Luxury South India Tour with Palace Hotels and Backwaters

Kempegowda International Airport lies about forty kilometres north of the city, and most long-haul flights land there late at night. A Heritage India Private Tours representative meets you outside arrivals with a name board and introduces your chauffeur, who stays with you through Karnataka and the Nilgiris. The drive along the elevated Bellary Road takes about an hour, a bit more during rush hour. Your hotel is the Taj West End, our usual choice subject to availability, set in twenty acres of old rain trees and lawns on Race Course Road. It began life in the 1880s as a boarding house for British officers.

If you arrive during the day, take a short walk through the hotel gardens, where some of the trees are more than a hundred years old and fruit bats roost in the canopy. Otherwise, rest after your flight and order something simple from the in-room menu; the kitchen makes a gentle South Indian thali on request. Bengaluru sits at about 900 metres above sea level, so evenings are pleasantly cool for most of the year. Your guide will call this evening to confirm the next morning's schedule and to answer any questions about the route ahead. Overnight stay in Bengaluru.

Begin with a breakfast that locals have loved since the 1920s at Mavalli Tiffin Rooms, better known as MTR, near the gates of Lalbagh. The rava idli was invented here during wartime rice shortages, and it is served with coconut chutney, potato sagu and strong filter coffee in a steel tumbler. Afterwards, walk through Lalbagh Botanical Garden, laid out by Hyder Ali and finished by his son Tipu Sultan, with its glasshouse modelled on the Crystal Palace in London and a rock outcrop that is around three billion years old. The nearby Bull Temple, built by Kempegowda in the sixteenth century, holds a large monolithic Nandi blackened by years of butter offerings.

In the afternoon, visit Tipu Sultan's Summer Palace, a two-storey building made almost entirely of teak with painted arches. Then drive to Bangalore Palace, built in the 1880s for the Wodeyar royal family in the style of Windsor Castle, with turrets, timber floors and an audio guide that tells stories of royal hunts. You return past the granite Vidhana Soudha, home of the state legislature, and through Cubbon Park. In the evening, dinner at Karavalli at the Taj Gateway on Residency Road is a good introduction to the coastal food of Karnataka and Kerala, with dishes like Mangalorean chicken ghee roast. Overnight stay in Bengaluru.

After breakfast you take the Bengaluru–Mysuru Expressway southwest. The first stop is Srirangapatna, an island in the Kaveri River that was Tipu Sultan's capital. Here you see the Daria Daulat Bagh, his summer palace with walls covered in murals of his victory over the British at Pollilur, and the spot inside the fort where he fell in 1799. The Ranganathaswamy Temple nearby is one of the oldest Vishnu temples in the region. Lunch can be at a simple local restaurant serving Mysore masala dosa, or at your hotel in Mysuru. The expressway has cut the old five-hour journey down sharply, leaving more time for the sights along the river.

The Lalitha Mahal Palace Hotel, our usual choice subject to availability, was built by Maharaja Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV in 1921 to house the Viceroy of India. It sits on a low hill with views of Chamundi Hill, and its white dome, Italian marble staircase and stained glass ceilings make it one of the most elegant palace hotels in India. In the late afternoon, you can relax by the pool or take high tea in the ballroom. If today is Sunday, your guide will take you to Mysore Palace for the evening illumination, when the palace lights up from seven to seven forty-five. Overnight stay in Mysuru.

The Mysore Palace was rebuilt after a fire in the late 1890s by the British architect Henry Irwin in Indo-Saracenic style. Your guide walks you through the Kalyana Mantapa, the octagonal marriage hall with a peacock-patterned stained glass ceiling made in Glasgow, and the Durbar Hall with its painted columns, where the maharaja once held court during the Dasara festival. Photography is not permitted inside, so take your photos in the forecourt, where the gilded gates frame the palace well. Next, drive up Chamundi Hill to the Chamundeshwari Temple, stopping on the way down at the five-metre granite Nandi bull carved out of a single rock in the seventeenth century.

In the afternoon, you drive about thirty-five kilometres east to Somanathapura, where the star-shaped Keshava Temple, built in 1268 by the Hoysala dynasty, has some of the finest stone carvings in India. Look for the friezes of elephants, horsemen and scenes from the epics that wrap around the base of the temple. Back in Mysuru, your guide takes you through Devaraja Market, where vendors sell jasmine garlands, coloured kumkum powder heaped in cones, betel leaves and Mysore pak, a rich sweet made from gram flour and ghee. Dinner is at the hotel's Lalith Mahal restaurant, beneath its painted ceiling. Overnight stay in Mysuru.

