Arayal Resort in Wayanad was earlier known as Sharoy Resort.
This beautiful resort in Wayanad can be reached with the help of Google Maps.
Even before you enter the resort, you will be WOW-ed. Reason? The resort is surrounded by waterbody on three sides which is nothing but Banasura Sagar lake that is behind the Banasura Sagar Dam.
The location of Arayal Resort is the highlight of the resort. Once you reach the main gate, a narrow road overlooking the waterbody will lead you to the resort as seen below.
The resort land area is not as large as Vythiri Village Resort, but the location of the resort more than makes up for it.
Arayal Resort has a manmade viewpoint – you need to cross a hanging bridge (that looks like a miniature of London tower bridge) to reach there. The view from here will be splendid.
In above picture – fog has covered the Banasura lake, it took us sometime to digest that there is Banasura lake behind this fog. See the picture below.
There are three room categories – you get the best view from “Lake View Premium” rooms. Especially, ask for a room that’s on the right side of the building (facing the swimming pool), because balconies on this side provide a better view compared to the others.
View from the balcony – clicked around 5 pm.
The view from balcony in the early morning is simply mindblowing! To catch a glimpse of lake surrounded with fog you will need to wake up at least by 6am.
If you are going out of the resort to explore Wayanad, it is recommended that you reach the resort by 5.30 pm for two reasons –
- You can enjoy the beautiful sunset right from your room’s balcony or near swimming pool area
- There aren’t enough street lights in Wayanad, so travelling at night would not be safe.
Coming to recreation, there is a well maintained kids play area, many indoor games like table tennis, board games and gym for workouts.
Apart from the location, there is yet another speciality in Arayal Resort. Ostriches! Yes, the resort has two Ostriches. Typically you expect to see some farm animals in a resort, but seeing large Ostriches in a resort is unusual.
Piqued by our curiosity, we spoke to the general manager about the reason of keeping an Ostrich in the resort.
Holiday Balloon (HB): Why Ostrich?
Arayal’s General Manager (GM): We want to be different from others. People are used to seeing normal animals in a resort. We want to capture the attention of travellers, so we thought we will keep Ostriches in our resort. Many people who come here are happy to see them.
HB: How about maintaining them?
GM: That’s the difficult part. We spend a lot of money to maintain. More than the maintenance, safety is becoming a concern for us. Now that the Ostriches are grown up, it can hit the fence hard and it can escape too. Keeping it safe inside the fence is really a challenge. We are thinking of giving them off to somebody else.
They have a sample egg of an Ostrich preserved. If you are interested in seeing it, you can enquire at the front desk to show you the same. Normally, they do not let the eggs hatch at their farm and give them to nearby zoos or other farms.
With respect to food, the quality and the overall service both are good.
Luckily, during our stay we met the owner of Arayal. We explained him how much we were blown away by the location of the resort, and asked him why he started Arayal. The owner said:
Among all the land that I saw to build my resort, this one was the best. When I saw the location, I instantly liked it. I wanted to build something where people can come and really relax; they should forget all of their stress/sorrow and just enjoy the tranquility the view offers. The single goal I set for myself while building Arayal was – it should offer peace of mind to guests
Below pictures show the lake that covers three sides of the resort.
