Lemon Tree Vembanad Lake Resort- A review

Last week I wrote about our experience at the enchanting backwaters of Kerala. The Lemon Tree Vembanad Lake Resort, Alappuzha was our shelter in between 20 hours of long drive to and from Bangalore. We paid for all our expenses, and we have no incentive of writing this review. Well, we had a great time and want to share an honest hotel review with our readers.

Lemon Tree Vembanad Hotel – Our first impression

This is the stunning view you see when you remove the curtains off the large glass windows

After a smooth ride of almost 600 km, we finally made our way to Alleppey and reached our hotel by 12:30 pm. It was an unplanned trip after a whimsical booking. We found the resort at 50% of its usual price on MakeMyTrip and decided to book it. 

Compare the hotel prices here

My first impression was not great because the gates were closed, and I had to get down at knock before it was opened. We were greeted with a welcome drink, but it was taking the time to find a room for us. I understand the problem because these are the check-in is at 2 pm and check-out is at 12 noon. When we reached a few families were actually checking out at 12:30 pm. So, it made complete sense for them not to be expecting guests at that point of time when we reached.

We requested them to keep our bags until we just stroll around the resort. But the receptionists were kind enough to find us an upgraded room. Please note that we did not request for it, but we were upgraded to the superior lake-view suite based as the ones in the category we booked were not yet cleaned!

Rooms at Lemon Tree Vembanad Lake Resort

Located right across the longest lake of India, the Vembanad Lake Resort is not a huge property. However, it is located away from the crowd, surrounded by forests and facing the lake. There are 27 rooms in the property of multiple categories. All the rooms air-conditioned, have electronic safe, free wifi and a basic tea/coffee maker set.

• The Cruising Villa – A fully airconditioned houseboat with two bedrooms, a living room and a Jacuzzi on the open-air upper deck. The rooms would be typically small and the houseboat is anchored to the shore at night.

• Superior/ Superior Lake Front/ Superior pool deck – These rooms are beautifully decorated with cozy king-size beds, flat screen TV large wardrobes, shoe-rack, sofa, and center table. As the name suggests the superior lakefront and pool deck have better views. They are also a little bit larger with an approximate area of 364 sq ft.

• Superior Lake Front Suite – This is the category that we were upgraded to. Apart from all the amenities, this category of rooms has a Jacuzzi in the bathroom. There are two large mirrors, one at the dressing table and one right before you enter the bathroom.

Check out some pictures of our Superior Lake Front Suite.

Citrus cafe – the restaurant at the Lemon Tree Vembanad Resort

The citrus cafe, which is the restaurant of this resort is very charming with large windows flaunting the lakeside views. The multicuisine restaurant has a very versatile menu to suit all tastes. I will recommend trying out the local cuisine at the restaurant. I cannot rate the food very highly because the garlic chicken we ordered at night turned out just sweet and sour. However, in our lunch, we had ordered Kerala chicken and that was quite delicious. The food is a little bit expensive, as expected from a four-star hotel.

I loved the breakfast buffet at the restaurant. We had pre-booked the breakfast along with our stay as we normally do. A good mix of South Indian, North Indian and English breakfast spread, they left no room for complaint. This is what you can expect in the breakfast buffet- idly, vada, sambar, dosa on order, eggs on order, puri masala, paratha, fruit salad, fruit juice, milk, breakfast cereals, sausages, pancakes, marble cake. I am sure there will be variation, but this is the overall spread of the breakfast buffet.

Activities at the Lemon Tree Vembanad Lake Resort

Upon request, we were handed a printed paper of all the various activities that we could do in and around the resort. There are Shikara tours organized by the resort, which is a must-have experience when you are in Alleppey. The boat tours are available from morning to 6 pm in the evening at an hourly rate of Rs. 1200. Read about our shikara tour in the backwaters of Kerala.

The infinity pool is also a great place to relax and unwind inside the resort.

The best part about this location is that, you can wake up to the most spectacular sunrise at the Vembanad lake. The sunrise timing is quite late in March here, at 6:30 am, but I woke up earlier to the chirping of birds and experienced the magic unfold. I must say that the activity center is not that great, but it does the work okay. There are some books stacked on the shelves (see picture), a carrom board and a pool table.

In the evening you can walk in the gardens and spend time with nature.

Another amazing facility offered by the resort is the provision of free bicycles to explore Alleppey. We had a car and spent less than 24 hours in a spectacular place, so did not have the chance to use this facility.

The infinity pool at sunrise

Other Amenities in the resort that I did not explore

There are many other facilities in the Lemon tree resort which I did not even check out. I can’t comment on how good they are because I did not enter the gym or the spa, but for the benefit of my readers, I am listing down all the facilities here.

• Lemon Tree Spa
• Gym
• Conference center
• Airport pick-up service

What to explore around the Lemon Tree Vembanad Lake Resort?

• Vembanad Lake: The longest lake of India stretching 60 km finds its way through the villages of Alleppey as narrow canals and waterways. You will be living right at the banks of the lake so there is no way you can miss this.

• Patharimanal island: This idyllic island is located in the middle of the lake and can be seen from the lake-front rooms. Home to multiple migratory birds it is easily accessible by boats.

• Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary: On the other side of the Vembanad lake resort lies the Kumarakom bird sanctuary. Like Alleppey, this is also a growing tourist destination with many homestays and houseboats.  We these three places in our 3-hour long boat trip. You can anchor the boat to the shore and get down at the island or at Kumarakom for walking around.

• Marari Beach: A quaint beach 10 km away from the resort, Marari beach is notable for the big cross at the entrance and coconut groves around it. The chairs with colorful umbrellas lined on the beach add to the vibrant view.

• Alleppey Beach, lighthouse and sea-side park: The Alleppey beach is similar to the Marari beach but is smaller and a little more crowded. The Alleppey lighthouse museum is a place from where you can get a panoramic view of the town.

• Watch the snake boat race: Near the Alleppey beach is the Punnamada Lake where the famous Nehru trophy boat race is held every year. Apart from the most famous annual racing event, there are many snake boat racing events that take place in the backwaters of Alleppey
• Amazing religious architecture: The region has many pretty churches, some of them with extraordinary architecture. Arthunkal church and St Sebastian church are most famous for their architecture. There are some remarkable temples too around the resort, both in Alleppey and in the Kumarakom side. The Mullakkal Devi temple located 15 km away from the resort is a 500-year old temple open to people of all religions. The temple is famous for old Kerala architecture and the four-armed statue of Goddess Durga. Another striking temple on the way to Marari beach is the Mararkulam Mahadeva temple.

Lemon Tree Vembanad Lake Resort – Final verdict

I loved my stay at the resort and would love to stay there again for a longer time. As I mentioned before, we paid for everything and do not have any incentive to give a positive review. Here are my ratings

• Sleep quality – 5/5
• Cleanliness – 5/5
• Room amenities – 5/5
• Food – 3.5/5
• Service – 4.5/5
• Value for money – 5/5 (because we were able to book at almost 50% discount and also got an upgrade).
• Overall rating –5/5

Use the following links to compare prices and book the resort.

Hotels Combined MakeMyTrip   Agoda   Cleartrip

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