You leave Mysuru after breakfast and drive west through Hunsur, where the plains gradually give way to the hills of the Western Ghats. A stop at Bylakuppe introduces you to one of the largest Tibetan settlements outside Tibet. The Namdroling Monastery, known as the Golden Temple, houses three gilded statues of the Buddha and the Padmasambhava, each about eighteen metres tall, and you may hear monks chanting during prayers. The Tibetan restaurants nearby serve momos and thukpa, which make a good lunch stop. Remove your shoes before entering the prayer hall, and walk clockwise around the shrines, as the monks do.

Evolve Back Coorg, our usual choice subject to availability, sits on a three-hundred-acre coffee and spice plantation near Siddapur. Its pool villas look out over the estate, and the architecture draws on the traditional homes of the Kodava people, the warrior community native to Coorg. You will be welcomed with a cup of estate coffee, and the rest of the afternoon is free. Most guests enjoy the infinity pool or the resort's spa, which uses local herbs. At dinner, try Coorg's signature dish, pandi curry, a dark pork curry soured with kachampuli vinegar, served with akki roti or rice dumplings called kadambuttu. Overnight stay in Coorg.

Early in the morning, a resort naturalist takes you on a guided walk through the plantation. You will see how Robusta and Arabica coffee grow in the shade of tall silver oak, rosewood and jackfruit trees, while black pepper vines climb the trunks. Depending on the season, you may see workers picking the red coffee cherries by hand, or the white blossoms that fill the air with a jasmine-like scent in March. The walk ends at the estate's processing unit, where the beans are pulped, dried and graded, followed by a coffee tasting to compare the different roasts and a chance to buy freshly ground beans.

Later in the morning, your chauffeur drives you to Dubare Elephant Camp on the banks of the Kaveri River, about fifteen kilometres from the resort. A coracle or small boat takes you across the river, where the forest department's elephants are bathed and fed between about nine and eleven in the morning. The afternoon is free for the resort's facilities, including archery and a bird walk along the plantation's lake. In the evening, a performance of Kodava folk dances can be arranged at the resort, where men in traditional black kupya coats perform with swords and drums. Overnight stay in Coorg.

This morning you drive about thirty kilometres to Madikeri, the small capital of Coorg. Madikeri Fort, built in mud by Mudduraja in the seventeenth century and rebuilt in stone by Tipu Sultan, now houses government offices and a small museum in an old church. Nearby, the Omkareshwara Temple combines Islamic domes with Kerala-style architecture. Further on, Abbey Falls tumbles about twenty metres through a coffee estate and is best seen after the monsoon, from August to December. The falls are reached by a short walk down steps through the plantation, and a hanging bridge faces the water from the opposite bank.

Your last stop is Raja's Seat, a garden on a cliff edge where Coorg's kings watched the sunset over the hills. Back at the resort, the afternoon is yours to rest before the long drive tomorrow. The spa offers an Ayurvedic massage and herbal treatment, or you can sit on your villa deck with a book and listen to the Malabar whistling thrush. For dinner, the chef can prepare a Kodava feast, with bamboo shoot curry, chicken fry and noolputtu, delicate string hoppers. Your chauffeur will tell you about tomorrow's departure, which is timed to cross the forest checkpoints in daylight. Overnight stay in Coorg.

Leave after an early breakfast and drive through Hunsur and Gundlupet to Bandipur National Park, where the road runs right through the forest for about twenty kilometres. Keep your eyes open: spotted deer, langurs and wild elephants are often seen from the car, and tigers are spotted occasionally. Note that the forest road between Bandipur and Mudumalai is closed to traffic from nine in the evening to six in the morning to protect wildlife, which is why this drive is done in daylight. Stopping inside the forest is not allowed, so photographs need to be taken from the moving car, and your chauffeur slows down whenever an animal is close to the road.

After crossing into Tamil Nadu at Mudumalai, the road climbs the Kalhatti Ghat, with thirty-six hairpin bends, rising almost 1,500 metres in about fifteen kilometres. Your chauffeur takes it slowly in low gear, and the views of the plains open up at each turn. You reach Ooty by mid-afternoon. The Taj Savoy, our usual choice subject to availability, is one of the oldest hotels in the Nilgiris, with cottages, fireplaces and a flower garden dating back to the 1830s. In the evening, a fire is lit in your cottage, and dinner is served in the old dining room. Overnight stay in Ooty.

