[kanna1808]

My favorites are
1. Blue Ginger Resorts - Wayanad : Serene location on a mountain top. Travel by 4x4 Jeep sponsored by the resort, with an in-house waterfall and two swimming pools. Awesome food and great views from the restaurant as well.









2. Waterscapes - Kumarakom : Another beautiful place especially in monsoon. With a bird sanctuary next door, you will hear the sonata of beautiful chirps and tweets all day long. The swimming pool opens up to a backwater lake and we can see houseboats trudging all along the day.

[Anduril]

Some of the one-of-a-kind hotels/resorts I've visited -

Sea Lagoon Health Resort, Cherai, Kerala
This is flanked by backwater on one side and a narrow beach+sea on the other.
If you manage to get a corner room (which we luckily did), you can watch a glorious sunrise on the backwaters right from your balcony.










RNS Residency, Murudeshwar, Karnataka
Only hotel in Murudeshwar and offers a sweeping view of the Murudeshwar beach on one side and temple on the other.










Sea Shore Hotel, Kanya Kumari
This is a newly built hotel overlooking the Vivekananda Rock. There are other sea-facing/rock-facing hotels too but this one is newly built and the top floor cafeteria has a full glass wall on 2 sides giving nice panoramic view of the entire bay. (took the cafeteria image from tripadvisor). Especially loved the view of the fully lit up Vivekananda Rock after sunset and the sunrise with bed tea the next day












Poovar Island Resort, Poovar, Kerala
The floating cottages are on backwaters actually, so whenever a boat passes, the little waves cause the cottage to rock a little. Short boat ride away is a thin strip of beach with open sea. This was was the first taste of overwater living for us
















Kurumba Village Resort, Coonoor
This is around 12 kms down from Coonoor but one of a kind. It has a in-house natural waterfall too and the sights and scenery were truly awesome. The food was delicious too but no mobile signal anywhere (they market this as a feature for digital detoxification)


















Royal Orchids Bridavan Gardens, Mysore
One and only one USP - the sweeping view of the gardens, specially at night

[Anduril]

One more -

Silver Sands Beach Resort, Havelock, Andaman
White sands, crystal clear sea...what more can anyone want Rooms (ours was a cottage) were clean and spacious but food was not so great and expensive too. What trumped any shortcomings was the natural beauty of the place. White sand beaches always brought Maldives to my mind and I never thought such a beautiful white sand beach existed in India before visiting this place.

[gadadhar]

1. Jungle Retreat Wayanad located surrounded by forest from 3 sides, among the best to watch wildlife from your own room verandah

2. Taj Coorg loaction at top of a cliff gives an amazing infinity view

3. Rolling Stones Masinagudi again has deep forest running through the resort boundary with no fencing

4. KSTDC at Jog Falls provides best view of the falls

5. Sagar Holiday Reports Ooty located on a hilltop offers great view of the valley, hill train exciting from tunnel etc

[ariesonu]

WILDFLOWER HALL at Shimla. The only thing wild about it is its location.

Photos courtesy TRIPADVISOR as my owns are lost somewhere in the volumes of my hard disks & also my visit was almost a decade back.









Raab rakha

[smsrini]

Place: Sari, Uttarakhand
Name: Cafe Buransh. https://www.cafeburansh.com/

Its a quaint homestay on the way up to the Deoria Tal. Just 4-6 rooms, with a killer view from the dining area.

[smsrini]

Place: Alleppy, Kerala
Hotel: Coconut Lagoon https://www.cghearth.com/coconut-lagoon

You park at their jetty and are taken in a motor cruiser to the resort which is set on the edge of the backwaters of lake vembanad. Kerala style cottages with tiled roofs, and glorious sunrise and sunset views. They have excellent yoga sessions to boot.

[Aniket Verma]

Often overlooked over it's more famous cousins, JLR's River Tern Lodge is a hidden gem. Lodge offers 2 sets of accommodation spread over two hills, connected by a suspension bridge.



