Le Auroville (Jewel of Yelagiri hills). Review on Yelagiri

I heard about yelagiri hills from a friend who just got back a few days ago and could not stop raving about this place. After looking at some of the photographs and hearing about its closeness to Chennai I convinced my best friend his wife to take a weekend trip with me and my wife to Yellagiri Hills. The directions were very clear… Yelagiri is 260 kms from Chennai on the Bangalore highway and about 140 Kms from Bangalore.

After Vaniyambadi we need to take the Tirpathur highway and turnoff at Ponnari. app 7 kms from Vanyambadi. The drive up the hills was surprisingly easy and the road is excellent. The hill had a few hotels on offer and we drove around looking for one that was suitable for us… We checked out a few hotels, most of them were over priced or booked out, we noticed a sign board leading to Le Auroville resort, and decided to check it out as we stayed in Auroville, Pondicherry.

The Resort is close to the Lake and surrounded by mountains on both sides and a reserve forest immediately behind the compound. Auroville could not have chosen a more perfect location to have a resort. The thing that strikes you is the greenery and the cleanliness. The compound is surrounded by huge flowering trees and dotted by hedges that are constantly in bloom. There is a huge well maintained lawn where children were playing on the swings suspended from the trees and a few people playing cricket.

You will feel an immediate fall in temperature once you enter the compound, we were greeted by our host and before long we were served hot tea which we relished after the long drive. The rooms are spacious and are very well designed and ventilated. We stayed in a twin share room with 2 double rooms and a common toilet which was surprisingly cleaner than anywhere I have ever stayed. Each room as a king size bed, sofa set, common TV with cable connection. The room rent for the twin room is 1500/- with complimentary breakfast. We decided to take a tour of the place after freshening up.

The place is huge with mountains and trees every where. There are natural foot path that leads you to quiet corners in the resort. We inquired if we could go for a trek and were taken by an elderly man into the forest behind the resort… we were soon in deep woods, huge trees all around us as far as we could see, the smell of fresh eucalyptus massaged our lungs as we took deep breaths. We reached a pond deep in the forest and after a short break decided to head back to the resort as we were not all that prepared for a longer trek. This is really a Trekking Paradise.

We packed our lunch not knowing what to expect and were content to use the resort facility to take lunch. Not long we were asked if we would like to order dinner as all the food is home cooked and is made specifically for us. There was a bonfire arranged free of cost and there was good dancing music being played, we decided to sit at a distance on a table allocated for us on the lawn. The lawn was well lit and the weather was really pleasant with some mild breeze.

The fire from the bonfire added to the ambiance. The resort also arranges for a night safari but we were too exhausted from the trek we did during the day and decided to call it an early night. We were sad to leave the next day after lunch and hopefully come back again and again. Le Auroville is really a jewel on the crown of Auroville. For more details contact Joan on 09486565200.