The Smart Resort: Yolo Cafe Manali Aka Soma Caves – No 1 in magnificent Manali

Yolo Cafe Manali locally known as Soma Caves is a five bigha plot which converts to  3.1 acres property located at an altitude of 1757 metres above sea level along the banks of the river Beas at Bhanu bridge around 3.3km from New Manali’s Mall road. 

Construction

Soma Caves was built on 1.5 acres with the construction starting in the year 2018 and the property going live in the summer of 2019. But less than 12 months after going live, the dreadful Covid-19 pandemic went viral around the globe and resulted in the property getting shut with forced lock downs. 

The property has 24 wooden cottages with 11 on the top layer and 13 on the lower layer. An in-house kitchen and cafe, plus plenty of acres for activities. The best part about Yolo Manali is the fact that there is an adventure rope course area which includes activities like Burma bridge, hanging logs, zip line etc. 

Covid

It’s during Covid-19 that Soma Caves hit a real roadblock with the property unable to take off from the Covid set back. The reason we at tlow approached the owner, Abhishek Sharma to take over his property was the fact that the hardware was exactly what we were looking for to plug in our Yolo Cafe resort OS. Something which we have been working on in our primary R&D lab since 2016. 

One of the biggest plus points along with the hardware breakdown of rooms and activities was the fact that the entire property was plugged in with a solar water heating system which was exactly what we were looking for to help with our philosophy of heal the planet. 

River

The Beas river bank is just a 35 meter walk from the property and you can hear the sound of the river all day. It is a very good feel positive factor to hear the sound of the river and sleep.  

We found Soma Caves online in the summer of 2022, while at Yolo Camping Kasol. The primary reason to approached Soma Caves was because, the hardware and location clubbed with the fact that the place has excellent 4G connectivity meant the tlow resort OS would easily plug into the system. 

Owner

It’s only after we spoke to the owner, Abhishek Sharma that we learn that in addition to 24 cottages he was also building 10 luxury Swiss tents. The fact that with the tents his property would become 34 units was like a dream come true to find exactly the hardware we were searching.

The location of Yolo Cafe Manali is such that it also fits perfectly into the tlow ecosystem for our Himachal Pradesh, Spiti Valley road trips and Ladakh road trips which make Manali their base. The fact that the property isn’t located in Old or New Manali leaves us at tlow with plenty of opportunity to build a new water pond outside the two flagship places in Manali. 

Rooms

When it comes to the rooms at Yolo Manali, it’s very basic with just a bed and the rest of the stuff on the bed. At tlow, we don’t believe in having TV in the room, so we don’t have any room with it. Free Wifi is accessible to everyone who comes to Yolo Cafe Manali. But you won’t even need Wifi since cellular 4G work extremely fast. 

The location of Yolo Cafe Manali is such that regardless of the weather. Raining or snowing, our property is accessible. We have plenty of in-house parking and the food served by Guruji and team from Yolo Cafe will leave you licking your fingers for more.  

 Food

It’s here at Yolo Cafe Manali that we at tlow will be reinstalling our operating system and building our head office in the Himalayas. 

One of the primary reasons, we chose this particular property and location is the fact that during the peak summer months while pretty much all of Manali is blocked by traffic jams, the location of Yolo Manali is such that it’s always going to be free flowing traffic. 

The private Volvo bus stand which is the departure point of 80% of tourist is located just 2.3 kms from Soma Caves so all in all it’s the kind of location which is just perfect for the OS.