The only hotel in Haldwani with a rooftop pool that non-guests can pay to use, with rooms at Rs 3,800 to Rs 6,500. Our honest 2026 review of the rooms, the pool, the food and the ID policy for couples, and how it measures up against Maplewood Premier and Fortune Walkway Mall.
The short answer: Hotel Blue Saphire Countryside is the only hotel in Haldwani with a rooftop pool that non-guests can pay to use, and its check-in for couples is the most transparent in the city (any government photo ID, no extra letter and no need for a local ID). In 2026 rooms cost ₹3,800 to ₹6,500 for a standard, ₹5,500 to ₹8,200 for a deluxe and ₹7,200 to ₹11,500 for a suite. You can swim in the rooftop pool from March 15 to November 20, and drinks are served by the pool until 9 PM, which no other pool hotel in Haldwani offers. The restaurant is reliable rather than inventive, the rooms are practical rather than stylish, and the hotel is on Rampur Road, 3.8 km from Kathgodam Junction. For couples and small families in the pool months, it is worth booking. Our rating: 4.2 / 5.
By Meghna Bora, Contributor, Nainital. About the author ↓
Guest rating: 4.2 out of 5 from 812 Google reviews. This is the aggregate guest score, not our editorial rating. Checked July 2026.
Hotel Blue Saphire Countryside is on Rampur Road in Haldwani. It has 38 rooms built around a central courtyard, with the swimming pool on the roof above the third floor. The building is one compact block rather than a sprawl, which keeps staffing sensible and means the rooftop is a place you will actually use, not something put there for the brochure.
The hotel opened in 2019 and was substantially refurbished in 2023, so the building is six years old and the fittings three. That leaves it in an awkward middle place among Haldwani hotels: newer than the OYO-network mid-range hotels, but not as fresh as Fortune Walkway Mall after its 2024 refurbishment or the brand-new finish at Hotel North House.
It is central in the right way. Kathgodam Junction is three kilometres away, so arriving by train means a Rs 250 to Rs 400 cab ride; Tikonia bus stand is 6 km away, and the NH 109 turn-off for Bhimtal and Nainital is ten minutes' drive. The private driveway sets the hotel back 80 m from Rampur Road, which keeps traffic noise out of the front rooms, and the rooms at the back, over the courtyard, are the quietest of all.
The Negi family owns and runs it (the same Haldwani business family has two separate food and drink businesses in the city), and it shows in small things: a manager who is on site most days, a service team that has not changed since 2023, and a couple-ID policy that does not depend on who is on the night shift.
There are 38 rooms in three categories. Booking direct is usually 6 to 10 percent cheaper than the big booking sites for the same room and night, with the same cancellation policy.
| Category | Size | Off-season rate | Peak rate | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Room (24 keys) | 22 sqm | ₹3,800 | ₹6,500 | Single nights, couples on a budget |
| Deluxe Room (10 keys) | 28 sqm | ₹5,500 | ₹8,200 | Two-night couple stays, small families |
| Suite (4 keys, courtyard-facing) | 42 sqm + balcony | ₹7,200 | ₹11,500 | Anniversary stays, weekend birthdays |
What the rate includes. All rates are for the room only unless you ask otherwise. Bed and breakfast adds ₹350 per person to the standard rate, and half-board (breakfast and dinner) adds ₹850 per person. All guests can use the pool. The bar and laundry are charged separately. Late checkout until 2 PM costs ₹750, or is free if you have booked the next night too.
The rooms, honestly. The Standard rooms are practical: clean linen, a split AC (1.5 ton) that works, reliable hot water from 6 AM to 11 PM and on request outside those hours, and a 32-inch TV with DTH (no streaming sticks). The bathrooms are tiled with mid-range fittings, nothing luxurious. Deluxe rooms give you 6 sqm more space, a small writing desk and a slightly better mattress. The Suite is the only category with a balcony, so book it for the courtyard view and a morning coffee outside. The complaint we keep seeing in reviews is that the corridor carpet looks dated; the rooms themselves are fine.
In short, yes, in the right months. The rooftop pool is the main reason to choose Blue Saphire Countryside over the half-dozen other mid-range hotels charging the same Rs 4,000 to Rs 6,000 a night.
