Bethel Home Stay | The Place to Stay in Coorg

Early Morning View from the Cottage

After it was decided we were going to Coorg for 3 days, I started looking for places to stay in Coorg. I must say Bethel Home Stay is miles ahead of any other home stay in regards to its web presence and positive reviews it enjoys from the web. Me being at my skeptical best, dug deeper to see if there were any better places enlisted on the web. Take my word for it and stop searching; you will not find any other place rated better than Bethel Home Stay.

Picked the phone and called Rakesh, booked a Swiss cottage, part payment made and all went smoothly. We paid Rs. 1500 per head per day which includes food and the cottages. We were traveling 900kms by car to reach Coorg; we had to break journey in the night and stayed in Ramnagaram which is near Mysore. The good thing about Rakesh [person running Bethel Home Stay during our visit] is that he was communicating with us all through the journey. After a few stops en route from Ramnagaram to Coorg, we reached Coorg by 14:00, we were tired, exhausted and in need of some rest.

Hamsa was waiting for us by the time we reached Coorg and the last seven kilometers were achieved by following Hamsa, the last two actually in Hamsa’s jeep as taking a car is not advisable on that road. We were welcomed by Rakesh and the staff, lemonade was waiting for us and so was lunch. Although we had booked a Swiss cottage, Rakesh offered us the Bamboo cottage which was amazingly spacious and was a double bedroom house in itself with all facilities. We were offered Lunch at the Bamboo Cottage which we gladly accepted. We were already pleased with Rakesh’s gesture of offering the Bamboo cottage, but much better was the food that followed. I will not mention the exact number of dishes because that might raise the expectation but let me tell you there was more than we four could eat in two sessions and the most important part was that it was amazingly tasty.

By the time me and Ramu were finishing lunch, Reddy and Sunil were already snoring. We joined them in no time. Plans were made before we hid the bed for an evening trek. We started at 17:30 to catch the sunset, it was an amazing trek with Reddy initially struggling but as rain fell, he cooled down and picked up speed. Back at the cottage we were tired from the trek, a camp fire was set up in no time and tables were laid. We sat around the fire having our drinks till midnight. Food and snacks were once again in abundance. Rakesh and the other guys were always there, attentive and on the lookout for what we needed. A wonderful day ended.

Next day, after a wonderful breakfast we were teamed up with Salim to visit Irpu falls and the tea estates which were beautiful, once again back at the cottage famished and ready for lunch, we were once again surprised at what we got. Rakesh had asked Reddy and Sunil what they liked, and their requests we fulfilled. Reddy wanted wild [edible] mushroom that Rakesh brought to show us cooked, that was also accomplished. This day, I woke up at 6:00 and caught a beautiful sunrise at the advice of Rakesh, also watched a lot of birds and snapped a few. Rakesh also gave me a book ‘Birds of Kodagu’ to familiarize with the species of birds in Coorg.

In the evening, we had planned for a trek but Reddy, Ramu and Sunil were too tired. I was still keen to go, Rakesh was more than happy to just go with me, and we stopped at top for a while and chatted away. Once again the camp fire and the formalities followed.

To say that this Coorg trip of ours was made pleasant by Bethel Home Stay and Rakesh would be an understatement. I would actually say, staying at Bethel Home Stay made the Coorg trip what it was. I will return here in the monsoons the next time I visit India.

There are many more gestures that touched us and made our stay at the cottage a time to cherish; I hope anyone reading this review does not need to look further that this one to decide on calling Bethel Home Stay to book a cottage.