This post is about Fernhills Palace Resort, Ooty, where we stayed during our recent visit. Like the name suggests, it is an erstwhile palace of the Wadiyar royal family. It stands tall and wide at 50 acres!
It
has 19 deluxe suites and we had booked 2 suites with a connecting door for 5 of
us (M, A, N and me + my mom). Every deluxe suite has a living room, bedroom and
a bathroom with Jacuzzi and the good things of life. Every deluxe suite has 2
TVs each, so we had 4 TVs at the disposal. Honestly it was too much. The kids
were running from one room to another, seeing 4 different programmes at the
same time. It was fun watching them watch TV. In A’s words, taking a bath in a jacuzzi was like having horizontal showers all over which knew how to tickle
you. N got scared of the big gush of jets of water. So she just happily took a
bubble bath, collecting the white bubbles in her palms and calling it dosas. (Don’t
ask me, ask her…why dosas?)
(The living room of our suite)
(The bedroom of our suite)
The
palace is true to its words. It takes us back to the era where aristocracy and
blue blood was the ultimate life anyone could ever dream of.
(A shot of the walls of the bar)
Today,
the palace stands proud of the possessions of the kings, queens, princes and
princesses who stayed in the palace once upon a time. Every wall is adorned
with old pictures ranging from personal family pictures to the ones taken with
the British elite.
(A painting which caught my eye immensely. It covers an entire wide wall.)
The
suite on the ground floor just at the entrance is still used by the present Wadiyar king who comes to visit Ooty.
(The dining area)
The
resort also has a beautiful garden, rather a mini park. The children can have
an amazing time running, playing in the swings, going on horse rides or simply
smelling the flowers.
The
adults can do nothing but take a walk in and around the resort. It never gets
over and you will never get enough. We literally spent almost 2 hours just
walking inside the palace. For a person like me who loves going back in time, I
could imagine the past lives of the royal people right in front of my eyes. The
staff was courteous and ever ready to help.
They
have an in-house golf cart, which takes you around on a slow drive around this
huge campus. If I
have to mention any cons, then it has to be that there is little surprise for
vegetarians. Though I am not one, one of the days I wanted to stay veggie, but
I was disappointed.
Otherwise,
a lovely option to go for, if you want to have a stay which is a little
different from all the usual great resorts, spas and hotels.