Quick verdict
CONTENTS
A tiger turned up at the gate one night and just stood there.
Not while I was there. Sheetal was, though, and she has not entirely forgiven the guests for how they behaved about it. They all went to their glass walls to have a proper look, which is the natural human response and also the stupid one, and Sheetal spent the whole episode going room to room on the phone, pleading with each of them to sit down and stay inside. She was telling me this months later, and I could hear the exasperation still sitting in it somewhere.
So that is the property. The wilderness bit is not a marketing word. This is Nilgiri Biosphere country; Project Elephant and Project Tiger both operate here, and the place sits four kilometres in from Vythiri down a lane that has much grander resorts on it than this one. Somehow the forest has not noticed them. There is a lake across the road where elephants come to drink. On my walk, the insects were so loud it felt rude to talk.
The property is about two years old. Nine rooms, all the same class. Small. Built better than most things at the price, which I will come back to because it surprised me. I had a corner room with glass on two sides, looking at a lake, then coffee, then forest, going back until there is nothing left to call it. Pool on the first floor with the same view. Coffee on one flank, a tea garden on the other, a waterfall on the walk.
Two problems, and they are not small ones. The kitchen is not finished. And you cannot leave.
Book it if you want a new, well-made room inside an actual forest and you are coming to sit still. Bring a car or be content to stay put.
Skip it if you want to be out seeing Wayanad every day without hiring a vehicle, or if thin food options would spoil it for you.
Disclosure: My stay at Lazo EcoSpot Vythiri was hosted. Nobody read this before publication, and nobody paid for a verdict. This post also contains affiliate links, which earn me a commission at no cost to you.
Lazo EcoSpot Vythiri at a glance
| What to know | Lazo EcoSpot Vythiri at a glance |
|---|---|
| Where | Ammara Pond, near Vythiri, Wayanad, Kerala 673576 |
| From Vythiri | About 4 km, down a lane into the plantations |
| Size | Nine rooms, all one room type |
| Age | Roughly two years |
| Rates | Not published. Around ₹2,400 shows up as a low-season lead-in on booking sites, but they quote on request |
| Pool | Yes, first floor, over the lake and plantations |
| Restaurant | Yes, but most meals currently come in from outside |
| Breakfast | Buffet, vegetarian, 8 to 10 AM |
| Check-in / out | After 12 PM / before 10 AM |
| Without a car | Bus to Vythiri, then auto. ₹150 to ₹300 for the last 4 km |
| Nearest attraction | Pookode Lake, about 3 km |
| Guest rating | 8.5/10 |
| Contact | bookings@lazoresorts.com, +91 89258 29958 |
Checked in September 2026.
The room
I think they gave me the best room in the place, and I am not going to pretend they didn’t.
Corner room. Glass on the left wall and glass at the front, so you are not looking at the view; you are sitting in the middle of it. One side is the lake, the coffee, the forest behind that.
The other side looks over the entrance, which is nothing much, but when two walls are made of windows, you stop auditing the second one.
The age of the property matters more than it sounds like it should. Two years old means things work. Taps, switches, the bathroom not smelling of old water. Nothing has gone soft yet. Hill station resorts age at a speed that always catches me out, and a great deal of what I have stayed in around Wayanad and Munnar at this rate is either brand new and thrown together or well made and fifteen years past anyone caring. Tall Trees in Munnar is the mature end of that, if you are weighing an older property against a newer one.
The pool is on the first floor and looks at the lake and the coffee and the forest. That is a great deal of pool for somewhere with fewer than ten rooms.
I got there off two buses and about eleven hours of road and did absolutely nothing for the whole of the first day. Not a walk, not a swim. The room made that very easy to justify. If what you need is to go somewhere green and lie down for a bit, this does that better than almost anything at the price.
What it costs, and what to ask for
Lazo does not publish a rate card for Vythiri. Booking sites show roughly ₹2,400 as a low-season lead-in, which tells you the neighbourhood and not much else, so ring or email them for a real number.
The more useful thing is that there is only one room type here. Nine rooms, all the same class, confirmed by the property. So there is no upgrade to buy and no point asking for one. What varies is where the room sits. Ask for a corner. That is where the two walls of glass are, and it is the whole difference between a perfectly nice room and the reason to come at all.
The setting, which is the actual reason to come
It was about half five on day two before I went outside.
Coffee on one side of the property, tea on the other, which is a slightly ridiculous arrangement and extremely good for walking. I did the coffee first. Shaded, close, noisy in that way coffee estates are. Last time I walked through one properly was in Coorg, and it has the same feeling of being indoors outdoors. Then out into the tea, which is the opposite. Open, quiet, laid out in those obedient parallel lines that photograph better than they have any right to.
There is a small waterfall on the way.
It was hot and dry, which in Wayanad in September is luck and not the weather working as advertised.
Here is the thing the listings will not tell you, and they should. You do not have to go anywhere. There is a coffee plantation, a tea garden and a waterfall within walking distance of the room, and nearly every guest is going to drive past all three on the way to Pookode Lake and see none of them.
The wildlife is the rest of it. Sheetal has seen elephants at the lake opposite more times than she can count, at all sorts of hours. The tiger was a one-off and a while ago. Do not book expecting either. I got neither. But the reason both of those stories are believable here and not at the resort a kilometre further up the lane is that this is where the plantations stop and the forest starts.
Dharma and Sheetal
On a property this size, the housekeeping couple are, in practice, everything. Reception, kitchen liaison, local knowledge, and as established, tiger warning system.
