Coorg, the enchanting land of the Kodavas, is a gem tucked away in Karnataka’s southwest corner. This green haven in the Western Ghats is pure magic, with misty hills layered endlessly and the lushest landscapes you can imagine. The drive from Bangalore to Coorg is a journey in itself—starting with the plains of the Deccan Plateau, then winding through bamboo thickets, and forests filled with sandalwood, rosewood, and teak. Our stay was at Palace Estate in Kakkabe, about 20 km from the nearest town of Virajpet. It was everything you'd dream of in a nature retreat: hills on all sides, gardens blooming with colorful flowers, an avocado tree or two, sprawling coffee plantations, and even a private waterfall! This was the perfect escape from the hustle and bustle of Durga Puja crowds in CR Park. But what really made it special was the warm Kodava hospitality of Prasad and Vincee, the lovely hosts at the homestay. We got to enjoy delicious local Kodagu dishes, and the conversations with Prasad about Coorg’s beauty, culture, and traditions made this experience one to cherish. I've stayed in many unique homestays, but Prasad was easily the kindest, most gracious, and engaging hosts I've ever met. For bird lovers, binoculars is a must to carry with you. Birds that we have seen from the Balcony: White-cheeked Barbet, Oriental White-eye, Purple-rumped Sunbird, Scarlet Minivet, Malabar Grey Hornbill, Red-whiskered Bulbul, Golden Oriole, Oriental Magpie-Robin, Blue-winged Parakeet / Malabar Parakeet (male and female), White-browed Wagtail, Chestnut-headed Bee-eater, Golden-fronted Leafbird, Barn Swallow, Greater Racket-tailed Drongo, Brahminy Kite, Laughing Dove
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Date of stay: October 2024
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Spent three days there in July 2022…rainy season but if you can brave that, there are a couple of waterfalls nearby that make it up for it, longer hikes too if so inclined. The wooden cabins are comfortable yet creative in their use of recycled coffee trees. Apart from the crops that grow all over coorg, the estate also was lush with flowers and other flora that was a joy to see. Mr Prasad is a very gracious and competent host and I have no doubt I’ll be visiting again.
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Date of stay: July 2022Trip type: Travelled with friends
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
This homestay is on the edge of a big Coffee plantation and has its own private waterfall! We loved staying here, amidst nature. Rooms are nice and clean, food is good and the entire property is very well managed. Mr. Prasad is a nice host and very interactive! He even gave us a walkthrough in the plantation. Palace Estate is right next to the Nalkand Palace and right on the Tadiandalamol trail. So if you are planning for a trek to Tadiandalamol, it is a good option to stay. I can totally recommend this place! If you want to see a detailed review of the property and activities nearby, then check out the video on Virajpet on the YouTube channel "The Urban Nomad" . Very well covered.
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Date of stay: April 2021
Value
Location
Service
Room Tip:Take 1st floor, corner room
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Amazing location, maintained cleanly and very friendly owner. Worth visiting. One of the best homestays in terms of location.
Coming to food felt there could be much more dishes and also much more tastier. Definitely food can be better but not so bad either.
Overall satisfied with our stay. Must visit again oly for location
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Date of stay: November 2020Trip type: Travelled with friends
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We want to trek to tadiandamol peak so we booked this homestay.we arrived previous day and it was a calm and serene place.Dinner was simple yet delicious . just as we prepare at home.The host was very friendly and made sure we had a comfortable stay at their property.Early Morning was a bliss!!
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Date of stay: October 2023
Value
Location
Service
Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
If you are looking for a great location this is the place. The views are amazing from this place .However the downside is they serve pretty average food.even coffee and tea is average. If you are not much particular about food , you can consider this place..
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Date of stay: June 2022Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Room Tip:Take any room.
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
I had stayed at Palace estate in first week of December with my wife for 3 days. After a lot of 'research' on internet, zeroe'd in on Palace estate, looking back it appears that it was a bad decision.
To be fair, I will list the positives first:
1. We wanted to get away from it all during this trip, hence decided to stay away from Madikere, trek to Thadiyandmol was also planned hence chose this place. Keeping these parameters in mind, this estate is located ideally. The rooms have decent views.
2. Booking over phone was hassle-free though we were charged Rs. 2500 for rooms with shared balcony when the rates on their website quotes Rs. 2000, but as we knew this while booking can't really blame them for this.
Negatives:
1. Hosts are partial towards foreigners, if you are sitting at the dinner table, the hosts might ask you to vacate the seat and get another one just to accommodate foreigners. I saw this happening to an Indian couple at dinner table, didn't like this a bit. The reason given by host was 'they are sitting at those seats for last 2 days and are used to it'. I could see that all folks dining at that time noticed this, including the foreigners. From our point of view, this was a very unpleasant experience though it did not happen to us. Any well educated and cultured Indian with global exposure would certainly not take this lightly. None should.
