can travel to HoT from Dal Lake Blvd. in a Shikara in a ten minutes pleasant ride. A stay in Kashmir will not be complete if one does not experience the hospitality of HoT and Mr. Mubarak.