Cherai Beach Retreat

The location opposite from the beach was amazing and not too far from restaurants !

Nothing

Excellent location just across the beach. Lots of beds and entire villa to ourselves

Bathrooms were clean but need maintenance. One good bedroom does not have attached bath which is in convenient.

Privicy

Shibu met us at the property on arrival. He was very helpful in showing us around and he had left fruit and biscuits for us, lots of bottled water, and he encouraged us to text him to order tuk-tuks and taxis when needed. The location was great, just over the road from the beach. It was a very low cost accommodation. There was a nice balcony on the upper floor. There were two bicycles which we used a couple of times, which allowed us to explore locally; one had no working brakes but we didn't go fast enough for that to be a problem! It was easy to get transport to local restaurants. There was a kettle, which many places don't have. As well as the beach, it was easy to get to the backwaters behind the property, by bike. These are large connecting naturally occurring lakes with beautifully tranquil views of coconut groves and more water! Lots of birds to see; very flat for cycling, safe cycling on the smaller lanes and the road nearest to, and parallel to the beach. Lots of small roadside cafes selling local food, a few up-scale places that sell beer and other alcoholic drinks. Some good fish dishes in the restaurants. About 35 mins by Tuk Tuk to the ferry to take you to Cochin, the capital of Kerala. There you can get a Tuk Tuk tour of the major sites (churches, temples, museums, etc) which we really loved.

We felt disappointed that what we read (3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms) was in fact 3 bedrooms, one bathroom, an outside toilet whose door never shut, an upstairs toilet approached via outdoor staircase, and one room next to the outside toilet which had a tap but no basin/sink. The level of cleanliness was also difficult to contend with. We wiped down shelves in bedrooms to allow us to put our stuff on them, but the inside of drawers, kitchen cupboards, etc had not been cleaned for ages, if ever. Most of the little cutlery was rusted, none of the knives cut anything. There are quite a few dogs around. They aren't owned by anyone, they live and roam around without causing problems, except from a dog-poo point of view, and for us, we were a little put off by the dogs following us to the property and staying outside, waiting for us to come out again. The landlord Shibu explained they were friendly and had previously been fed and liked by other guests but even so, we were not enamoured.

The owner was attentive he looked after everything even brought me breakfast daily o couldn’t of been more spoiled or cared for if I was a princess…I will return in march just to see that wonderful person it was a magical stay

Nothing negative to say