Kozhikode · Kerala
Calicut and Beypore
Where Vasco da Gama landed, and where the dhows are still built.
When to come
November to March.
How long
One, and two if you eat properly.
Getting there
Kozhikode airport is forty minutes from the city; Wayanad is two and a half hours up the ghat.
Calicut was the greatest port on this coast for six hundred years — the Zamorin's city, where the Chinese fleets came and where da Gama arrived in 1498 at Kappad, a beach now marked by a small stone that understates the consequences considerably.
Beypore, at the mouth of the river, still builds uru — ocean-going dhows, by eye and by hand, for owners in the Gulf. The yard is open to anyone who walks in, and watching a hull the size of a building take shape without a drawing is the best hour in the district.
The city is also, by common agreement, the best place to eat in Kerala. Come hungry, and ask anybody.
Kozhikode, in photographs
Worth your time, or not?
Tell us how many days you have and who is coming, and we will tell you whether Kozhikode belongs in them — and what to leave out to make room for it.