Tiny Chail does not rival the colonial grandeur of Shimla, but it does give you a feel of how the summer capital of the Raj must have looked before its salubrious environs were chopped down to make way for smug imperial edifices. Chail, of course, boasts of another arrogance, born out of a snub. The town was built after Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of the princely state of Patiala, a handsome ladies man, was banned from Shimla for life by the British, following charges of his making immoral overtures to an Englishwoman. According to historians, the lady in question was Commander-in-Chief Lord Kitchener's daughter, hence the collective moral affront. Chail became accessible to tourists after the Patiala royals handed over the 75-acre property to the government in 1972.
Its chief attraction is the stunning Palace Hotel, where honeymooning couples and Punjabi businessmen hop in for a day or two of princely excitement. At the height of summer, it is almost impossible to get a foothold here, with tourists, cars, buses and innumerable troops of monkeys roving aggressively around the property.
The rest of the year, one can enjoy the place as the royals left it and revel in the surviving cedar tree cover, endogamous forest and wildlife in the countryside.