Maison Perumal

Rooms

The 10 rooms are all different and various sizes (though the same price), with hand-carved wooden beds and desks, cream lamps, uneven mustard-yellow or red floors, TVs and air con. The CGH team spent a lot of time reviving old crafts and researching into woodworking to create just the right atmosphere and carefully restore period detail. Six rooms are on the first floor and 4 are on the second; there are 2 Studio Rooms and 8 Deluxe Rooms (2 of which have twin beds).

The base colour palette is cream, offset by bright fuchsia, purple, turquoise or green pillowcases and curtains. And we particularly like the little details: jute slippers in small handmade bags made from newspaper, speckled white soap from Auroville, and shampoo in ceramic pickle jars in the shower bathrooms.

We're told it feels like you're staying in someone's regal retreat, but this goes 2 ways: you're at leisure to explore the rest of the hotel and relax in the courtyards on the wooden swing, but you also probably won't want to hole up in your room - they aren’t really big enough or luxurious enough for that.

Features include:

• Air conditioning
• WiFi

Eating

Dining here is relatively informal so it feels like you're being catered for individually. Meals are served in either the courtyard dining area, half open to the gardens, or in the landscaped gardens themselves. You can choose from the menu for lunch, plump for a set evening meal or have a chat with the chef about what he recommends. He’s passionate and eloquent about his Keralan-style food, much of which is based on his family recipes.

Breakfast is either Continental-style with croissants and toast plus cooked extras, or South Indian with idly and dosa (rice and lentil pancakes served with gravy and chutney). There is an à la carte menu for lunch, with lemon rice and grilled prawns, fried chicken curry with tomato rice or prawn or fish curries.

Evening meals have a fixed menu, with a starter, soup, a fish platter including perhaps calamari and prawns, dessert, and tea and coffee to finish. Everything bought and cooked is fresh, local and seasonal - it has to be, as the hotel has no freezer.

The hotel also has a small bar, ideal for a post-sightseeing Cobra beer. There are plenty of other places to eat within walking distance; staff will happily recommend a couple.

Features include:

• Restaurant
• Restaurants nearby

Activities

• Stroll along Pondy's famous Provençal beachfront promenade and admire the bright plaster houses, flower-laden balconies and blue enamel street signs
  
  
• Take a heritage walk around the city. The local tourist authority has several walking routes to follow around the Ashram area, the Tamil quarter and French quarter
  
  
• Go shopping. Pondy has particularly good textiles, leather and pottery goods. MG Street, JN Street, Misson Street and Romain Rolland Street are the places to look
  
  
• Hire a moped or borrow a bike to get out of town. Serenity beach, within cycling range, is a quieter, cleaner beach than the main stretch
  
  
• Take an early morning boat trip to see dolphins off shore
  
  
• Visit the ashram of Sri Aurobindo, one of India's most famous ashrams, for yogic contemplation and meditation, or just sightseeing
  
  
• Take a trip to the utopian society of Auroville. Established in 1968 to bring people together in peaceful and progressive harmony, it's 8km from Pondy and still doing well
  
  
• Go horse riding. The Red Earth Riding School at Auroville, just outside Pondicherry, offers lessons and guided walks
  
  
• Go temple crazy. Gingee/Jingi Fort is just outside Pondicherry and has a temple complex; there are Chola temples to explore in Tamil Nadu, complete with temple elephants; Chidambaram has temples to Shiva about 1 hour away and the UNESCO-listed rock temples of Mahabalipuram are 2 hours away

Activities on site or nearby include:

• Cycling
• Hiking
• Horse riding
• Shopping / markets
• Yoga

Kids

Extra beds are available for children and cots can be arranged for babies. Babies and children 5 and under go free; children 6 and up are charged a supplementary rate when in the same room as their parents.

Best for:

Babies (0-1 years), Children (4-12 years)

Family friendly accommodation:

Cots Available, Extra Beds Available

For more family-friendly places, see our Kids Collection

Location

Maison Perumal is in the Tamil quarter of Pondicherry/ Puducherry in the state of Tamil Nadu in southeast India.

By Air
The closest airport to the hotel is Chennai International Airport, around a 3-hour drive away. It is well served by international airlines and is a hub for internal flights within India.

From the Airport
Pre-paid taxis are available to Pondicherry.

By Train
You can take the train to Pondicherry, with a brief change at Villupuram, from most Indian cities, including Chennai, Madurai and Trichy. It takes 5 hours from Chennai, as a rough guide.

By Bus
Road transport from Chennai and Bangalore is good, with regular transport buses (every 15-30 minutes from Chennai). The roads in the district are among the best in India and it takes about 3 hours by bus from Chennai.

By Car
From Chennai, you can either follow the National Highway 45 or the scenic ECR route along the Bengal coast. There are toll roads on both routes from Chennai and few petrol stations on the ECR route. Both routes take about 3 hours; roads here are better than in many parts of India.

Detailed directions will be sent to you when you book through i-escape.