I spent nearly all of the second day on the property, working a bit, sitting a lot, filming, and talking to the two of them. Sheetal does the talking. She is the one who told me about the tiger and the elephants, and she said December to February is when this place turns into the thing in the photographs. Fog on the forest, cold mornings, all of it.
Dharma does not talk much. Dharma communicates through tea. The tea improved dramatically the moment he decided to take it personally.
If you stay here, talk to them. They know which walks are worth it and where the elephants come down and none of that is written anywhere.
The food, as of September 2026
Read this bit before you book. The date matters.
The kitchen is not built out yet. When I was there, most meals came in from a restaurant somewhere else, so the menu is less a menu than a short list of what can be fetched. Two days of lunches and dinners went: roti and a chicken curry, then dal and rice, then roti and a paneer curry. Breakfast is made on site; I had two items both mornings, and it was cold both mornings.
The tea was bad, and then it was good, for reasons covered above. So the ability is in the building. It has just not been turned on.
Management told me directly that they are building inventory and expect a fully stocked kitchen by next year. I believe them, mostly because everything else here has been finished properly. But I can only write up the stay I had, and the stay I had had a cold breakfast in it twice.
What to do about it: settle your meals when you book, not when you arrive. Ask what lunch and dinner will actually be, and whether you can request anything ahead. Bring snacks. Travelling with children, or anyone who will not make peace with one curry and some roti, bring a car so you can drive into Vythiri and eat.
If you are reading this in 2027, ring them, because this section may well be wrong by then. I will update it when I know.
Getting there, and then not being able to go anywhere
Two buses, about eleven hours. That part is fine. Wayanad is easy to reach, and Vythiri is easy to reach.
It is the last four kilometres that get you. No bus goes down that lane. No bike rental anywhere. Which leaves an auto or a car. I paid ₹150 to get in and ₹300 to get back out to the bus stand, and I will let you work out what changed between those two journeys.
If you want to see Wayanad, and Wayanad is somewhere people come specifically to see things, that is ₹300 each way before you have even reached Vythiri, let alone anywhere worth reaching. Over two or three days, it costs more than the room.
My honest advice. If you are coming to sit still, come without a vehicle and accept that you are not leaving, which is a perfectly decent way to spend two nights here. If you are coming to sightsee, hire a car for the whole stay. Anything in between, and you will spend the trip paying autos to get you out of a lane.
Second Lazo property I have stayed at, and the contrast is the useful bit. The Munnar one is right on the main road, and every bus already goes past it. This one has been hidden on purpose. That is exactly why the forest still behaves like a forest, and exactly why you are stuck.
What is nearby
All of it needs a vehicle.
- Pookode Lake, barely three kilometres from Vythiri. Nearest thing to the property, and full by mid-morning. Boats stop at 5 PM; entry is ₹30 to ₹40.
- Lakkidi Viewpoint, about 5 km. The hairpins coming up from Thamarassery. Early, before the mist goes and the buses arrive.
- Chain Tree, about 6 km, same road.
- Chembra Peak, about 20 km. The heart-shaped lake, run by the Forest Department. You have to be there before 2 PM, and the permit is ₹750 for up to ten Indians.
- Soochipara and Meenmutty falls, further out, and much better after rain than in a dry September.
With two nights and no car, skip the lot and walk the plantations. That is not me being clever. The walk was the best thing I did.
When to come
Sheetal says December to February, and she lives here, so that is the answer. Fog, cold mornings, the Wayanad people have in their heads. It is also roughly when the whole country is at its best, so book early or don’t bother.
I went in September, which should have been wet and was not. Hot and dry the entire time. Lovely for walking, a waste of Wayanad, since the green season is the whole point. September and October are a coin toss. You get the lush version or you get mine.
March to May is hot. June to August is the real monsoon, which is spectacular and also traps you.
So is it worth it?
Yes, as long as you know what you are buying.
You are buying a new, properly built room in a small place that sits where the plantations run out, and the forest starts. A pool over the lake. Coffee on one side, tea on the other. Two people who will tell you where the elephants drink. At that rate, that is good value, and I would go back for the room and the walk on their own.
What you are not buying, in September 2026 at least, is a kitchen or a way out. Sort the food, sort the transport, and everything else here is better than it needs to be.
FAQs
Ammara Pond, about 4 km from Vythiri in Wayanad district, Kerala 673576, down a plantation lane off the main road.
There is only one room type. Nine rooms, all the same class, so there is no upgrade to buy. Lazo does not publish a rate card and quotes on request, though booking sites show around ₹2,400 as a low-season lead-in. Ask for a corner room rather than a category.
Yes, on the first floor, looking over the lake, the coffee and the forest.
You can get there. Bus to Vythiri, auto for the last four kilometres, ₹150 in and ₹300 out when I did it. But there is no transport on that lane and nothing to rent, so without a vehicle you are staying on the property. Fine for resting. Hopeless for sightseeing.
Thin, as of September 2026. The kitchen is still being built, and most meals come from an outside restaurant. Management says it will be fully stocked by next year. Sort your meals at booking and bring snacks.
Staff say elephants come to the lake opposite to drink regularly. A tiger showed up at the gate one night a while back. I saw neither, and you should not book hoping to, but the Wayanad sanctuary holds some of the largest populations of Asian elephants and tigers in the country, so the wilderness here is not landscaped.
December to February, per the people who live there. September and October are a gamble.
Yes, if you want quiet, safe and restorative, and the couple on-site help. Less so if you want to be out and about, because every exit has an auto fare attached. First solo trip: here are the 25 things I tell people to sort out first.
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