[Mr.Boss]

Hotel Holiday Break

http://www.hotelholidaybreak.com/
Personal feedback
Location : 4.5/5
Ambiance : 4/5
Restaurant : 0/5 (no restaurant)
Overall Facility : 4/5
Help desk / Reception : 4/5
Room size : 4/5

Overall experience : Good

Facility is under construction


Covered car parking, with scenic background


View from parking




Some abandoned building














Our little one relaxing after a day full of twisty drive




Note:
- Located at prime area, behind the bus stand. Sadly no sign boards except for a small one behind the auto ricksaw stand.
- Facility is still under construction
- No intercom facility (facility manager gives is personal mobile number in case we need any assistance)
- No restaurant available, but anything available around (tea / coffee / food / snacks) can be served at room (people are kind enough to do the same at no extra cost)
- Rooms are pretty clean and spacious
- Parking can hold around 7~8 cars

[Mr.Boss]

Day 2 Plan & Actual

Our main agenda for day 2 was either Chinna kallar & Nirar dam. For Chinna kallar prior permission from forest department is required, which we didn't get. We reached till the check post and enquired about the water level at Nirar dam, as expected we got negative feedback from the forest office and few local people around. Also they informed the road condition is not that good, so we dropped the agenda and returned back to Valparai.

Things to do at Valparai

Tea
Enjoy variety of tea available. If you are good at bargaining, you may get a good deal on fresh tea.

Local Market
You get fresh fruits and vegetables, home made chocolates here. Fresh and original honey is sold here (beware about the fake ones as well) Also we get cardamom, pepper and other spices.

Things to remember
- Only a couple of fuel stations are available at Valparai (I'm not sure if they operate 24x7) So fill the tank before you start the trip
- Not many options for the restaurants, neither we get any high class options as well
- Most of the areas don't have a dedicated parking space, use road side parking
- Only a few ATMs are available and they are either crowded or closed (demonetisation effect) Carry sufficient cash, most of the restaurants / shops don't accept credit / debit cards

Places around

[Mr.Boss]

Day 3

Drive to Akkamalai Grass land

[Mr.Boss]

Karumalai

On the way to Pollachi

[Mr.Boss]

Tea Break

On the way to Pollachi. Area is scenic
Variety of tea available

[Mr.Boss]

Mist Spreading Zone

On the way to Pollachi

[Mr.Boss]

Aliyar View Point

Too many monkeys

[Mr.Boss]

Drive to Pollachi

Some random clicks

[Mr.Boss]

Trip Summary
- Covered 497km
- MID FE - 21.6 kmpl (including 500km highway drive from Chennai) Yet to check the actual FE
- Toll : 151 INR (31 + 55 + 65)
- Parking : 50 INR (approx)

[Rudra Sen]

Mod note: Thread moved to Travelogues. Thanks for sharing.

[Mr.Boss]

FE figures

Trip A - Including highway run from Chennai
Trip B - Athirapally Valparai trip

Pampering the baby and getting ready for another trip

[gadadhar]

Well written covering all the details and excellent snaps as an icing on the cake. I liked the way you have rated the hotels in a 5 point scale, it will be helpful to anyone planning to use their service. Looks like you didn't encounter much of wildlife except for monkeys and sambar deer. Elephants and Gaurs sightings are common in that part. If you are lucky, you may spot the elusive leopard or a group of lion tailed macaque.

[i20ian]

One more place is Nallamudi Poonchola view point which is really beautiful. You need to park the vehicle and walk nearly 500mtrs to reach there. Sometimes elephants will block the way and people won't be allowed to walk. But the drive itself is worth it.
You should visit these places during the monsoons or may be just after that. The waterfalls will be in full swing. You can also enjoy charpa falls very near to vazhachal.
Didn't you get any pics of butterflies from thumboormuzhi?

[Mr.Boss]

Originally Posted by gadadhar

Well written covering all the details and excellent snaps as an icing on the cake. I liked the way you have rated the hotels in a 5 point scale, it will be helpful to anyone planning to use their service.

Thanks for the compliments

Originally Posted by gadadhar

Looks like you didn't encounter much of wildlife except for monkeys and sambar deer. Elephants and Gaurs sightings are common in that part. If you are lucky, you may spot the elusive leopard or a group of lion tailed macaque.

Sadly we couldn't see any wild life except few Bison and Lion tailed macaque (no snaps though)

Originally Posted by i20ian

One more place is Nallamudi Poonchola view point which is really beautiful. You need to park the vehicle and walk nearly 500mtrs to reach there. Sometimes elephants will block the way and people won't be allowed to walk. But the drive itself is worth it.
You should visit these places during the monsoons or may be just after that. The waterfalls will be in full swing. You can also enjoy charpa falls very near to vazhachal.
Didn't you get any pics of butterflies from thumboormuzhi?

Thanks for the suggestion, somehow we missed the Nallamudi Poonchola in our agenda. Valparai isn't that far from my native, let me plan another trip.
Charpa was skipped as kid started feeling sleepy.
No more snaps from Thumboormuzhy, we didn't spend much time there.

Originally Posted by Mr.Boss

MID FE - 21.6 kmpl (including 500km highway drive from Chennai) Yet to check the actual FE

Did a tank fill yesterday, consumed 27.46L covering 538km.
Actual FE : 19.6kmpl

[Paramesh]

Dude how did you get that license plate number (0000)?
Is it legal.. just curious to know: Shockked: