[treadmark]

Appreciate recommendations from fellow bhpians on a good stay at Wayanad for 3 days during 1st week of October.
My requirements are for two persons (me and my wife), tidiness in the primary requirement, I can stretch up to 4K per day on accommodation and most importantly need suggestion on the location at Wayanad as well where I can cover all the tourist attractions in Wayanad.

[sam_boy]

Originally Posted by treadmark

Appreciate recommendations from fellow bhpians on a good stay at Wayanad for 3 days during 1st week of October.
My requirements are for two persons (me and my wife), tidiness in the primary requirement, I can stretch up to 4K per day on accommodation and most importantly need suggestion on the location at Wayanad as well where I can cover all the tourist attractions in Wayanad.

if you like home stays then you can look at Ende Veedu. They have good clean rooms and provide good food too. the lady of the house is friendly and can guide you for All your travel needs. it's a good place to stay if you have kids with you. Make sure if you contact her then ask for the rooms in the 1st floor and avoid the tree house. The bungalow is located near Panamaram. I stayed there in June and liked it. There is an estate in front of the bungalow and the view is great.

In wayanad all the hotels look good on the website but most of them are crap. Please consult reliable sources before booking.

[lambuhere1]

Guys,

Can you kindly guide me which is a better route on houseboat in Kerala ?

Will it be better choice to take the houseboat for one night at allepey or kumarakom ?

Travel is with the family. Understand that Allepey ride is for backwaters and kumarakom is for the lake calmness.

Will wait for your inputs before freezing the tour

[ontheroad]

Originally Posted by lambuhere1

Guys,

Can you kindly guide me which is a better route on houseboat in Kerala ?

Will it be better choice to take the houseboat for one night at allepey or kumarakom ?

Travel is with the family. Understand that Allepey ride is for backwaters and kumarakom is for the lake calmness.

Will wait for your inputs before freezing the tour

Please be informed that houseboats are not operating in Allepy and Kottayam districts for the last one week due to labour strikes.
For me all routes felt same, both visually as well as emotionally. Its a mix of lake and backwater ride, if you go for overnight stay option.

[lambuhere1]

Originally Posted by ontheroad

Please be informed that houseboats are not operating in Allepy and Kottayam districts for the last one week due to labour strikes.
For me all routes felt same, both visually as well as emotionally. Its a mix of lake and backwater ride, if you go for overnight stay option.

Thanks a ton buddy for the information.

Never knew about the labour strike.

Can you kindly let me know if you hear the possibility of it being lifted.

Appreciate your help

[manim]

Planning a holiday to Delhi in December (by flight).

Looking for hotels (safety is important for family) in the budget of Rs.6K to 9K per night for three adults and one child.

Central Delhi looks to be costly, I would prefer someplace towards the airport.

And taxi for daily sight seeing for 10 to 12 hours.
If the hotel cars are costly any reliable independent ones?

I am doing searches on MakeMyTrip and TripAdvisor.
Presently I am looking at juSTa, Panchsheel Park, which has a good rating.

Any help?

[SILVERWOOD]

Originally Posted by manim

Planning a holiday to Delhi in December (by flight).

Looking for hotels (safety is important for family) in the budget of Rs.6K to 9K per night for three adults and one child.

Radisson Blu Marina, Cannaught place should be your choice.Its a heritage property and centrally located.

There is a sale going on rooms booked till 30th dec. (30%off) and the sale ends after 2 days.

Waseem.

[manim]

Originally Posted by SILVERWOOD

Radisson Blu Marina, Cannaught place should be your choice.Its a heritage property and centrally located.

There is a sale going on rooms booked till 30th dec. (30%off) and the sale ends after 2 days.

Thanks! But Radisson Blu Marina even after the offer is very expensive (12K for a night).

How about Bloomrooms?
Anyone on team-bhp tried it?
It has got unbelievably high ratings in TripAdvisor.
http://www.bloomroomshotel.com/

There are two hotels and the one near the railway-station, connaught place is cheaper and centrally located.

