This place is set in a beautiful location, the building, pool, and grounds are gorgeous. You take a boat to get in and out of the resort, through a river, and the experience is amazing. So why was this place terrible? I don't know where to begin. Our toilet flooded after the first flush. Service people came up, denied that there was a problem, and had to be called up a second time to fix it. This process took about 2 days, so during that time, we walked around a bathroom that was wet with sewage. Not pleasant. The room had a low beam that I kept hitting my head on. Requested a different room and this was denied even though other rooms were available. Staff were polite, but incompetent. Unable to handle even simple requests. Room service took over 2 hours (but food was good). Upon our checkout, we scheduled ample time to allow for the boat ride, traffic, etc. However, their computers were down, and no one knew how to write up a paper bill. So we waited, and waited, and waited. Finally, we got a bill that which included several erroneous charges. I contested these charges, and this meant even more waiting. I had to pay in cash, but fortunately had enough. Of course, no apologies were given. Finally, we paid our bill and left, but when we got off the boat to the taxi stand, we were chased by another boat with a hotel employee claiming that we had to pay even more. This was also erroneous, but managed to waste more of our time. In the end, we barely made it to our flight, thanks to the gross incompetence of the Estuary Island Resort management. I am sure it is quite possible that others might not have the same horrible experience that we did, but why take the chance? Don't stay here.

Great quiet location, beautiful hotel, and fantasic hospitality. Ignore the bad reviews, I booked before reading them and it worried me, but they couldnt be more wrong. The grounds are excellent, the pool is adequate, and the weather was awesome. The staff are very hospitable, and will do anything for you. The hotel massages are a bit expensive, if you go into town it will be cheaper, but getting a taxi into town makes the price equal. Save money by going as a group to do your tourist activities and book a driver for the day, its much cheaper if you go 4 or more and haggle a taxi. Taxis can be found at the towns jetty or if you cut through into the neighbouring hotel and walk to their front gate you will find taxis there. There is a floating restaurant visible from the jetty, a taxi boat will be lurking in the darkiness by the jetty that will take you. The hotel staff do not advise you to go, but I had some great food and cocktails there on a number of occassions. It makes a nice break from the spicy buffet food. They do charge tourist prices but its worth it. The staff are paid very low wages and instead of tipping all your waiters, you can give one tip when you leave that's spread amongst all staff. Buy shirts and trousers in town, its dirt cheap, I wish I had bought more! I recommend staying for a week, two weeks can be a bit boring as its quite isolated and not much to do on site. You can nip over to the Maldives from here at a good price maybe worth taking up the opportunity if you dont plan on having a honeymoon! The good: Staff were unbelievably friendly The food is great, grab the roti and paratha first! Stephens floating restaurant has great western style food and fish dishes The beach The pool The rooms were immaculate and comfortable The bad: Slightly isolated but thats the whole point Crows hovering around the pool Large families dominate the pool on the weekends Not much entertainment

We stayed here for 3 nights during the beginning of our holiday in South India. Location was not what we expected as it meant that we would have to get the boat to the car park each time we wanted to go out somewhere. However the views were lovely and the location is very picturesque. Staff were friendly and helpful especially in the restaurant. Pool seemed like a decent size, although we didn't use it. We booked two rooms and the rooms were clean, The only problem was that our rooms were facing each other and we could hear everything from the other room so no privacy.