What you get. A rectangular pool, 12 m by 6 m, sloping from a shallow end of 1.0 m to a deep end of 1.8 m, set against the north-facing parapet of the building. On a clear winter morning you can see the distant ridge of the Kumaon foothills on the Bhimtal side, which most Haldwani city hotels cannot see because they sit below the roof level. The deck has loungers, a small towel kiosk and a poolside bar service until 9 PM. That last one is what sets it apart: no other pool hotel in Haldwani serves drinks by the pool after sunset.
When you can swim. In practice, from March 15 to November 20, when nights stay above 12 deg C and the water holds at 22 to 26 deg C during the day. From December to February the pool is officially open (kept full and chlorinated), but the water drops to 8 to 12 deg C and nobody actually swims. The hotel does not heat the pool. If you want a pool stay between December and February, book Fortune Walkway Mall instead; its indoor heated pool is the only one in the city you can use all year.
Day passes for non-guests. This is one of the few hotel pools in Haldwani that lets in non-residents for a fee. A day pass costs ₹600 for adults and ₹400 for children under 12, runs from 11 AM to 7 PM and includes a towel and a locker. It is worth it if you are staying at a hotel without a pool, such as North House, and want an afternoon by the water. Only 25 day passes are sold each day on top of hotel guests, and at weekends in May and June they are gone by 11 AM.
What is missing. There is no jacuzzi or hot tub by the pool and no covered deck for monsoon afternoons (the pool stays open in light rain, but heavy rain closes it for 20 to 40 minutes at a time). The depth markings are there but faded, so if you have children with you, ask for the printed depth card at the kiosk. A lifeguard is on duty from 11 AM to 7 PM, and not before or after.
The hotel has one restaurant, on the ground floor, seating 60 and serving North Indian, Chinese and continental food plus a small Kumaoni section. Breakfast is 7 AM to 10:30 AM, lunch 12:30 PM to 3:30 PM and dinner 7:30 PM to 11 PM, with snacks and drinks served in the 4 to 7 PM gap.
What is good. The Kumaoni plate (bhatt ki churkani, gehat ki dal and jhangora kheer, served as a small thali) is the most honest regional food at any hotel in Haldwani city, made from local produce and not toned down for tourists. The North Indian breakfast buffet is consistent and well stocked, and the chicken thali at lunch is simple and fairly priced at Rs 480.
What is average. The Chinese dishes taste like a hotel kitchen's idea of Chinese rather than a chef's. Continental is limited to pasta, soups and a club sandwich, which is fine if you are vegetarian and tired of the Indian menu. Desserts are uneven: the gulab jamun is good, but the cheesecake comes out of the cold cabinet.
The bar. There is a small bar on the ground floor as well as the poolside service. It has a permanent liquor licence and fair prices: domestic beer Rs 350 to 450, Indian-made whisky (IMFL) Rs 280 to 480 a peg and imported Rs 650 to 1,100. The bar is open from 12 PM to 11 PM, with a strict last call at 10:45 PM. Poolside service runs until 9 PM, and that is what genuinely sets it apart from Maplewood Premier and the other Haldwani hotels that have pools but no poolside service.
Room service. Drinks and snacks are available 24 hours, and the full menu from 7 AM to 11 PM. There is an 8 percent service charge on top of restaurant prices. On our visits, orders consistently arrived within 25 minutes.
This is the question people search for most about any Haldwani hotel, and Blue Saphire Countryside has the clearest policy in the city, so it is worth going through in detail.
What you need. Any government photo ID: an Aadhaar card, driving licence, voter ID or passport. Each guest shows their own ID at check-in. The hotel scans it for the C-form (the legally required Indian hotel guest register) and hands the original straight back. Nothing is photocopied, nobody keeps your original, and nobody asks for a marriage certificate.
What you do not need. There is no rule that only local IDs are accepted and no same-state restriction. Nobody asks for a letter from a guardian or rings your family to check. Unmarried couples pay nothing extra, and there is no "couple check-in fee".
Where it is written down. The policy appears in the hotel's booking confirmation email, under House Rules on its booking-site listings, and on the printed policy card in every room. That matters, because at other Haldwani hotels a promise made on the phone that couples are welcome does not always hold at the night-shift desk. A written policy does.
Same-sex couples. The same policy applies. We have verified one same-sex couple's booking in 2026 that went through check-in without any problem.
When the manager decides. If a single adult checks in with a child, the hotel asks for a custody letter or the same surname on both IDs. Every hotel that follows the C-form rules does this; it is not a rule special to Blue Saphire.
For the longer guide to couple-friendly hotels and the ID rules at all seven, see our guide to couple-friendly hotels in Haldwani.
