Kerala & north Malabar · 15 days
Kerala, in other people's houses
Fifteen days of guesthouses and family homes, ending in the Theyyam country.
The journey
No hotel on this one. Every night is in a house somebody lives in or has kept in the family — a homestay on the paddy, a working farm above a river, a tea bungalow, a hundred-and-fifty-year-old tharavad on the north coast. It goes further north than most Kerala itineraries ever do, into Malabar, where Theyyam is performed between December and April and is not a show.
Route
- Kochi
- Kuttanad
- Thekkady
- Thodupuzha
- Fort Kochi
- Calicut
- Wayanad
- Thalassery
- Nileshwar
What stays with you
- 01A night on a houseboat, and the rest of the water seen from the bank
- 02A working farm above the Thodupuzha river — cooking, and the village around it
- 03Kathakali at Fort Kochi, and Theyyam in the north, which are not the same thing at all
- 04Wayanad: cardamom, coffee, and the forest either side of the ghat road
- 05Thalassery, where the food is the reason to stop
- 06Nileshwar and the Bekal coast, about as far north as Kerala goes
Day by day
A shape rather than a timetable. Days move, and most people move one or two of them.
1 – 2
Into Kochi, and out to the backwaters the same day if the flight allows.
3
A homestay in Kuttanad, among the paddy, with the day spent on the water.
4 – 5
Up to Periyar at Thekkady — the lake early, the spice plantations after.
6 – 7
Down to a farm above the river at Thodupuzha. Cooking, the plantation, and the village.
8 – 9
Back to Fort Kochi. The old town, the godowns, and Kathakali in the evening.
10
North by train to Calicut, which is the right way to arrive on the Malabar coast.
11 – 12
Up into Wayanad. Plantations, the forest edge, and the road itself.
13
Thalassery, and a tharavad on the coast. Theyyam in season.
14 – 15
Nileshwar. Bekal fort for anyone who wants it, and out through Calicut.
Shall we plan it?
Tell us roughly when, and how many of you, and we will come back with dates, a price and anything we would change about the route.
Or write to us at info@scenicescapesindia.com
Kerala