"Old Log Hut#4 - Our Room for 3 days"


"View from the room"




"Bhadra Backwaters"


"River Tern, from where Lodge gets it's name"

[cnaganathan]

Of all the places I have visited and stayed there are three plantation / estate stays that I loved

1. Wynberg Resorts, Kalpetta, Wyanad. This is a resort situated inside a coffee plantation with the cottages situated among the coffee plants. The owner was a pleasant person who takes special care of his guests and provides them with inputs for their local sight seeing. Food was excellent so were the cottages. A popular attraction is the Tree House accommodation.

2. Koffeewoods Plantation Stay, Chikkamagalur. This is a planters' bungalow again inside a 192 acre Coffee plantation. A stream runs through the property. The host Kavya treats her guest as her family and personally oversees the preparation of every meal. Can't forget how she got up at 5:00 AM and prepared around 60 Neer Dosas (small dosas made with freshly ground rice batter thinned with tender coconut water) a regional delicacy that she didn't want us to miss. And they have a practice of giving their produce like Hill Banana, Cardamom, or Pepper as parting gift to their guests.

3. Palaniappa Estate, Coonoor. This is another Plantation bungalow at the entrance to the vast Palaniappa Tea Estate located around 12 kms away from Coonoor town center on the South east face of Nilgiris. You get an excellent view of the Karamadai / Mettuplayam valley from the estate. They provide guided tours to local lesser known places of interest as well as a night safari through the Shola forests when you can see panthers and sloth bears if you are in luck. The drive from the estate stay via EB Road to Pilloor dam and on to Karamadai is meant only for the brave hearts.

[HalfOctave]

Originally Posted by vagabond128

Very interesting thread!

Prepared a Google Maps list with almost all the places shared till now. Link of the list.

Thanks vagabond128. The Maps list is awesome and really will be of great help when someone is planning trip nearby any of the listed hotel.

Just curious, if you are updating the list as this thread keeps coming up with more and more great hotels.

[vagabond128]

Originally Posted by HalfOctave

If you are updating the list

Yes. I have been updating the list.

[pk1972]

JW Marriott Walnut Grove in Mussoorie is an excellent location nestled among the mountains. Great rooms, food and excellent view of the snow capped mountains.

https://www.marriott.com/hotels/trav...esort-and-spa/

We stayed for 4 nights here in 2017 - don't have the pictures handy.

[s4ch]

Originally Posted by cnaganathan

Of all the places I have visited and stayed there are three plantation / estate stays that I loved

2. Koffeewoods Plantation Stay, Chikkamagalur. This is a planters' bungalow again inside a 192 acre Coffee plantation.

Do you have contact details for this place? Sounds amazing and would love to visit. Thanks!

[Voyager-1]

If you are a wild life lover, this is easily one of the best home stays in South India at an awesome location.

The Jungle Retreat Wayanad is in the middle of wildlife sanctuaries and tiger reserves - Nagarhole, Tholpetty, and Bandipur. The best units are the cottages with balconies jutting out a large expanse of forest. They have created several acres of grazing area and a watering hole (within their own property, but separated by mildly electrified fence). The watch tower in one corner of the fenced area is just amazing, we can have chilling experiences and close but safe encounters.

This forests surrounding the fenced area is frequented by Tigers. Sightings of other large mammals are very common. Deers are literally dime a dozen.

https://www.jungleretreatwayanad.com/

Some bone chilling encounters documented here, by the owner.
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...r-wayanad.html (My Man Cave + A Close Encounter in Wayanad!)

[raghavrayudu]

Originally Posted by smsrini

Place: Alleppy, Kerala
Hotel: Coconut Lagoon https://www.cghearth.com/coconut-lagoon

You park at their jetty and are taken in a motor cruiser to the resort which is set on the edge of the backwaters of lake vembanad. Kerala style cottages with tiled roofs, and glorious sunrise and sunset views. They have excellent yoga sessions to boot.

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I was waiting for this particular CGH property to pop up I this wonderful thread. in fact all of the CGH properties qualify to be in this three, they put special attention to the feel of the place, like you can just vacation in their hotels alone !