Mugilu — Hotel in Karnataka

We were there over the weekend… three of us – my son aged 10, my wife and me. It was a pleasant stay. However, our experience was nothing like what we’d read in the other reviews! It also depends on the taste, preferences, and hospitality experience of the guests and their expectations. Therefore, I would like to share some good things and some not so good things about this place – Mugilu. ||Mugilu in Kannada means cloud, but we could hardly see any cloud staying at Mugilu as the property is dense, covered with trees and bushes. Anyway, let me first say what we liked about this place.||Spread over 10 acres of lush greenery, birds chirping (almost all day) as well as crickets and fire flies at night, you are likely to love the place, if you’re a nature lover and have some exposure to living in the country side or rural side with plantation and so on.|A well-trained staff (from North and North-East India) led by the Manager Anand, who is a native of Sakleshpur. They were hospitable and helpful. Only Anand knows Kannada, Hindi and English, while the other staff members are comfortable speaking in Hindi.|You and your kids may feel at home if you are an animal lover – especially dog lover. All the dogs are Indie breed and most of them rescued from the street. My son loved playing with the puppy Chukki, which might have grown up by the time you visit this place.||The food was good (not great); the spread was decent both for breakfast and dinner. You can expect some omelette and bread toast (with butter & jam) along with Idli or Sanas (a coastal dish similar to idli), upma or semiya preparation served with chutney and some cut fruits apart from tea or coffee. Dinner has one non-veg gravy dish (usually chicken), papad, plain rice, sambar, pulav or veg biryani, vegetable for the sides (dry or semi-gravy), soft chapattis, curd and one sweet dish. Lunch can be ordered from the Menu, while dinner is a buffet. You can have a glass of home-made wine at additional cost if you like. ||There is a bonfire at night and a cozy place to just sit back and read a book or play carroms or cards. If you are a book lover, you may prefer to just sit in the balcony of your room with a book and enjoy your alone time.|------------|Now, for the not so good things about this place – Mugilu||As I mentioned earlier, Mugilu means cloud in Kannada and staying here you can hardly see any cloud. Because the place is dense with trees, shrubs, and bushes, which are not maintained well.||There is hardly space for two cars to be parked; three would be a crowd and with four cars you would find it difficult to park and reverse as the place is uneven with a lot of slope and gradient. ||This place is in the interior and you may get lost without a google map. We lost our way and turned into the town from the highway as that’s what the map showed us. Later, we were guided correctly. Thankfully, the phone and internet works well in most of the places and convenient to use Google map to find your way through.||There is hardly any plain or a levelled surface at Mugilu. Therefore, older people may find it difficult. There are trees and bushes, which is not trimmed or pruned. Therefore, they have grown wild. It takes a lot of labour and money to get the cleaning done. I would say the property is not maintained well.||If you’re not pet friendly, you may not be comfortable in this place. It’s better to avoid.|We stayed in Cottage C2 and we were not happy with the room that was given to us. But it was just a question of one or two days and we didn’t want to fuss about it. This is the only cottage that has uneven steps to get there and it is facing towards a solar electric fence that’s quite close to the main entrance of the cottage and lots of bushes that doesn’t give a pleasant feel when you get there. All other cottages seemed better than this one in terms of location and approach. We had booked well in advance and I am not sure why the owner chose to give us this particular cottage!||A balcony from where you can only see trees and trees and few birds that you can easily spot. The bathroom had a shower, but water from the shower was like it was coming from a tap. So, it was better to use the tap itself with bucket and mug. There is 24-hour hot water facility in the bathroom. The water would not get drained easily; it needs some plumbing, I guess.||Insects such as grasshopper, fire flies and other insects creep into the room through the gaps in the ceiling at night, which could be annoying for someone who wants to relax and go to sleep peacefully. ||The shirt hanger in the closet is strangely fixed below instead of being on the top. So, if you hang a long shirt on the hanger, it will touch the floor. The towels and linen were not clean and had marks on them. I understand this is not a 5-star facility but these are hygiene. It is advisable to carry your own towel, toothpaste, soap (though they provide one), shower gel (i.e. if you get a room where the shower works!), shaving set etc.|Initially we booked this place through booking.com (for two adults and one child). However, the owner Mr. Chandan refused to accept this booking and insisted that we cancel and rebook as he said there was something wrong in the booking. We cancelled and booked it again. However, this booking comes only with complimentary breakfast and if you book directly with them, the dinner is included at a marginally extra cost. So, we booked directly and cancelled our online booking once again. ||They have a queen size bed in the room with a dressing mirror, side tables, chairs, teapoy and a stool. They had provided an extra bed for my son, which was so uncomfortable to sleep on! It was certainly not worth the money they charge.||They call it a home stay; however, for us it was neither a resort nor a home stay. The owners were not around as I was given to understand that he manages everything online most of the time and his dedicated staff takes care of everything on ground. We wanted to take a few plants as my wife loves plants, but there was no one to help us with it.||Mugilu is located just a few kilometres from the main town area and the only place among the patel points (places of tourist attraction) close to this place is the fort. There is a Shiva temple (Sakleshwar Swami temple) in the town close to the Hemavathi River bridge. Everything else is around 35 to 50 kms away, which is about 45 to 90 minutes’ drive depending on where you choose to go and the same time it takes to return. ||Keeping that in mind, this may not be the ideal place to stay if you want to go around and visit all the tourist destinations in this scenic place located in the western ghats. Historical places such as Belur and Halebidu can also be visited, which is around 90 minutes’ drive by road.||So overall, Mugilu is a decent place to stay if you like solitude and to be with yourselves without having to rush anywhere. They have around 6 or 7 cottages only. We saw mostly couples and only one other family (with kids) other than us. They don’t serve liquor, but if you wish to have it, then either carry your own booze or buy it at the MRP store right at the turning to the road that takes you to Mugilu.||Hope this...

