The guidebooks had said that Hassan is just another industrial town with no charm of its own. They weren’t kidding! It’s a sad little town with dusty streets, congested markets and pot-holed roads. When the bus from Bangalore dropped us off at its bus station, we headed straight to Suvarna Residency, where we had called ahead and booked a room. It was a recommended hotel and seemed to be the only decent place in town.
Unfortunately, the hotel guys know this too! Their price tag on the rooms is totally unworthy of the place. We were charged Rs.1400+tax for a room that probably shouldn’t be more than Rs.1000 especially in a little place like Hassan. The furniture in the room was old with rotting wood. The bathroom seemed to have been recently renovated but the first evening there all the taps spewed black mud mixed with water. It took them nearly an hour to fix the problem … and no apologies were given! We were told that hot water would be available between 5:30am and 9:30am only, but even at 7am in the morning, 2 out of 3 mornings, we only got lukewarm water; it was so frustrating!
For dinner we tried their Veg restaurant, which was downstairs, below street level. It’s undergoing some renovation but the kitchen is still operational and some seating has been provided at the back of the room. Unfortunately, the restaurant wasn’t any better than the hotel. The food quality was poor and tasted just about average.
Overall, our stay in Hassan was just about bearable because the bus station had great connections to Belur, Halebid and Sravanabelagola. However, if we had to do it again, we would have preferred staying at the KSTDC hotel in Belur, which has been recently renovated, is reasonably priced and nicely located.
Rating: 4 out of 10
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