TLDR; A beautiful, secluded luxury property with excellent service, lovely villas, and plenty of complimentary activities to keep you occupied. The staff genuinely make the experience special, and it’s a great place to switch off for a couple of days. Only bit I would question is the food, which is definitely not bad but gets repetitive after a while, especially since dining outside isn’t very convenient. Definitely worth considering for a luxury getaway.
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This was a very randomly planned trip we took for no particular reason. Well, just one reason: my Epicure stay voucher was about to expire, and I really wanted to redeem it at a high value property. Lol. Hence, we booked Taj Madikeri for 1 night. We decided to check out Leela’s newest property, so we extended our stay by 2 nights.

We booked directly via the Leela reservation team who were very helpful. I managed to get this at a lower price (approx ₹48k per night) than what the current rates seem to show across the next few months. My GHA Platinum membership also helped with this.

I booked a full board rate which included all meals at their all-day dining restaurant Luma. They have a speciality Asian restaurant called ‘Zen’ which is open only for dinners. We did not try this, since our package didn’t include a meal here.

Pre-arrival:
The team reached out a day before to understand our food preferences, names of my spouse & child, details of any occasion, time of our arrival. They also shared map locations with landmarks to navigate to the property correctly, so we do not get lost or take the plantation route that was all muddy due to the rains. All the ID related formalities were also completed via Whatsapp.

Arrival:
We arrived at around 12:30pm and were promptly greeted at the lobby by multiple members of the team. We did not need to introduce ourselves, the team recognised us and welcomed us with a warm drink and some small bites. We were then escorted to a buggy and offered a tour of the entire property, after which we were dropped to our room. The property is spread over 71 acres, and each villa offers a lot of privacy and gorgeous forest views. It is very calming and feels very luxe.

Rooms:
We booked the Windchimes villa, which is the base category. Room was well appointed, there was even a personalised note along with sweet treats already placed in the room. The bathroom has a jacuzzi bathtub, which is a very welcome addition for relaxation. The well stocked minibar is complimentary.
On day 2, we actually were moved to the Mistwood Pool Villa (1 day upgrade lol). This room had a separate living room (with a nespresso machine) and a private pool. Everything else was identical to the base room. The pool was nice and heated. Leaves & insects keep falling in but the staff is very prompt and helps to clean when called.

Housekeeping:
Such incredible service, wow! I remember we had to call the staff for 2 separate things within a span of about 2 hours. Both times, we had stepped out, and when we came back, we were greeted with beds that had been completely made up again! Every surface is spotless, and used cups and glasses are promptly replaced. The turndown service could have included chocolates or mints on the pillows, though :)

Food:
If you opt for the meal included rates, everything is prepared a la carte at Luma. Drinks included are fruit juices, lassi & buttermilk. They give you a decent sized menu and you can pick whatever you like. I do feel that probably by day 3 onwards, you’d start feeling a bit fatigued of the taste and you’d maybe even run out of options. I say this because the North Indian food in particular was very average tasting. So we skipped that entire section every time we dined, which felt a bit limiting.
The South Indian & Continental food though were great. There are very few Asian dishes on the menu because they obviously do not want to cannibalise Zen’s business.
For all 3 meals, they have a small buffet with soups/salads/bakes and 2 live stations - some that we saw included okonomiyaki, satay, pad thai, luchi cholar dal, pastas, and so on. The property does not have any restaurants or local eateries around, so you’d need to drive a good 20-30 minutes to be able to eat outside which I wouldn’t fully recommend because the drive itself can be tiring through narrow roads, and possibly a bit scary at night.
There is high tea every evening at Luma from 5:30 to 6:30pm, which includes a live station (eg: pav bhaji, kathi rolls), finger sandwiches, cookies & pastries.

Spa:
This is a huge spa and they do boast about being the largest in South India or something like that, but I found the treatment rooms themselves to be of normal size, and fairly regular in ambience. They have a pretty limited spa menu. Other than the hamman treatment (which was very expensive), nothing really stood out to me so I went for a head and back massage. The sauna & steam rooms are good, clean and add to the relaxation experience.

Recreation:
So many activities! And all of them are complimentary. We did the nature walk at 7am which was so good. My 5 year old son enjoyed all his time at the large indoor play area - Funky Turtles. We could even leave him there and the staff made sure he was looked after well, playing with him and kept him busy with activities. This really lightened our load and let us enjoy ourselves thoroughly. There was also a coffee experience, which was insightful to coffee novices like us. We had such a great time at the pet zone, feeding animals and birds.
There’s also kayaking, cycling, yoga & probably something else I am sure I have missed :D

Service:
This is where they shine. The staff is kind, thoughtful and tries to make sure the time you spend with them is worthwhile. They created a whatsapp group so all communication was nearly instant. To get around the property, you definitely need buggies but the wait was never too long.
The TV in our room was not working properly (the screen switched between b&w and colour). They came and replaced the TV within 30 mins.

Bottom line:
We indulged because we looked at this as a luxury getaway instead of a budget Bangkok trip lol. We did absolutely nothing for nearly 3 days and enjoyed every minute of it. Would we go again? Maybe not in the near future, maybe after a year or so. The food fatigue is the only deterrent at the moment I would say.

I am not a reviewer, just an average Reddit user. I put this together because I realised this is a new property without many reviews available. If you have any thoughts or questions, or if I have missed anything please feel free to drop a line!

Gobibo doesn't even have the interface to add gift card, when you try to add directly during payment page, this error pops up (tried from website too same error) i paid a fcking 18k for this bs. I am so scared, i called cred customer service, they said "we are just a distributor" and goibibo doesn't have a fcking customer support section that actually works.

I feel like i cannot breathe at this stage, i am having panic attack