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| Kerala
Explorer – 13 nights |
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About this holiday
This is a two-week tour that provides
you with an opportunity to enjoy the main highlights of Kerala
– the serene backwaters, tea-growing hills, spice plantations,
national parks with elephant herds and tigers, and palm-tree
lined golden beaches – at a leisurely pace. We have
selected our favourite good-value, mid-range hotels in Kerala.
This is a special trip and we recommend traveling between
December and April. But don’t be afraid to travel outside
of the peak season either when the hotels offer some very
good-value rates.
Holiday highlights
• Wander around historic Fort
Kochi
• Visit St. Francis Church, Mattancherry Palace &
medieval synagogue
• Watch a traditional Kathakali dance performance
• Explore Kerala’s serene backwaters and village
life
• Munnar’s tea-growing hills and Thekkady’s
spice plantations
• Two-night stay on exclusive Kettuvallam style houseboat
• Watch elephant herds bathing in Periyar National Park
• Relax on Kerala’s golden beaches
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Day
1 & 2:
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Arrive at Kochi Airport and be met by a Red Dot Tours representative
and transferred in one of our comfortable Ambassador cars to
For t Kochi, an ancient trading port since at least Roman times
that provided a safe port of call for sailors on the main trade
route from Europe to China. The journey from the airport will
take approximately one hour before you check-in to Fort Heritage,
a good-value colonial-style 12-bedroom hotel.
Malabar House. After resting at the hotel and enjoying you first
taste of Kerela’s distinctive, spicy cuisine, we suggest
you wander around the fort in the late afternoon. Walk along
the fort promontory and see the unique Chinese Fishing Nets
and generally soak up the atmosphere of the town. During the
evening you may wish to watch a Kathakali dance performance
– a noisy, colourful and spellbinding 400-year dance-drama.
The following day, hopefully after a refreshing night’s
sleep, we will show you around the fort, the highlights of which
include Mattancherry Palace, a gift to the Raja of Kochi back
in 1557, St. Francis Church, first built in 1510 and the resting
place of Vasco de Gama, and a magnificent synagogue dating back
to 1568.
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Accommodation profile:
Fort Heritage is basic, good-value 12-bedroom hotel with an
old-world feel and a sli ghtly brooding atmosphere. It is not
luxurious – not even the three two-roomed suites can reasonably
claim to be that – but it has some soul having been reconverted
from a 17th Century Dutch mansion. It also boasts very spacious
bedrooms with dark-wooden floors and antique furnishings. |
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Day 3 & 4:
Today you journey east to Munnar, the major centre of Kerala’s
tea-growing hills. The spectacular drive will take four hours.
The town itself is not particularly charming, but the surrounding
countryside is beautiful with its soaring peaks in the distance
and neatly-clipped tea estates in the foreground. We have recommended
staying at Cloud 9, a new property with fine tea-country views.
Rest during the afternoon after the long drive. The following
morning you have several options: laze on your veranda with
a good novel; go walking in the tea estates or hiking at the
Top Station, an idyllic spot 41km from Munnar which offers fine
views over Tamil Nadu, or in the Eraikulam National Park, a
100 sq km park of moist evergreen forest and grassy hilltops
that is home to the Nilgiri Tahr, one of the world’s rarest
goats, and also the starting point for a climb up Anaimudi,
at 2,695m the highest peak in South India; go off-road cycling;
play golf; or visit a nearby tea factory.
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Accommodation profile:
Cloud 9 is a comfortable three-star property offering fine views
over the surrounding tea estates and the Attukadu waterfalls.
The rooms are spacious with modern furnishings, and have double
French doors leading onto private balconies. Unfortunately,
the rooms look down towards the Munnar-Madurai road in front
of the property, which winds its way through the tea estates
and down the valley. But the views are still beautiful and hotel
is excellent value-for-money |
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Day 5 & 6:
Leave the hills, travelling south across
dramatic ridges and through thick forests to the spice-growing
foothills of the Western Ghats, an area dubbed Cardamom Hills
after its most important crop. Your destination is destination
is the picturesque Periyar National Park, the leading wildlife
park in South India, which was designated as part of Project
Tiger in 1972. The lakeside sanctuary, best explored by boat
or on foot with a trekking guide, is home to a relatively small
population of game but, encouragingly, thanks to enlightened
anti-poaching policies of the Kerala Forest Department, the
game numbers are increasing fast.
