Vivanta by Taj @ Madikeri, Coorg

So we left from bamgalore around 2 pm. And realized that of all the times we have driven to Mysore from Bangalore, which is quite a few in past 2 years we have been in Bangalore, this time is the best time to leave from Bangalore to Mysore. May be rains on the way played a part because the roads were pretty clear.

We reached Mysore in 3.5 hours. Which is a record till now. We stayed at Brindavan gardens. Nice place to stay for a night. The Queen bed room is small. But serves the purpose for a night. It has good views of the garden. So all in all, good place.
Next day left for Coorg. The roads are surprisingly good. Four lane till Hassan and then two lane. But well built, no potholes. It still took us around 3 hours to cover around 95 km because of ghats.
At the Taj, they sprinkled holy Kaveri river water and opened the gates to a grand opening. It's a high lobby on top of a mountain. Nothing marking the boundary so gives a feeling of infinite stage extending till horizon. Extremely beautiful. If you don't see it, you are missing something in life. It's a work of art. They have made this 7 storey building to have the large infinite deck. The temperature controlled infinite pool underneath and entertainment /activity area. All in all pretty good.

The cottages are huge. I mean huge. The cottage we stayed in was bigger than our Mumbai house. One living room with fireplace. One large, and I mean large bedroom area. Then 2-3 steps down to study and viewing deck. Large windows overlooking the valley. Huge bath area, wardrobes, walk in closets and what not. It was pretty good.

Issues, no issues? Well, not really. There were issues. The restaurant processes were not figured out. The food was exorbitantly priced. There used to be a good half an hour of delay once you order the meal. So eat and then go to restaurant so that you can wait there for the food to arrive. Options were limited and they were not sure what to do if you need customization. Any, even the smallest of customization.

We witnessed the first ever buffet served during dinner in the hotel on 20th Oct. Was served an hour late from the time it should have started.

The place is new. Soft launch happened on 15th oct. Fully functional by 15th dec they say.

The place is nice. Coorg is about coffee plantations. And this place is about rain forest. The resort is on 250 acre of land. Mountains, valleys and ponds. All in the resort. Belongs to a private investor and Taj has leased it I think. 6 acres has cottages and pathways and all the stuff. Rest is jungle. Nature trails, cycling trails and what not.

It's a mixed bag review only because we have seen very high standard of service from Taj before. This still has to cover a lot of ground before it reaches say Holiday village in Goa. Or Coonoor Taj.

Overall. Extremely beautiful place. Very relaxing. Very pricy in everything. Needs improvement in service quality in restaurant. I think I will visit again. May be after Dec 2012 once it's fully launched.