The Fog Resort & Spa | Munnar

“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” Ibn Battuta

Surprisingly it was hard to find a good hotel in Munnar, it seems that top quality properties are not sought after high in the mountains of Kerala’s tea country which I hadn’t anticipated as there are so many foreign tourists. After trawling through Booking.com for sometime I found my first choice The Panoramic Getaway was fully booked so I settled on the four-star Fog Resort & Spa.

After a long trip from Cochin we eventually reached this remote hotel build into the hillside, a scenic but tricky journey along narrow and winding hilltop roads lined with tea plantations and coffee bean laden hedgerows. We received a very warm welcome on arrival at this small thirty room property made up of rooms and individual villas. We were shown to our clean (almost sterile) large and comfortable room in the main building which was decorated in muted tones with pops of colour from mini cushions displayed in the headboard. The room faced the hills and tea plantations so the sunset views from our balcony were stunning. Nightly towel animals were placed on the bed with rose petals, a quirky and amusing service extra not uncommon in hotels.

The positive aspects of this hotel were the amazing panoramic views across the rolling green hills of Munnar, the beautifully manicured gardens with a full-sized topiary elephant and the infinity pool. The other half enjoyed the Indian dishes available in the restaurant having them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The wifi connectivity was good in our room and restaurant areas.

This hotel is called a ‘Resort & Spa’ but the spa was non-existent and the only activites available apart from the swimming was an evening nature walk or cycling, however there was nowhere to ride bikes (rental charges applicable) unless you went on the road, which was pretty dangerous. There was one restaurant, Alaska that resembled a school dining hall offering limited choices and even then most of the menu was unavailable. The restaurant staff were friendly almost to the point of over-friendly but were poorly trained and the service was painfully slow.

The breakfast ‘buffet’ was very disappointing and the restaurant was messy, cleaning up after guests did not seem a high priority, again another training issue. As only five-star hotels serve alcohol in Kerala, there was not even a bar to relax in as the hotel was alcohol free. Our room was next to the Billiard’s Room which was noisy at night and I had to call down to reception to complain a couple of times, in my defence I had to get up at 3am for a sunrise jeep safari!

With its remote location, visiting Munnar itself or the tea plantations was quite a long drive from the property. I would describe this functional hotel as quite basic but at least it was clean and that was important, in all honestly I probably wouldn’t choose to stay here again.

The Nitty Gritty

The Fog Resort & Spa

Chithirapuram, Munnar

Telephone: 8606991710 / 04865263811

E-mail : info@thefogmunnar.com

Website: thefogmunnar.com

Check-in: From 12:00 noon

Check-out: 11:00/11:30am

The Good……

Amazing hill-top sweeping views across the tea plantations and mountains

Clean and comfortable room

Peaceful hotel