New York Weddings Magazine featured Lakshman Sagar

This Way to Nowhere

No Internet, no TV, no phone, no nothing: a dozen dream destinations for a truly off-the-radar honeymoon.

• By Fiorella Valdesolo
• Published Winter 2014

Lakshman Sagar, India  (Photo: Courtesy of Lakshman Sagar)

Raipur, India
The dizzying, nonstop bustle of New Delhi feels a million miles away from Lakshman Sagar (from $350; sewara.com), a nineteenth-century hunting lodge turned conservation retreat, stretched across 32 acres in rural central India (a.k.a. the badlands). The property blends beautifully into the barren environs—green architects Revathi and Vasant Kamath used indigenous materials to construct the dozen mud-and-stone guest cottages—and features plenty of local handiwork, like embellished Zenana tables inspired by the colorful style of Rajasthani women. Take a lesson in yoga or meditation, trek through the surrounding badlands on horseback, bring a picnic lunch (the hotel will pack it for you) to nearby Fort Bagri, or try to spot a sloth bear, a langur (a slender gray monkey named after a Hindu god), or a chinkara (Indian gazelle) at the Todgarh Raoli Wildlife Sanctuary. No one will judge you, of course, if you opt simply to loiter by the pool and admire the surrounding desert’s foothills.
Need to rewire? The property has no TVs, Wi-Fi, or cell-phone service. To log on, you can hit the Internet cafés in the town of Raipur, five minutes away.