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Earl's Court, Nainital
We stayed here for two nights in April 2018. This is a large property with varying types of rooms. It is quite hard to generalise based on one experience. The rooms closer to the lobby looked like it had a recent facelift, but looked smaller. We were put up in the annex furthest from the lobby. The below review is based on our accommodation.
Pros:
1) The rooms and the bathrooms in the annex building were very large and comfortable.
2) The room had good decor with colonial period furnishings and artifacts.
3) The staff was quite helpful and courteous.
4) They have laundry facility.
5) Thanks to the location, it is very quiet here at nights.
Cons:
1) The annex building we stayed in looked a bit tired. It definitely needs a facelift.
2) All the bathroom fixtures looked old and all of them were leaking.
3) The TV in the room is an old cathode ray one with grainy pictures.
4) The location is quite far from the Mall Road. It is a good 30 min walk uphill from there.
5) The meal timings are late. Breakfast is only at 8 am, which is late for sightseeing and onward journey. They do serve continental from 7 am and that was pretty decent. Dinner is not until 8 pm which is quiet late for us and so we ate outside.
6) WIFI strength and connectivity was very poor.
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Pine Resort, Pithoragarh Stayed here for one night in April 2018
Pros:
1) The staff is courteous and helpful.
2) The meals were served at our preferred timings.
3) The food was exceptionally good.
4) They have good accommodation for the drivers.
5) Tariff is cheap
6) It is a very quite place.
7) Rooms and bathrooms have acceptable level of cleanliness.
Cons:
1) This is far from town (about 3 to 4 kms) with hardly anything to do nearby. There are no views of the mountains from the hotel or anywhere near it.
2) There is no WIFI in the hotel.
3) The rooms and bathrooms and the amenities and furnishings look tired and as I said above are only to an acceptable level of cleanliness.
4) The TV is a small cathode ray box with limited number of channels.
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Vijay Mount Resort, Munsiyari Stayed here for two nights in April 2018.
1) The property has the best view in town of the Panchachuli range. If you want anything better, you have to walk 7km uphill to Khaliya Top.
2) The food is excellent and they serve it whenever we wanted. The meal timings are not rigid.
3) The staff is very helpful and courteous.
4) The rooms and bathrooms are clean.
Note:
Most of the cons as to do with the remoteness of Munsiyari itself. I am not holding these against the property.
1) The electricity is quite patchy. They have a backup. But it only powers the TV and the lights. Geyser and most other sockets don't work.
2) The WIFI never worked throughout our stay.
3) Laundry facility is unavailable if the weather is not sunny.
Cons:
1) The property is much sought after by large tourist groups. So the place is quite noisy.
2) The front desk is quite helpful with food and accommodation issues. They were not helpful in arranging sightseeing. There is no map or list of attractions or any such information that may be of interest to a tourist.
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Kasar Jungle Resort, Almora We stayed here for one night in April 2018.
Pros:
1) The location is both good and bad. The good part is that it is up in the hills bang next to the Kasar Devi Temple. If you are here for the temple or to spend some quite time in the hills or do bird watching, this is a perfect spot.
2) The rooms and bathrooms are very clean all with great sit-outs.
3) Furnishings and amenities in the room are excellent.
4) The staff is quite courteous and helpful.
Cons:
1) The food is quite bad and is remarkably tasteless.
2) The bad part of location is that this is quite far from Almora and there is no shops or transport around this area. So you are pretty much dependent on the hotel for your immediate needs.
3) There was a thunderstorm a couple of days earlier which had knocked out the transformer. So the whole region did not have any power at all. I would have expected them to inform me a couple of days earlier (when they knew about it) instead of surprising us with this information in the last minute. We could have made alternate arrangements if we were informed earlier. They offered to turn on generator for us, but it was only for a couple of hours.
- The area around Nainital needs at least a day for sightseeing. There are three other lakes besides Nainital - Bhim Tal, Naukuchia Tal and Sat Tal and all of them are worth checking out. There is also paragliding option on this route. It takes about half a day to visit these three lakes including a boating or a paragliding excursion. There is a standard sightseeing in Nainital where small taxis take you to "11 points" and ponies take you up to Tiffin Top. The taxi ride is worth only for the much photographed view of the entire Naini Lake. The ponies take you to two view points - Land's End and Tiffin Top. Land's end is quite easy to walk to. The Tiffin Top is more of a huff and puff, but well within reach for anyone with moderate fitness. The view from the Tiffin Top is well worth the effort.
- THE place to stay in Corbett is Dhikala. It is 34 kilometers deep inside the park from the Dhangari Gate, which is situated 19 kms from Ramnagar (the furthest one from town). Safaris from Dhikala are between 6:00 to 10:00 in the morning and 2:30 to 6:30 in the afternoon (timings shift by half an hour in winter). Since it takes about 2 hours to get to Dhikala from the main gate, safari companies try to peddle these transfers as an additional safari. The food at Dhikala resort is very good. They serve pre-breakfast between 5:00 and 6:00, breakfast between 9:00 and 11:00, lunch between 1:00 and 3:00 and dinner from 7:00 pm. To have the best chance to see the tiger, give yourself 3 nights which will give you about 6 to 8 safaris, preferably in May.
- Delhi to Nainital: 290 km 7 hrs: The highway is under construction till Hapur in UP and it is mostly one-lane (each way) throughout. Entering/leaving Delhi during peak hours is a nightmare and adds a couple of hours to the journey.
- Nainital to Pithoragarh: 176 km 5.5 to 6 hrs: It is about 2 hours to Almora and an 1:30 more to Jagheshwar. The temples are a 20 min detour from the main road are are well worth a visit. You need about 30 mins to an hour (minimum) to do justice to the site. There is an excellent Sulabh toilet to the rear of the temple complex. There are some basic restaurants nearby as well.
- Pithoragarh to Munsiyari: 128 km; 4.5 to 5 hrs: There are two ways to get here and we took the one via Thal. The route is very scenic and Birthi Falls is a must-see pitstop on the way. It adds an hour to the trip. It is hard to find places to eat along the way. Thal has a few restaurants and Birthi Falls has a good one as well.
- Munsiyari to Almora: 200 km; 7 hrs: Standard mountain road. Bagheshwar Dham comes on the way and makes a good place to break journey.
TRIP ITINERARY