Luxury Kerala Tour with Private Houseboat and Spa Resorts

Landing at Cochin International Airport, you are greeted by a Heritage India Private Tours representative and your chauffeur, holding a sign with your name, just outside the arrivals exit. A cold towel and a bottle of water are waiting in the car, and the drive of around one hour takes you south past Aluva and across the backwater bridges to Fort Kochi. Your hotel tonight is Forte Kochi, a restored Portuguese and Dutch era building in the old quarter and our usual choice subject to availability. Its courtyard, wooden staircases and lime-plastered walls set the right mood for a stay focused on comfort and calm rather than rushing.

After check-in, there is no schedule for the rest of the day. Many guests enjoy a slow stroll along the waterfront promenade at dusk, as the old cantilevered fishing nets are silhouetted against the sky and street vendors fry squid and prawns to order. For dinner, Kashi Art Cafe nearby is good for a light meal and strong coffee, while the hotel restaurant serves Kerala dishes that are gently spiced for a first night. Your guide will contact you in the evening to confirm the next day's start time and ask about any dietary requirements to pass on to the hotels ahead. Overnight stay in Kochi.

The morning walking tour concentrates on Mattancherry, the trading quarter east of Fort Kochi. Begin at Mattancherry Palace, a gift from the Portuguese to the Raja of Kochi, now better known as the Dutch Palace, where the bedchamber walls are covered with murals from the Ramayana painted in natural pigments. It closes on Fridays, so the order of visits is adjusted on that day. A few steps away stands the Paradesi Synagogue, built in 1568, with its Belgian chandeliers and hand-painted blue and white floor tiles from Canton; it is closed on Fridays, Saturdays and Jewish holidays, and our guide arranges the morning around this.

Along Jew Town Road, warehouses that once held pepper, ginger and turmeric for European ships now share space with antique dealers selling temple carvings and old ship chests. You will stop at a working spice godown where sacks of cardamom and cloves are still sorted by hand. After lunch, return to the hotel for an afternoon massage or a swim. Around five, a private motorboat takes you on a sunset cruise around the harbour, past Vypeen Island, Bolgatty and the container port, with cormorants and the occasional dolphin. Dinner can be booked at Malabar House, a boutique hotel known for its Kerala seafood platter. Overnight stay in Kochi.

You leave Kochi after breakfast and drive east through Perumbavoor and Kothamangalam, where the land starts to rise. Your chauffeur stops at the Neriamangalam bridge, built over the Periyar River by the Maharaja of Travancore in the 1930s, and then at the Cheeyappara waterfall, which flows down several stone steps right beside the road. Higher up, the hillsides are covered in cardamom, which grows in the shade of tall forest trees, before the first tea gardens appear around Pallivasal. Lunch can be at a simple roadside restaurant serving Kerala meals on banana leaf, or saved for your hotel, where the kitchen keeps lunch ready for late arrivals.

In Munnar you stay at a boutique hillside resort with its own spa; The Fog Resort and Spa, set among tea gardens near Chithirapuram, is our usual choice subject to availability. Rooms have wide windows, often filled with cloud in the late afternoon. Spend the rest of the day settling in: a herbal steam bath and a full-body massage are a good way to unwind after the drive. In the evening, sit by the fire pit with a cup of masala chai brewed from estate leaves while the valley lights come on below. Dinner at the resort includes local dishes such as Kerala parotta and vegetable kurma. Overnight stay in Munnar.

An early alarm is rewarded today. You leave around four thirty in the morning for Suryanelli, where a four-wheel-drive jeep takes over for the rough track up to Kolukkumalai, an orthodox tea estate at roughly 2,200 metres. The ride takes about an hour and is bumpy, but the payoff is seeing the sun rise above a sea of clouds, with the plains of Tamil Nadu far below. The estate's small factory still uses machinery installed by the British, and a short tour shows how leaves are withered and rolled by hand-fed rollers. Tea tasting follows, along with a simple breakfast of bread, omelette and bananas at the estate.
On the way back, your chauffeur stops at Lockhart Gap, a viewpoint on the Bodimettu road with a sheer drop into the valley and long views across the folds of the Western Ghats. Back at the resort around midday, the afternoon is for rest. The spa offers an Abhyanga massage, in which two therapists work in synchrony with warm medicated oil, followed by a herbal steam bath. If you have energy left, a resort naturalist leads a gentle walk through the neighbouring tea garden at around four, explaining how pickers select only the top two leaves and a bud. Overnight stay in Munnar.

The drive south to Thekkady follows the Kumily road through Poopara and the Cardamom Hills, one of the prettiest routes in Kerala. Tea gives way to cardamom plantations, where small white flowers grow at the base of the plants and the pods are picked by hand. At Puliyanmala, near Kattappana, you can stop at a cardamom auction centre or a family-run drying shed to see how the pods are graded by colour and size. Your chauffeur knows a few good places for a quick lunch of chicken biryani or vegetable meals along the way, or you can wait for lunch at the resort.

In Thekkady you check into Spice Village, a CGH Earth property with thatched cottages modelled on tribal houses and our usual choice subject to availability. The resort runs an organic garden and a small Ayurveda centre, and its naturalists lead short walks around the grounds. In the evening, your guide takes you to a Kalaripayattu performance in Kumily, where practitioners demonstrate the ancient Kerala martial art with sticks, swords, shields and fire. After the show, return for dinner in the resort restaurant, which serves dishes from Kerala's hill communities such as kappa with beef fry and fish moilee. Overnight stay in Thekkady.

