1 hour before I purchased a flight ticket for my son Harry to come home, from America,

for Christmas 2012 in New Zealand, my very generous mother,

decided the entire family are going with her on her last overseas trip abroad.

Brother Craig chose India; his "spiritual home".

There is no place I want to go to less,

but if I want to see my sons Luke and Harry at Christmas,

I have to go.

This blog will tell the tale ...from start to finish.

Will I love India or hate it?

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Places we will stay … 6) Agra
Hotel Atithi
Tourist Complex Area, Fatehabad Road,
AGRA - 282001. (INDIA)
Located in the Tourist Complex Area, Taj Mahal (The Glory of Agra) is only at the walking distance. The rooms are with attached bathrooms, Colour T.V., Hot & Cold water supply, Telephones and Refrigerator.
•  Room Service
•  High Speed Internet Access
•  Doctor on Call
•  Laundry & Drycleaning
•  Car Rental & Parking
TRIP ADVISOR REVIEWS
****“A Nice Hotel”Reviewed August 21, 2012
We stayed in this Hotel for one day, Good rooms, Washroom OK, Staff very cooperative, there is Pizza Hutt and other Restaurants near by. We advice the tourist to book the taxi from the Hotel itself, as we had a very bad experience with a taxi guy from outside. At the end the Hotel staff arranged us the taxi to go to NewDelhi.
Me and my girlfriend stayed here for a week in June 2012. As the title reflects we had a great time in the hotel. The hotel has excellent room service, breakfast/lunch/dinner all came within 20mins from order. The room is good size comfortable for 2 persons.
The location of this hotel is just perfect. It is in the centre of the city but in a quiet zone, if you go for other hotels even costly ones their location might be near to Taj Mahal but the roads are too noisy. Costa and Pizza Hut is with 100 meters and you can also feel safe if you want to have a walk after dinner.
Negatives: Unless requested they don't change bed linen and clean rooms, swimming pool is outside the hotel and not well maintained.
Overall: If you want a perfect hotel then please refer to Oberoi Amarvillas but if you are looking for a good holiday and ready to adjust the negatives stated above then this should be your choice.
****“Nice Hotel”Reviewed May 14, 2012
this is a nice hotel with good rooms. well located hardly 20-25 mins of walk from Taj and hardly 5 Kms from Cantt Rly Station. Room was food and comfy.sevice was bit slow but food is good. The hotel is a decent place to stay with the staff fairly friendly and helpful
I stayed at Hotel Atithi in early April. We were a group of 10 and therefore chose thos for a budget option and also because of its proximity to Taj. Overall the hotel is a decent place to stay with the staff fairly friendly and helpful. The biggest downside is the breakfast which was extremely basic - but then again for the price we were paying for the room it should be ok - consisted of omlettes, puri-sabzi and cornflakes with tea and coffee. However the cleanliness was questionable as I did see the server picking up clean glasses with his fingers inside and then denied it when I confronted him! Also at b'fast time they ran out of a few items and took forever to replinish it. The hotel of course has no view so keep your curtains drawn. It does boast of a swimming pool - however it is in a separate area and faced an apartment building so felt quite open.
We did have problems with the AC in one of the rooms, but the technician came in fairly quickly- however couldn't rectify so they offered to change rooms.
Overall a decent experience - do book a cab to go to the Taj with the hotel in advance although there's a taxi stand 5 mins away. And the plus side of this hotel is that there's a Pizza Hut and a Costa barely 5 mins away :-)
**“Poor hotel. Needs a clean” Reviewed April 24, 2012
On the positive side, the hotel is pretty well located (10-15 minute walk to the Taj...albeit through an army of touts, vendors and rickshaw wallers) and reasonably quiet. Pool area looked reasonable although I didn't use.
Negatives - top of the list, cleanliness. As commented by scores of others, the bed linen was stained and very old. The dated purple bed-spread was plain nasty...riddled with stains! The bathroom was superficially clean but definitely needed a good scrub down. The shower was very old with just a trickly of water and the shampoo and gel were re-used from previous guests..both being empty containers! There was a musty smell in the room from the lack of good cleaning and a smell of drains in the bathroom.
Worst was the fridge. Absolutely filthy and over-grown with mould. Stunk to hell. Clearly been left like that for months if not years. Needed condemning.
The electricity point was hanging off the wall, so a dice with death every time I needed to put the key card in to activate! There is a TV but reception is so poor, it's effectively un-watchable.
The staff were reasonably polite though a bit un-engaging. As only here for 1 night though, had little need to call on their services.
Noise in the hotel at night was pretty bad too. There appeared to be a wedding or some kind of function in a conference room downstairs so noise drifted up. Very think doors meant that through the night, it was a cacophany of kids running the halls, women screaming after them and general bedlam.
The hotel would be a servicable and acceptable low end place to stay if it was just clean. Lonely Planet makes mention of the cleanliness but trust me, it isn't!! The communal areas not too bad but the room was way way below par. If it was cleaned, and in the 1.5k rupees range, that would be ball-park. Not good value paying any more than that until it's spruced up.
*****“Superb hotel..!”Reviewed March 10, 2012
This is very good hotel. Staff is very friendly. They arranged taxi for us to tour Mathura-Vrundavan-Fatehpur Sikri. This hotel is located nearyby Tajmahal. Breakfast was delicious.I would recommend this hotel to stay in Agra.....!
*****“Very good hotel”Reviewed March 10, 2012 via mobile
Very good hotel. The location is very good there is a pizza hut just 100ft away. The rooms are nicely maintained. I stayed for a day only but my folks liked the hotel a lot. The food quality is very good.
we had a good stay in this hotel. Staff was very helpful in carrying luggages. Only thing is that they might want to work so fast and they nearly took other people luggage in our bus...Otherwise, good clean rooms. Some people had difficulties to get hot water but it finally came. Internet wifi was not free. Good breakfast. 

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