We visited this place as a family on Oct 25-26 after lockdown was partially relaxed. The place was easy to locate with the help of Google maps. As we pre-booked a cottage, the cottage was readily available when we entered the premises and we didn't have to wait at all. Greeted with smiling faces and polite gestures, we already felt that we made a right decision of choosing this place. The room was so tidy and neat. Since it was only three of us, one bedroom was locked inside our cottage and we were provided only one bedroom, of course for a lesser price than opting for double bedroom. The cottage we chose was Non-AC and it consisted of one bedroom ( the other one locked) , one hall, one kitchen/dining area and one bathroom along with geaser. I read many reviews where they said they did not have mobile network and the TV cable connection here also had lot of issues. We use Jio network and we did not face any drop in signal at all. Also, the TV connection was not as bad as expected. Sometimes, some tamil channels were flickering. But all HD channels and Sports channels were clear without any signal problem.
Santizers were placed everywhere possible outside the rooms and around the premises everywhere. We weren't allowed in the swimming pool due to government restrictions. The entire premises was so clean and well maintained. They conducted some games in the evening followed by camp fire. There is ample space between each cottage and everyone has ample privacy. The staff, beginning from the watchman till the manager, were very polite and attentive to our needs.
The best part about this place was the food! I read many reviews about the food here and had high expectations already before going here. And they did not fail to impress me! We had lunch and breakfast here. Unfortunately could not have dinner as we went out. Both lunch and breakfast were served in our room. Unfortunately they had stopped the amazing buffet due to corona. The waiter told us the waiting time is approx 20mins for any food after placing our order. However, the food arrived in less than 15mins both the times we ordered. We were very much impressed by the quick service and that too with such high quality food. Eating piping hot food in such an amazing cool climate was bliss.
I guess I have covered all the positives about this place. Now coming to the negatives: -
( 1) The price is slightly on the heavier side, but given the quality of service, food and ambience they provide, I guess we can consider this an "ignorable negative".
( 2) I already read about this in a review and thought this might be a seasonal issue. However, when we went we realized this is a regularly occuring issue. There is a temple near this place where they start playing loud music at night and it keeps running throughout the night. I am not against any particular religion or their beliefs. But I am mentioning it here as we struggled a lot to sleep peacefully at night. Since the place is so silent at night without any traffic sound or anything unlike cities, the temple music seemed loud and it was very disturbing throughout the night. I think it started somewhere around 9: 30-10pm and went on till early morning around 6am. I understand that Peters Park is not responsible for this in anyway, but it was really annoying and spoilt our sleep so wanted to add it here.
( 3) The final con is car parking. There are around 15 cottages here and space to park only 11 cars. If additional cars come, it has to parked outside. On Oct 26th morning, we wanted to go out and buy something and come back. Unfortunately our car was blocked by another car in front and we had to wait for the watchman to go get the owner of that car to come and move the car elsewhere. If there is more parking space, we won't have to face these kind of issues.
On an overall note, it was a very pleasant and memorable stay. I look forward to visit again due to all the positive points I mentioned before. I would definitely recommend anyone to try staying here while visiting Yelagiri.
