This review is of my experience at Holiday Village. We were a gang of people on a day outing. We had a booking at this place to spend the day from around 8am till 9pm. So we were all set for Breakfast, Lunch, Tea and dinner.
The arrival set the stage for the rest of the stay. We were met with a deserted place. It’s not spacious nor does if give you any feeling of space. It’s quite cramped and runs back into itself in its facilities.
There was no one to receive us. Basically there is no reception. We were directed by some of the staff to the kitchen and a room adjoining it. No one there as well expected us and were just waking up from their sleep. After much running around to all the rooms and talking to anyone who was already awake the place slowly came to a bit of life. In an hour or so, they were able to rustle up some very basic breakfast of bread ( toast), omlette, tea and stuffed parathas with curd.
During breakfast we had a cat for company who was a bit pushy in demanding a share of the breakfast, begging from us at the table.
The swimming pool is the only redeeming factor. We were able to get into it and have a splash around.
Facilities for corporates includes a conference room. This room is a part of the bathrooms next to the pool. So it is next door to the ladies loo. We went in there for some discussions for the first part of the day. For starters the stink from the next door loo came into this room ( via the a/c I guess). So we got the current news from the happenings next door. The was followed by cockroaches running all over our bags and on the tables. We shifted the tables only to expose cockroach eggs all over the carpet. This was the last straw and we retired to the open air dining area for our discussions.
With the discussions behind us and lunch under our belts, we looked for the Badminton, Tennis and Volleyball facilities ( which were part of the charge, by the way). The tennis court was an open patch of flat land bordered by typical waste pipes and other farm debris. No net, posts, court, etc.
The badminton was open air on the lawn. So same situation. We had to play free form badminton with imaginary net and boundaries. It was fun in its own way.
The volleyball court luckily had net and posts, so we were able to get in many games ( not out of any variety or choice).
The dinner was good. Food by and large was tasty though not of a very wide variety.
To wind up everything and confirm the feeling of being in a place which has been left behind by the rest of the developments/advancements in the city, the folks here would charge you a surcharge if you paid for the lovely day’s experience using a credit card ( that alien thing !). After the unfortunate payer updated them that they were of an extinct tribe in penalising folks for paying with credit cards, they relented and charged us exactly for what was agreed.
So to wrap up, we make the most of the day with whatever we could squeeze out of them, but I would not recommend this place unless Bangalore has been bombed to kingdom come and it’s the last place left to go to.
For Team events/conferences/discussions, certainly a no-no.
For families, no. You kids will die of boredom and you of claustrophobia.