Excellent food & service, good activities for kids
Puneet Butan
We had booked 3 rooms ( 2 Suites + 1 luxury) for our family (5 adults + 2 small kids), and overall had a pleasant stay. Being season, we did face initial check-in hurdles of not getting desired rooms, but once that was behind us the stay was wonderful. The initial hurdle didn't leave a good impression initially and had us worried about our choice. It took us more than 1 hour to settle for the rooms, but then had to work out an arrangement that required us to change rooms for first 2 nights before we settle into the rooms we wanted for the last 2 nights. Perhaps, a contributor was that we made 3 separate bookings, but still rooms being offered to us a 'suite' were not really 'suites', and this was quite unpleasant. The reception staff could have done better. Not to mention, their rooms 501/502/503 even though offer good views but have an entirely different entry. One has to go to basement (management says it is ground floor, but it does feel like basement) and take spiral stairs ( not safe for kids) to reach to these rooms. These rooms are in fact connected to the rooms on the main floors ( eg - 302 connected to 502), so they are best taken together, otherwise it would be a pain for connected families to commute between rooms. Eventually after 2 nights, we got room 302 and both together 302/502 are wonderful as family suites. This ended up making up our last 2 nights comfortable and worthy of a combined vacation. Apart from that, the facilities in the The Orchard Greens are very nice. The food is excellent and utmost care if taken to ensure that both breakfast and dinner spreads are different each day and of fine taste. We loved the food and the service in restaurant was also extremely good. Restaurant staff are quite courteous and its good to see people serving food with smiling faces. The programs are also quite good - Ghazal/live singing and inhouse DJ ensure the experience is extremely calming/enjoyable. Candle light dinner was also very nice. Overall food and experience around it was simply superb. We did not even think of having food anywhere else. Breakfast & dinner to be part of the package is excellent choice. The food and service have left a lasting pleasant impression on all of us. Facilities for kids were good. Hotel has a Table Tennis table, carrom board, and bunch of badminton rackets available. Kids enjoyed their time shuffling between these activities. Particularly badminton in the garden was fantastic. Garden is very well maintained with wonderful a Rose garden maintained at one side (great location for taking beautiful portraits). Seating area in the garden with garden jhulas (rocking iron sofa) is very relaxing. Suite Rooms are nice with large attached bathrooms (would have been great to have exhaust fans in them). Bathroom in room 502 is narrow but functional. Wi-Fi in the room is almost not there. Management needs to do something to improve this. I had to switch to my 4g instead of relying on the The Orchard Greens Wi-Fi. Located in Log Huts area, one can say the The Orchard Greens is little away from the main highway road. But then going to and fro to the mall road is pain. Primarily because the so called highway road is so narrow and congested that it sees long jams and one can smell the burning clutch plates of cars. Well, it is a shame that we call that a Highway, and government needs to do something about it (for those who do not know, Manali is super crowded in season and long jams (on this highway and on the Manali-Leh bypass road are painful). I guess during offseason it would not be an issue and location in that season could be considered nice. Hadimba team is nearby, one can walk to the temple (around 2 km). Once could even walk to the mall road (but then during the jams we avoided it due to so much pollution from car exhausts). Log huts area is nice otherwise surrounded by very tall (almost 120 feet tall trees). There is also a Ram temple around 1km away that one can walk to (in the midst of the tall trees). One cannot see the Beas river from the The Orchard Greens, but can walk down to it using stairs (if you are up for it) (10 minutes walk). Hotel also has inhouse traditional dresses and photographer available to complete the experience and carry that remembrance. Great initiative. Overall The Orchard Greens is nice, rooms are comfortable (if you get the right ones), facilities are good, food is excellent, evening arrangements (ghazal/live singing/dj nights) are very good, garden is well maintained, kids activities are very good, and the travel desk at The Orchard Greens is also nice (the prices are reasonable and the staff courteous). If one is OK to stay near Mall road (not too near, but not too far), then this The Orchard Greens offers a good overall package.
