The Serai - Chikmagalur

My husband was born exactly a day after me. Since this was the first year we were celebrating our birthday together, we wanted to go out somewhere. More so, because we were scared if any of his family members will throw a "birthday party". I was debating between Kumarakom and Chikmagalur. I chose Chikmagalur, considering the cost as well as staying at Bangalore for the weekend. 

I was planning to stay from 14th Dec to 17th Dec. The first time I called, they said they were sold out. Later when I did tell them I wanted to spend my birthday there, they said they would confirm and get back to me. Later she did get back to me saying 16th was unavailable. I told her it was my husband's birthday and I'd want to stay there. She later did take in my request and gave me a confirmation. I made an online payment to confirm the booking. I booked an Estate pool villa for 3 night, which was about Rs, 38,499 and included all meals for both of us. 

Next came the hurdle of booking tickets. I appreciate the fact that Indian Railway ticket can be booked online, but it is so damn slow. I left on 13th Dec through Bangalore Mail and reached Bangalore at 5:10 in the morning. I then caught a train from Bangalore and reached Birur by 10:00 am. The train was late by about 40 minutes. I had asked the resort to arrange for a car to pick me up from Birur station. The driver who came to pick us up spoke good english and was really nice. It was 1.5 hr drive from station to the resort. My husband was unhappy about the fact that we were travelling so much and said I was not going to plan trips any more. 

We reached the resort by about 11:30 am and the resort was beautiful to look at. Christmas decoration was up everywhere. The welcome drink was Cold Coffee and it was super yumm. We were taken to our villa and it was gorgeous. It was a huge villa. As soon as you open the gate to your villa, there is a path that leads you to your room. Opposite to your room door, you have a pool and a place to lie down. The landscape is dressed beautifully with grass and plants. As soon as you open your room door, the first thing you notice is the huge bed. There is a TV, a sitting area, mini bar and wardrobe in the room. When you open the bathroom, you are in for a treat. First, it is soooo big!!! You have washbasin on either side of the bathroom, so we don't have to fight for the place to get ready. There is a bathtub in the middle. The right side door leads to the shower area and left side door leads to the washroom. There is a small passage between the bathtub and shower area, which leads to the outer shower area. If I ever get a chance, I would definitely build such a huge bathroom for me. 

The food here is ok. I really enjoyed my breakfast here, especially Masala Dosa. They do have lot of options like Indoor Games, Outdoor Games, Swimming Pool, Gym, Billiards, Library, Movie option, etc. The sad part was it was a bit cold out there and I couldn't use the Swimming Pool that much. Should have booked the villa with Jaccuzzi :(. We hardly stepped out of the resort as we wanted to just relax in the resort.  The resort did arrange for us to go to the Siva Temple nearby, where you need to climb about 500 steps and its the highest peak in Karnataka. The view from there was brilliant. We tried the spa at the resort and it was good. 

View from Shiva Temple:

The resort does offer romantic dinner option for a couple, which includes candle light dinner under a tree and in the swimming pool. We didn't take any of the option and wanted to surprise each other. The surprise that we planned for each other, didn't turn out so well but we did have a hearty laugh about it.

Random Resort pics:

Overall, this resort is fantastic and would recommend it to anyone for 2/3 night stay. I did check out on 17th Dec at 8:00 am to catch my train from Birur at 10:00 am. Stupid train came to the station more than an hour late and I reached Bangalore by 3 pm. I spent the weekend with my friends in Bangalore and came back to Chennai.


By the way, my husband did say the trip was worth it and I'm back to planning all the trips again :D