LA WOODS in Chennai - Hotel Review with Photos

India › Chennai Hotels › La Woods Review
Updated: March 18, 2021

Essentials
• Location: Off Anna Salai, near LIC metro station.
• Hotel website: lawoodshotel.com
• Hotel phone: +91 (0)44 2860 8040
• Check prices for La Woods

Review of La Woods Hotel in Chennai, India.

Located close to a metro stop, La Woods offers affordable yet spacious rooms.

La Woods – Quiet, convenient, and inexpensive, with rooms as spacious as some five-star hotels.

La Woods serves a distinct purpose for anyone seeking a cheap hotel without a pool, gym, or opulent lobby with dangling chandeliers – and the low rates reflect this. Instead, guests can enjoy rooms larger than those regularly offered by hotels with much higher ratings. What’s more, a substantial breakfast is included and the staff is particularly helpful. It’s conveniently a short walk from a metro station (with direct links to the airport, bus/train stations, and downtown) and a fabulous mall (with a games arcade, cinema, and numerous places to eat).

La Woods – The Location

Address: 1 Woods Road, just off a major thoroughfare, Anna Salai (Mount Road), in the inner southern suburbs.
Nearest Metro: LIC metro station is just 400m from the hotel.
Area: About 50m from the main road, which has a few facilities. Faces the comparatively quieter Woods Road, which is lined with shops and restaurants for local workers and residents. Busy area with a lot of roadwork and construction as it becomes more developed. Less than 500m from the excellent Express Avenue mall (see below).
How to Get There: There are efficient pre-paid taxi counters at the domestic and international airports; the trip takes about 45 minutes (15 km). (Uber and Ola seem to be off-limits there.) The hotel is linked by metro to the airport, Central and Egmore train terminals, and CMBT (Koyambedu) bus station. See Local Transport below for more information.

La Woods – The Basics

Guests: Interesting mix of business people and tourists from across India and elsewhere.
Views: Rooms either face the main road at a distance (but may still suffer from traffic noise) or the back of other buildings (and are, therefore, quieter).
Private Pools/Jacuzzis: Not expected or provided at this sort of budget-priced inner-city hotel.
How to Book: Booking.com will have the best rates.
Phone: +91 (0)44 2860 8040
Email: reserve@lawoodshotel.com
Website: lawoodshotel.com

La Woods – Amenities

Pool & Fitness Center: Certainly not expected (or provided).
Spa: Massages using traditional techniques can be arranged in the hotel through the reception.

La Woods – Food and Drink

Restaurant & Bar: The Elwood is a rather posh name for the modest café on the ground floor. Hearty serves at pleasing prices all day, often using ingredients grown on the rooftop. Meals can also be served at The Bar (on the 3rd floor), which is dark, but offers well-priced drinks.
Breakfast: Decent breakfast included, but more Indian-style than western.
Room Service: Available from 7 am to 9 pm.

La Woods – Rooms

Room Types: King Size Rooms • Twin Bed Rooms • List of all Rooms
Smoking Rooms: Strictly no smoking anywhere on the premises.
Best Room: Rooms are fairly similar inside, so the best is the quietest, i.e. on an upper floor and back from the roads.
For Families: Little space in the rooms for an extra single bed, but the inexpensive rates make booking 2 adjoining rooms affordable, though they won’t have connecting doors.

La Woods – Local Transport

Walking: Pleasant area to explore with sidewalks. Vibrant area, if a little chaotic, and fabulous mall less than 500m away.
Public Transport: The metro offers services to both airport terminals, the major train and bus stations, and the city center. The nearest metro station – LIC – is about 400m from the hotel.
Taxis & Auto-rickshaws: The black-and-yellow taxis at the airport are nowhere to be seen in the city. Instead, they have been replaced by the app-based Uber and Ola. Plenty of auto-rickshaws around but the drivers won’t use meters, so they usually cost more than Uber or Ola.

La Woods – What’s Nearby?

Best Nearby Restaurants & Bars

Taj Club House – This modern hotel offers a number of classy options including: Club House (open 24 hours for contemporary Asian cuisine, including buffets and live music on most nights), Kefi (on the rooftop, featuring Mediterranean cuisine and stylish Greek-themed décor), and Blend (bar/lounge, which turns into a nightclub on weekends). Use the side entrance to the Taj hotel 100m down the road from the La Woods.
Hotel Sennthur – Quick, tasty, and affordable vegetarian food. On the corner with the traffic lights only 200m down the main road from the hotel.
Most guests will probably head to the fantastic Express Avenue mall (see below). It offers familiar outlets, such as Subway, Burger King, Pizza Hut, and Starbucks, as well as numerous atractive cafés and restaurants, such as Chili’s American Grill and Cafe Coffee Day. And the food court is huge.

