If you are a fan of beautiful, luxurious staycations/ weekend getaways in India, then The Leela, Kovalam is the perfect destination for your. Located 15 kms south of the Trivandrum airport, is this extremely gorgeous, cliff-top resort with the sparkling Arabian Sea as the backdrop.
Kovalam itself does not have much to do. It's a calm fishing village, but off late has become a popular beach destination. There are a couple of beaches and a lighthouse that are always flocked by tourists.
The Leela is one of the few luxury resorts in Kovalam. We had heard quite a lot about this resort and were really looking forward to spend our 3 day weekend at this property in August. Frankly, relaxing at a beach destination in monsoons has its own charm.
We arrived at the resort in the afternoon and received a very warm welcome. There are ~200 rooms - some of which are beach facing and some garden facing. We had booked the beach facing rooms (a little expensive than the garden facing rooms) for a reason - The garden facing rooms are pretty far from the main reception and restaurant area, you would need a golf cart to move around, and the garden facing rooms looked a little shabby. Special ‘buggies’ (golf-carts) are used to transport guests from one part of the resort to the other.
The room was good with a huge balcony overlooking the beautiful, blue waters. It was a beautiful windy evening and we could spend the whole evening sitting in the balcony. However, we stepped out to the private beach area and got ourselves a couple of beach loungers to lie and relax. The best part of the resort is the sky bar - it's huge, overlooks the sea and is extremely beautiful. Later, in the evening, we explored the sky bar and the restaurant. Both of them were open air and had beautiful view of the sea and the setting sun. Food was average.
The property has 3 pools, one of which is an infinity pool just next to the breakfast area. There is ample sitting place along the pool, the lounge and the common places. There is an activity room with xbox, foosball, carrom, TT and other indoor activities. Sky bar is exceptionally good in the evenings and they do have happy hours.
This stay is definitely worth your money !!