Oct 11, 2016 09:45 PM
6536 Views
I was in ooty last weekend for the Go Heritage Run, with friends and we decided to take an extra day off to hang out in Ooty. We didnt want to stay in the city and my friend, on recommendation from his sister(who was here with her family some time before) booked a room for a night.
I-India is ideally located between Ooty and Lovedale and the property overlooks the charming View Valley. The hotel is essentially an old colonial style house, which has been converted to 6 odd rooms.
Being In-season, the rooms were all full as expected. Our room(No 2) was adequate, if a little lacking in personality, also since there is no window, it does feel a little claustrophobic; but the bed was comfy and the loo was adequately clean. Since there was three of us, we got an extra bed(a mattress on the floor.essentially). The room does get cold, so the woolen blankies are pretty handy.
The sitting areas and the dining rooms are quite cozy too, The sofas are in need of a refurbishing, with most of the springs/cushioning off.
The hotel is manned by these two charming guys, who were really very professional and helpful. Remember, this is not a large scale hotel, so food especially needs to be pre-ordered. This is mostly cooked by the two ladies, who manage the kitchen, but don’t stay on premises.
The food was pretty homestyle. We tried the sambhar, veggies, chicken curry, fried rice etc and everything was yummy! Breakfast you get idli, dosas, eggs and they were fab too. The sweet ginger tea here is the highlight and several cups were downed, sitting outside and watching the valley.
I liked the fact that the hotel is pretty eco conscious and there were no signs of plastic usage inside, infact in the rooms we had glass water jugs, which were filled with warm water, whenever requested. But what is distressing though is the garbage around(perennial problem with Ooty), while I do blame this largely on tourist apathy, at the entrance driveway to the hotel,(into the valley) we saw a whole load of trash, which was coming from the hotel! I really hope someone can figure this waste management.
WiFi is available, but patchy. Since the router is placed near room 1, you have to be close to the area to catch any signal.
From the hotel, you can take interesting walks to the railway lines, up several viewpoints etc. All in all, we had a pleasant experience and recommended for a quiet getaway with not too much frills.
This is surely an interesting property, with a lot of potential to be great.
