A unique place to stay in a most unusual but interesting town. The manager is extremely friendly and helpful and is full of information on the history of the mansion and other houses in town. Only part of this property is in use as a hotel with the remainder still used as a family home.

Even if you are not staying here it is worth stopping for lunch (you will need to phone ahead and book).

Chettinadu Mansion was built in 1902 till 1912 by Mr. Chandramouli’s grandfather and has about 100 rooms out of which 7 rooms are given for the guests. Entrance to his mansion is through a huge marriage hall with black and white Italian marbles, copper plated celing from England and the pillars of shining black marbles. The giant portraits of the Ancestors on the walls of this hall don’t go unnoticed. This hall is now converted for reception and dining purposes. On the either side of this hall is an identical dining area which reminds me of Bowling Alleys. One of them is now converted to museum and the other as a conference room. What really amazed me were the curtains to the huge windows. An old Chettinad sari was used as curtains but it still looked so elegant on those windows. After the marriage hall is first courtyard with iron pillars supporting the rooms on the first floor. Beautiful Athangudi tiles are seen in the inner courtyard floors.

All the 7 rooms are named after different persons in their family. We were given a room called 'Valli' which is supposed to be the best room available. It had a terrace, which gives a view of the other mansions surrounding. The hand painted wall inside the room looked like a tile and having a AC was just a bliss as the temperature was soaring. The bathroom was spacious and you will not miss observing a stool with a designed tile embedded in it. This royal home stay was restored by Mr. Chandramouli after his retirement. We got to meet his daughter Solai who is temporarily looking after the mansion as he is out of country. She was very friendly and gave us an overview of the mansion and has her own blog on Chettinad cookery (solaiachiskitchen.blogspot.com). We took her permission to see the remaining portion of the mansion where the access to guests is limited.

Food : They serve Chettinad cuisine for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I really felt they should have included more cuisines in breakfast and lunch as they charge exorbitantly high (Rs 500 for lunch per person).

Booking: They have their website and the staff is very friendly. Surprisingly they did not ask for an advance payment.

This is a very individual place to stay. We were welcomed by the owner and his son. They have restored the property to what seems very like original 1920's condition. The bedrooms are basic but comfortable and clean. They open onto veranda's overlooking an open courtyard. Dinner is served in this courtyard, which is open to the stars -makes for a magical experience. We were served a variety of small Chettinad dishes - no choice but all were delicious. All washed down with chilled Indian beer. A good place to stay for one night.

As Ianp1 says, this is all about the destination, not the hotel. I am guessing from the photos that we had the same room as he did.

The whole place is very clean, and although simple, a lot of thought has gone into doing it up. The décor in the room, whilst not to our taste, is pretty amazing – all that orange and green is hand-painted patterns that look like the type of tiles that may have been here originally.

There is now a phone in the room (old-fashioned style and apparently original). We had good supply of hot water at all times, and someone had thought to provide a pullout washing line in the room – the only one we saw in our whole trip. There was a kettle and tea and coffee making supplies in the room. Yes, the aircon was noisy, but there was mosquito netting over some of the windows, so you could leave them open at night instead of using aircon. Internet access was available via a computer in the reception area.

We found the food excellent of the ‘home cooked’ variety, and the staff keen to explain any dish that we wanted information about. Beer was available. Meals are served in the main hall, which also has a selection of coffee table books and comfortable chairs.

You are free to wander around the whole of the building and are likely to encounter the owner often. He is keen to explain his home and life to everyone (one of the magazine articles we read described him as a ‘dedicated talker’!).

There is a swimming pool here, although we didn’t even go and look at it.

There are a couple of push bikes (free) to enable you to cycle around the village and explore and we’d recommend you take full advantage of this – the whole place is like a ghost town. There are over 100 mansions in this small village alone.

The hotel will organize for someone to take you into a couple of other mansions, owned by a cousin of the owner of Chettinadu mansion. Or you can just turn up at the door of many – there are caretakers who look after the empty houses and supplement their income by letting tourists in and hoping for a tip at the end. Although the layout of all the palaces is very similar the décor and materials vary hugely.

The Raja’s Palace is right next door to Chettinadu Mansion but seems to have closed indefinitely (officially for restoration, but we were told there was a family dispute).

When deciding where to stay in Chettinad you need to think carefully about location – there aren’t many places available, but one or two of them are in Karraikkudi rather than out in the villages. We would have felt we had missed out if we had stayed in town. Wandering the village as it got dark, looking at these eerie great mansions, was a highlight.