I felt to also spend a few days in Varkala. I read about peaceful beaches and beautiful ocean views. So I searched for a nice hotel on Tripadvisor.
The Oceano seemed nice enough, especially it’s loft rooms with balcony and sea views. I saw ourselves sitting on our balcony, with a nice cool cocktail, watching the sunset over the ocean with the beach in front of us.
The room rates were quite high for Indian standards, but not crazy high, like the luxury resorts. So we booked and paid for three nights in advance.
The taxi ride from Kochi to Varkala was nerve wrecking It took us way longer then anticipated, due to all sorts of festivities along the way, due to heavy and slow traffic that we could not overhaul and due to enormous detours ordered by traffic police.
One good thing was, that we ran into an elephant temple festival. That was spectacular.
After 6 stressful hours, we arrived at the hotel at around 8 p.m. The last end of our journey led through small unlit paths and streets until we reached a door in an alley. We looked at each other like:”Is THIS it???”. Oops, not quite the first impression that we expected… But well, let’s see further. You have to give things a chance, right?
OK, I admit, we are quite the luxurious travelers nowadays. The days that I went camping without a dime are long gone.
So we are not used to backpacker-ish hotels and such. And the whole vibe here was definitely more backpacker, budget and ‘primitive’ then we expected, based on the description and on the room rates.
We were shown to our room. It was light and spacious. The bathroom was huge too. In the bathroom there was a tiny sink, a shower head and a small piece of soap. For the rest it was mainly…empty space. Quite…uh…. Spartan. Let’s call it that.
The room had a fan, which was by far not sufficient to fight of the heat on that day. We melted away!
But the biggest disappointment came when we stepped onto our balcony. Instead of looking at the sea, we looked at a sea of palm tree trunks and leafs. “Provides shade”, we were told. Ofcourse, I get that, but that’s not what I paid for.
I was quite upset, feeling guilty and responsible that I dragged Frits all the way here to this place.
But OK, “let’s have dinner and a drink first, maybe we will feel better after that and see the whole thing in a new light”, we said to each other.
So we went downstairs to have our dinner, being too tired to go out and look for a restaurant (nothing nearby).
There were nice details in the decor.
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| The restaurant. Semi-open. Simple; it could have been charming enough….but it wasn’t. |
At their restaurant we encountered disappointment after disappointment.
There were no fans or other forms of cooling, so while reading the menu, sweat literally dripped into my eyes.
There were several dishes with beef on the menu and I chose one of them. “Sorry, no beef today.”, said the one and only man working in the restaurant. He had no expression on his face and did not make eye contact. He seemed to be the waiter, cook and cleaner, all in one. Needless to say that even the simplest order took ages:-(.
Frits ordered a beer, thirsty after being the whole day in the car. “Sorry, no beer (or other nice drinks for that matter). You have to order it two hours in advance, so that we can go to a shop and get you one.” Oh, well how about a bottle of water then? After a while, a warmish bottle of water was placed on the table. “Sorry, but I would prefer it cooled.” “We don’t have cooled drinks. We can only give you ice cubes.” Oh, ok, that’s at least something…
Tears were welling up in my eyes; this was total crap!
We went to bed and after a very, very sweaty night, we went down for breakfast.
There was only wifi in the restaurant area, not in the rooms. Bummer!
The breakfast menu was quite extensive and there were several nice things on it. It even said: all day breakfast. So I ordered something. “Sorry, no a la carte breakfast during breakfast because then we (read: that same, one man) are too busy with breakfast.” WHAT?! That was insane. Mind you, our room still costed around 70 euros per night, which is not cheap for India.
So what DID they have for breakfast? Cappuccino? Noooooo! There was local (read crappy) coffee and tea, there was this same one guy standing behind a tiny stove with a tiny frying pan where you could order a tiny omelette. There was some bread and that was it.
For the Ayurvedic guests, (oh, did I forget to tell you?, this hotel is known for it’s ayurvedic treatments) there were series of yuk looking drinks lined up. They seemed very happy with that;-).
“OK”, we thought, “let’s have some rest and sunshine then.” We were told that there were a few sun beds on the grass next to the restaurant. You could ask for a yoga mat (of course;-)) to put on the chairs, plus a towel, and: happy sunbathing!
Look at these harsh rattan chairs. And the thin yoga mats. And there are no different positions possible for the backs of the chairs. No parasols either. You wanted to have a sunbath, didn’t you? Then burn, b*tch!
