visakhapatnam

alri

does anyone have suggestions for a hotel here?
has anyone stayed at sri kanya lodge?
is it okay? it's near the station. i tried to call up hotel supreme that someone (indiamike himself?) has written about, but the phone number doesn't take.
thanks.

just_an_old_boy

Try the Park Hotel along the RK Beach. 20 minutes ride from the railway station.

Good location. The front faces the sea. The area is quite, as it is just outside the Andhra University campus.

Palexurdy

I can't remember where I stayed, but it was nice. It was away from the beach, about a kilometer down a road leading from the train station, just before it starts leading up-hill. There were quite a few hotels in that area, it might have been called 'Green Hotel', or something.

alri

thanks for the replies.
jaob:the park hotel looks great but is rather more than i want to spend.. still i'll keep it in mind
palexurdy, perhaps you stayed in the green park hotel. apparently there is one.
anyway looks like i'll find out and get back here and post a 'review' of where i've been.

rangss

Firstly, phone numbers of Vizag have changed sometime ago. Chances are you must have used the old number.

Secondly, please mention your budget so that I can suggest something.

Thirdly, Park Hotel is mighty expensive though its rates are much lower than the Chennai, Bangalore and Delhi hotels of the chain.

Green Park is a 3 star one.

You can opt for the Yatri Nivas too.

__________________
...and I took the road less travelled.

capt_mahajan

Dolphin hotel is an old hotel closer to the city center. I used to prefer it as it usually had a live band of sorts at one of its resteraunts.

But rangss is right.. what's the budget?

Palexurdy

Are there any fairly budget hotels on the seafront? I bet it'd be nice to stay there.

Zeppy

I was in Vizag a month ago. I experienced your problem with the Supreme, i.e., the wrong phone number is given on this website. The FAX number is correct; call that with one of the telephone suffixes, that way you will reach them. Vizag has a lot of very expensive vs. a lot of bad hotels. If I had to stay there again, I would stay at the Daspalla in the center of town, in case the Supreme is unavailable. It's on the expensive side, but less so than many of the others, and it is a professionally-run operation.

hajabarala

Hi...I am going to Vizag on 26th of May this year. I will be staying there in a hotel called The Royal Fort. I was a bit skeptical about the hotel because I couldn't find the hotel's name in the net to my satisfaction. It has its own web page, and 2-3 more sites name it. Can anyone give me any info about this? They have a 3N-4D package which costs 8000 INR. It includes airport transfer, room tariff, breakfast, lunch, dinner, a short day trip of the city, and a trip to Araku Valley and Bora Caves. Is it worth spending that much money for these facilities, or should I look for some other hotel?

vandy

Hello hajabarala, Personally I think this price is pretty good
considering what is on offer,the 8000inrps equates to approx
Aus$145(Australian)- airport transfer, 3 meals a day, 3 nights
accommadation, few tours.Not bad at all.

Rgds - vandy

Epicure

Try APTourism Punnami Yatri Nivas-- room rates ranges from Rs850 to Rs1600

Address:

Punnami Yatrinivas
Opp. Appu Ghar Site, Beach Road, MVP Colony, Vizag.
Ph: 0891 - 2562333/2710711


And Punnami Rishikonda, which is on the beach side. room rates Rs1500 to Rs2500

Address:

Punnami Rishikonda
Bhimili Road,
Visakhapatnam, Ph:0891-2790734.2790733


gud luck

pmvelu

Hi ,

Punnami Rushikonda is really a good one in Vizag. AP govt owned & just near the beautiful rushikonda beach.. We stayed there some time back and you can find my review at

http://www.indiamike.com/reviews/sho...ct/876/cat/all

Borra Caves is real intersting stuff & more than that , the route was much interesting.. We hired a Tata Sumo for the day trip and right after the plains there was a checkpost and some villagers were standing nearby and we thought "Some Local Festival" and gave 5Rs. After that,there are checkposts every 3 kms and after 15 kms , for every km , 15 to 20 Tribal Girls standing near the road with 7 to 8 huge boulders placed in the centre of the road.. There is no way we can drive past, So a stop , 1 Re , then all the girls with much difficulty remove the boulders , wave hands and the worst part is in the Borra Caves route & in Araku valley market road .. Believe it or not every 100 metres few stones in the road and 4 to 5 girls & younger boys standing and almost for us it's around 50th "Tribal Private checkpost" and we ran out of all 5rs,2 rs & 1 rs and hence we were forced to give 25 paise Or at the maximum 50 paise to every gang.

