I read in the 52 weekends book that Yercaud is also called poor man's Ooty. And heard from friends and on internet that GRT is a good hotel to stay. A friend told me that the service at Grand Palace was not as expected. I wanted to go to Yercaud for about an year now and just kept on postponing it. GRT did not have any rooms available for the weekends. Our desperation to go on a long drive reached the peak. We finally decided to book a room at GRT for Friday, take the day off and drive away. The reservation was simple through web. I confirmed my booking with the hotel and requested that if they had different views of rooms, I prefer the best they had, that would have a view of every thing. Only valley view and Panorama room were available and going by the names, the latter looked impressive. So, booked it away.
We closed doors and took off from Gate-B15 (my parking lot number) 25 minutes behind schedule at 7.25 AM. We took the Begur Kappa road from Bannerghatta road and touched Hosur road near Electronic City. Chaos near Hosur was expected and once we crossed it around 08.15, the drive was smooth till we stopped at the A2B on the highway at 8.40. We had the mini breakfast thali, our son played for a while and we hit the road again at 09.15. The drive was smooth, the road excellent and view scenic. We reached Salem around 11.00 and could easily navigate our way to the road that leads into Yercaud. The trick is to enter into Salem city from the highway, drive through the first round-about and take left (look for the small sign for Yercaud over a huge advertisement hoarding above the signal) at the next round-about. We stopped by to confirm direction at a small shop for a minute. After a few more minutes' drive through this road, we entered the ghat road. The ghat road was excellent, with 20 hairpin bends that are counted for you. For most parts, it is a very easy drive and only at a few points the road becomes narrow. Use the horn sensibly, drive slowly, turn off audio system, roll the windows down to hear on coming traffic and you should make it safely and without any strain. Beware of some careless drivers trying to overtake and/ or driving down on neutral gear to save fuel. Also, some senseless cars will have stopped on way at a blind turn to feed monkeys.
We reached the hotel comfortably at 12.00 and on time to check in. This hotel - GRT Nature Trails is just on the 20th hairpin and pretty easy to locate. The first gate on the hairpin is the restaurant's and we took the main gate that took us to the reception. At the reception, I reminded them gently of my request for 'the best room' and the guy promptly acknowledged and told me that he has in fact given the best view room and that it is next to the restaurant also and I could park my car right in front of my room. So, we drove back to the restaurant gate and parked.
The surprise was in store for us when we opened the door of the room. Well, half the room did not have a floor! Or did it? We could see the valley below us! This part of the room had see-through glass floor! I had my doubts about its stability, but the bell boy comforted me. We opened the drapes and the French windows, to enter a mini-balcony that is actually hanging into the valley. Exceptionally wonderful view of the valley and Salem city far below. We could not have asked any thing more. We went round the room admiring every part of it and opened the toilet for another surprise. The shower part of it had glass floor! And you could open the curtain to give you a feeling of bathing in the skies!
We decided to go out into the town for a drive and have lunch there. We were still not hungry after the heavy breakfast at A2B. So, we drove to visit our first tourist point there, Pagoda point. A drive through narrow roads took us there in about 15 minutes. We quickly took some pictures, a few minutes of video and drove back into the city. We read somewhere that Shevaroy hotel served good food. The ambience inside the restaurant was not great. However, the South Indian thali I took and roti-subzee my wife took were decent. I would not rank it as a must visit place. We drove back to our room, relaxed in the room for a couple of hours and around 5.00PM, drove back to the town to the lake. We took tickets for row-boating and for video camera. It was a 15 min ride in the boat by chauffeur. How could I spare a corn roasted on coal? Once this was done, we again drove back to the hotel and decided to walk around the lawn facing the valley. This was very relaxing, and the views breathtaking. Night view was great! It looked like a carpet of lights some 1300 m below. We went through the hotel to find a small waterfall that ran beneath the valley view rooms. There is also a small library that had interesting books. We learnt that this is complimentary service. We picked up a Readers Digest and walked back. I asked the assistant there if I need to book the valley facing table for dinner. He told me that he would give it to me. After some more roaming around, we walked into the restaurant and found the table reserved for us. The waiter soon came with the menu for us to order free from. He was flexible enough to get us almost anything we wanted. The dinner was very tasty and the ambience perfect. We went back to the lawn and sat there admiring the lights and the weather. We rested for the day very satisfied.
The day-2 started at 5.45 as I woke up to an awesome view over the balcony. We got ready lazily, had heavy breakfast and drove off to the town for more tourism. We planned to drive to Lady's seat but one vendor told us there that if we drove further, we could reach Gent's seat! We ventured further to check what would happen, and eneded up near the Doordarshan office and this point is called Children seat! We paid 10 rupees ticket and walked into some splendid views of Yercaud itself and our hotel also. This probably was the best sight of our trip. We drove back to the hotel to relax. Far away, we saw some clouds and decided to go to the lawn to sit down to watch them fly. These clouds came towards us and were over us in no time. After these wonderful moments, we checked out and started our descent at 11.25. Around 01.15 PM, we stopped for lunch at A2B on our side of the road. We resumed at 1.50 and drove straight into B15 at 4.15 PM.
The hotel, the drive, the lake, the views and the climate make us disapprove of the comment that Yercaud is poor man's Ooty. We would say that it is Ooty made saner. If the hotel and room were great, the service and hospitality the staff showed there was excpetional. We will certainly go back there, this time, may be for two nights.