2. The hosts were too pushy and would meddle with your plans to suit their convenience. E.g. breakfast time was supposed to be at 8.30 AM, but if you are planning to go site seeing at 9 AM, the host would push that you leave as early as possible without breakfast since they were never able to keep their timings for meals. The breakfast would always be delayed to 9.15 - 9.30 AM and the dinner would get pushed from 8.30 pm to 9.30 pm. We were quite accommodating to this since this is not a resort, but did not like it a bit when the hosts tried to meddle with our plans, basically they came across as rather pushy.
3. Thought the view from rooms is quite decent, the rooms have just 2 fluorescent lamps, not good enough in case you are planning to read, in fact dull lighting never cheers you up.
4. Finally, coming to the food. The food served was un-remarkable and I would not comment on taste etc either way since this is a very subjective topic. One incident however, I would like to mention here that we were served bread 4 days past expiry date ! We wanted to leave for Talacauvery at around 8.30 AM on our second day, the host convinced us that we should leave before 8.30 AM since eating breakfast etc will consume more time, we took this positively ( as this was our second day ), the host pretended generousness and insisted that we take bread + jam with us. And we foolishly did that, during the journey we saw that the bread was 4 days past use by date. Just imagine if we had kids with us !
Over all, I would not ever think of going back to this place. These incidents pretty much ruined our vacation. I think one can have a good experience at these so called homestays ( homestays as per host's convenience ) only if you travel as part of large group and only your group is staying there so their is no question of bias/partiality and you don't get pushed as per host's convenience.
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Date of stay: December 2012
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
No drinking water in the room (When I did ask I received a bottle of water and 01 Glass…Guess if it’s a couple travelling they’re expected to drink from ONE glass only?!
No towels / soap in the room…
No cupboard/wardrobe (Guess you’re expected to just throw your clothes around the room)…No hangars.
02 CFL’s in the room…You can’t read in that light (I understand they have solar power…but 02 CFL’s in a room??!!)
It was the rainy season (Pretty much), there was no provision of an umbrella for guests or an offer…Like an umbrella stand (Guess you have to ask for everything…like water, towels, soap etc.)…We ended up getting drenched during our walk to the Nalknad Palace (Dating back to the 1800’s), which if you ask me was the high point of our trip.
The entire setup is too contrived …Wood plastered onto cement structures…With a coat of “Touchwood”…The room with 02 CFL’s and a dark wood finish don’t make for much lighting (One rod of the side railing is already shaking).
Conversation (Which should be a by-product of interaction with guests in getting to know each other) felt more like an Interview for someone renting their apartment out….Personal questions thrown in as well!!!! (In your FIRST interaction with someone).
To be fair dinner was good.
This is far from any kind of a homestay I would ever wanna go to.….We left the next morning (Part of it because of a bharat bandh the day after, but mainly because my wife and I were absolutely, completely and totally cheesed off / disgusted with the place (Or the person running it??)
Hope the Individual concerned takes this as constructive feedback and does something about it…because I think the location is neat!
Need I say more?
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Date of stay: September 2012
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We booked a room in palace estate directly after talking to property owner.
We stayed for 2 nights there and here is our experience.
palace estate is about 35 km from medikere so if you don’t have your own vehicle then it’s a problem since there are no other transport facilities between madikere to palace estate except taxi and just for 35 KM taxi charge Rs 700.
And second problem is food.. since this is a home stay, you will not be having any variety of food available there. And also the money they are charging for breakfast, lunch, dinner is not worth for money..
for lunch or dinner - rice, sambhar you need to pay 120 Rs per person, and for breakfast - rice chapati, bread, jam you need to pay 75 rs per person..
They are charging too much for rice and sambhar... I believe if you go to any 3-star resort in coorg, you need to pay 150 rs per person for a good variety of food...
Also if you have booked the room for 4 days and you want to leave in 3 days then the property owner behaves differently.... less professional...
Also sometimes I fee the property owner will interfere unnessarily in your tavelling plans for madikere.. they will insist you too book the taxi for sight seeing.... also try to provide business to other people like taxi and all..
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Date of stay: May 2007
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Check-in / front desk
Service
Business service (e.g., internet access)
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
This is my second visit to Palace Estate and third visit to Coorg. Coorg is populated with loads of homestay but this is one of my favorite.
The location of this homestay is ideal if you want to trek Thadianmol peak which I did in my earlier visits. The homestay is located on the way to the starting point of the trek.
However if you are a normal tourist and do not wish to trek and just do the normal sight seeing then this hotel is bit far away from most major tourist spots in Coorg which are closer to Madikeri Town than Kakkabe.
Being far from city though has other advantages. The estate is placed inside a lush green coffee plantation away from any hustles of a city and one can truly experience the heavenly nature of the hills around Coorg. Its a small beautiful place surrounded by nature.
