Ocean Spray Resort, one of the best place to stay in Pondicherry for its vast waterbody landscape and accessibility to beach.
Ocean Spray is one of the largest man made waterbody in India, spread across 2 hectares.
Though Pondicherry has beach, people can’t get into it due to the heavy rock formation and steep land that leads into water. Ocean Spray Resort is about 20 kms away from Pondicherry, because of which getting into beach isn’t an issue.
This resort is in a place called Manjakuppam that’s actually in Tamil Nadu. Since its just 20 kms away from Pondicherry, people usually refer to Ocean Spray as a place to stay in Pondicherry.
Our first experience with the hotel was negative. We were in the Checkin area, it was exactly like a fish market with at least 50 people there with heavy bags all around, many checking in and many checking out. We waited for at least 20-25 minutes to get our room key.
Below is a view of the hotel once you walk past the reception area. If you are a person who love to see water everywhere, then this place is for you.
All top category rooms have a water facing view. There are multiple top categories – some has a private access to the gazebo, some has a shared walking path to the gazebo.
View from our room. Notice the leaves and flowers in the waterbody. This is a common scene through out the resort. Ocean Spray has a massive infrastructure, but the maintenance of it is not great.
Bathroom has a Jacuzzi.
Bathroom is built in such a way that a portion of the ceiling has a glass door and it doesn’t get any view from adjacent rooms.
One major issue we had inside the room was to do with the advanced technology device they have deployed to just control the lights and fans – they are not controlled with switches, rather there is a remote control device. We had a tough time using it as it was not working as expected most of the time.
The room has a huge balcony area.
If you are travelling with kids, they will love this place, as it has large number of fishes in various sizes, buggie rides, large area to run, and lot of indoor games.
At night, the resort looks beautiful with well planned lights setup. So, carry your SLRs for some night photography.
