Vasti means home in Sanskrit. Mayuri Sinha trained to be a dentist, then went to the New York Film Academy to study photography, then came to a small village called Bathar between Manali and Naggar and built a place she describes as a journey from living to being alive. She was right about the dentistry. She was also right about this.
There is a particular kind of clarity that comes from leaving the thing you were supposed to do and finding the thing you were actually meant to do. Mayuri Sinha studied dentistry. Her heart, by her own account, always lay elsewhere — in photography, in aesthetics, in the way light falls on a mountain face or a village window or the interior of a room designed with genuine intention. She pursued that instinct formally, earning a course in photography at the New York Film Academy. She travelled extensively across India and the world, drawn to landscapes and people, building a visual intelligence that would eventually find its expression in a three-bedroom house in a quiet Himachali village.
Vasti — the Sanskrit word for home — is the house Mayuri built in Bathar village, approximately 11 kilometres from Manali’s Mall Road, sandwiched between Manali and the ancient hill town of Naggar in the Kullu Valley. It sits amidst apple orchards, surrounded by the Dhauladhar and Pir Panjal mountain ranges, overlooking forests and rolling meadows. It is the deliberate creation of someone who understands aesthetics from the inside, and it shows in every nook and corner — a fact that Mayuri herself describes with the honesty of someone who built this place as an extension of her own sensibility: “Honestly, it’s a part of me and I welcome travellers into my home and heart with intention.”
The Village
Bathar village made the cut as Mayuri’s location not by accident but by a specific set of criteria: close enough to Manali’s infrastructure and access without being caught in its crowds; a landscape of genuine beauty looking out over the Dhauladhar and Pir Panjal ranges; forests and rolling meadows rather than the tourist-dense valley floor. The village itself is small, quiet, and primarily agricultural — apple orchards and the Himachali farming calendar, the particular pace of a mountain village that has not been reorganised for tourism.
The approach from Manali is approximately 11 kilometres, which translates to the experience of arriving somewhere that feels different in character as well as distance. The valley opens differently up here. The mountains feel closer. The air is cooler. The orchards are the view rather than an amenity.
The House
Vasti is a two-storey structure built in wood and stone — the traditional materials of Himachali construction, used here with the eye of someone who has spent years understanding how architecture should relate to its landscape. The building feels considered rather than constructed: every room has been designed for the quality of light it receives, the view it offers, and the particular experience of being in it.
There are three guest bedrooms, each with balcony views of the surrounding mountains and orchards. A living room and dining space occupy the common areas — warmed by a fireplace that becomes the social heart of the house in the cooler months, when evenings gather around it with the particular comfort of good company in a mountain house. A kitchen garden provides fresh produce. And the creative studio — the feature that most distinctly sets Vasti apart from other Manali homestays — is a space where guests can work in pottery, paint on canvas, or simply sit and make things in the presence of the mountains.
Creativity is at the heart of Vasti’s identity. Mayuri designed the house with the intention of providing a space for people who want to do more than ski and trek — who come to the mountains to read, write, paint, photograph, think, or simply sit with a good view and let the altitude do what altitude does to the mind. The common areas are full of books. The studio is available. The kitchen garden invites participation. The dog Zoey — the resident ambassador who, guests report, tends to seal the emotional deal on every visit — is invariably somewhere in the middle of the action.
The Hosting Philosophy
Vasti is listed only on Airbnb — a deliberate choice that reflects Mayuri’s preference for selective, intentional hosting. She prioritises women travellers and families, and describes the process of deciding who stays as one of care and consideration. “We do not operate like a typical business,” she says. “We want this place to feel like a home.”
Mayuri lives on-site in a separate bedroom. Her team is largely drawn from local men and women across Himachal Pradesh who are currently based in Bathar village, led by a caretaker from Chamba who lives at the villa. This is not a managed property with an absentee owner. It is someone’s home that has been opened to people who will appreciate it.
What to Do
The creative studio — pottery and painting — is the distinctive offering that no other Manali-area homestay provides. For guests who come specifically to make things, the combination of altitude, mountain light, and the quality of the studio space is, by any standard, extraordinary.
