Wayanad · Kerala
The plateau
Up the ghat road into coffee, and the oldest human marks in the state.
When to come
October to May. The monsoon here is serious.
How long
Two.
Getting there
Kozhikode airport to Wayanad, 95km, two and a half hours up the ghat road.
Wayanad is one of the few districts with no coast at all, and it feels like a different state: a plateau at nine hundred metres, coffee and pepper under the trees rather than tea on open hills, and forest that runs on into Karnataka and Tamil Nadu as one of the last corridors elephants can still use.
The Edakkal caves have petroglyphs cut into them that are at least six thousand years old — stick figures, wheels, a man with a headdress — reached by a climb that will take an hour of your morning.
Banasura Sagar is the reservoir, the largest earth dam in India, with islands that appear as the water drops. The district was badly hit by landslides in recent years; ask before travelling in heavy monsoon.
Wayanad, in photographs
Journeys that go there
Worth your time, or not?
Tell us how many days you have and who is coming, and we will tell you whether Wayanad belongs in them — and what to leave out to make room for it.