Just when you think “how can this crowded noisy street be the location of a huge old world heritage building” and maybe your driver made a mistake…the gates open up—and the charm of Villa Pottipati hits you.
The atmosphere here is laid-back and elegant—lots of space, and a marvellous landscaped garden with an ancient shivalinga tree. This is the place to come to with large families. It also promises to be a great getaway for couples in Bangalore or even the lone business traveller wanting a quiet homely escape from hi-rise office buildings and stressful meetings.
There are 8 beautifully appointed rooms to choose from. Dining is in a cosy open air restaurant under the trees.
Walking around the large central hall, seeing old family photographs and quaint art on the walls will add hours of enjoyment to your stay. Plenty of garden area to walk or kids to play about in.
Pottipati’s biggest SRT practice is heritage preservation—giving guests a taste of fine living and dining. Here tourists learn to appreciate the value of an old family inheritance – in a city known for its hi-tech and high pressure atmosphere.
Stay
All rooms are named after popular types of sarees from India. There are 8 rooms in all to choose from.
Each one is well appointed with decorative antique dark-wood 4-poster beds, and Indian fabrics – only cottons are used. They are all fairly large rooms that can easily accommodate a family. It is an ideal ‘grandma’s house in the village nearby’ – for those who want a quick two day holiday. There are large common spaces for kids to play around. Games like Dumb Sharades and Pictionary can be real fun here.
Kanchipuram is a large luxurious suite with a huge bathroom, and an inviting bathtub. It has a great view of the garden outside. Rajadurga is another luxury suite that can easily house three single beds. It has a cosy anteroom and a pretty private sit-out. The best bit about Pochampalli is that it has an enormous bed! There is direct access to the veranda.Venkatagiri is has an unusual saree-décor giving the room a special charm. Its comfy couch can turn into a baby bed. Gadwal is a cosy suite with a mezzanine. Kota Masuria is done up in peppy shades of orange and exudes warmth. Anekal is relatively small, gives you a view of the garden restaurant. Kalamkari – a single room right off the veranda has a very interesting shower cubicle!
The reception area is a very large central hall: displaying the historic and cultural significance of this Villa. Plenty of old family portraits to see while you check in! Lest you miss out little details like the large brass vessels in the corners holding lush green plants. They were utensils used for cooking in the massive kitchen.
A large bowl of pink Shivalinga flowers from the ancient tree outside fill the air with gentle fragrance. The Shivalinga tree has a traditional significance and even today Vidya (the owner) is very protective and possessive about it.
Dine
Dining is always under a large canopy of trees. Behind the house, small neatly laid out tables are scattered, with a splendid barn door as a backdrop, where one expects a horse and carriage to drive out any time…
Breakfast is always continental- bread, eggs and fruit juices.
Lunch and dinner are really exciting. They have different vegetarian and non-vegetarian menus for every day of the week! The spread is a mix of French and Indian fare. The soups and salads are delightful – big hits being crème of potato leek soup, crème of roast pumpkin and the crème of prawn and chicken soup. If you get lucky you might have vegetable quiche or zucchini with mayonnaise. French main dishes are a wide range starting from King fish with almond, orange sauce to that Neemrana staple – Saffron Prawns. For the vegetarians there are the colourful north Indian items dished out of the kitchen – panner butter masala (cottage cheese in gravy), brinjal varrutta curry (eggplant curry),kadai chicken curry, prawn masala to go with rotis or rice!
Top it all up with rice kheer (pudding), fruits with sweet cream or grilled pears with ice-cream. The chocolate and lemon mousses are simply heavenly!
For ‘local street eating walk 5 minutes towards the market place and eat the most divine ‘masala dosa’ (flavoured rice pancake) at CTR tiffin room. Top it up with a hot cup of filter coffee – the south Indian way!
Walking around the garden, admiring the ancient Shivalinga tree, as well as the many flowering plants planted by the family generations ago, can be pleasant and relaxing.
You can swim in the private swimming pool—an unusual feature in a homestay of this kind.
Lovely nooks to catch up on reading. The veranda has many magazines and books too.
