Review of Sterling Kodaikanal Resort

I highly recommend this family resort and you will know why in this review of Sterling Kodaikanal Resort, also known as Sterling “Kodai by the Lake”. It is one of Sterling’s oldest resort but let that not deter you, as it is a beautiful property, very well maintained, good kids activity area, a nice play area outside and inside (both of which my kids were really fond of) and overall a good fun experience especially if you’re traveling with large families with kids and grandparents included.
Placed over sloping hillside, the resort is spread over almost 7 Acres.

The Sterling Kodaikanal resort is not as large as their Ooty resorts, but we liked it better than the Ooty ones (there are two in Ooty Elk Hill and Fern Hill). A large activity centre was helpful to keep the kids busy in case you’re grounded (as we were for one day due to the Cauvery dispute bandh and guess what, we had a Karnataka number plate zoom car in TN).
The Sterling Kodaikanal resort is surely amongst Kodaikanal best family resorts and one of the best hotels in Kodaikanal for family.

This post covers

• Location
• Facilities and Amenities
• Room
• Restaurants
• Service
• Cost for 2 Night Stay
• Rating on Travel forums
  

LOCATION:

At about 15 minutes driving distance, it is very close to the city center or the 2 roads that make up the major market food street of Kodaikanal.The road leading upto the resort is quite drivable and not narrow thus making it easy to drive even at night timeThe whole road is well lit up and Google maps works perfect in all parts of Kodaikanal

FACILITIES AND AMENITIES:

There is a nice outdoor play area for children complete with slides. Suited for kids as young as 2 years and all the way upto 8yrs or more. In a nice green lawn, its a great idea to spend a lazy sunny morning or an evening with chai and pakora which are served by the hotel. Comfortable seating options for adults are also there next to the play area to ensure some downtime while watching the kids.

For more ideas on recommended restaurants in Kodaikanal, be sure to check out this post.

Indoor play area
Largely meant for infants and toddlers, its complete with a mini slide, balancers, a mini basket ball net and balls strewn around

Activity Room for kids and adults
The activity center is accessible by stairs from the reception and there is a craft table right at the entrance to greet and entice the young ones. Each of the craft activities is priced within the range of INR 300 – INR 800.  There is usually at all times, a person to guide you and the kids about the entire activity center activities, pricing and timings. There is also an adjoining multimedia hall (to have small music parties) and a game room complete with a whole host of board games, lego blocks for juniors, and indoor games like carrom and chess.

Paint dart boards and a few other games are also arranged for at the entrance lawns and are usually available for most part of the morning and evening (when guests are expected to spend time in the resort)

There are other outdoor seating areas where resort restaurant team puts up a temporary chai pakoda stall. It is on a chargeable basis and a good idea for misty and chilly evenings

ROOMS:
We stayed in a cottage which had 2 bedrooms, a kitchen and a living room
It was spacious and well done up for a holiday rental. If you have a large group or traveling with extended families, this will prove to be one of Kodaikanal’s best family resorts.
In terms of amenities, the cottages are somewhere in between a studio and a hotel room. An electric kettle, a small fridge, plates and  a large salad bowl was provided. We had bought fruits along our drive from Ooty to Kodi and the salad bowl was useful in washing and soaking the grapes.
Very clean and working washrooms, provided with toilet rolls and basic hand wash and body wash.

They still have a long way to compete with Mahindra Resorts which are more in the 4star + category. But considering the value for money aspect, I would peg them higher. If you’re looking for best hotels in Kodaikanal for family, you could check hotel options on Tripadvisor or Hotels.com. AirBnB are still not so popular in these cities at the time of writing this blog.

RESTAURANTS:

All of Kodaikanal best family resorts or the best hotels in kodaikanal for a family will have one thing in common: amazing breakfast and buffet lunch/dinner spread. They will make sure, that no matter how fussy an eater your child is, you can find something healthy to fill them up.
If you have a fussy toddler, make sure to look at this post on managing food with them.
There was a single restaurant which served the buffet breakfast in the morning and doubled up as their all day dining place serving ala carte lunch and dinner.
The chefs made great curry and appams, and even North Indian food. The service in the restaurant was about average.
The restaurant has both an indoor and outdoor seating area
During breakfast there was a good selection of fresh juices, bakery, dips, yogurt, fresh local seasonal fruits and a wide choice of dishes. Most of the good resorts and hotels in India offer a wide selection in their breakfast buffet and Sterling was no exception.

SERVICE:
Since most of the people staying in Sterling resort are the ones with the Sterling membership of vacation rentals, the focus on service is not exemplary. There is a nothing needs to urgent attitude across the staff and that goes quite ok since its a leisure resort.

• Room service takes time since it’s a resort. Expect 20mins minimum for a basic order (milk for kids). We never ordered any meal in the room so not sure about that
• A very helpful staff otherwise, who gave us useful inputs during the day of bandh (Cauvery dispute)
• We even got baby tupperware washed and sterlized and it was prompty done
• Service is the restaurant is equally slow as one time we waited for over 20 minutes for just 1 cup of hot milk.
• The rooms were cleaned and made every morning.

COST FOR 2 NIGHT STAY:

• We had used the extra nights that one of our family members had as a member of Sterling vacation rental plan.
• The charges we had to pay was the utility and room maintenance charges (INR 1900/day) and extra charges for any services and meals we availed
• Breakfast was on a chargeable basis too and any other meals that we ate at the restaurant or food (milk) that we ordered in our room

RATINGS:
Its ranked at #15 or 86 hotels in Kodaikanal and rated at 4.0 with 549 reviews.