Location: Morve Lonavla
Date : 30th September 2021
Website: https://www.thelotusresort.in/
We collaborated with Lotus Resort recently and sharing my detailed review in this blog post.
This property is about 133 kms away from Mumbai. Although it says #Lonavla, its about 30 kms away from Lonavla Market and its closer to #Pavna Lake area. This makes it an even better location than Lonavla itself. The drive is very scenic especially the last few kilometres from Lotus Resort when you are passing by beautiful mountains and lakes.
Important - The last 1 km stretch here is very difficult to drive on. It’s not even a road really. The path that leads to the resort, is badly damaged. We wish we would have gotten assistance / prior information about the same. However a couple spotted us struggling and they helped us maneuver.
Another important point - Only Reliance Jio network works in this area.
So upon reaching the resort, Rizwan one of the staff members greeted and assisted us.
The property is inside the dense green path of trees or rather a forest-like aread hence its very calming. There is a small waterfall that passes right next to the property making it a beautiful setting. They have even set up a sitting are a by the waterfall for people to chill, looking at the waterfall or even dip your feet in the cold water. These water-bodies have water throughout the year !
Here are the details of the tent.
The tents are huge with a king size bed, a sofa seating, a dressing table, a cooler, a fan and adequate lights. There is enough space to move around. Although big in size tents on the outside look a little scruffy and could do with some improvement and upkeep.
The washroom and bath facility is private but right outside the tent. So you have to walk around the tent for about ten steps to get to the washroom. While we stayed at the resort there was barely any hot water. Washroom looked spic and span with modern fittings especially for the shower area.
There is a sitting area outside the tent as well.
We were given the best tent overlooking the waterfall.
As we had reached only by evening, it was almost the hi tea time. We had assorted pakodas.
Tip : There is no restaurant around the resort so make sure you order food in advance at the resort or request them to make necessary arrangements beforehand.
The property does not have a restaurant set up but a Dining area and a kitchen. The staff is very genuine and does everything in their capacity. As a part of the collaboration, the resort kindly hosted our stay and the meals were taken are of by us.
With our drinks, we had ordered an appetizer Paneer chilli which was quite delicious.
For dinner, my friend who is a non vegetarian ordered a portion of prawns curry with rice and I ordered a portion of Mushroom Matar. Both of these were about average in taste. Portion size was good and expensive.
Each main course was approx INR 500+
The dining area is quite a nice place to sit and relax and they also play some good music that sets the mood. Apart from this dining area, there is another beautiful set up. I’ll let the picture do the talking!
Next morning we woke up to have a day full of activities ( within the half a day that we had ;))
We started our day at around 730 with a waterfall trek guided by two very genuine and knowledgeable nature enthusiast in house guides - Karan and Tushar. This trek was about 1 hr each way ( given our pace) they guided and assisted us throughout this trek and we were extremely happy with the fact that they kept motivating us to reach the top to see the waterfall. It was surreal !
We came back with our hungry bellies and relished on the breakfast.
Breakfast was quite good.
Here’s what it had in the buffet.
Mixed Veg paratha, Aloo-Puri, Aloo gravy, Pancakes, tea coffee and watermelon juice.
I am assuming their buffets are a better choice than going for an a-la cart.
Post breakfast we also did the zip-line activity which was a lot of fun!
Apart from the trek and zip-line they have a lot of activities that can be done at the resort such as Bird watching, Star gazing, Waterfall rappelling, Rock climbing and night jungle trekking. Night trek is especially interesting as explained by the resort..
Currently the resort has ten tents and they plan to have 15 more tents within next couple of months. In times of power cuts they have digi back up which is a plus point.
Verdict:
Pros: Location, Service, Tents
Scope of improvement: Pricing, Upkeep of tents. Being in rural Maharashtra, I wish they had incorporate some local cuisine in the menu.
Room – 4/5
Ambiance – 4/5
Service – 5/5
Food – 3.5 /5
Value for money – NA this was a collaboration.
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