When you arrive at the Congested Panchgani centre your face muscles get a trifle taut in your disappointment of landing in a place which at this point does not seem quite as a hill station. But as soon as you follow the directions to the resort leaving the small highly clustered market behind, Panchgani greets you with some exciting tall trees, cool breeze and very colonial type of houses.
To reach the Blue Country Resort you a little further out on congestion as the road winds down a couple of sharp turns and suddenly the gates usher you into a descent to a car park which gives you a breath taking view of the beautifully Landscapped Blue Country Resort with a beautifull shimmering round pool right in the centre of its well maintained lawns. BUt at the moment you are at a higher location. As you check in you observe a pacious lobby equipped with a few pools tables. Your luggage is courteously borne by the staff and you follow them down a flight of steps into a maize of corridors to your room.
I have stayed at Blue Country twice.the first time I booked thru RCI and was given a Delux Room on the uppr floor which had some distant view of the moutain range behind. But the romm floor had a few broken tiles! I protested and since it was off season transferred me to the Super delux Room.
The Super Delux room is simply luxurious huge and very well decorated. Since it was on the ground floor the rear opened out on a sit out with two steps to the lawns behind. and mostly you get the service from this end. since it faces the centre of the Hotel. The toilets are duly sanitised as prescribed for star hotels and are clean and tidy with soaps, shampoos etc. already in place.
All food was fresh, tasty and with generous portions, infact one plate of upma was sufficient fro 2 adults and a child. Since one of their reception staff is a good singer and also plays the keyboard you can look forward to some soothing and nostalgic old Rafi/ Kishore/ Mannadey/ Hemant Kumar songs well sung with the wonderful lilting fervour at dinner, and soon you will find yourself clapping.
The staff is very courteous & polite.
The pool tough beautifull could do with some cleaning in the off season. The pool has a pool side bar. But since nobody was swimming there was no service.
As you sit around on swings placed amongst lrge rose plants you get the imperial view of the Table land standing starkly in front of you.
This here is a picturesque resort .
But there are a few irritants .altough there are a few swings and a slide or two, facilities for children are mostly indoor games . And the children’s garden equipment is placed in a far corner and not to very well maintained. Especially when a gang of local mokeys move over the resort walls seeing your young one terrified would have you running for it and its quite a run. The management has either positioned this resort only for corporates else they need to address this.
On the whole it is a good experience.
About Panchgani.
Nevermind Panchgani’s exterior as you see it near the Marketplace. Panchgani is very beautifull. Unlike Mahabaleshwar’s heavily dense green forests of short trees Panchgani has ver tall trees resembling the pines. Panchganis vantage points like the Sunset point and the Table land points are simply exhilerating and too breathtaking to be decribed in words. Anyone planning a Mahabaleshwar trip would be throwing away a chunk of exstatic experience by keeping Panchgani out of plan.
And Blue Country is a great place to stay.