The Grand Chola Chennai; Just luxurious

Having to go to Chennai on work has become a part of my life. There have been moments when I have woken up in my base city without knowing that I would have to sleep in Chennai that same night; because work demands it from me!

Which is when, the Grand Chola owned by the ITC group, comes into the picture. This magnificent hotel, given a 5 star rating, deserves nothing less, infact more! A massive hotel really! The third largest in India infact. The delights of this super luxurious property are multifarious!


This grand "Grand Chola", is the epitome of luxury. With 600 rooms, its only a juggle in the maze! 522 rooms and the rest are service apartments for visiting expats. While most hotels struggle maintaining a single swimming pool, the Grand Chola has 5 pools. Two are for kids while the rest are for adult guests. All the pools are on the 2nd level, just above the banquet halls.


The hotel has 4 entrances with 2 receptions. The main reception caters to guests staying in the executive club rooms and the banquet visitors while the second reception in the Towers wing, is exclusively for ITC club members, who generally put up in the ITC 1 rooms in the Towers wing. I am told that the staff in the hotel are told to remember guests by names and I have experienced the same too!


I generally get to stay in the Towers Wing. The Kari Kalan suite and the Raja Raja Chola suite are the grand ones which are located on the 7th floor. The ITC 1 rooms are large and modern. Infact, you can control the TV, FM radio, air-conditioning, lights, open the door and order food all through an ipad which has been customised for a complete satisfactory experience.


This grand hotel has 10 restaurants within it! Cuisines of India, Japan, China, Europe and elsewhere are served here with great culinary care. One notable among them is the Cheroot Malt and Cigar Lounge. They serve an array of drinks and wide selection of world class cigars! While selected in-house guests are offered a luxury hour from 6 to 8pm every evening, the others can easily spend an entire evening in the bar or speciality restaurants enjoying good drinks and food.


The ITC group is a few of the hotel chains that provide butler services in India along with the Oberoi chain. These young lads are well trained and provide an excellent service for in-room dining and other services like laundry. Each garment sent to the laundry comes back neatly packed with a ribbon and rose!


If one is rich and powerful, then this is the place to get his / her son / daughter married! Yes, their banquet hall when clubbed into a single enclosure is almost 5000 sq feet in area and can accommodate upto 3000 guests!

The ITC Grand Chola is intricate enough to make one go on writing about it's grandeur and excellent services, but I will stop here because writing this little bit has now aroused my eagerness to go back there again and be pampered!

Snapshot of the Grand Chola:

- It is the world's largest green hotel with the coveted Leed certification!
- 8 km from the Chennai airport
- The spa (Kaya) is spread over 2155 sq m!
- ATM facility!
- Underground parking for 5000 cars!

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