Sick and tired of the city life that sucks all the happiness and energy, I was on the lookout for a short family vacation, an extended weekend if you will. Searching for places to stay in Sakleshpur, I bumped into Mugilu's website and had a gut feeling about this being something different. So I decided to reach out to them and spoke to Chandan, who informed me Muligu was a homestay, where a lot of focus is given to nature, simple food, cottages with privacy and mainly - no parties and noise. Well, just what I wanted to hear, in an age where its hard to escape people being noisy all the time, and indulging themselves in reel making - nothing wrong, but just not what I want to be around during a vacation.

So I went ahead and booked Mugilu for 2 nights, 3 days. The last 3 km of road to the place isn't the best but once I got there, I was welcomed by Anand who kinda plays the role of a manager and Imli, the sweet dog at the homestay!

The cottages are neat, clean, and minimalistic and the balcony opens to the wild forest. There aren't any mosquitoes. I was mesmerised by the sound of so many birds in the property! I could recognise atleast 7 of them which i recoded.

The menu on the food is rather few but they're all very well prepared! No excess oil or spices, but simple, tasty and served hot as your granny might do! The cutlery aint fancy too.

There is no wi-fi but you have no issues with the phone signals. Jio, Airtel and Vodafone work just fine. There is a nice stream near the property and you can go there for a morning walk! Imli joined us for our walks and guided us, such a doll, this dog!

There are half a dozen helpers and each of them is highly professional, polite and friendly - just what you'd want being away from home

They do camp fires too, in the evening

Food i loved: katte kadubu akki and ragi rotti rice and moong dal kheer chapati so tender and hot alu and mutter curry

There is a nice forest walk within the property too, and you can go around, this pet-friendly place. The price too, isn't steep considering breakfast, evening tea and dinner comes with it. Bonus - friendly dogs, tons of birds and their songs, tintin comics :)

The place is close to popular sight seeing spots such as Manjarabad Fort, Noodralli sunset view point and so on

Am coming here back for sure in the coming months! Mugilu had turned out to be one of my best family vacations thus far, thank you...

We selected Mugila for the birding and were drawn by the fact the resort was designed around supporting and nurturing nature. All those expectations were ticked to our satisfaction during our 2-night stay. We got their best room with a full glass wall on one side. The rooms are built on the higher side of a slope so we get the unique tree top views. The property is a Coffee Estate in name only as the owners have let it grow naturally with no pesticides or removal of trees for shade. So, it is almost like you are amid western ghats rather than an Estate. Food is homely and just enough for our needs. If you are expecting lavish buffets, then this is not the place for you. The rooms are clean and well-maintained. The hosts and staff are friendly and helpful.||Primary activity for us was, of course, birding. We did some inside the property, on a small trek to a stream nearby and outside the gate to the right towards the village. Highlight was the fantastic sightings of a (resident?), pair of Malabar Trogons. This we first sighted from our room when lying down in our bed! Heavenly. Later they gave us a good show on the walk inside the estate too. Note that birdwatching inside the property is tough due to the heavy foliage. One needs to have quick eyes, know calls, and luck. We still managed to spot Flycatchers, Flamebacks, Drongos, Flame throated Bulbuls, Blue-capped Rock Thrush, and of course Trongon, among others. We found the walk outside along the estate fence to the right towards the village very productive with Vernal hanging parrots, munias, lotens sunbird, leafbirds, parakeets, hornbills, puff throated babblers, woodshrike sightings. Don't forget to look out for other nature too while staying there. Butterflies, spiders, lizards, flowers....etc...etc. :)||Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed our...