Well we knew we'd booked a lovely place, but the photos really didn't do Niramaya justice as we discovered on arrival. A beautiful place, it is considered "out" of Port Douglas, but we're talking 4kms, so for us, a few minutes to town was really no big deal at all.
I'd booked a one bedroom villa and so we were surprised when we ended up with 3 -
we didn't have access to the other rooms, but it meant the space we had was very impressive! The gardens were absolutely stunning and well looked after, we had a big master suite, the kitchen/living area was comfortable and well appointed (and the kitchen was fully kitted and with Miele appliances), a spacious outdoor area, 2 outdoor showers, and the all important, infinity pool with poolside lounge all to ourselves overlooking a lake around which the geese and their goslings (so cute!!), ducks, birds and myriad of wildlife, all a reminder of how deeply immersed we were in their environment.
The staff were all very friendly and polite, although we largely kept to ourselves - easy to do here! The restaurant would be a perfect location for a special event, but was on the quiet side, we only had breakfast as a result which was ok, if not complicated by the "simplified" menu...basically some people get breakfast included in a booking, others don't, so they've tried to provide a menu to cater for both, whilst allowing you to order anything - it's actually quite confusing and although the food was ok, for some reason the menu just didn't jump out and grab me.
The spa was exactly the sort of spa you hope for - quiet, decorated with gorgeous frangipani flowers, overlooking tropical gardens and was a lovely treatment - highly recommend.
The only criticisms I have, could be attributed perhaps to the fact the resort isn't brand new, so some minor updates to a few things could be considered e.g. the air conditioning unit (which was definitely needed on a few nights) was very loud - on the plus side it drowned out the sound of toads/frogs going crazy, but having a blind/louvres on all of the windows would have down that too....(and kept the light out)! The bed was also one of those low bed frames and with a mattress erring on the soft side, wasn't as comfortable as we were hoping for.
Aside from that, this really was a gorgeous place to spend a week in the tropics, well located to get into town and only a short walk or even shorter drive to 4 Mile Beach or easy to get out to the road to Daintree or Cairns. We were there in the wet, but we were both: a bit lucky with the weather, and very unperturbed when it did rain - even watching the heavens open and water rushing down the chains (rather than pipes) into the drains was relaxing! I'd advise anyone thinking of going at this time of year to not pay attention to weather forecasts - they couldn't have been more inaccurate if they tried!
Definitely a place on the return to list.