"+":-
1) Nothing Fearful or scary as it's really enjoyable to see several tribes on the road side
2)They want some thing & hence No demand as such , We can offer whetever coin we have..
3)We infact taken several photographs of those kids (From the Car itself) and they happily gave poses

"-":-
1) Few of the kids have colour water in some vessels in their hands and we saw they are just throwing the water @ a car which tried to speed away
2) it's a pain to see in few places as 15 to 20 kids standing in the road , pulling very heavy rocks to the centre of the road and after getting 25 to 50 paise , all trying to clear the road

General info:
1) There are several Tribes in this place and AP government have given special privileage to this place like: ( Cab Driver gave the following info)
a) No outsiders except the tribes can buy land
b) Any outsider who marries the tribal girl will get some land (Free of Cost) & also a government Job

Tips:
1) Do not forget to visit the Tribal Museum in Araku Valley
2) Compulsorily hire a guide when you visit Borra caves Or else you will not be able to see anything ( Stalagmite formations in a Cave but beautiful naturally formed God Like carvings, Cow like carvings etc & inside the cave the temperature is 60% of the outside temperature - We Paid 50 Rs - Nothing Fixed , you can pay whatever you want - Carry a powerful Flash with you if you would like to take photographs inside the caves.
3)Arakku Valley route is scenic and the temperature is ok sort of in the Main Arakku Valley Bus Stand / Market Area (It won't be irritatingly cold .. May be we can call a pleasant weather).
4) If you travel to Arakku valley by private Car, have atleast 100 1 rupee Or 2 Rupee coins to get thru the tribal checkposts (In Fact we paid some twice, yes they demanded when we returned too and they forgot us or our car Number))::--)
5) Even our Car Driver was not able to communicate with them as they don't speak / understand Telugu too.

And Sorry If I am too lengthy ..

Take Care
Cheers ...

rangss

Looks like a small local enterprise. These parts come under the tribal protection zone and hence no commercial construction or activity is allowed by outsiders. This is supposedly to prevent the exploitation of the tribes. But I guess the tribes are no better under this protection than without it. This seems to be a desperate way out for them...seek money from tourists by pretending to be toll collectors. Either this or some local small time mafia might have started this trend of hiring kids to collect money as toll. Either way, it reflects the poor state of affairs in tribal welfare.

pmvelu

Not sure Rangss .. But nothing is actually a toll gate and it's a mixture of kids & ladies (From 15 years even upto 40 years ) who just do this as a hobby??!! (As they have a very bright smile in their faces with not even a single word uttered to us).. Just they pull road side rocks onto the centre of the road and after getting money they are just making way to the stopped vehicle to pass thru & out of the 50 to 60 stops, we never saw any male around ...(Only women and kids)..

And to our surprise, we even saw APSRTC Day trip bus(Vizag-Araku Valley) & APSRTC bus bound to Jeypore also was stopped and heavy argument going on between the driver and the tribal groups...

Just curious . In recent past, any other IMer who travelled this route faced the same situation ?? (As our travel was bit old around - 3+ years back)

Cheers...

Zeppy

Not an answer to your question, but I recently visited Arakku by train on a one-day round trip from Vizag and wouldn't recommend that method of doing things. I was attracted by the idea of traveling on an old train that had first class and besides, it was free, since I had an Indrail pass. (The train was jam packed, by the way--except for first class.) The landscape was certainly lovely and the slow train ride was fun. But the train was extremely late in both directions, and this cut the time spent in Arakku to just a couple of hours. On the return trip the train stopped on the outskirts of Vizag--for an hour and a half. Since it was New Year's Eve and many passengers were bound for parties in the city a lot of them jumped off the train and hired autos that had sniffed out the trouble and gathered around, sort of like sharks. They did a very good business!