While the Sheraton Grand Chennai Resort & Spa is often touted to be one of the best getaways down the East Coast Road, the property just upped their holiday game by opening three private villas closer to their own private stretch of beach. Nestled beside the sprawling lawns that stretch between the actual resort and the beachfront with their award-winning seafood restaurant C Salt in between, the villas are designed as two single bedroom properties and one double bedroom property, each with enclosed private swimming pools. We decided to check out the double bedroom villa — the third in line and closest to the waterfront — and spending a night at the property was everything we’d hoped for and more.
The experience begins as you enter the luxurious and well spread-out villa with a common seating area and dining area. The villa also comes with a special room for domestic help, with an attached bathroom, in case you choose to bring someone along. The seating area melds into the dining area and both have a view of the common private pool replete with beach chairs et al. While the property has two restaurants at walkable distances from the villas, they encourage you to order in, we guess, only to show you the top notch hospitality that Sheraton is globally known for.
With each villa, you are given a separate set of staff and a concierge to look after your every need. This could be anything from sourcing a specific type of food, even something out of the menu; or booking a spa appointment; or even getting the pool cleaned if you feel like it. They also ensure that every meal is served with the utmost care and that the guests are treated as nothing less than kings.
Being quite the fans of C Salt, we decided to dine there the first night, simply because the beachfront restaurant has vistas unlike any other property in the city. That, and the live music and the sound of crashing waves — a dinner doesn’t get better than this. Staying so close to the sea on one side and the adjacent Crocodile Bank property at the other; also means you often feel like you aren’t in a five star resort, but rather in the middle of the wilderness. We were amazed by the amount of bird calls, insect calls and other unidentifiable calls of the wild that we were treated to all night, especially since we were there on a particularly quiet evening.
Waking up early enough to catch the sunrise at the beachfront and a nice cool barefoot morning walk in the sand can heal any wounded soul and we followed that exhilarating experience with a floating breakfast in the private pool. Now while, this breakfast makes for a better photo op than an actual food experience — there’s definitely something about eating out of a floating tray, while you float in clean, cool waters as the sun slowly warms up the world around you.
A short nap after breakfast, we awoke to appointments for massages at the spa and while the Swedish massage was the most preferred format, we suggest you take a suggestion from the spa therapists who can create a massage to meet your specific needs. Massaged and freshly showered an hour later, we were ready to depart, but not before we tried the famous lunch buffet at The Reef — and we’re glad to tell you that we weren’t disappointed.
This villa experience only adds to the quality of service we’ve come to know the property for; and creating these villa experiences where families can share an intimate, private and bespoke holiday curated to their specific needs; only furthers the faith we already have in them. Visit them soon; they are all-weather friendly!
INR 40,000 onwards. At Vedanamelli, East Coast Road.
romal@newindianexpress.com
@elromal