We visited Mahabaleshwar last week and stayed at 5 Oaks bungalow for 4 days. We are frequent travellers and visit mahabaleshwar at least twice a year. This time it was a group of 10 people so we decided to go for a bungalow instead of hotel.
We booked 5 Oaks after going through the webpage. However one of my relative accidentally came across a poor rated review of 5 Oaks while doing some research on hotels in Shirdi. We got simply scared after reading the facts mentioned. We immediately called the owner Mr Shaunak for clarification as we were coming all the way from Ahmedabad and didn’t want to spoil our trip by moving to the location which is rated poorly. The owner mentioned that this review is quite old when bungalow was under construction and there was no trained staff. There was just a watchman who was requested to prepare food. We tried to search for another hotel but unfortunately most of them were already booked due to season. Since there was no option left, we decided to go ahead with 5 Oaks. Being cautious, we also asked for the latest photographs and the place seemed to be quite nice. Although decided to go ahead with 5 Oaks, we reached there almost half heatedly because its very easy to fool tourists around by displaying manipulated photographs on the net.
When we reached the place, the fear turned into joy as the location was just stunning with beautiful valley view and garden. We were curious to meet the caretaker after reading the review but he was also very helpful and attended us very well. The room interiors are too good and most importantly hot water was available 24 hours. It was surprisingly so cool at mahabaleshwar that we had to take on blankets in the night even in the month of May. As we are pur veg, we asked the caretaker to cook veg thali for us and the taste was fantastic & just like home. The terrace has excellent view of the valley and jungle in front. We requested caretaker to serve breakfast and tea on terrace and it was a wonderfull experience.
We really enjoyed the stay at 5 Oaks and recommended the place to our friends on return. Mahabaleshwar has always been our relaxing destination but I dont understand why we have to pay taxes everywhere. In panchgani some corporation employees stop us for road tax. It was just 20 Rs so we didnt fight much. Again when you cross lake at mahabaleshwar, there is a tax collection. Here they again demand road tax(for entering mahabaleshwar?). After asking we get the answer that both panchgani and mahabaleshwar corporations are different. What the hell we tourists have to do with that? Food prices and all entertainment costs are hiked in season so guys avoid season days!
Thanks,
Gaurav