The first boat of the day on Periyar Lake departs at about seven thirty, and our team books tickets in advance, as places fill quickly. The ninety-minute cruise travels across a reservoir created in 1895, its waters dotted with dead tree trunks standing upright in the water. Watch for elephant herds, gaur, sambar deer, wild boar and otters along the banks, and birds such as the Oriental darter and Malabar pied hornbill. Animal sightings depend on the season and are best between October and May, but even when the animals stay hidden, the misty lake framed by forested hills makes the trip worthwhile.

After breakfast, a guide takes you on a spice plantation walk near Kumily, where pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, vanilla and allspice grow side by side. You will learn how pepper vines are trained, how nutmeg produces mace, and why cardamom prices change sharply with each season. The afternoon is reserved for the resort's Ayurveda centre: a Kizhi treatment, in which warm herbal pouches are pressed along the muscles, is a good choice after the early start. Before dinner, a resort naturalist can show you a short film on the Periyar Tiger Reserve and its conservation work with local communities. Overnight stay in Thekkady.

You leave the hills after breakfast and descend via Vandiperiyar, Mundakayam and Kottayam, passing rubber estates and towns where Christian churches, Hindu temples and mosques stand side by side. You reach Kumarakom around noon and drive straight to the jetty, where your private premium houseboat is waiting. The crew of captain, deckhand and cook greet you with a fresh tender coconut, then show you the air-conditioned bedroom, the bathroom and the shaded upper deck with lounge chairs. Lunch is served as soon as the boat pulls away: red rice, sambar, avial, pineapple pachadi and karimeen fried with chilli and turmeric.

The boat heads out onto the open part of Vembanad Lake, much wider and quieter than the canal routes further south. In the late afternoon, the crew stops at Pathiramanal, a ten-acre island covered in trees, where a walking trail leads through the nesting grounds of herons, egrets and cormorants. Back on board, the boat anchors near the shore before dark, as the government requires. Tea and pakoras are served on the deck at sunset, followed by a candlelit dinner of chicken curry, chapati, thoran and payasam. The only sounds after dark are frogs, crickets and the occasional passing canoe. Overnight stay in Kumarakom on the private houseboat.

Wake to the sight of fishermen casting nets from small canoes, and enjoy a breakfast of idiyappam, egg roast and fresh fruit on deck as the boat returns to the jetty. Your chauffeur meets you there for a short drive along the shore of the lake, crossing the Thanneermukkom saltwater barrier, which separates the brackish south of Vembanad from the fresher north. The road passes rice fields and coconut groves on the way to Mararikulam, a fishing village on the Arabian Sea coast north of Alleppey. You will reach the beach in time for lunch on arrival at the resort.

Marari Beach Resort, also run by CGH Earth and our usual choice subject to availability, has thatched villas spread across a large coconut grove, some with private pool gardens. Its Ayurveda centre offers consultations and treatments, and its kitchen uses vegetables from the resort's own butterfly garden and organic farm. Spend the afternoon by the pool or under a palm on the beach, which is wide, sandy and almost empty apart from the fishermen's boats drawn up at the top of the sand and the crows waiting for scraps. Sunset here is spectacular, with the sun sinking straight into the sea. Overnight stay in Marari.

In the morning, the resort provides bicycles and a guide for a ride through the village behind the beach. You will pass small coir workshops, a village temple, a church and houses with coconut drying on the roof. Back on the beach, if you get up early enough, you can watch fishermen haul their large seine nets in by hand, a process that involves twenty or more men singing to keep their rhythm. The catch of sardines and mackerel is sold right there on the sand. A short drive away, St Andrew's Basilica at Arthunkal is an important pilgrimage church with Portuguese roots.

The afternoon is for whatever pleases you most. The spa offers a final treatment such as Udvartana, a dry powder massage, or Padabhyanga, a soothing foot massage. The resort also runs a short cooking session in its kitchen, where the chef demonstrates how to make a classic fish curry with kodampuli and a coconut-based vegetable stew, and gives you the recipes to take home. In the evening, a farewell dinner can be set up on the beach under the palms, with grilled seafood, prawn curry and Kerala-style banana cake. Your chauffeur will check your flight time and confirm tomorrow's pickup. Overnight stay in Marari.

Enjoy a last swim or a walk along the beach in the morning before breakfast. Check-out is arranged according to your flight time, and an evening flight leaves room for a slow morning with a final coconut water by the pool. The drive north to Cochin International Airport follows the coastal highway through Cherthala and Aroor, then crosses the bridges of Kochi's backwaters before turning inland at Edappally. Allow about two hours in normal traffic for this final transfer, and a little more on weekday mornings and late afternoons, when the city's roads become busy with office traffic and school buses.

Your chauffeur drops you at the departure terminal and helps you unload your luggage before saying goodbye. If you have time before checking in, the airport shops sell Kerala tea, spices and handwoven kasavu cloth with its gold border, good last-minute gifts for friends and family back home. For guests who want to add a few days, we can extend the trip with a stay in Varkala on the cliffs, a wildlife lodge in Wayanad, or a short flight to the Golden Triangle in the north. Our Jaipur office remains reachable by phone until your flight departs, in case anything comes up at the last minute.