Taj Blue Diamond is one of the oldest 5 star hotel in Pune. It is situated right in the centre of the city, 8-10 km from Lohegaon airport and at the walking distance from railway station at Bund Garden at the confluence of North & South Koregaon Park.
It is located at the busy traffic junction and there are high chances to give a miss to the building as it is very unimpressive from outside.
As you enter, you will find a very small garden with a small fountain in middle in front of well kept old building. The first impression is that this must have been an old colonial bungalow converted into a high rise hotel.
As you enter the building you will be greeted by the staff with a traditional Marathi welcome and apple juice as the welcome drink. We reached at the hotel around 13:30 but were informed that the room was still not ready and will take additional 20-30 mins. As the innercircle member I have never faced this.
The lobby is well kept with flowers and proper place to sit but we preferred to sit at the coffee shop and sip cappuccino. The room was prepared in less than 10 mins. The luggage was taken care.
Our room was in the 4 the floor exclusive for the business customer. A bottle of complimentary wine was also there in the room.
The room was very spacious; it had all the modern day amenities with surround sound system. I thought for INR 11, 000 it was a decent arrangement.
There was a separate guest section for the guest at 4th floor(don’t remember what it was called)
Restaurants are good, but you will have better choice of food at Koregaon Park and near inox movie hall.
Breakfast was complimentary. The hotel offers a good variety for breakfast, I had freshly cooked dosa and my wife had scrambled eggs.
In the evening, when I returned from the business meetings my wife told me about all the shopping she did how convenient the hotel was as all the shopping areas are nr by. I am not sure whether the hotel didn’t have a shop or it was closed for renovation. Whatever the reason may be, I thank God for the same;-) She also told me that hotel’s swimming pool was not very big or deep but it was good for the kids and my daughter had a good time at the pool. The hotel has a well trained life guard.So properly secured pool.
Only one thing which I didn’t like was hotel doesn’t provide complimentary pick & drop facility, else experience would have been better.