Summer Sands, Mangalore

I visited along with two families but regret my experience with them, particularly the rude front desk old lady at the reception spoiled our moods at the very beginning behaving in a rude and unprofessional manner.

Only breakfast is complimentary, food prices are more that that of a five star. I never recommend others to make a visit. Pool is o.k.

We spent two nights there in the midst of mosquitoes and bad odour. We got our check-in late as the villas was not cleaned but they were on our heads for check out. I have traveled many countries but have never experienced this kind of hospitality.

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Summer Sands totally misrepresent themselves online. What you see when you get there is a total shock. It is a rundown place with very poor maintenance. The pool has stray dogs around it! The Kids playground is overgrown. You can’t even walk there, leave alone play.

The place is over run with flies especially the dining area. They had claimed that they had Badminton facility, on enquiring they asked us to play next to our unit on the roadside! The “club house” is rundown and over grown, dingy and musty and we couldn’t get ourselves to even enter it.

The premises are rented out to some local private parties during the weekends and the loud music goes on till 1:00 to 2:00 in the night making it impossible to sleep. The beach too is a small stretch and dirty. You would need to drive 15 mins to the Someshwar rock to get to a good clean beach.

The only good things about the place is the size of the rooms (though we found 2 big roaches during our stay ) and the breakfast which is authentic Udupi food.

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Just been to Summer Sands this holidays, Must say the place has really got the face lift it was badly was in need of.

I gave a list of must do's to them the last time I went there, and was pleasantly surprised to see all but one attended to. Congratulations to them. The best were the rooms and restaurant. Recently done up , the rooms are very generous in space, especially for us city dwellers is kingly.

The ambiance is so natural, all sandy roads, its actual nice to get the sand in your toes ! I think the best was the Chinese cuisine the chef really impressed us with the spread. He met u personally and made something special for us. The black bean sauce was yum.

The candle lit dinners with their two man band and the shimmer of the crescent moon on the waters is something I cant forget. I don't think we even needed a band as the waves rolling over was music to my ears.  I must say I thoroughly enjoyed my stay and a fabulous break it really was.Hmm for my next visit.

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Summer Sands

I stay in Bangalore and perhaps like most Bangaloreans crave to get out of the noisy, choked city whenever a chance presents itself. Luckily there are a few locations within a comfortable day’s drive. Last December I decided to visit the coastal town of Mangalore, as my young son wanted to see a beach [so far most of our vacations have been in the hills]. After some net surfing, I found a resort called Summer Sands that appeared promising. I booked a cottage room over the phone and had to be content with a non-AC room, as the others were booked. There was some miscommunication on the booking, because I called up again after a week and was told that since I had not paid the amount in advance, they had cancelled my booking! Anyway, I transferred some amount over the Net and managed to keep a room.

I started from Bangalore at 4 am and quite soon was enjoying the smooth roads [in contrast to Bangalore roads]. The scenery was lovely and the highway kept winding up till we were into the hilly section. Just before Hassan we found a Karnataka tourism restaurant where we had a delightful breakfast of hot dosa/idli. This was the only decent spot for miles around, so it turned out to be a wise decision for a break. Similarly, there was another KTDC restaurant just after the hilly ghat section ended, where we stopped for a snack.

The distance of roughly 325 kms was covered in 8 hours that included 2 stops and it was the hilly section that caused most of the slower driving. But the scenery and road made up for it all.

We reached Summer Sands well in time for lunch and checked in. The non-AC room was part of a cottage that had 3 rooms. It was a bit disappointing as it was rather cramped and had just one small window for light and no view at all. The furnishings were nothing to speak about and there was no TV even. Thankfully the bathroom was clean and reasonable. I tried to get the room changed, but all rooms were full or booked and the reception persons were unwilling to listen or bother about such things. After a lot of reminders, I managed to get a TV installed by evening. Room service was a real pain, so we decided to avoid eating in the room, and walked down to the restaurant instead.

Lets talk about the good stuff though first!

1. There is a pretty nice and clean swimming pool and I had good fun in it with my wife and son.

   
   




2. The lawns are big and one can relax on deck chairs or hammocks and soak in the sun, and take a dip in the pool, when it gets too hot.

   
   




3. The beach is so close to the cottages, that it’s a pleasure to walk down and get into the sea, knowing that one can quickly shower and change back in the room.

   
   




4. The beach is almost private so there are very few people to stare at you or clutter up the area. In fact it’s the cleanest beach I have seen, and is very relaxing.

   
   




5. The resort has a small games area where one can pay and have a game of billiards.

   
   




6. The food was OK and the fish dishes were quite tasty.

   
   

Summer Sands should improve upon:

1. The staff at the reception is quite slow, as are the room service guys.

   
   




2. Better quality of room décor and furnishings

   
   




3. The restaurant needs to be totally revamped and given a new look.

   
   




4. The beach can be provided with a lifeguard as the sea is very rough.

   
   

For dinners, we decided to skip Summer Sands and instead tried out a couple of places - Moti Mahal in Mangalore and a place on the highway - that were excellent.