This morning you ride the Nilgiri Mountain Railway, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, from Ooty to Coonoor. The blue and cream train travels slowly through eucalyptus forests, tea gardens and tunnels, stopping at small stations such as Lovedale and Wellington. The trip takes about an hour and a quarter, and our team buys first-class tickets in advance, as seats are limited. In Coonoor, your chauffeur picks you up and drives you to Sim's Park, a botanical garden on the slopes of a ravine, and then to Dolphin's Nose, a viewpoint with views of the Catherine Falls across the valley, which drops in two stages through dense forest.

On the way back to Ooty, stop at a tea factory near Coonoor to watch tea leaves being processed and buy some fresh Nilgiri tea, known for its fragrant and brisk flavour. In the afternoon, your guide shows you around Ooty, including the Government Botanical Garden, laid out in 1848 with a fossilised tree trunk said to be twenty million years old, and St Stephen's Church, built with timber from Tipu Sultan's palace in Srirangapatna. Ooty's homemade chocolates, sold in small shops along Commercial Road, are worth tasting. Dinner is served by the fire at the hotel, with a menu that mixes Anglo-Indian classics and Tamil dishes. Overnight stay in Ooty.

After an early breakfast, you descend from the Nilgiris through Coonoor and the Kallar hairpin bends to Mettupalayam, where the air turns noticeably warmer and the landscape is filled with areca palms and banana plantations. You continue to Coimbatore Junction station, where your chauffeur helps with your luggage, says goodbye, and hands you over to a porter. From here, a train in air-conditioned chair class takes you across the Palakkad Gap, the main break in the Western Ghats, to Ernakulam. The journey takes about four hours, and it passes through rice paddies, coconut groves and the small red-tiled stations of Palakkad district.

At Ernakulam Junction, a new chauffeur from Kerala meets you on the platform and drives you about twenty minutes to Bolgatty Palace, our usual choice subject to availability. This building on Bolgatty Island was built by Dutch traders in 1744 and later served as the residence of the British Resident of Travancore and Cochin. It is now a heritage hotel run by the Kerala tourism department, with lawns that run down to the backwaters and views of the harbour, where container ships and fishing trawlers pass the island throughout the day. Dinner at the hotel restaurant can include a Kerala fish moilee or prawns in coconut milk. Overnight stay in Kochi.

Your local guide meets you after breakfast for a drive of about fifty minutes to Tripunithura, the former seat of the Cochin royal family. The Hill Palace, built in 1865 and set in fifty acres of terraced gardens, is now Kerala's largest archaeological museum. Inside are the royal crowns, palanquins, oil paintings, ivory, inscribed copper plates and the throne of the Cochin rajas. Remember that the museum is closed on Mondays, so we arrange this visit for another day if needed. A deer park and a small heritage zoo are part of the grounds and make for a nice walk.

In the afternoon, visit the Kerala Folklore Museum at Thevara, a three-storey building constructed from pieces of old temples, manor houses and churches, with masks, costumes, musical instruments and a wooden theatre on the top floor. Later, take a ferry from Ernakulam's main boat jetty to Fort Kochi, a ride of about twenty minutes that costs very little and gives you a view of the harbour from the water. Your chauffeur picks you up on the other side. For dinner, the guide can book a table at Fort House, where seafood is served on a terrace by the water. Overnight stay in Kochi.

The morning starts at the Indo-Portuguese Museum, located in the grounds of the Bishop's House, which displays religious artwork and church silver from the Portuguese era; it is closed on Mondays. Then walk past the Dutch Cemetery, with its weathered tombstones, and the Vasco da Gama Square, where you can watch the cantilevered fishing nets at work. Your guide also takes you to the Maritime Museum at Beach Road, which traces Kochi's history as a spice port. Fort Kochi's streets are lined with old colonial bungalows painted in faded ochre and blue, and the street art of the Biennale appears on walls throughout the area.