(No, nobody actually said that, but that’s how it felt…)
We lasted for about 20 minutes and gave up.
Yeah, I know, this is one whining, complaining post… Well, The Oceano deserves all of it, imho.
So allow me to whine a bit more;-)…
We decided to explore the beach, since The Oceano has it’s own beach.
The views from the hotel on the cliff, down to the beach and sea, are spectacular. What a totally magnificent, unspoiled, empty beach!!!
Did I say empty? Not completely. I see something down there on the beach. What is it?
There, about in the middle, near the rocks.
Can’t really see. Let’s zoom in…
Ofcourse, I could have guessed. One of these ayurvedic yoga peeps went down to the beach at the crack of dawn to stand on her head. Sure. Why not….
(Can you tell that I am not ‘into’ all that? What gave me away? Hahaha…)
Sorry, folks, nothing personal. It’s just not my thing.
Time to check out that paradise stretch of beach ourselves.
There are steps carved out in the rocks. And of we went. And it was hot. And it was steep. And did I mention it was hot? And steep?
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| Taking breaks here and there, in order to prevent overheating. |
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| Halfway we came across this small mosaic pond/pool that could have been lovely and refreshing. But that was in a state of neglect instead. What a shame! |
Due to the extreme heat it was a real heavy climb down.
Look, there are at least two to three people on the beach;-)!
No, honest is honest…that beach and sea are beautiful.
We finally arrived on the beach.
Beautiful, check. Empty, check.
But I mean really empty. No chairs or parasols, no drinks or food…absolutely nothing. Sigh.
Now what?
Frits went into the sea. The waves were quite high and there was a strong undercurrent there. So he did not go deep or far.
I stood on the beach and watched Frits. Staring at my toes and feeling bored and uncomfortable.
Maybe I sound like a spoiled brad, but I don’t think I am. I don’t need a five star experience, a butler nor expensive cocktails. But my days of vacationing on a shoestring are over. The least I would like is a sun bed, a parasol, something to eat and something to drink. That’s all. Give me that and I am one happy gal for hours and hours.
After half an hour we decided to climb the stairs back up. My god, we both felt our knees and calfs still for days after the climb. So we were supposed to do this all the time? I don’t think so!
I had spoken to one of the managers who turned out to be a dutch lady. What a coincidence! I complained about the room and there were the tears again. Verbally she responded in a constructive way, saying that she had a room on a higher floor, where the view was less bothered by the trees. We could move in there later that day. Although she tried not to show it, it was clear to me that she was annoyed by me and my complaints. I am quite sensitive and pick up other’s sentiments (all too) well.
All in all the staff was not really personal, friendly or accommodating to us.
It was just too much and I realized that if we wanted to change hotels, that we should not waste any time.
After some googling we discovered a far better hotel nearby the Oceano. And they had a room for us!!!
We told the staff at the Oceano that we were checking out. One of the men tried to persuade us to stay in a supposedly more suitable room. The dutch lady avoided us at all cost. She could not be bothered.
There was no understanding for our disappointment, no attempt to please us, no refund. No, we were asked to pay the full three days right away. Too bad, but all we wanted was leave, so we paid. I think we never packed our bags faster then there and then. We were almost running away.
A couple of hours later, sitting on our fresh (!) balcony with ocean views (!) in the other hotel, all stress fell from us and we could finally start to enjoy Varkala.
Really, folks, this was the lousiest hotel with the worst service that we had in all India, so DON’T GO to the Oceano. It is totally overpriced on top of all that.
Having said that, there clearly is a sort of people that love it there. I mentioned them before: often older, ‘ayurvedic’ yoga-ish westerners. Into soul-searching and body-cleansing. Looking for solitude and kindred spirits.
Still, I am sure that also for them, there are hotels and resorts that offer that for a much better price.
So, what do you think about The Oceano? Would you have liked it? Is it your cup of tea? Have you ever been disappointed in a hotel and left although you already paid? What was your worst hotel experience?
What a horrible experience! I just hate paying good money for crap.
That said, the beach looks amazing. Although I do need a good parasol I prefer unspoiled beaches without people or any of the stuff that goes with them.
bisous
Suzanne
I agree with you, Suzanne. Ideally my beach would be empty (private;-)), but with every possible comfort: nice sun-bed, parasol, butler service with cooled drinks, towels, etc. But just a sun-bed and parasol would be a great start. We can bring our own cooled drinks;-).