Destination - Orange County, Coorg

Rightly said, Coorg is the Switzerland of India! Orange County is crown of Coorg!

The estate of OC is a few kms from Siddapura, Coorg! A part of this 300 acre estate has been converted to a resort. The theme of this resort is to maintain the plantation ambience and experience. Not to mention the wonderful staff who truly believe the saying "Service with a smile"!

The upkeep and maintenance is excellent, service is world class and to top it all you have a multi-cuisine buffet spread out for you 3 times a day! You are asked for feedback after each meal. This is one place where they take feedback seriously and implement your preferences to the best of their ability in the next meal. 

Apart from the in-house activities that are organized (Dubare forest Safari, Plantation tour, Bonn fire etc) there are quite a few interesting place around the estate. There is cauvery river walk and the estate itself, where you can walk for miles without feeling tired, thanks to the tranquility and the ambience. if you travel up to Madikeri, you can visit the Raja Seat, from where you can see the valley of Madikeri beneath, it is a beautiful view and a must-see. Then there is the fort, Abbey falls, Talacauvery, the birth place of River Cauvery.

If you are traveling from B'lore, you may take 5 1/2 hrs to reach OC. When traveling with kids and elders, it is better to break you Journey at Srirangapattna and stay at one of the resorts and take it up from there in the morning. This would make it less tiring! The roads are good barring a few stretches.On the whole it was a beautiful experience for the body mind and soul!

Destination - Shakti Hill Resort - Bangalore

Not a recommended stay when with family!

The worst place to choose if you are headed for a vaction with your family or with friends. The crowd is shady, the staff are unequipped for decent service, the rooms are the bad. Infact when we turned up to check in and were showed to our rooms, we were shocked! The rooms were not meant for dwelling, so unclean and untidy, with water dripping from a pipe outside, above the garden path leading to the door.

We rushed to reception to cancel our reservation, the staff there wasn't too happy, but obliged, maybe they were used to it.

While waiting for our refund, another decent family happened to come in. The receptionist directed them to another assistant saying"show them the room first, I don't want to be writing another form only to cancel it all over again."

A few seconds later the staff returns with family, key in his hand and whispers to the receptionist " There is a dead dog at the door of the cottage, get that cleaned first, in the mean time the guest are waiting." This left us wondering if there was any cleaning and upkeep at all done at this place.

I somehow managed to convince the other family too, that this place wasn't worth our stay, and we all bundled into our respective cars after a magnanimous refund and started back to our sweet homes!

We definitely had a roaring laugh on the way back, recounting all the funny details.

So, if you feel like a good laugh, you can surely go to Shakti Hill Resort - Bangalore, but don't stay there, or you definitely will not come back laughing.

P.s: Don't get hoodwinked by the wonderful glossy pictures you see on their web site. The pictures are true, but what lies behind those pictures is ugly!

Welcome to my travel blog!

Hi All,

Thanks a ton for stopping by! This is my initiative to share my travel experiences so far! I shall be posting content that will help you decide on good locations for long & short vacations, near & far destinations. Also the best stay & best experiences for your money's worth. I shall also post content that helps you stay away from places you must avoid. I would appreciate your contribution and encouragement in this venture. Have a great day!