The estate has mainly 3 buildings, one at the center is where the owner stays with the family, one at the left (if you are standing facing the estate) which serve as the hotel and one on the right whose purpose is still unknown to me. The building that serve as the hotel has 2 floors, ground floor has 2 rooms a 1 bed room without any balcony, etc and a 2 bed room with a private balcony and a private swing. The top floor has many rooms all as far as I realized were 2 bed rooms. There is one room with a private balcony ( costliest of all the rooms) and others have a shared balcony.
We stayed one of the shared rooms. The rooms are made of highly polished wood with beautiful carvings. It has an almost queen size bed, a chest, a mini dressing table and toilet. That's it , no other furniture. There are some hangers on the wall to hang clothes and a wooden supported table on the wall to keep staff. The room was fairly comfortable but the absence of a wardrobe was a bit painful. The bed size was also little small for relaxing on it. They allow extra guest in the room on additional charge and my guess is that absence of wardrobe and the small bed is because of that. There is a fan in the room and two CFL lights. The window towards the balcony is a brilliantly designed small triangular shaped window that let you see the outside,whereas the window towards the car park is much larger one through which one can see the nearest hill looming over the hotel. The room has an attached bathroom which is clean and very simple.It has a shower & tap, a toilet and a wash basin. The shower does not have a 24 hr running hot water facility. Hot water is available only in the morning and evening when water is boiled by a boiler and supplied to the showers. We really felt availability of toilet paper in the bathroom would have been a huge help.
The common balcony is good to sit and watch outside though most of the view is towards the right of the common balcony and not directly in the front, so you need to go to the edge and bend over to see. The private balcony on the upper floor is perfect for this regard. It has the best view.
The surroundings of the house is really beautiful. It is filled with lots of flowers and trees. There is a swing at one end of the estate with a good view of the hills and valleys beyond along with few benches and hammocks here and there. The estate also have a badminton court and a slide for kids. If you are taking your kids , they might get bored a little as there is not much provision for kids enjoyment in the estate. Behind the estate there is a nice road that leads to a private waterfall. This road is almost and avenue with lot of trees and birds. if you are a bird watcher or photographer you can spend your entire morning in this area. Did not visit the waterfall this time but from my earlier experience I can say the waterfall itself is not that grand but the path from hotel to the waterfall is really beautiful, specially in early morning,
One of the greatest thing that really needs special mention for this hotel is the food provided by the hotel as part of the package. It's one of the best I have ever tasted and the reason I booked this hotel for a 2nd time. If you are a non vegetarian you will absolutely love their chicken preparation in a Coorg style. in fact all of the food served here is unique to the place. Usually in dinner you get poori or parantha alongside dal/sambar one or two veg curries, rice, dahi, salads, chicken and a sweet dish. All of them really really delicious. Please go there once to taste that chicken. Breakfast is also generous & delicious. You will get to taste here unique south indian dishes like putta, etc which I have not tested anywhere else in South India. You will also get berad omlette, bread butter and wonderful tea/coffee. Seriously all their food are quite delicious.
Also the review will be incomplete if I do not mention the owner of the hotel. He is one charming personality. He gives personal attention to each and every guest individually and is always the go to person for any difficulty you face while residing at the hotel. He also helps guests to make plans for the sight seeing, etc and helps them by providing information about short cuts, etc. He always have ready made maps wherever you wish to travel in Coorg from his hotel.
Now on the bad part of it. There is no direction to reach it from Madikeri. The owner deeply relies on giving instructions over phone and follow signboards put up by other hotels to reach his place. The first signboard of palace estate one will encounter is only when you are 0.5 km away from the hotel. And even so they are small signs, size of an envelope. This I fell is totally unacceptable, as most of the areas on the way does not have a good mobile network except BSNL. They should look into it.
Value for money - well I will say not really, cost is bit on the higher side but not exhorbitant also.
Summary:-
Pros:- 1. Good location 2. Excellent view 3. Comfortable Rooms 4. Excellent food 5. helpful owner 6. Close to Thadiyanmol trek starting point
Cons:- 1. Hard to reach the hotel. Hardly any road signs 2. Far from most tourist spots of Coorg 3. Most room does not have direct view of the scenery 4. Bathroom can have toilet paper 5. Not really value for money
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Date of stay: April 2015
Location
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Room Tip:Choose the costliest room or atleast the ground floor room with private balcony
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Sorry for the late response. Yes food included in package.
Wifi on request to host. Though the place is such that you'll not prefer to connect to outer world
There are more places to choose from in the Kakkabe area.
ALSO KNOWN AS
palace estate home stay hotel kakkabe, palace estate kodagu
LOCATION
IndiaKarnatakaKodagu (Coorg)Kakkabe
NUMBER OF ROOMS
7
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