Nearby Shops

A bonus is that La Woods is less than 500m from the world-class Express Avenue mall. Simply head down Woods Road, past the side entrance to the Taj Club House hotel. Huge range of bistros and boutiques over 5 levels, as well as one of India’s largest games arcades and a cinema complex that shows western films, too. Also, a few handicraft stores along the main road, just around the corner from La Woods.

La Woods – The Hotel

The hotel is more spacious and comfortable from the inside that expected.

The unassuming La Woods hotel may not look much from the outside, but it’s more comfortable and spacious than the exterior suggests.

The hotel is located off a main road in central Chennai.

The hotel faces a quietish street only 50m from the main road through inner-city Chennai.

The pleasant layout of the hotel also includes elevators.

The layout of La Woods is quite pleasant (and elevators are also provided).

The lobby is not opulent, but the rooms are spacious, and rates, low.

The lobby may not be opulent, but rates are substantially lower than hotels with rooms just as spacious.

The rooftop has an herb and organic vegetables garden.

On the rooftop, staff grow herbs and other organic ingredients to use at their café.

The guest lounge is pleasant and unfussy.

The unfussy guest lounge is indicative of this charming and affordable hotel.

The Elwood cafe is located on the ground floor.

The hotel café on the ground floor has a rather upmarket name, The Elwood.

Elwood cafe serves hearty breakfasts and a la carte Indian and western meals.

The Elwood café serves hearty breakfasts to guests and other tasty Indian and western meals all day.

The hotel manufactures and sells traditional copper products.

Interestingly, the hotel is also involved in the manufacture (and sale) of traditional-style copper products.

Rooms are as spacious as upmarket hotels.

Rooms are pleasingly spacious – often as large as those in hotels charging far more.

Rooms have a bright decor and comfortable beds.

The décor is bright and the bed, very comfortable.

Rooms feature mod-cons and full-length windows.

All the mod-cons are provided, and full-length windows offer plenty of light.

The bathroom is larger than expected.

The views from this small hotel are not noteworthy.

As a 3-story inner-city hotel, views are not expected to be noteworthy.

The hotel is located just off the busy main road.

The hotel is about 50m from the main road, but is reasonably sheltered from traffic noise.

There are several handicraft stores nearby.

Along the main road, just around the corner from the hotel, are several handicraft stores.

The hotel is located in its namesake street off the main road.

La Woods is just down the namesake street, which is well-signposted from the main road.

Woods Road has facilities that are geared more for locals.

The hotel faces Woods Road, which is lined with shops that are more for locals than tourists, but still interesting.

Woods Road has several cheap restaurants near the hotel.

There are also numerous cheap restaurants within a few minutes’ walk of the hotel along Woods Road.

Hotel Sennthur on the corner is one of the finest local cafes.

One of the finest local cafés is at Hotel Sennthur. It’s on the corner with the traffic lights only 200m down the main road from the hotel.

The Express Avenue mall nearby has several places to eat and shop.

Most guests will probably eat and shop at the excellent Express Avenue mall, less than 500m from the hotel.

The mall offers 200+ places to eat, drink, and shop over five levels.

The mall offers 200+ places to eat, drink, and shop across 5 levels.

There is even a Starbucks outlet in the mall.

Starbucks is just one of several internationally-known outlets at the mall.

The food court at the Express Avenue mall is enormous.

The mall's food court features several delectable food counters.

There is so much to choose from in the food court at the Express Avenue mall, less than 500m from the hotel.

The mall's game arcade is one of the largest in the country.

The games arcade at the mall is one of the largest in India.

Opposite the mall's closest entrance are several more cafes and restaurants.

Opposite the closest entrance to the mall from the hotel are several more good places to eat.

The Club House café at Taj Club House hotel close by is very classy.

Only 100m down Woods Road is the side-entrance to Taj Club House, an opulent hotel offering several classy places to eat, including the Club House café.

Club House café offers a rare and popular salad bar.

The Club House café at the namesake hotel offers a popular (and uncommon) salad bar at lunchtime.

Blend bar and lounge features as a nightclub on weekends.

Also at the Taj Club House, the Blend bar/lounge turns into a nightclub on weekends.

The rooftop Kefi restaurant features a Greek decor and Mediterranean menu.

Another good restaurant at the nearby Taj Club House hotel is the Mediterranean-style Kefi on the rooftop.

The neighborhood has several auto-rickshaws.

There are plenty of auto-rickshaws around the streets, but drivers seem to be pushier near the mall. Check rates and availability: La Woods

La Woods Hotel in Chennai, India

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