High-End Palolem Beach Hut

Shark

Silver Star

evilnyberg

hm, i'm thoroughly intrigued - do you want to expand?

personally, i stayed in the bhakti kutir once and absolutely loved it! i'd definitely recommend it and believe it should be open this time of year.

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TracyB

Bhakti Kutir gets absolutely horrible reviews on Trip Advisor...Loud, noisy, rats in the rooms...Yuk!!!! Any other suggestions??????

raving_pixie

Thanks. We've booked there for the 1st week of our trip. I can't wait!!

Abhiroop

The website for Ordo Sounsar has changed it is http://www.ordosounsar.com/accomodation.html

__________________
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tantradeva

I stayed at Bhakti Kutir last Christmas. The rooms are very outdated and shabby. There were fleas everywhere, in the bed, the curtains and the seat cushions. Almost every night, I was visited by at least one rat which reception seemed to think was pretty amusing and the whole place is full of stray cats and dogs. It was horrible. Lonely Planet reviewed it about 10 years ago and gave it a great review. Unfortunately I don't think its been updated or cleaned since then!! And the owner is a complete sleeze bag who goes around perving at every woman who he encounters!!

Roaming Jack

Wow. I'm stunned at the negative feedback on Bhakti Kutir. Just stayed there a few weeks back and probably saw it at its worst -- off season, small staff, minimal facilities -- and it was still good and efficiently run. It's true that it's basically just a bunch of huts, and there is no running hot water, but you know that going in. Yeah, it's also true, you do have a few rats around the property, and stray dogs and cats, but what's a purportedly eco-friendly outfit in India supposed to do? The staff don't always know what to do about stray dogs and cats ... because it's the tourists who bring them in and/or feed them at tables. My hut had a comfortable bed, a writing desk, and an elevated loft with two chairs looking outside. I was there doing the solo thing, and had plenty of time to obsess on the negative, but I thought it was magical. (I can't provide any evidence about the owners or their proclivities -- they are a couple -- because I didn't get to know them.) The restaurant is excellent, with your food cooked fresh after you order.

Bizarre.

tantradeva

I totally agree with you regarding the food, it was very good although during high season there were extremely long waits sometimes and orders were frequently mixed up or short. I was totally aware going in that it was an eco resort, one of many that I've stayed at around Asia, however, given the cost of a hut there, I expected a lot more. I spoke to lots of people that had stayed there before and without exception their view was that it had gone seriously down hill. I didn't care about cold water, squat toilets or rock hard matresses, that's the norm in India, but I did care about holes in my walls, termite invasions, being constantly bitten by fleas, actually seeing the fleas jumping all over my the clothes, the state of the mosquito netting, the curtains, the bed linen and the rats scurrying around my floor day and night. When I was there, the cats and dogs were being bought in and fed by staff members not guests. For most of us being jumped on by flea and worm infested cats while we were trying to eat was a complete pain! The reception staff were dreadful and not in the slightest bit interested in helping out if you had a problem. At the same time a friend was staying in a basic hut on the actual beach a few hundred yards away and had no problems with rats or fleas whatsoever. She also seemed to escape the swarms of mosquitos that invade Bhakti every evening too! I'm glad you enjoyed it but for me it was one of the worst and most expensive places I stayed during 6 months of travelling around India.

PS. Check out Trip Advisor. It looks like plenty of others had the same experience that I did!

Roaming Jack

I won't belabor this, except to acknowledge that yes, Tripadvisor, does indeed have negative posts on BK. But they don't describe (even remotely) my experience. I'm just surprised that my experience was so different.

I will say one thing re: the dogs. I know what the staffers were saying about the animals (since I understand their language -- the staffers', that is, not the dogs'!!) and they have no love for them. In fact, what I heard confirmed that they were not interested in the least in having them around, but felt constrained to act because of the tourists. This -- as you probably know from your experiences -- is the norm in India where fear and hatred of allegedly "rabid" dogs is absolutely rampant.

Anyway, I suppose we just had different experiences at BK, and that's what guides our assessments -- the more the fodder for IMers to digest.

Redmarsy

My partner and I would like to stay at Palolem beach in the second week of February 2009. There are so many possibilities on the beach, that we just can't decide which one is best. We have the following wish list:

- We both like to have a drink and a laugh in the evenings, and like a good party as well. We will spend one week at Anjuna for the more heavier partying, so sitting around a campfire with some music in the background will also be nice, we can always travel a bit when we want to dance
-However, when we go to sleep, we do not like to hear pounding music next to our hut, (we'll probably sleep late, so it does not need to be quiet at 11)
-We really want to have a hut on the beach, as we would like to open our doors and jump into the ocean when we wake up within a matter of seconds
-My partner likes a bit of luxury, what he finds most important is a decent bed that does not kill his back, an attached clean (!) bathroom (preferably with a hot shower, but I do not know whether hot water with a bucket is very inconvenient or that it is not really a problem), and something to keep him cool at night, however at the beach I guess A/C might not be necessary as you can open the windows and feel the sea breeze,
-We would preferably have a good restaurant nearby that serves a good (preferably local) breakfast, dinner would be great, but walking a bit to go out for dinner is not a problem.
- We do not feel like staying in an overpriced place, so we would like to pay a price that is Normal for Goan standards, 2150 rp per night per hut is our absolute max, but preferably it would be more around 1000 rp
-We would really like it to be owned by Goans

I know a lot of people have posted request for advice on huts in Palolem, but I am hoping mine is so specific that it will be easier (instead of more difficult, haha) to help out

Thanks in advance!