[JohnyBoy]

Originally Posted by lambuhere1

Thanks a ton buddy for the information.

Never knew about the labour strike.

Can you kindly let me know if you hear the possibility of it being lifted.

Appreciate your help

The strike is called off, lambuhere.

[manim]

any options for a self drive car rental from Delhi airport?

[khoj]

Don't have any idea on the hotel itself but location wise both have their plus and minuses.
The rail station / Arakashan road is centrally located but the area itself is completely commercial full of hotels and shops dealing in wares of all kinds, thelas, tempos, cycle rickshaws and the odd tanga if they are still plying, loads of old style eateries etc. All in all a super busy area and in true terms the border of New and Old Dilli. You will either love it or hate it.

Jangpura's Link road is the border of the VIP area of New Dilli(end of Lutyens' Dilli) and beginning of South Dilli. It may not be as centrally located as the RS but is central enough what with the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium / SCOPE complex / The Aman hotel located just across the road, as is the metro station. It is primarily a residential area with Defence colony and Lajpat nagar markets a mere 5 minutes away, another 5 minutes in either direction(North and South respectively) and you have the Khan market and the South Extension markets another 5 and you have the India gate and the Saket mall complex yet another 5 and you have Connaught Place and the Qutub Minar...phew you get the idea... The metro will connect you to all of the locations above towards the North for the South side attractions you will have to switch lines and a taxi might be a better option. In case you are interested you can take the Metro to Old Dilli and explore it to your heart's content without actually staying there.

Oh and before I forget in case you plan to visit the Akshardham temple/Noida by taxi, in that case one set of entry and exit ramps to the Barapulla elevated road that runs across east to west (was specially built to ferry athletes from the CWG village to the JLN stadium) are right there in Jangpura.

Cheers

Originally Posted by manim

Thanks! But Radisson Blu Marina even after the offer is very expensive (12K for a night).

How about Bloomrooms?
Anyone on team-bhp tried it?
It has got unbelievably high ratings in TripAdvisor.
http://www.bloomroomshotel.com/

There are two hotels and the one near the railway-station, connaught place is cheaper and centrally located.

For self drive options try Hertz and Avis both are present in Dilli.

[BackInTheFold]

Originally Posted by manim

Thanks! But Radisson Blu Marina even after the offer is very expensive (12K for a night).

How about Bloomrooms?
Anyone on team-bhp tried it?
It has got unbelievably high ratings in TripAdvisor.
http://www.bloomroomshotel.com/

There are two hotels and the one near the railway-station, connaught place is cheaper and centrally located.

My wife stays in Bloomrooms whenever she travels there and loves it. She says that it is clean, very functional, well located, but only a tad small. One caveat is that she has traveled there only on business, so can't rate the family-friendliness

[manim]

Originally Posted by khoj

The rail station / Arakashan road is centrally located but the area itself is completely commercial full of hotels and shops dealing in wares of all kinds, thelas, tempos, cycle rickshaws and the odd tanga if they are still plying, loads of old style eateries etc. All in all a super busy area and in true terms the border of New and Old Dilli. You will either love it or hate it.

I would love it!
In fact I wanted to stay in a messy and noisy area to soak into the real Delhi!
So I have booked in Bloomrooms for two nights, opp. rail-station which appears to be clean and safe.

Originally Posted by khoj

The metro will connect you to all of the locations above towards the North for the South side attractions you will have to switch lines and a taxi might be a better option. In case you are interested you can take the Metro to Old Dilli and explore it to your heart's content without actually staying there.

Thanks, there are lots of data of the metro on the internet which I plan to go through.
But is it safe to travel with my wife and kids on the metro?
I will certainly look like a tourist (out-of-place) and don't speak Hindi.
Will it be like city-buses/electric-trains in other cities like Chennai: crowded, unsafe for women, etc?

Originally Posted by khoj

Oh and before I forget in case you plan to visit the Akshardham temple/Noida by taxi, in that case one set of entry and exit ramps to the Barapulla elevated road that runs across east to west (was specially built to ferry athletes from the CWG village to the JLN stadium) are right there in Jangpura.

