Our Ganapatipule holiday (Read: A Beach Holiday in Ganapatipule) was a sudden decision in October, by which time it was probably too late to get booking in any decent hotel in and around Ganapatipule. It was a housefull at almost all the places that we would have preferred to stay at – Blue Ocean and the Ferns, We, however, did not want to stay at the MTDC hotel that is right on the beach, fearing heavy crowd. And so, were left with only Abhishek Beach Resort & Spa!
Review of Abhishek Beach Resort & Spa (Ganapatipule)
We booked their so-called ‘suite’ that has two AC bedrooms and, and nothing else!! It is in the ground floor, close to the noisy restaurant and open to the inside road of the resort that gave a thoroughfare to the staff and guests thereby giving you almost no privacy or quietude! Although grandly called a ‘suite’, there is no tea counter, which means you are at the mercy of the cook at the restaurants for your early morning cuppa who turns up only after 7am. Sadly, by this time, you’d have long gone to the beach (Read: Why you will fall in love with the Ganapatipule Beach). The tea that you get upon your return, despite repeated requests to make it light and without milk, is so atrocious that you’d much rather go without it.
Worse was yet to come. While setting out for our tour of Ganapatipule ( Read: Sight-seeing in Ganapatipule) around 10 in the morning, I gave the keys at the front desk (as is usual) requesting house-keeping to clean up the rooms before we retuned in the evening. Well, you guessed it – when we came back tired around 5 that evening, the rooms were still not done. It took them another 20 minutes to send the cleaner for an extremely elementary sweep and scrub. No, he didn’t do the beds and the bathrooms too were as is. And they call this place ‘Resort & Spa’!
Food at the Abhishek Beach Resort & Spa is extremely basic. We had only our breakfasts there since it came in the package. Of the two days that we had breakfast there, one day had fruits, idlis and tea/coffee only, while the other day they had fruits, poha, missal pav and tea/coffee. You could order eggs on the table though. Even this would run out every 5 minutes. Clearly, they are not equipped to handle full house. Worse, a number of young guests turned up wet and full of sand straight from the beach, and the staff made no attempt to impress upon them to shower before hitting the breakfast table. Complete absence of civilities there. We’d hurry though our meal and get out quickly to save ourselves any further trauma…
Dinner, mind you, is extremely expensive there considering how poor their general upkeep is. On the first night we decided to have some drinks at their open deck before heading to Sameer (Read: Where & What to eat on a Ganapatipule Holiday) for dinner. The cost of a beer, a cocktail and two mocktails with a plate of 5-6 prawns was a whopping INR 1500! For a restaurant like that, this was high.
To sum up my review of Abhishek Resorts, avoid at all cost. Their only plus is, they are a 2-minute walk from the beach. Everything else, their food, house-keeping, general hospitality is very poor, and the crowd they attract, too, are the types who lack basic travel manners.
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Plan your Ganapatipule holiday with help from our detailed posts at — A Beach-Holiday in Ganapatipule (Maharashtra,India)
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