Fragrant Nature Backwater Resort & Ayurveda Spa Kollam

Beautiful natural environment, very well maintained environment. Super nice staff, delicious kitchen, beautiful sunset point, very good play-room, nice walks around, complimentary fishing activities, comfy and spacious rooms (we had villa), very good spa and Ayurveda treatments.

Unfortunately the swimming pool was a bit old already when we came there, but the resort is planning to renew it this or the next year. Be careful while swimming there, you might cut your foot on the broken tiles.

This is a nice resort for a traveller spending two or three nights on his/her journey along the Kerala Coast. It has cottages built in traditional architecture located at the backwaters with views across Mangrove forests. The staff including the manager were very friendly and always helpful. We really enjoyed the food and the the service in the restaurant.

We travelled all the way from Australia to get a genuine experience of Ayurveda in it's country of origin, Kerala. There was some email exchange with the resort making sure we really would get panchakarma (intense multiple week ayurvedic treatment. We are both life long medical professionals (physician, nurse) and had some first hand experience in being treated with Ayurvedic Medicine as well as some knowledge about it's principles. We booked then 2 weeks at Fragrant Nature Backwater Resort & Ayurveda Spa Kollam. Our first meeting on day one with the resort's ayurvedic doctor was very disappointing. He consulted both of us in one go over about 10 minutes in total. He did not explain his treatment plan. Whereas the treatment started straight away we were quite puzzled when the massagist made lengthy calculations about the pricing prior to the procedure and got us both to sign it off. We were genuinely shocked about what we were charged, approximately $100 to $120 per single treatment. This is the price level charged in Australia where much higher wages are common than in India. I found myself in a position to teach the ayurvedic doctor about the way panchakarma is performed, namely bodily treatment (various massages and oil applications, on which the team was entirely focused), special diet (Kitchary with herbs for cleansing, we never got this even though we repeatedly asked for it) and herbal medication (which was given in an overlay simplistic way and not matching with our health). As I was unsure whether I see things wrong I went after three days into town to ask another ayurvedic doctor for his opinion. He confirmed to me that the treatment we received did not match the standards. We both stopped further massages after a few days as we could not feel any "well being". We increasingly felt that this was an utter waste of time and money. As we had 9 days left on our non-refundable booking at the resort we started getting very bored.

The resort is in beautiful setting surranded with lake, well manageded, the staff is really careful for guests. I like the garden and calm of backwaters nature. The food was fine with variety of dishes.

In general all was fine. I would suggest to management to make small improvement of food presention. All the rest was excellent.

The grounds! They are just idyllic! Stunning gardens teeming with wildlife and beautiful birds and butterflies. The swimming pools is lovely, a nice temperature and covered by towering bamboos

Everything. The beautiful location, the lovely grounds, the bamboo shaded swimming pool, the sunsets and the daily twilight spectacle of hundreds of flying foxes passing overhead to their nocturnal fruit feast. The friendly and efficient staff for whom nothing was too much trouble, chef Ashok's delicious food and the peace, quiet and natural beauty all around. The afternoon spent on the hotel boat watching the local snake boat races.

Leaving. But all beng well, we will be back next year.

Breakfast was nice but they were mainly south indian food. may be a more varied option for non indians would be more appriciated.

The property is in a secluded location with no other food options nearby. The restaurant closes around 3pm until dinner. So if you miss lunch, you have to stay hungry until dinner. I think the restaurant should operate during the whole day if not 24 hours or the resort can provide menus for outside places from where one can order.