Ameya Kerala

Beautiful hotel, special location on the lake. Good food. Very unpleasant experience with one member of staff. A senior gentleman who was extremely rude to us about checking out. Shouting at my travel companion 10 minutes before agreed departure time. The atmosphere became very tense and unpleasant. It was totally out of place and unexpected.

We arrived to large wooden gates and we were not prepared for what was behind as we entered . There are beautiful gardens and a stunning view over the lake both from the communal areas and the rooms. The communal areas are beautifully decorated with Kerala artwork Food is exceptional and we had the best pakora we’ve ever had in India Anish, Nataraja and their team very helpful and always on hand to assist We had a good massage at the in house spa They arranged a sunset trip on the backwaters a magical experience We truly fell in love with Ameya a truly wonderful experience Thank you for making our stay so special

Hidden Gem that you CANNOT miss!!!! Absolutely incredible stay. This place is such a hidden gem. You simply cannot visit Kerala without staying here. All of the staff were so sweet and accommodating. The amenities were incredible.

Pluses 1. Location is great 2. Very large rooms and a big Veranda to enjoy a nice dinner or early morning sunrise 3. A nice library with good books 4. Courteous staff. Minus - 1. Need some better maintenance especially of the furniture in Veranda area. 2. Better food options and especially during night request pantry to be open till atleast 9. 3. As the cottages are in middle of nature need better pest control especially inside of cottages.

This place is magical. We spent five incredibly relaxing days here for an extended family holiday with six adults and four children. The rooms and communal spaces are beautifully done, the gardens are lovely and there’s a stunning view over the lake- from your private terrace or from the pool. The food (we chose to have many variations of extremely local fish and vegetables) is fantastic. Most of all though it’s the staff who really make the experience memorable. Anish, the manager, and his team are warm and welcoming, never intrusive and, if you’re curious, full of insights into Keralan life. If we could go back to Ameya tomorrow, we all would.

Things got off to a bad start. We arrived at about 4.30 pm. We waited a long time in the sun outside the locked gate and then check-in seemed to take an eternity. When we at last reached the room, we found it swelteringly hot, as no one had bothered to turn on the AC. The room only finally reached an acceptable temperature in the early hours of the morning! They said that they hadn’t turned it on because we hadn’t replied to their message, asking what time we planned to arrive. This was unsurprising as their WhatsApp text (sent a few hours earlier when we were on the move) only came through when we connected to the hotel WiFi. Like most foreign travellers we only have data access when there is WiFi, so to message us in this way at the last minute was not very imaginative. The room – the Shanti Lake View Villa – had looked delightful on the website but is showing signs of unattended wear and tear almost everywhere you look. The twin beds were agreeably big but firm to the point of being a bit unforgiving. The pillowcases on the spare pillows in the wardrobe looked dirty. The safe was locked on arrival, so we just hid our valuables. Normally we would have called someone over but there are no telephones to speak to reception and we had already made enough trips to and fro to deal with other issues. The location and views of the lake are delightful and the gardens at least are well maintained. We had a pleasant swim in the good-sized pool. They wanted to serve us dinner at 7 pm but we insisted on deferring this to 7.30. Likewise they wanted to make us wait until 8.30 am for breakfast but we pushed this to 8. Their whole regime seems geared to giving the staff a 12 hour break, rather than giving guests a good experience! Meals were served on a private covered deck outside the villa which was a nice concept but the fan overhead was tiny and totally inadequate for its purpose. They were obviously hoping that we would make do with paper napkins already put out on the table but these had all blown around the decking. Eventually they produced some cloth ones that matched the place mats but again they couldn’t be bothered to bring these until asked. We were disappointed to be told that dinner would be just a main course and dessert, with no starter. The menu in the room showed a selection of soups and starters so it was difficult to see why this couldn’t be offered, even at an extra charge. It seemed once again that they just couldn’t be bothered. The food itself was pretty mediocre and the rice chapati-style bread (I couldn’t catch the name) which they served to address my gluten-free requirement was disgusting, tasting powdery and uncooked. (The same item subsequently tasted across the water at Vismaya was excellent, so it wasn’t just a matter of it being an acquired taste.) It was disappointing that they had red wine but no white. They told us that white was unobtainable. However, nearby Vismaya the following evening did have white because the