A unique stay experience at Destiny Farmstay Ooty

On our third trip to Ooty, I was looking for some beautiful offbeat destination to explore. And that is when I stumbled upon Silent valley and Emerald Lake. Silent Valley is a Nilgiris Biosphere inside a reserve forest area. And Emerald Lake is a beautiful, expansive turquoise blue water lake in this valley. Although I was staying at Sterling Elk Hill Ooty during this visit. And didn’t have much time to spend at the banks of Emerald Lake. I left my heart here and returned back home. Craving for a closer endeavour with the lake and it’s pristine surroundings.

And that is when I stumbled upon Destiny Farmstay Ooty. When I was looking for a place to stay near Emerald Lake. So, when my next visit to Ooty materialized, I decided to spend at least one night at Destiny Farmstay Ooty. While we stayed closer to the town for the initial few days. Thereafter we checked out and started for Destiny Farmstay.

How to reach Destiny Farmstay Ooty

Destiny Farmstay is located nearly 28km from the main town of Ooty. It is a resort located on a farmland spread across the Nilgiris Hills. Covering an area of approximately 300 acres. The parking space of the farmstay is near the main road.

When you start for Destiny Farmstay, put the location on your map as “Destiny Farmstay Parking”. Or, call them up and ask to share you the location. And once you reach near the location, look for a small board with “Destiny” written on it. Besides this sign board goes a kuccha mud road, which leads to the parking space. The ~250 metres road is in a very bad condition with pits and boulders in between. So, be careful. Cars with low ground clearance can be easily damaged. This stretch of road is narrow as well. So, be vigilant of on coming traffic, if any. However, you will cross this stretch in 2 minutes and reach the Destiny Farmstay Parking.

Here’s our vlog on how to reach Destiny Farmstay Ooty from the town of Ooty:

Once at the parking area, park your car in the campus. And get onto the special farmstay vehicle.

There will be staff to assist you. We did the same. And were careful to take all our belongings with us. Because this parking is around 3 km from the resort. And it is not easy to navigate back and forth.

Their vehicle plies every hour and takes guests to and fro. Since the 3km stretch of road is almost a non existent road. With muddy patches, very narrow stretches, bounders and all. It is a very bumpy ride to the farmstay. Totally discouraged for pregnant ladies or anyone else who shouldn’t be taking such bumpy rides. In fact, my younger kid felt bit dizzy right before we reached the resort. Reaching Destiny Farmstay Ooty is definitely an adventure in itself. But you will feel it is totally worth it once you reach there.

Rooms & Views

After getting down and completing the check-in formalities, we went to our rooms. There are two floors in the resort. And all the rooms have excellent view of valley and the lake in between. The rooms are basic, neat and clean and comfortable. They are equipped with tea and coffee pouches, drinking water bottle, electric kettle. Hot water is available in the morning from 6:00am to 10:00am and in the evening from 6:00pm to 10:00pm. While the rooms on the first floor have private balcony. Those on the ground floor have kind of a Verandah. From where you can sit and gaze on the mesmerising view endlessly.

Right in front you will be able to see the manicured farm land, with flower beds here and there. A beautiful fish pond. And a fairytale like wooden bridge across this pond leading to the farther part of the farm land. On the distant hills you can see people trekking. And animals grazing. And in between the hills you see the emerald blue lake shining in the sun like a sea of diamonds. After seeing this view, we forgot all about the bumpy ride to the farm. And immediately felt refreshed. After getting fresh, the kids rushed to the garden and played around in the grass. While I just roamed around and enjoyed the views, taking a much needed sun bath.

Activities to do at Destiny Farmstay Ooty

Once we reached Destiny Farmstay , we were greeted by the resort staff. They also briefed us about the activities available at the farmstay. In fact, there are so many things to do here that you can easily spend over a week at this place if you want to try all of them out. Some of these are chargeable while others are complimentary. The complimentary activities include one time horse riding (yes, they have horses at the farm), sowing seeds in the farm (for kids), meeting the farm animals, fishing in the pond (once you catch the fish, you have to send it back to the pond..how cool is that!), origami, bonfire, nature walk, morning trek to the top of the hill and walk around the lake.

Some of the chargeable activities include a barbecue by the lake, camping on the lake side, horse riding course, horse grooming course, zip-lining and several other such activities.

Food at Destiny Farmstay Ooty

There is a in house restaurant available on the premises. And you will be completely relying on it during your stay for food. But don’t worry, the food is available. We had a complimentary breakfast and a buffet lunch where I liked the spread. They have some Indian, some Continental and some Chinese items. They also have room service wherein you can order food in your room. We ordered our dinner at our room. Also, they have a small tea and snack counter overlooking the garden and the hills. There is open seating around it. In the evening between 4:00pm and 7:00pm high tea is arranged in this area. Along with tea and coffee of different flavours, there are snacks also available. Like sandwiches, and other such snacks. And several other beverages like cold coffee, milkshakes etc.

