One day Retreat. Review on The Resort, Mumbai

If you are looking for a weekend (or even a weekday) getaway from Mumbai city life without travelling too far from the city , K Raheja group's resort , named simply as ''The Resort '' is an interesting option .

Location & Getting There :

''The Resort'' is located at Aksa beach on the Madh-Marve Road around 10kms from Malad stn (W) . The best way to get there is to travel by your own vehicle ,

but ,even if you dont have your own vehicle , you can get there by BEST (271 from Malad west ) or by ricks (shouldnt be more that 40-50 bucks) . There's a bus stop

right next to ''The Resort'' on the main road .

The property is located right on the beach and the pool area is very pretty , with various kinds of trees providing the necessary shade to relax either on hammocks or on the chairs setup there

Staying there :

''The Resort '' is a bit on the pricey side , with sea-facing rooms costing around Rs 7000 for the Continental Plan (lodging and breakfast) per couple . However ,they have a scheme going for Hutch customers whereby you get 20% off on the room tarriff .Just make sure that you take your hutch bill with you to avail the offer .

Check-on /check out time is at 10:00 am . We reached there at around 11:00 am and were promptly welcomed with a welcome drink ( a mini-glass of orange juice !! ) . We were taken to our room . which though not very impressive , was neat and clean . Each room has a decent sized balcony ,with chairs set out which was one of the things , I liked about the room .I would recommend getting a sea facing room on the upper storeys(it has 7-8 floors ) , since the view is that much better from up there .

The best time we had was in the evening . You can sit at the poolside either on the chairs and tables , or laze on a hammock under the trees , enjoying the sea breeze , watching the sun set . Not many people were there on the beach ( I guess that was because we had gone on a weekday . Weekends might be crowded in all probablity ) . There were the odd hawkers on the beach , a few couples , some children , old people on their evening walks but nothing compared to the crowd of a Juhu or a Chowpatty . The only sad part was that ''The Resort '' doesn't serve drinks or food in the pool area. With tables & chairs set out , the setting is perfect to have a few drinks out in the open . But ,alas ! the management doesn't think so

Room service was one of the few sore points . We had ordered a couple of drinks in our room . They charged us more than what was written on the menu . When I pointed out the same to the person who brought us the bill, he said he would talk to captain and get back . After some time , another person came in with the bill ,without any modifications . I explianed the situation to him too , and showed him the menu . He came back after a few minutes with the bill amount reduced , but it was still more than the amount in the menu . I called the manager and explained the situation to him and only then was the bill reduced to the correct amount . So ,while they did reduce the price to reflect the one in the menu , the constant stream of people in & out of the room , spoiled the mood a bit .

Food :

We had the buffet lunch and the buffet breakfast and opposite reactions to it . The breakfast was awesome . We had fun tucking into the chicken suasages ,ham,bacon , masala omlette , various types of bread & cheese , puri-bhaji & juices .There were other stuff too that we couldn't try due lack of space in our tummies . The lunch on the other hand was an utter waste of money at 500Rs per person . The only thing which was remotely good were the desserts .

So , I would suggest skipping the buffet option for lunch and order from the a la carte menu .

All in all , we had a good time there and I would definetly recommend the place if you just want to have a relaxing couple of days without travelling too far from Mumbai and dont mind spending just that little extra .