Last week, I did a quick trip to Ooty, and I stayed at the Sterling Fern Hill Resort. I had a great time there, and would like to share my experience of the place and our trip with you.
Sterling Fern Hill Resort is a very picturesque property nestled amidst the green fern plants, and overlooks the Lovedale valley.
We arrived tired and exhausted early morning via bus from Bangalore landing at the bus station in the center of the town. I wasn't too thrilled about having to change buses and take another bus ride to the resort. Thankfully, the resort is only about 15 mins from the bus stand (about 3 km from the bus stand), and 2 km from the train station. It's pretty amazing that such a gorgeous place is so close to the hustle and bustle of the town.
As soon as we arrived, we were presented with a refreshing hot lemon drink. Check in was also super-quick and super-easy. Within minutes, I was oohing and aahing at our room and the views from our room.
After a much-needed hot shower, we headed to the restaurant to have the first of many meals there.
Which brings me to the food.
The Food
I absolutely loved the multi-cuisine restaurant that offered a range of fare from traditional pan-Indian to Continental delights, to the most marvelous high tea, all accompanied by lovely views of the property. Here are a few photos of the restaurant.
I loved this outdoorsy dining area for the breakfast where we could see the dew over the hills slowly lift. It was a pretty magical sight.
We ate lunch and dinner inside where it was warmer and cozier, and also closer to the buffet, so we could just burn minimum calories while we waddled for second and even third helpings. Yes, the food was that good!
Eeps, did I just take only dessert photos? I promise you there was a lot of other food. I loved their crispy dosas for morning brekkie, their continental and North Indian offerings for lunch, and I really, really loved an amazing pan-Asian veg sesame noodles for dinner.
The Amenities
Apart from great food and great rooms, Sterling Holidays also has plenty of amenities to take care of your entertainment while in the resort. The resort offers spa treatments, activities for the kids, tight-rope walking, archery, and other such fun things for the entire family.
In addition, every evening they plan some group entertainment.
One night, they arranged some local village tribes to come and dance with us in front of a roaring bonfire.
The dancers were from the Toda tribe. We had met up with them earlier in the day when we visited their village (fodder for another blog post). Their chanting and dance steps were so hypnotic, soon we were swaying and stamping our feet along with them.
My favorite moments while in the resort was while walking through their beautiful gardens chatting to the gardener. They had their own organic kitchen garden, and the gardener was kind enough to take us around the place and explain the various plants to us.
I know next to nothing about gardening, or plants. I have managed to kill every plant I acquire, but still I love the beauty of a well-planned garden, and the one at Sterling Fern Hill Resorts was one of them.
Entertainment
Sterling Resorts also help you to plan your sight-seeing trips. Just approach them and they will plan out something interesting and out-of-the-way for you. During our stay, we went with their staff to visit a local tribal village (the village of the Toda dancers mentioned above).
We also did some standard tea and chocolate factory outings.
The second day was the most magical where we were taken on a toy train ride from Ooty to Coonoor, and then given a sumptuous picnic on a lovely hilltop with tea plantations all around us. I am going to talk about both these experiences in another post, but leaving a couple of photos here to emphasize what a great experience this was.
The views from the train and at the picnic location were just out of this world.
The Sterling folks also took us to a secondary property they have in Ooty for some excellent tea and nibbles - The Sterling Elk Hill Resort (sorry, actually no elks here). This was even bigger and better than the one we stayed at, with amazing views of Ooty town.
All the food was made with vegetables grown within the property.
Last Thoughts
I came away pretty impressed by their properties and their hospitality. The place felt like home, and the staff were so friendly and helpful. I just needed to ask about something and the staff would take me to what I was looking for. Food and rooms were also top-notch.
The resort is perfect for family get-togethers, and work offsites (they have conference halls and pre-function spaces). You can even have a nice destination wedding there.
Booking details:Earlier I was under the impression that you can stay at Sterling Resorts only if you are a member paying annual fees. No, that's not the case.
You can book rooms at any Sterling property as a member, as a guest, or as an event organizer. Just visit their website to learn more about all their properties in India, and booking details.
Hope you enjoyed this post about our stay at Sterling Fern Hill Resort in Ooty. If you have any questions or need further details, leave them in the comments pod below, or send me an email, and I will get back to you.
