Verdict: 3.5 out of 5. Staff could have been more friendly though we had no complaints. A little bit overpriced though in sync with all other such resorts. Selling point is reach-ability from the city and the swimming pools. food is alright. Good kids' play area.
Lahiri is one of the very few resorts which is very reachable (at least from my side of the time). The ring roads and the radial roads (all curiously named after the same person - Jawahar Lal Nehru by some co incidence which is helped by continuous congress rule in this state) make sure that even if the distance is increased, it is very pleasant to drive. Our designated driver (which takes on the role of wife and mother when she is not driving) was so happy to cross the three digit barrier, that too near shouting distance from the city. She maneuvered our old rickety chariot very well and ensured that we hit the desired location within fifty minutes of confirmation of the booking. Our main criterion was that this should be the high light of kids' one week vacation. Because of this the target was ( as always, though because of some solid reason this time) kids' having fun. And with that perspective it went pretty well, though not completely according to plan, you will know as you read on. After the heavenly ride on the outer ring road and some non entirely unlike Holmes investigation about the directions after we got off the ring road, we reached the desired location. with all the diversions because of our decision to not ask for directions and to take the most risky roads, it measured nearly fifty kilometres. First activity was the room selection. As usual we request them to give us a royal tour of all the possible accommodations.
Here it involved following options:
Deluxe room (like any other hotel room), queen's room - which is almost the same size of the deluxe room with a sit out thrown in.
King's room - this has an independent and private entrance and a balcony stout overlooking the lazy river(my guess is that the size is same as the queen's room)
Emperor's room: This we did not get a chance to see. As we as well as the staff figured out that it will be completely off the budget and did not explore further.
One of the most interesting thing that happened was that the elder one ( also known for his aversion from water more than a water-jug deep) suddenly took to water. This resort also was the most ideal place for it. I mean if it could have happened any where near Hyderabad, this would be the place for it. And that brings me to the best selling point of this resort. The piece de resistance if you would of this resort is its swimming pool. This is basically according the me and my family and what fit us best. You may have your views :).
They have a fantastic pool with trees bending over clean blue waters. The pool is shaped so that it gets some aesthetic elegance, at least from my point of view. Kids have their shallow pool connected to the main pool, apart from that there is also a gentle slope where you can watch your kids and let them take the learning part of swimming on. As this was the first time both my kids were in the water and the elder one was just getting used to it whereas the younger one is too young to understand swimming, we took it slow and never left the kids' pool. The elder one tried a dive and took in good dose of water. According to the way I was taught swimming, this is the real start of any learning.
Once you are in and out of water twice, gulping good quantity in the process, you really know what water is. You understand it as well as respect it. You know the joys as well as the dangers that lurk. I do not think he got it all ,but hopefully it would have registered some where in his sub conscious for sure. We spend most of our time there swimming, either in the water slides or in the pool. The other attractions of the resort contain a good kids' playing area, a treetop (more or less so) restaurant still under construction and spacious artificial river where we can use some pedal boats and a hanging bridge on top of this river.
We had a small trouble with the room service where the water was not hot during rush hours. but I think after staying for so much time in water, the last thing you want is another bath :). Though this irked missus cum driver a lot as she did not swim at all. In the end, it was a wonderful getaway which I think is enough to put a good punctuation mark to kids's Ugadi holidays :)
