Travelogue; Relaxing weekend at Radisson Blu, Alibaug

This was our second trip to Alibaug and unlike the earlier one, was intended to be a pure relaxation weekend. One of the best places to stay there is Radisson Blu and this is where I got the booking, with a great deal which had all meals inclusive. It worked best for us since our intention was to get away from routine work and have weekend where we will just relax and eat and sleep. The last few months had been busy (trip to our native and then home renovation work) and hence the interest of a work free weekend and also enjoy a weekend before kid's school would reopen.

We spent the weekend of 7^th June 2013 there. The monsoon arrived a few days earlier, so this weekend ended up with a rainy spell, but it did mean that we had a lovely drive to Alibaug and nice stay at the hotel.

We had left from home around 1 pm and drove down in our Mahindra XUV. Since the time I had bought XUV, this was first time I got to take it on the Pune Mumbai expressway and it sure was a pleasure. I did manage to run it in the top 6^th gear also for a while, but the best part was enjoying the cruise control. Weather was lovely. It wasn’t raining, but was cloudy and due to rains already, was pretty green all around. A few small waterfalls were visible in Lonvala and Khandala and in about 1 hour we were at the Khapoli expressway food court. Since we had lunch before starting, this was just a quick bio break and then we were back on the road. Taking a U turn at Khalapur toll naka, we then took the Khapoli exit and were on the Khapoli Alibaug road. Pune to Khalapur exit costed us Rs 124.

There is another toll naka where we paid Rs 20 and were on the way to Alibaug. The road is pretty good, though obviously not like the national highway. It has establishments on both sides and at frequent distances, so need to be careful when driving at high speed. It started to rain a bit and overall the weather was just wonderful. The site all around was just amazing with all greenery and clouds over the mountains.

As we neared Penn, we hit a Y junction and while everyone else seemed to go straight, we noticed a sign for Alibaug pointing to the road going towards the right. Unfortunately it was raining very heavily by now and there was no one around to whom we could ask. We saw a house on the road to the right and drove to it and asked a person there. It seemed we were on the correct road so we drove ahead and eventually joined back on the road to Alibaug. What we had just taken was Penn by pass and we had joined the Alibaug road just outside of Penn, avoiding all the internal roads and traffic.

Another toll naka for Rs 15, closer to Alibaug, and we eventually reached Radisson Blu Spa and Resort, Alibaug by 3.30 pm. A quick check in and we landed in our superior room. In my earlier stay a couple of years back, I had got myself a Lake view Villa, which was a duplex with a back small garden and view of the lake. The superior room was inward facing and faced the swimming pool. We were in A block, which is slightly away from the pool. The B block directly overlooks the pool and if you happen to be on the ground floor, then your back door of the room will actually lead you into the swimming pool directly.

The room was set to 16 deg. and we felt the chill, given that it had been raining for a while now. Not realizing what it would mean, we switched off the AC, opened the balcony doors and parked ourselves in the easy chairs there, sipping the tea. Our package included all meals, which unfortunately didn’t include any evening tea and snacks, so we had to make do with whatever little we had carried with us like biscuits and chips.

As we got back into the room we saw layer of dew building up everywhere. The table top was wet, the mirror was totally covered in dew and we were totally surprised. Pune has its fair share of humidity, but this was too much. Immediately we closed the balcony doors and switched on the AC again and in about half an hour, things got back to normal. So keeping AC on was essential for this trip.

From this evening to Sunday, 9^th June afternoon, we totally relaxed in the hotel. The weather didn’t allowed much of excursion anyway, so we used all the facilities at hotel to the fullest, played at their games room, spent time reading books in their library, did multiple swimming sessions in the pool and to top it all, ate a lot.

All the meals were buffet at their Aparanta restaurant and were just too good. The options for any of the meals were too many and we had no issues in over eating. The food was really good, perfect in their spice level and no extra dose of butter or ghee. Every meal was followed by equally awesome collection of desserts and am sure managed to put on few extra kilos just due to this.

After the lunch on 9^th June, we started on our way back by around 2.30 pm and encountered rains on parts of our journey. We reached home by around 5 pm on Sunday evening and then it was back to routine from next day morning.