Hiking through the apple orchards and the surrounding forests is available directly from the property, with trails that take guests into the high meadows and viewpoints above Bathar. The landscape between Manali and Naggar is among the most beautiful in the Kullu Valley — forested ridges, river views, the ancient Naggar Castle visible from the higher trails.
Naggar itself is a 20-minute drive from Bathar: the ancient hilltop town with the Naggar Castle (once the summer residence of the Kullu royal family, now a heritage hotel), the Nicholas Roerich Art Gallery (where the Russian artist’s remarkable Himalayan paintings are housed in his former home), and the quiet stone streets of a hill town that Manali’s tourists rarely reach. This is one of the best day excursions from the Kullu Valley — and from Bathar, it is the nearest major destination.
Manali’s Mall Road, Hidimba Temple, the Solang Valley, the Rohtang Pass (with its extraordinary high-altitude snowfield), and the Beas Kund trek are all accessible from the property for guests who want conventional Manali experiences alongside the studio and the quiet.
Why It Stays With You
“Vasti is our journey from living to being alive” is how Mayuri describes her home on the property’s own website. This is either marketing language or the most honest description of a homestay’s philosophy that anyone has ever written. Having considered what Vasti is — a photographer’s eye applied to architecture, a creative spirit applied to hospitality, a woman who left dentistry to follow her instincts and ended up in a wood-and-stone house in an apple orchard in the Himalayas — it reads as the most honest description.
The dog is Zoey. The mountains are the Dhauladhar and the Pir Panjal. The studio has pottery wheels and canvases. The fireplace is lit in the evenings. The view is the kind that makes people who came for a weekend stay for a week.
Plan Your Visit
Address: Village Bathar, P.O. Haripur, Manali, Himachal Pradesh — 175136 (approximately 11 km from Mall Road, between Manali and Naggar) Website: vastithehome.com Instagram: @vasti_thehome Booking: Airbnb only (search “Vasti 3BHK Luxury Cottage Manali Naggar”) — the only booking channel by design
Owner: Mayuri Sinha (lives on-site) Background: Dentistry → New York Film Academy (photography) → Vasti Team: Local Himachali caretaker from Chamba (resident at property) + local staff from across HP
Property: Two-storey wood and stone Himachali construction · Apple orchards · Dhauladhar and Pir Panjal range views · Kitchen garden · Forest and meadow surroundings
Accommodation: 3 guest bedrooms · Balconies with mountain views · Living room with fireplace · Dining space · Creative studio (pottery and painting) Capacity: 6 guests (3 bedrooms, 2 per room) — whole property on exclusive use basis Pet-friendly: Yes (resident dog Zoey) Guest preferences: Women travellers and families prioritised
Experiences: Pottery (in the studio) · Painting/canvas (in the studio) · Photography walks (Mayuri’s speciality) · Orchard and forest hiking · Naggar Castle and Roerich Gallery visit · Manali day trips
Getting There — Kullu-Manali Airport (Bhuntar): approximately 50 km from Bathar — around 1.5 hours by road. Taxis readily available. — From Manali Mall Road: approximately 11 km — around 20–25 minutes by road. The property is between Manali and Naggar on the eastern bank of the Beas. — From Delhi: approximately 550 km — around 12 hours by road or overnight Volvo bus to Manali (10–12 hours), then taxi to Bathar. — From Chandigarh: approximately 300 km — around 6–7 hours by road. — Coordinate exact approach and arrival with Mayuri via Airbnb messaging before arriving — Bathar village road requires local knowledge for the final approach.
Nearby — Manali Mall Road: 11 km · Naggar Castle: 8 km (20 min) · Nicholas Roerich Gallery: 8 km · Hidimba Temple: 12 km · Solang Valley: 20 km · Rohtang Pass: 50 km · Beas Kund trek: 25 km · Kullu-Manali Airport: 50 km
Best Time to Visit: March to June for spring in the orchards — apple blossom season (April) is the most beautiful · September to November for clear autumn skies and the apple harvest · December to February for snow, fireplace evenings, and winter mountain photography · Peak season (May–June) brings Manali’s crowds but Bathar’s elevation and village location provide a natural buffer