In the final analysis, this is a good getaway for 2-3 days provided you just want to laze around and do nothing but swim, lie on the beach and eat.

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Summer Sands resort is located in a small town called Ullal.

Website: https://summer-sands.com

How to reach Summer Sands Resort:

From Bangalore:

Take the NH-48, preferably start early morning from B'lore,

head towards Nelmangala on NH-4. Take left at the traffic junction of NH-4

and NH-48 and head towards Kunigal and Hassan. As you reach 10 KMs from

Mangalore - watch out for the first big round-about called ''Mahaveer Jain Circle''

This circle has a cement structure of Pots and flowers. Take left to move

on NH-17 going towards Ullal / Kasargodu. Proceed upto 8 Kms, you will cross the

Netravathi Bridge. Watch out for Netaji Hospital on the left and for Ullal bus stop.

Opposite this busstop there is a road leading to the Ullal town. Take this road.

Keep moving on the road leading to Ullal town till you reach the circle with a

lady on the horse. Take left. Drive for a minute and you will see the Summer Sands

resort on the right side of the road.

Things I liked about Summer Sands:

1. Courteous staff. My appreciation to all of them. Right from the security guard to the staff at the restaurant are very courteous and helpful.

   
   




2. Nice landscape and spread out of cottages. The main lane seems to be the focus but SSR should provide same attention and care for the other lanes too.

   
   




3. Tasty food served at the restuarant. I did try out the local cuisine, chinese as well

   
   

as north Indian type dishes - it was good. However, the best was the simple fish

curry and white rice that was appreciated by one and all in my family.

1. Cottage room was ok and the double cot we had was good enough to accomodate 2 adults and 2 kids. The New AC installed was working good and had climate control. Neat and clean toilets.

   
   




2. The resort is located next to the beach. One can walk from their cottages to the

   
   

beach. Adeqaute facilities like showers are provided near the beach entrance.

The beach was never crowded. One can enjoy a peacefull walk during morning

and evening time. Most of my evenings were spent on the beach watching the sun set. It is very peaceful to watch the sun set -

especially without being bothered by nagging vendors or stray cows & dogs or nuisance beach visitor!

Early morning walks on the beach is very refreshing and the sound of the splashing waves is very soothing.

1. Ease of communication. I could interact with them thru email and transfer the advance booking amount via electronic bank to bank transfer.

Things I did not like about Summer sands:

a. While renovating the cottages - the furniture seems to have been ignored. It was

sick to see the old rickety and disgusting looking chairs and table.

b. Parking our cars below the coconut trees was disturbing and a matter of concern.

Coconuts or leaves branch falling off from these tall trees can damage the car. So it

is best to see where exactly you are parking or park the car in the common parking

lot and hope for the best.

c. The notice board near the pool declares - ''Swim at your own risk''. A bit unnerving

statement and not comforting as there are no life guard available. No wonder that I hardly saw people swiming in the pool i.e in comparison to other resorts I have visited.

d. No news papers supplied to the room. Well for some it is good to keep away from the outside world, but most will feel lack of it - as I did.

e. Foul smell of rotting fish perculates sometimes. This is not the fault of Summer sands but from the nearby dockyard.

A note of caution - the sea waves were very rough even in the last week of December. So take caution even while walking along the beach nearer to the sea. Unless you are strong swimmer - keep away from the sea. The waves are very strong and can pull in a adult very easily.

As a summary - if I ask myself a question -- ''Should I be visiting Summer Sands Resort again?''

• perhaps yes but only if all my other options are exhausted. I am a beach lover. I love to play

with my kids in the beach rather than just sit and watch the sea waves and sun set. In this regard-

I feel that the beaches in Kovalam and Murudeshwara were the best.

Helpful pointers:

A. Pit stop for refreshing:

Hassan is the best place and situated almost at the the centre of the journey between B'lore and M'lore. Hassan town has good hotels and can cater to all crowds right from zero to 3 star facilities.

Another excellent place to take a break and refresh is the Cafe joint at Adhichunchingiri town. The Cafe is located on the NH-48 next to Adhichunchingiri bus stop. Try their Grilled Pudhina bread toast and cold coffee. The joint has very clean and well maintained toilets. My kids prefer to take a break at this joint than at any other joints in this M'lore-B'lore route. I prefer this as it is very clean and hygenic, I dont have to waste my time passing thru a town searching for a good hotel. Easy to ingress and egress in a jiffy.

Sakleshpura: On the NH-48 after crossing the Sakleshpura town (driving from B'lore to M'lore) - watch out for the restuarant on the right side of the road. It has good parking facilities and toilets are available. The coffee and tea served here is just excellent. Try out their set dosa.

If you leave M'lore early moring - it is best to have light breakfast at M'lore itself in a nice hotel. If missed - travell for about an hour till you reach BC-Road junction. You can find some restuarants here. I prefer not to take here as the ghat section becomes more challenging after this and can be a little hard for some who are not

used to travelling in twisting roads of ghat section. Best is to have light food in M'lore before starting the journey.

B. Carry musquito repellents. Terrible king size musquitos can haunt you at night.

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