We reached GRT Nature Trails hotel Yercaud around 1:00 pm after 4 hours drive from Bangalore on 30th Jan. We expected cooler weather since it was still winter all over India. But on reaching Yercaud, we felt that our trip was waste since it was as hot as in Chennai.
On reaching, the person at the reception told us that the rooms are being cleaned, so we can roam around for a while or have our meals and come back. We checked out the hotel facilities for a while and got disappointed earlier because it was so hot around. After around 15 minutes, we got our room. This was a real surprise. We had taken the valley view room, that is the cheapest in their categories. The room was huge with most facilities that a 4 star hotel can offer. It had a bigger than king size bed, LCD TV, coffee maker, wardrobe, locker, writing table, coffee table, room heater, etc. The LCD TV was connected to Airtel DTH that presented most channels. The bathroom was also big sized.They could have provided a bath tub. Their penthouse room has a jacuzzi in the bathroom and a lawn instead of balcony.The room had a decent sized balcony where you can relax in the evenings. Afternoons are too hot to sit in the balcony.
In the valley view rooms, they had artificial waterfall coming to the doorstep. They used to switch it on at around 7:00 pm daily. They have advertised a lot about they skywalk (sky roca). I was too excited to see that but was quite disappointed to actually walk on it. It is too small a walk but may excite others.The Salem Heights restaurant had a decent variety of items in the menu. They give complimentary breakfast which was ok. They could provide more items in the breakfast but I think there are too few rooms to cook more items.
Other items in the menu are quite expensive as compared to other hotels around. But the ambiance in Salem Heights was very good.They have a bar called Salem Rocks which was too small but artistic. The bar was decently priced and they had 20% discount accompanied by free chef’s snack of the day along with the drinks. They could also serve liquor in the open lawn near the bar. It was a nice experience to have drinks in open air in the evenings. It gets too cold in the evenings and nights. From the open lawn, you get very nice view of the Salem city.They also had indoor games like carrom, chess, table tennis, etc.
Overall, it was one of our best holidays in this tiny hill station.