Thanks, I am planning to see Akshardham temple and will keep this in mind.

Originally Posted by khoj

For self drive options try Hertz and Avis both are present in Dilli.

Avis web-site quotes around 8K for two days, appears reasonable.
Hertz does not appear to be having the self-drive option.
(I have taken a self-drive Maruti 800 twelve years back in Goa airport from some company called Sai Travels).

I will be staying in Radisson Blu, greater-noida for the first two nights (very close to Yamuna-Expressway), for the up and down drive to Agra to see the TajMahal, my primary purpose of visit to Delhi.
The hotel quotes me around Rs.13,500(inc. taxes and toll) for the Agra drive. So the self-drive option appears attractive. (I don't want to go in for cheaper travel companies for safety reasons. I believe the hotel's car will be better maintained and the driver will be better cultured and english speaking).

And is it easy to self-drive in Delhi?!
I do have my android mobile with Sygic-maps and Google-maps to guide me.
But I still am a little concerned since I don't speak the local-language.
Will the traffic-police harass me?
Since I will be with my family, don't want to take a risk of spoiling this (maybe) once-in-a-lifetime holiday to see the Taj.

Originally Posted by BackInTheFold

My wife stays in Bloomrooms whenever she travels there and loves it. She says that it is clean, very functional, well located, but only a tad small. One caveat is that she has traveled there only on business, so can't rate the family-friendliness

Thanks, this will do.
My primary concern was safety.
I understand that it will have very small rooms, no room service, no bell-boy, no elevator and no restaurant (only a snack place). But I plan to be in the room only for the night sleep and the morning bath, the rest of the time I will be roaming in Delhi!

[SILVERWOOD]

Originally Posted by manim

How about Bloomrooms?

Originally Posted by BackInTheFold

One caveat is that she has traveled there only on business, so can't rate the family-friendliness

Bloomrooms is probably the first Bed & Breakfast entrant in India, perfect for business travelers and guys in transit.

Originally Posted by manim

My primary concern was safety.
I understand that it will have very small rooms, no room service, no bell-boy, no elevator and no restaurant (only a snack place). But I plan to be in the room only for the night sleep and the morning bath, the rest of the time I will be roaming in Delhi!

Then you should go ahead and book this place.You cant get a better deal than this.

Waseem.

[khoj]

Originally Posted by manim

I would love it!

I am sure you will have a good time.

Metro is as safe as it can be. Expect crowds during office hours but otherwise it is neat, clean and airconditioned. For Akshardham you can take the Metro from Rajiv Chowk (Connaught Place) directly to Akshardham station and the temple is a few minutes walk. Same for Qutub Minar of course you will discover this and more on the net.

As for the trip to Agra, since you are planning to stay next to the RS, I would recommend making this trip by train instead of the YEW.

December weather can create fog in open areas and the YEW is prone to the same. Also I have no faith in hotel taxis especially their tires. There have been occasions where I have had to get the vehicles changed due to bald tires and this in properties run by the grand daddies of the hotel industry, most of all however it is the other drivers and their vehicles that I am wary of. YEW has the capability to turn the most normal and sane drivers to push themselves beyond their limits what to talk about drunkards behind the wheels. Anyhow that is my personal take on the matter.

You can consider taking the Shatabdi express (leaves early in the morning and returns at around 10 pm) for a day visit to see only the Taj. the other way could be to camp out at Radisson Blu in Agra itself for a night. This will allow you to completely cover Agra viz Taj, Red fort, Fatehpur Sikri and the gardens (I forget the name) on the opposite bank from Taj and sample the locale.

Let me also point out that the Taj is closed on Fridays. Further you will be visiting in the tourist season so expect more than average crowds and reciprocal queues at the monuments. To save on time you may want to engage a guide for Agra. There are licensed guides available and they do go a long way in enhancing the experience as well as arranging for tickets etc in advance.

Back in Dilli while it is not difficult to drive around, it is the parking that is bothersome. I believe going with a local taxi would be more convenient.