A walk around the property

Starting from the entrance, there is a path that leads straight to the reception and the front office. Right besides this building, the path continues. Wherein you can take the stairs to the restuarant, which is on the first floor of the same building. There is an open deck in front of the restaurant with some tables and chairs placed outside. And then there is a bonfire area as well here.

If you don’t take the deviation to the restaurant and instead keep walking further, you arrive at the stable where the farm horses reside.

After crossing the stable, the road divides in two parts. One part goes up – and ends at a field where there is a ring. Guests can take horse ride in this field.

While if you go down the other path, you arrive at the “unwind spa”. The spa was closed when we visited due to the covid situation.

Right besides the spa, you can trek down to reach near the lake. They do arrange for camping and barbecue here. You can see camps, hammocks and a couple of tables and chairs set here. To enjoy the serene views of the lake and the hills beyond from here. Once you reach here, you hardly hear any sound, except for the chirping of the birds. And some occasional sound of farm animals.

From the reception, another path leads to the building with the rooms. Near here, you can go down to the cafe where high tea is served. And right besides the cafe is kids play area with several play equipments like jumping net, swing, slide etc. After crossing this area, you will see a small space where several farm animals are kept. Like hens, small rabbits, guinea pigs, turkeys etc. Kids specially enjoy this area. You can also trek down to the resorts lawn. There is a whole flight of stairs that goes all the way down to the fishing pond. There is a beautiful wooden bridge and zip-lining platform platform beyond it.

On the right had side, you see some more farm animals like cows , goats and sheep grazing. Overall it is very serene and beautiful. After we freshened up, we actually explored the whole property.

In the evening, we sat at the verandah and watched the sun set. The next morning as we woke up, we saw the whole lawn covered in tiny ice crystals. It seemed that there is a white net laid on the whole surface. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Because we were so warm and cozy inside the rooms all through the night. I couldn’t imagine the temperature outside had dropped so low that the water had frozen.

Before breakfast (timing 8:00am to 10:00am), we took a short walk to the lake. The grass and fallen tree trunks here were all covered in a thin blanket of snow!! And there was vapour coming out of the lake and gliding on it’s surface as the morning sun was slowly spreading it’s warmth. It was nothing less than heavenly!! This was one experience I will cherish forever.

After breakfast, we got ready and checked out from here. They have checkout timing from 7:30am to 11:30am at every one hour interval. Since, their vehicle comes and takes tourists back to the parking lot at this interval. We checked out at 9:30am, reached the parking lot by 10:00am. And then after adjusting our luggage, started on our trip back home.

In Conclusion

It was a very nice one night stay at Destiny Farmstay that we experienced. I will definitely want to return back here for more. We couldn’t do much of the activities this time. Since we wanted to explore the grounds at our own pace. And we were here for just one day. But still the serene environment, the beautiful views, the warm sun and the chilling wind was all I needed to refresh me up after days of staying back home in a monotonous routine. But yes, staying here with elderly and very small kids might feel challenging because of the limited connectivity with the outside world. The mobile signal was very weak at the rooms and the wifi was available only at the reception. So, this is not a place you could work from.

In short, this is a place where you leave your work and your worries behind and just enjoy in the lap of nature!

 

Tips on visiting Destiny Farmstay Ooty

1. Be prepared for a laid back environment and to enjoy nature. Don’t go here with the expectation of being glued to electronic media or mobile phones.
2. The mobile network is poor at the rooms, wifi is available only at the reception
3. Pack adequate woollen cloths for winter nights, as it gets really chilly outside.
4. Carry all your essential medicines, vitamins and other such needs with you. As it is not very convenient to get in and out of the property at your leisure.
5. If you have elderly and kids with you, don’t plan a very long stay. Since, I am not sure even an ambulance can reach here if required.
6. It takes around 1 hr and few more minutes to reach here from Ooty town. Keep adequate time at hand so that you can stop on the way for views of Avalanche Lake and it’s surroundings.
7. Their checkin time is 12:00pm onwards. The vehicle picks guests from their parking lot every hour starting 12:00pm and shifts them to the resort.
8. If you are visiting ooty during monsoons, it might not be possible to visit Destiny Farmstay as the road leading to the resort will be in pretty bad shape. So, best time to visit here will be winter and spring months.
9. Plan for minimum 2 nights stay here, then only you will be able to explore the whole area properly and also enjoy some of the activities offered here.

Book Destiny Farmstay Ooty here at booking.com

Book Destiny Farmstay here at Agoda.com

 

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