Fagunia (Nainital)

Fagunia Farmstay is one of the most consistently loved pet-friendly stays in the Nainital region - a 5.0 Tripadvisor rating across 70 reviews is rare for any property; for a 4-room remote homestay in a hamlet 15 km from Nainital, it signals something genuinely unusual. Aditi and Anil - a Pahadi-Telugu couple who left their careers to build an eco-homestay - created a property surrounded on two sides by forest and seasonal waterfall, powered entirely by solar energy, with a low-plastic and home-grown produce policy throughout. The four rooms are named after local birds: Treepie, Barbet, Warbler, and Flycatcher - a detail that reflects the birdwatching-first orientation of the property and the Pangot forest adjacent to it.

Getting there is part of the experience: the last 4 km from the highway is a rough forest track through old British-era arched bridges, motorable only by SUVs, with the final 200 metres covered on foot through the village and farms. Multiple reviewers describe the arrival as the moment the trip actually begins - something about the effort of the approach that makes the stillness of the property feel earned. A dog who has been in a car for 3–4 hours from Delhi arrives at a place with no road noise, no crowds, and immediate access to forest trails that start from the property boundary.

The property and hosts

Four rooms, sustainably operated (solar energy, upcycled materials, low-plastic policy, home-grown produce). Meals are made using largely farm-sourced ingredients - Pahadi food cooked by staff Deepa and Pandey ji. Curated experiences on prior notice include wood-fired Neapolitan pizza, single malt tasting, and day-long treks to a nearby river through rural mountain terrain. The trek to a viewpoint overlooking Jim Corbett National Park (guided by Pushkar) is specifically praised. Aditi and Anil are described across multiple reviews as genuinely engaged hosts - not just present but attentive to what each guest actually wants from the stay, which for a dog-owning visitor means understanding that the dog's experience matters as much as the person's.