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The forest department have successfully
co-opted the support of the indigenous Mannan community who
now conserve the reserve in exchange for money from eco-tourism.
You are likely to see elephant grazing by the lakeside and bison,
sambar, wild boar and barking deer are also commonly spotted.
But the tigers are shy and are usually heard not seen, especially
during the nights as they prowl the jungle for their prey. We’ve
recommended staying at Muthoot Cardamom County. Spend two nights
here. We can also organise a spice plantation tour, a night
trek, elephant rides and even a bullock cart ride (an innovative
idea to prevent unsustainable sandlewood logging).
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Acommodation profile: :
Muthoot Cardamom County is an excellent new property in
Thekkady. Built on a hill-side, there are 40 well-appointed
cottages, all tastefully and simply furnished in contemporary
style, which offer good-value for money. A central swimming
pool provides the heart of the property and there is a superb
Ayurvedic centre and a rooftop yoga room that provides its soul.
The property is conveniently located for trips to the Periyar
wildlife reserve and local plantations. |
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Day 7 & 8:
From Periyar you travel south to
Kumarakom, an island on the large Lake Vembanad that is blessed
with an idyllic location. The area has attracted several exotic
hotels offering backwater and Ayurveda holidays. There is also
a wonderful bird sanctuary. We head straight for Waterscapes
for a relaxing two-night stay.
Accommodation profile:
Waterscapes is an interesting new property built on a seven-acre
lakeside estate in Kumarakom. The 40 stilted wooden cottages
are unique, perched up eight-foot in the air with views of the
Vembanad Lake or the lush garden. The cottages, which are thatched-roofed,
are spacious and tastefully furnished. It is just a shame that
the architect was obsessed with red-coloured iron walkways and
staircases which undermine the natural feel. But this is still
one of Red Dot’s favourite mid-range backwater properties
– it is registered as a four-star property. Indeed, we
believe it offers excellent value for money compared to some
of its overpriced neighbours. |
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Day 9 & 10:
Relax during the morning at Waterscapes
and wait for the arrival of your traditional Kettuvallum houseboat
(reconverted rice barges) around noon for one of the highlights
of your holiday – a journey through Kuttanad country to
Kollam, a land of shimmering waterways, dense tropical greenery
and age-old village livelihoods so vividly described in Arundhati
Roy’s remarkable novel The God of Small Things.
Your houseboat, fully staffed with a
friendly and attentive crew, will chug slowly through canals
and creeks allowing you to relax and unwind. Hours slip by easily
as you gaze ashore, soaking up a myriad of views as you pass
homes, farms, paddy fields, playful children, fisherfolk in
traditional dugouts and bathing buffaloes. See fish eagles circling
for prey and wise comorants perched on the riverbank. At 6pm
the houseboat will moor up and the staff will cook a sumptuous
traditional feast before a restful night’s sleep. Spend
the following on the houseboat as well. |
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Day 11 to 13:
After breakfast on the houseboat you will
soon arrive in Kollam and then travel overland to towards Kovalum,
the most popular stretch of coastline in Kerala. We skip Kovalum’s
more developed areas and instead seek out Estuary Island in
Poovar. Spend three days relaxing at the hotel.
Accommodation profile: Estuary
Island is a unique new hotel property offering guests a taste
of the backwaters and Kerala’s palm-fringed beaches. Only
opened in 2005, the main building, tastefully designed, overlooks
a long garden, across a lake, towards a long wide sand bar and
the ocean about 500m in the distance. The 46 rooms are smartly
and crisply furnished with wooden floors, gentle colours, wide
balconies, and bathrooms that have double-bar relled showers.
A huge black-tiled swimming pool offers guests a cool place
to relax but others will prefer to jump aboard one of the hotel’s
boat to crossover to the sand bar. During the off-season (May
to Sept) the sea is rough but during the season you can layout
a sunbed and listen to the gentle waves foam up the beach; a
beach that is isolated and unspoilt. |
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14: Leave in good time
for your flight home. The drive to Trivandrum International
Airport will take one hour. |
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Cost: TBC
Package price includes:
- 11 night’s BB hotel accommodation on twin-sharing
basis
- 2 night’s full-board accommodation on houseboat
- Airconditioned car and English-speaking driver for transfers
and tour
- Entrance fees: St. Francis Church, Mattancherry Palace,
Synagogue, Kathakali dance performance, spice plantation tour,
one boat ride in Periyar
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