If there’s one thing India does well it’s massive, lavish, and extremely well-equipped business hotels — unfortunately for the more design-sensitive among us, they tend to be extremely conservative in style. Not so, however, the ITC Sonar, on the outskirts of town near the Science City. This is a sleek, modern and surprisingly green hotel, billing itself as a “business resort” — and set on sixteen acres of land, with golf, tennis and jogging facilities, it’s more than just a slogan.
The Singapore-based Kerry Hill Architects laid out this wide-open resort along lily-padded waterways, bringing a bit of riverside romance to what could otherwise have looked a bit like an office park. Rooms are spread about the grounds, the more basic ones occupying the tower, the more lavish ones in low-slung secondary buildings, with views out over the lush surroundings. All rooms, tower or otherwise, are standard high-end luxury, crisp and contemporary but not overwhelmingly high-design.
From the pool, spa and fitness center to the modest handful of restaurants and bars, you’ll find the ITC Sonar to be a pretty self-sufficient hotel. If there’s a down side, it’s in the fact that it’s a taxi ride from the city center — but that’s the trade you make for such country charms as the lily ponds and the pitch & putt golf course.
How to get there:
From Netaji Subhas Chandra Airport, 14.64 km - approximately 17 mins.
Please contact customerservice@tablethotels.com to arrange airport transfers.
author watson@mouselink.net, source www.tablethotels.com