Kadaloram Beach Resort Reviews

We were really pleased with our choice of hotel in the resort of Kovalam, Kerala, India. It is a small hotel with 21 rooms and is set amongst a beautiful and well tended garden. There is plenty of room to lounge around in the sun or shade or on hammocks swinging from coconut trees if you wish.

The staff go out of their way to be helpful and room service is quick and not expensive. There is a fridge and tv in each room along with a fan and air conditioning although the air con is rather noisy.

The first week we were there it was very quiet and often had the pool and garden to ourselves. The breakfasts were very good with plenty of choice and there is a good choice of Indian and european food for meals and snacks.

The design of the hotel is very attractive and the dining room is a typical Keralan building.

The hotel is set a couple of hundred yards from Samudra beach which isn't that nice a beach but there are several good bars and restaurants to watch the sun go down or have a late night drink. Otherwise you can walk or catch a rickshaw to Lighthouse Beach where there are amazing fish restaurants. Endless fish and shellfish at bargain prices. Not much entertainment but plenty of bars to while the evening away.

No problem getting alcohol anywhere in Kovalam - beer and spirits. We did take a bottle of spirits with us for the hotel and just ordered mixers. No problem with a fridge.

In front of the hotel is a landscaped park around a lagoon. This is supposed to be for the Taj Hotel next door but we did walk through it a couple of times until the guard in fancy dress stopped us! Went in their for a drink - very expensive and pretty souless.

Would definitely go back to this hotel.

This was our second trip to Kerala as we were so impressed by it last time. Once again, Monarch Airlines were the low point of the trip although the cramped trip out was shorter than the long trip back into a major headwind. We were promised refurbished aircraft but the one going out was the same shoddy aircraft with bits of trim stuck on with chewing gum and a misted up window which meant zero vision. The plane back was better but still dated. In flight meals were better this time.

Your initial impression of India will be poor as the first experience you get is the bus transfer to your resort. A lot of these buses are local operators and they are appalling. Don't be put off yet!

The weather was fantastic. 14 days of solid sunshine but high humidity. You'll soon forget the UK was freezing when you left. This is true tropical heat.

WE had a look round the Kadaloram Beach Resort last year and were impressed. It has a large grassed lawn area underneath swaying coconut palms. The apartments are compact but comfortbale and have satellite TV, air conditioning and the bathroom and shower have just been refurbished. Hot water was a pleasant experience although it could be a dribble rather than a torrent sometimes. Towels get changed every single day and there are sunbeds outside near the pool which was perfect for dipping in and out of during the day. You soon build up a rapport with the very friendly staff and the waiters are tremendous.

Overall, this resort was one of the best. We had been tempted by the new Uday Samudra hotel down on the beach but we went in there and found it lacking in atmosphere - just another hotel packed with people. We also compared notes with people staying at the Puj Mahal (formerly Green Park) and they said it was basic and clean but wished they'd upgraded. Another hotel we looked in was the Samudra Hotel (former Hilton)over on Kovalam Beach which some friends were staying at. I didn't like that - green swimming pool and...well, let's just say, no thanks.

There is a brand new super-luxury hotel next to the Kadaloram Beach Resort, called the Taj Palace, which was incredibly impressive although we found that the speed of development of this resort is now getting into it's stride and is really starting to spoil the basic charm of the area through overcrowding. Still, the Taj Palace built themselves a car park in two days such is the speed of development. They had land-grabbed an area of beach down on the sea front which they tried to stop us walking through to get to the fishing village. We insisted though....

Places to eat: The Water's Edge at Samudra Beach was excellent - as always and we ended up using Third Rock From The Sun just along from the Uday Samudra on Samudra Beach as they were very friendly there, especially JJ. We went across to Kovalam Beach a few times and had some nice meals over there but the rickshaw drivers are catching on to the wealthier types and starting to charge more.

We were offered tours by Manos but they were pricey so organised a tour through the Kadaloram. All we wanted was a trip to Periyar Wildlife Reserve but ended up being sold a tour for £205. This included a 4 hour trip up to Allepey to a houseboat in a Toyota Qualis which I recommend over the local Hindustan Ambassador taxis. It was a hand-punted vessel and you got your own cook whose cooking was very impressive (and I'm not a great fan of Indian food)and you got a vast selection and 3 meals. Brilliant.

The trip round Allepey Lake was an eye-opener. Lots of man-made island which were little more than strips of land with the lake on one side and rice fields on the other and one path in and out past the houses. Waterboats and bridges join them and you watch the local people who live there, bathe in the lake, drink from the lake, cook from the lake. So it was great until it went dark and they moored up in the middle of the lake. Nothing to do except watch mosquitos swarm around the little bulb and watch the geckos eat them, all the time thinking you were going to be their next meal. We went o bed and couldn't get the light or fan in the bedroom to work and spent the night bathed in sweat listening for mosquitos that would get under the net... we found the switch for the fan behind the bed the next day although we'd been awake at 3am anyway and were awoken at 5am by the local festival speakers screaming poor quality sound across the lake.

On to Periyar. Another 4 hours. Stunning scenery but it was festival time and the roads were full of Mahindra Jeeps loaded to the gills with Tamils and another 4 on the roof. Slow down? Don't be silly. We took in The Spice Garden which is recommended and passed through vast tea plantations. We stayed at Treetops Hotel at Periyar which was very nice though the restaurant food was poor. We were hustled onto the late boat trip at 4. This was a real let-down. The environs had a few monkeys but it was very touristy and full of them too. The boat trip was meant to be two hours but wasn't. The sun was low and intense so you couldn't see a thing - shadow one side and bright haze the other. Distant bison and wild boar meant we saw some cows and pigs but nothing like close. Best were a pair of Indian Hornbills flying over and a family of otters working the river bank chasing fish out of the water onto the bank. Close but not close enough.

We bought a CD for £2.50 to compensate. We picked up a list of activities for Periyar. They do half and full day accompanied treks through the forest and the first boat trip is at 6am which is when the animals are going to be coming down to drink. I think you need a couple of days at Periyar to get the best from it. Since it was the main reason for us returning to Kerala, this was a big disappointment. We were then sent to a Kathikali performance which was very entertaining although a bit of a headache at the end of a long day!

Next day it was a 6 hour trip back. These aren't hugely long distances, the roads are just slow and poor quality and the traffic is more like a river with vehicles flowing in and out of each other without ever stopping. Despite the method of driving, we never saw any accidents.

The three day trip was exhausting and it made us realise that we did the right thing last year. The local stuff is just as good and the ribbon development along the roads of India mean that nearly everywhere is the same and the only distinction is the populated areas and the scenic mountain areas. Probably abit of a simplification but we'd skip the travelling. We'd planned to go to Cochin but couldn't face the travelling again.

We spent the rest of our time just relaxing and chilling out. The tropical temperature means there's no place better and with a resort like the Kadaloram, you can just lounge round the pool or you can take a rickshaw ride. Try the Somantheeram Beach which is accessed through a very plush hotel with every variety of plant. The beach is truly vast. We also took a trip to Poovar which was pleasant enough.

One word of caution is that the second week we were there (we went 10th January for 2 weeks)was the local festival week. Sure, you get the firecrackers and the elephant parades but you also get the 5am alarm call with Indian music being played through vast broken speakers which echo constantly round the local villages so it's like being on a racecourse. It did calm down but I'm not a fan of Indian music.

Overall, great place to stay, beautiful country, fantastic tem,peratures and now being spoilt by development (or improved depending on your view). See it now before it's a thing of the past.