Facts: Car - Verna 1.6Xi, Fuel Economy-15.1kmpl, Total trip-470km, Tolls-about INR 280, Top speed-120kmph, Drive pleasure-excellent, weather in Yercaud-chilly but pleasant (around 24C), Food stops-A2B perfectly placed both directions, other options- Kamat after Hosur and Sarvana Bhavan in Salem, petrol station-Full tank before leaving should see you through.
We closed doors and took off from Gate-B15 (my parking lot number) 25 minutes behind schedule at 7.25 AM. We took the Begur Kappa road from Bannerghatta road and touched Hosur road near Electronic City. Chaos near Hosur was expected and once we crossed it around 08.15, the drive was smooth till we stopped at the A2B on the highway at 8.40. We had the mini breakfast thali, our son played for a while and we hit the road again at 09.15. The drive was smooth, the road excellent and view scenic. We reached Salem around 11.00 and could easily navigate our way to the road that leads into Yercaud. The trick is to enter into Salem city from the highway, drive through the first round-about and take left (look for the small sign for Yercaud over a huge advertisement hoarding above the signal) at the next round-about. We stopped by to confirm direction at a small shop for a minute. After a few more minutes' drive through this road, we entered the ghat road. The ghat road was excellent, with 20 hairpin bends that are counted for you. For most parts, it is a very easy drive and only at a few points the road becomes narrow. Use the horn sensibly, drive slowly, turn off audio system, roll the windows down to hear on coming traffic and you should make it safely and without any strain. Beware of some careless drivers trying to overtake and/ or driving down on neutral gear to save fuel. Also, some senseless cars will have stopped on way at a blind turn to feed monkeys.
We reached the hotel comfortably at 12.00 and on time to check in. This hotel - GRT Nature Trails is just on the 20th hairpin and pretty easy to locate. The first gate on the hairpin is the restaurant's and we took the main gate that took us to the reception. At the reception, I reminded them gently of my request for 'the best room' and the guy promptly acknowledged and told me that he has in fact given the best view room and that it is next to the restaurant also and I could park my car right in front of my room. So, we drove back to the restaurant gate and parked.
The surprise was in store for us when we opened the door of the room. Well, half the room did not have a floor! Or did it? We could see the valley below us! This part of the room had see-through glass floor! I had my doubts about its stability, but the bell boy comforted me. We opened the drapes and the French windows, to enter a mini-balcony that is actually hanging into the valley. Exceptionally wonderful view of the valley and Salem city far below. We could not have asked any thing more. We went round the room admiring every part of it and opened the toilet for another surprise. The shower part of it had glass floor! And you could open the curtain to give you a feeling of bathing in the skies!
We decided to go out into the town for a drive and have lunch there. We were still not hungry after the heavy breakfast at A2B. So, we drove to visit our first tourist point there, Pagoda point. A drive through narrow roads took us there in about 15 minutes. We quickly took some pictures, a few minutes of video and drove back into the city. We read somewhere that Shevaroy hotel served good food. The ambience inside the restaurant was not great. However, the South Indian thali I took and roti-subzee my wife took were decent. I would not rank it as a must visit place. We drove back to our room, relaxed in the room for a couple of hours and around 5.00PM, drove back to the town to the lake. We took tickets for row-boating and for video camera. It was a 15 min ride in the boat by chauffeur. How could I spare a corn roasted on coal? Once this was done, we again drove back to the hotel and decided to walk around the lawn facing the valley. This was very relaxing, and the views breathtaking. Night view was great! It looked like a carpet of lights some 1300 m below. We went through the hotel to find a small waterfall that ran beneath the valley view rooms. There is also a small library that had interesting books. We learnt that this is complimentary service. We picked up a Readers Digest and walked back. I asked the assistant there if I need to book the valley facing table for dinner. He told me that he would give it to me. After some more roaming around, we walked into the restaurant and found the table reserved for us. The waiter soon came with the menu for us to order free from. He was flexible enough to get us almost anything we wanted. The dinner was very tasty and the ambience perfect. We went back to the lawn and sat there admiring the lights and the weather. We rested for the day very satisfied.
The day-2 started at 5.45 as I woke up to an awesome view over the balcony. We got ready lazily, had heavy breakfast and drove off to the town for more tourism. We planned to drive to Lady's seat but one vendor told us there that if we drove further, we could reach Gent's seat! We ventured further to check what would happen, and eneded up near the Doordarshan office and this point is called Children seat! We paid 10 rupees ticket and walked into some splendid views of Yercaud itself and our hotel also. This probably was the best sight of our trip. We drove back to the hotel to relax. Far away, we saw some clouds and decided to go to the lawn to sit down to watch them fly. These clouds came towards us and were over us in no time. After these wonderful moments, we checked out and started our descent at 11.25. Around 01.15 PM, we stopped for lunch at A2B on our side of the road. We resumed at 1.50 and drove straight into B15 at 4.15 PM.
The hotel, the drive, the lake, the views and the climate make us disapprove of the comment that Yercaud is poor man's Ooty. We would say that it is Ooty made saner. If the hotel and room were great, the service and hospitality the staff showed there was excpetional. We will certainly go back there, this time, may be for two nights.
Facts: Car - Verna 1.6Xi, Fuel Economy-15.1kmpl, Total trip-470km, Tolls-about INR 280, Top speed-120kmph, Drive pleasure-excellent, weather in Yercaud-chilly but pleasant (around 24C), Food stops-A2B perfectly placed both directions, other options- Kamat after Hosur and Sarvana Bhavan in Salem, petrol station-Full tank before leaving should see you through.
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