Sharing: A VISIT TO GOVINDA RESORTS @ LONAVLA

Govinda Resorts

It was the Diwali weekend and suddenly on Saturday morning Venkat suggested that we go to Lonavla for an overnight stay. While aware that most of the hotels would be booked for the long weekend, Venkat pulled a few strings and managed to get us accommodation at Govinda Resorts, about 4-5 km before the town of Lonavla begins.

That's Venkat standing on the ground

While Vinitha stayed back at home to study for her MBA exams, Vignesh, Venkat and I were only too thrilled to take off at about 1 pm, looking forward to the outing. It took us a little less than two hours to reach the venue. The three of us checked out the last couple of rooms that were left at the resort. The owner said that the rest of the place was packed and it was obvious that he was telling us the truth. Of course, he made us pay through our noses but just then, Venkat was in a holiday mood and was ready to foot the bill. Viggy and I were only too happy to agree to stay at the lovely cottage on the first floor.

There were two bedrooms, one with A/C and the other without. Long windows gave us unencumbered views of the gorgeous mountains around the area. There was a fairly large balcony with comfortable chairs and a table for room service.

We stayed in the yonder cottage on the 1st floor

The highlight was the humongous bathroom with the huge tub that could seat two quite comfortably. As my son suggested, it was obviously a honeymoon suite with floor length glass shutters dividing the bathroom and bedroom with lacy translucent curtains.

The king-sized bathtub

A view of the bathroom & yours truly

But it was a lovely experience using the tub. Viggy and I enjoyed it in turns on both days while we nagged Venkat into using it late into the night on Saturday. We persuaded him to have a bath with a glass of chilled beer and he was quite happy with the experience. The water was heated by solar energy and I was extremely impressed with this.

There was a swimming pool that had a maximum depth of just about 5 ft and Viggy lost interest when he realised that he could not dive into the pool. The bathtub was a more interesting experience.

A view from our bedroom window

The compound was sprawling with a number of trees and flowering plants – very colourful flowers that I so wanted to bring the plants to Mumbai. But that will have to happen some other time.

We could take walks around there and late at night after a huge dinner, we walked around the huge compound for more than an hour. The property is set in about 8 acres of land with only a small section developed.

Delicious Russian Salad at dinner

FOOD REVIEW: The food was just superb at this place. What I liked best was that they served pure vegetarian fare with a choice of Jain food.

For lunch on Saturday, there was tomato soup on the buffet. It was piping hot and tasted yum. It was almost 4 pm when we had the lunch and all three of us were quite ravenous. We were served paneer makhani, veg kadai and piping hot rotis that were freshly made for us as the rest of the buffet was Jain and we were not too keen. The chaas (buttermilk) they served was out-of-this-world. The jeera rice and dal fry were awesome to round of with.

Roti, Veg Kadai & Paneer Makhani

The coffee they serve at this place was too good. While hard drinks are not available at the resort, they had waiters who were sent into town to procure beer for Venkat and Viggy.

The dinner on Saturday was also a tasty affair while I don’t quite remember what we ate. It was also typical Punjabi fare while I had sweet corn soup at the beginning.

Breakfast on Sunday was Idli, Medhu Vada and Dosa with sambar and chutney. We were served on our balcony. While the Methu Vada was fresh and crisp, the sambar was absolutely delicious. The dosas were not too bad but rather cold when they reached us. The chutney was mediocre while the idlis where like soft stones - probably the only two items that were not good here.

All-in-all, it was a super break while being waited on hand and foot. We thoroughly enjoyed the stay here at Govinda Resorts.