A rooftop pool, a clear ID policy and drinks by the pool until 9 PM make this the most romantic mid-range choice in the city during the pool months (March 15 to November 20).
The pool runs from 1.0 m to 1.8 m deep, which suits a confident swimmer of 8 or older. A lifeguard is on duty from 11 AM to 7 PM, and the pool kitchen serves snacks and ice cream.
A Rs 600 day pass gets you in from 11 AM to 7 PM. It is handy for guests at Hotel North House, Hotel Surya and the OYO-network hotels who want an afternoon in the pool without moving hotels.
It is a 5-minute drive to the NH 109 turn-off for Bhimtal and 10 minutes to the Bhowali fork for Nainital and Kainchi Dham. At the Standard rate you get the city on your doorstep and the hill stations within day-trip reach.
An honest list of where the hotel falls short of what its rates promise.
1. The corridors and lift look dated. The rooms were refurbished in 2023 but the common areas mostly were not, and the lift carpet and the third-floor corridor wallpaper look like 2018. It will not spoil a stay, but your first impression on arrival falls short of the photos on the website.
2. The pool is not heated. This is the biggest weakness in what you are paying for. From late November to early March the pool is open but you cannot really use it, yet rates barely drop, which makes Blue Saphire in the off-season harder to justify than Fortune Walkway Mall (indoor heated pool, open all year) at a similar price.
3. The menu is wide, not deep. The kitchen manages four cuisines adequately, but none of them shines. For a special dinner, the Pots & Stones cafe at Hotel North House (Italian) or the restaurant at Fortune are both better choices.
4. Slow Wi-Fi on the third floor and the roof. Wi-Fi runs at 12 to 20 Mbps in the rooms and drops to 4 to 8 Mbps on the roof. That is fine for messages but shaky for a video call by the pool.
5. Parking is on site but not paved. The driveway and car park are gravel rather than tarmac and get muddy after heavy monsoon afternoons (July to September). Drop your passengers at the porch before you park.
6. Late-night walk-ins get mixed treatment. If you turn up after 11 PM without a booking, the front desk has not always been straight about whether rooms are free. Booking online beforehand is strongly recommended; the crowd off the morning Ranikhet Express, which reaches Kathgodam at 5:35 AM, is treated far better.
| Criterion | Blue Saphire | Maplewood Premier | Fortune Walkway Mall |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rooms | 38 | 26 | 60 |
| 2026 rate range | ₹3,800–₹11,500 | ₹5,500–₹12,000 | ₹6,500–₹12,000 |
| Pool | Rooftop, outdoor, seasonal | Outdoor, wedding-guest priority | Indoor heated, year-round |
| Poolside bar | Yes (to 9 PM) | No | No |
| Day-pass for non-guests | Yes, ₹600 | Wedding guests only | No (members only) |
| Couple-friendly transparency | Written policy, any state ID | Couple-friendly, less explicit | Couple-friendly, ITC C-form standard |
| Banquet capacity | 120 (small functions) | 250 (premium weddings) | 250 seated / 350 stand-up |
| Distance from Kathgodam Junction | 3.8 km | 4.2 km | 3.5 km |
| Best for | Couples + small families, pool months | Premium weddings, banquet stays | Corporate, ITC-grade, year-round pool |
For our full write-up of Fortune Walkway Mall, see our detailed Fortune review. A full review of Maplewood is on the way as part of our wedding planning coverage; until then, see its entry in our wedding venues guide.
1. Book direct. The hotel's website (hotelbluesaphire.com) is 6 to 10 percent cheaper than the big booking sites for the same room and night. The cancellation policy is the same: free up to 48 hours before check-in, with 1 night charged after that. You can also book by phone; the front desk is on +91 9412908000.
2. Ask for a north-facing room. Rooms ending in 04, 14 and 24 face north. They are the quietest and the only ones with a clear view of the foothill ridge on a winter morning. Ask for a "north-facing room" when you book, and the front desk will give you one if it can.
3. Avoid May 25 to June 25 unless the pool is all you want. Rates go up by 25 to 40 percent during the school holidays. The pool is at its busiest, the lifeguard has too many swimmers to watch, and the 25 day passes are gone by 11 AM at weekends. Outside the school holidays (the monsoon from mid-July to early September, or the shoulder season from October to mid-November) you get the same hotel at the standard rate.
4. From December to February, book only at the off-season Standard rate. You cannot swim in the pool then, so the booking does not earn its premium. A Standard room off-season at Rs 3,800 to Rs 4,500 is fair value for a city hotel without a pool, but avoid the Deluxe rooms and the Suite at this time of year, because you would be paying for something you cannot use.
5. Ask for late checkout. Rs 750 gets you checkout at 2 PM. For a couple on a one-night break, that adds three hours to the morning by the pool, which often makes the difference between a satisfying stay and a rushed one. It is free if the same room is booked for the next night.
6. Check the C-form ID rule when you book. An ID from a state other than Uttarakhand is fine. A non-government ID (a college ID or an employer's ID) is not, and the hotel cannot accept the booking. Always carry an Aadhaar card, driving licence or voter ID; this is a national rule for hotels, not a Blue Saphire rule.
Hotel Blue Saphire Countryside is the right booking for couples, small families and pairs making day trips to Bhimtal and Nainital in the pool months from March to November. Then the rooftop pool, the clear couple-ID policy and the rare poolside bar genuinely justify the Rs 3,800 to Rs 6,500 rate over the dozen other mid-range Haldwani hotels at the same price. It is the wrong booking from December to February (no swimming, and rates barely drop), for ITC-standard business travel (Fortune Walkway Mall is better) and for upmarket wedding banquets (Maplewood or Fortune). We give it a clear 4.2 / 5: not a destination in itself, but the best value in its class in the months when it earns the booking. We recommend it.
Yes. Hotel Blue Saphire Countryside is the only hotel in Haldwani city with a rooftop swimming pool. It is open all year, but in practice you can swim only from March 15 to November 20, when night temperatures stay above 12 °C. Non-guests can use it with a ₹600 day pass (₹400 for children under 12), and it is one of the few hotel pools in Haldwani that lets in non-residents for a fee. The pool is open from 7 AM to 10 PM and closes for cleaning from 1 to 3 PM.
Yes. Blue Saphire Countryside has one of the clearest check-in policies for couples in Haldwani. Unmarried couples can check in with any government photo ID (Aadhaar, driving licence, voter ID or passport), and no extra letter or local ID is needed. Each guest shows their own ID at check-in, and the hotel does not photocopy or keep the original. Couples from within the state and from outside it are treated the same. The policy is printed on the booking confirmation, which matters because elsewhere in Haldwani a promise made on the phone does not always survive a late-night arrival.
In 2026 Hotel Blue Saphire Countryside charges ₹3,800 to ₹6,500 a night for a standard room, ₹5,500 to ₹8,200 for a deluxe and ₹7,200 to ₹11,500 for the suite. Booking direct on hotelbluesaphire.com is usually 6 to 10 percent cheaper than the big booking sites for the same room and night. In the school holidays (May 25 to June 25) a summer surcharge of 25 to 40 percent applies. In winter (December 5 to February 28) rates fall to the bottom of the range, and the pool is closed for swimming.
Hotel Blue Saphire Countryside is on Rampur Road in Haldwani, about 3.8 km from Kathgodam Junction railway station and 5 km from the main Tikonia bus stand. It sits back from the highway on a private driveway, so road noise stays low even on the second-floor side. NH 109 to Bhimtal and the Bhowali junction for Nainital are both within a 10-minute drive. Parking is on site and free for guests.
Yes. The restaurant serves several cuisines, with three meals and an evening snack service between 7 AM and 11 PM, and its menu covers North Indian, Chinese, continental and a few Kumaoni dishes. The bar on the premises has a permanent liquor licence and is open from 12 PM to 11 PM (last call 10:45 PM). It is the only hotel bar among the rooftop-pool hotels, and you can have a drink by the pool until 9 PM, which the other pool hotels in Haldwani do not offer.
Blue Saphire Countryside falls below Maplewood Premier and Fortune Walkway Mall on overall service, room finish and brand consistency, but beats both on three things: a rooftop pool with a view, a clear couple-ID policy, and the only poolside bar among hotels of its kind. For a stay as a couple between March and November it is the better value, at ₹3,800 to ₹6,500 against ₹6,500 to ₹12,000 at Fortune. For business travel, blocks of rooms for a family wedding week, or any stay that needs ITC-standard reliability, Fortune is the better choice. Maplewood sits between the two on price and is the one that specialises in wedding banquets.
Our blog has full reviews of the other upmarket hotels in Haldwani, along with our guide to couple-friendly hotels and travel guides from the city to Bhimtal, Nainital, Kainchi Dham and Jim Corbett.