Inside the house, there is a collection of unusual art on the walls—many by the current owner’s artistic daughter.
If you are new to Bangalore, you can do sight seeing tours to Bangalore and shop for your pals back home!
The greatest attraction is the “our own family holiday home” atmosphere it exudes. Named after the village from where the Reddy family (owners of this house) come from, this old colonial style building, with a huge expanse of gardens, interesting trees for kids to climb, even has its own private pool to have a relaxing dip.
Many organically grown fruit trees fill the garden and their fresh healthy produce is served to guests. There are Avacado, Jackfruit, Mango and Sapota trees here as well many coconut trees which serve fresh coconut water to guests.
Like all other Neemrana’s, they have solar heating and CFL bulbs for the whole property. They use only cotton and natural materials as linen, and have a request for every guest in his room to reuse towels to save water. The staff is also trained to reduce wastage as much as possible. Bathrooms are designed with water saving fittings. Gray water is recycled to water the gardens and rain water is harvested.
Even though the staff is drawn from leading hotel management schools, they have been trained to give visitors a ‘homely’ flavour to their hospitality. Watch out for Linil’s charming smile and superb service!
On the day of this review, it was heartening to hear plans being finalised for an exciting day out for a dozen kids from an orphanage –Love In Action Children’s Home—who would be spending Valentines Day here, as a special treat from Pottipati Villa. The Villa also hosts special parties for visiting corporates including dressing up foreign guests in Indian wedding clothes just for an unusual tourist experience to take back home. This enhances the ‘old Indian heritage homestay experience’ that this villa is all about.
What’s Hot!
- Quiet oasis amidst the busy city of Bangalore.
- Swimming in the house’s own private pool.
- Cosy rooms with ‘old-world atmosphere’—decorative 4 poster beds and antique dark-wood furniture.
- Good outdoor dining—good choice of Indian and Continental.
What’s Not!
- Located far away from heart of city, businesses and places of interest
- Not an interactive place for guests to understand their conservation and eco-friendly practices.
Ideal For Whom
Best for families—this will seem like your own family home, not at all like a hotel.
The hurried business traveller will find this such a ‘different’ place to return to, every evening. A small conference room allows such guests to call business partners over for a meeting. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend anything official here though! You could come here for birthdays and wedding day celebrations and such family occasions.
When To Visit
Open throughout the year—as Bangalore’s climate is welcoming no matter when you choose to come here! The winters in November and December are a bit harsh and dry. The rains are during June July but that is not really too much of a problem because Pottipati is a place where you mostly stay indoors.
How Many Days
2 days would be ideal. It is a good relaxing stopover before you move on to the rest of Karnataka State.
Things To Bring
Swimwear and books! There will be plenty of time to catch up on reading. Insect repellents, although they do provide anti-mosquito measures. Light woollens during winters would be useful.
Villa Pottipati is a usual Neemrana product and sits right in the middle of noisy Bangalore offering peace and leisure.
Bangalore is accessible easily by air, road and railways. The airport is an international airport serving caterers from all over the world.
To get to the villa is quite easy. Malleshwaram is a very famous area, which any local taxi service provider will know. Ask for KC hospital there, the driver will take you via Malleshwaram circle towards KC Hospital. Take a right near the hospital and the second left is 8th Cross street. Villa is right there.
Mrs Vidyalatha Reddy can be described with many of the adjectives of the Villa itself: gracious, an old-world charm–and not to mention, so well preserved! Vidya resisted many tempting offers to tear down her family home and build multistoreyed structures, as she was moving to stay with her three children in New York. Vidya strongly felt that her growing grandchildren needed some firm roots of an ‘old ancestral home’ to return to every year in India…and Neemrana Hotels’ offer to take over this grand old home and run it as a hotel with little to change its look and feel, appealed to her emotional connect with Villa Pottipati. Vidya is proud that her talented artist daughter’s batik paintings adorn the wall, and has interesting stories of the grand weddings that took place here (old cooking brass vessels now hold plants!) Vidya comes here once every year–largely to supervise her old gardener over maintaining her beloved Shivalinga Tree, and to plant fresh flowering saplings in the garden.