Return to Bolgatty Palace for a free afternoon by the pool or a walk through the gardens. In the late afternoon, the hotel can arrange a short boat ride around Bolgatty Island to see the backwaters at dusk, with views of the Mulavukad and Vallarpadam shores. In the evening, your guide can take you to see a Mohiniyattam dance performance, the graceful classical dance of Kerala traditionally performed by women, at a cultural centre in Fort Kochi. Dinner afterward at a waterfront restaurant serving local dishes such as Syrian Christian beef ularthiyathu. Pack for the backwaters tonight, as your stay moves south tomorrow. Overnight stay in Kochi.

After breakfast, drive south along the Vaikom road to Kumarakom on the eastern shore of Vembanad Lake. On the way, stop at the Vaikom Mahadeva Temple, an important Shiva temple and site of a famous civil rights movement for temple entry in the 1920s. Non-Hindus may not enter the inner sanctum, but your guide explains the history and architecture from outside. You reach Kumarakom around midday and check in at the Taj Kumarakom Resort and Spa, our usual choice subject to availability, built around a nineteenth-century bungalow owned by the Baker family, Anglican missionaries who came to Kerala in the early nineteenth century and stayed for generations.

In the afternoon, take a country boat to Aymanam, the village where Arundhati Roy set her novel The God of Small Things. Your guide can show you places from the book as you drift past narrow canals, small churches and paddy fields below the water level of the lake. You will also see how locals tap toddy from coconut palms and catch freshwater prawns. Back at the resort, the evening is free. The resort's restaurant serves fresh karimeen and prawns from the lake, and a heritage dining room in the old bungalow offers a quieter setting for dinner. Overnight stay in Kumarakom.

After a lazy breakfast, board your private houseboat at the resort's jetty. The boat is built of anjili wood and bamboo, with a woven palm roof, an air-conditioned bedroom and a sun deck, and a crew of three, including a cook who prepares all your meals. You cruise across the lake and into the canals of Kuttanad, the low-lying rice bowl of Kerala, where farmers grow rice below sea level, protected by mud walls. Lunch on board is a Kerala sadya-style meal of red rice, sambar, avial, olan and fried fish, served on the deck under a shade of woven palm.

In the afternoon, the boat glides past villages, churches and small temples on the banks. You may stop at a farm to watch the paddy fields being worked or to buy fresh fish from a fisherman's canoe. As evening falls, the boat moors at a quiet spot, since houseboats must stop cruising before dark. Tea and snacks are served at sunset, and dinner on board, such as chicken curry, chapati, vegetable thoran and payasam, is served by lantern light. Sleep on the water with only the sound of frogs and crickets around you. Overnight stay in Kumarakom, moored on Vembanad Lake.

Breakfast of puttu and kadala curry is served on board as the boat makes its way back to the resort, where you return to your room by mid-morning. This last full day is designed to be slow. The resort's Jiva Spa offers Ayurvedic treatments such as Shirodhara or Pizhichil, in which warm medicated oil is poured over the body while two therapists massage in rhythm. You can also take a cooking class with the resort chef, who shows you how to make appam, a lacy rice pancake, and a coconut milk stew, and gives you the recipes to take home.

In the late afternoon, a short sunset cruise in a traditional country boat on the lake offers the chance to watch birds such as cormorants and darters returning to roost. The resort can then organise a farewell dinner by the lake, with lamps lit along the water and a menu of Kerala seafood, perhaps pearl spot fish wrapped in a banana leaf with spices. Your chauffeur will check your flight details and confirm the departure time for tomorrow. Take a final walk along the lake shore in the evening, when the lights of the fishing boats dot the water. Overnight stay in Kumarakom.

Enjoy breakfast at the resort, and check out according to your flight time. If your flight leaves in the evening, the resort can usually arrange a late check-out, or you can use the pool and spa until it is time to go, with a shower room kept ready for you. The drive to Cochin International Airport goes north through Kottayam, Ettumanoor and Muvattupuzha, or along the Vaikom road, depending on traffic, and takes about two and a half hours in normal traffic. Your chauffeur will leave with a good margin of time, as international flights require arrival at the airport about three hours before departure.

At the airport, your chauffeur helps you with your luggage to the terminal door and says goodbye. Kochi has direct flights to the Middle East, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, with connections to Europe, North America and Australia, as well as domestic flights to Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. If you would like to extend your trip, we can arrange a few days on the beach at Kovalam or Varkala, or a flight north to see the Taj Mahal and Rajasthan. Our Jaipur office stays reachable by phone right up until you board the aircraft, and the whole team looks forward to welcoming you back to India for another trip.