Kerala holiday, tailormade
| country: | India |
| location: | Kerala |
| departures: | This trip can be tailormade throughout the year and can be adapted to suit your interests, budget and requirements as necessary |
| price: | From £875 - £1100 (14 days) excluding flights, B&B accommodation and transfers. Price depends on season & group size. Most of the activities included. |
| vouchers: | Gift vouchers can be used with this holiday |
read 7 travellers reviews
the amazing things you'll be doing
A classic Kerala tour that takes in the ambience of its highlands, rivers, backwaters and beaches.
This trip also gives you insights into Kerala's interior, unknown territories, cultural richness of its rivers, the spices and aromas of a hill station, the ancient heritage of an island and the famed backwaters of Kerala along with it most beautiful beaches.
Depending upon the season of your visit, we can include activities like river rafting and rain forest camping to the trip. This trip will give you the feel of Kerala in all its richness. All throughout the itinerary, the trip focuses on its people, culture and wilderness.
This trip offers various accommodation options ranging from beach resorts, plantation hideouts and heritage resorts to wilderness camping.
This trip also gives you insights into Kerala's interior, unknown territories, cultural richness of its rivers, the spices and aromas of a hill station, the ancient heritage of an island and the famed backwaters of Kerala along with it most beautiful beaches.
Depending upon the season of your visit, we can include activities like river rafting and rain forest camping to the trip. This trip will give you the feel of Kerala in all its richness. All throughout the itinerary, the trip focuses on its people, culture and wilderness.
This trip offers various accommodation options ranging from beach resorts, plantation hideouts and heritage resorts to wilderness camping.
day-by-day itinerary
| Day 1: | Calicut - Wayanad: Arrival at Calicut, meet our representative outside the airport terminal and transfer to Wayanad by road (3 hours). Lunch at the hotel and relaxation. Late afternoon visit Edakkal caves, listen to the heritage of Wayanad and see the pre historic sites that unveil the mystery of the land called Wayanad. Back to the hotel in the evening. |
| Day 2: | Wayanad: Leave for Wildlife Safari in Muthanga wildlife sanctuary after early breakfast: 24 kilometer safari through the sanctuary. You could see Asiatic Elephants, Bears, Wild gaurs, Spotted and Sambar deers and even a leopard. Lunch at a local house hold/Uravu. Spice Tour, Tea estate and waterfall visit in the afternoon. Visit plantations enroute to waterfall areas exploring spices of all kinds grown in Wayanad. Trek down through the rainforest and to explore the Meenmutty waterfalls and back to the hotel by evening. Overnight in Wayanad. |
| Day 3: | River Nila: Breakfast at the hotel and transfer to River Nila (4 ½ hours drive). Stop over at a planter's bungalow and lunch with the host family.Afternoon: Thoni cruise (country boat cruise) in the with a visit to Thunjan Parambu Literature Park and Vakkad beach. Proceed to hotel near Nila river. Overnight in Nila. |
| Day 4: | River Nila: Breakfast at the hotel and morning visit Potters workshop and Bell Metal workshop. Guests get to see how potter weaves magic on clay. The sessions gives opportunity to work on pottery. Guests can give orders for small souvenirs and take it back home as a memento. A visit to the bell metal workshop will take you through the unique craft that is confined to few families in the region. Guests can watch the intricate scientific process of creating the bell metal and how they are used so artistically to create materials like traditional tea pots, unique door locks. In the evening spend time with folk artists show casing the folk heritage of River Nila. Return back to the hotel late in the night. Overnight in Nila. |
| Day 5: | River Nila: After breakfast : Day with the Masters at Kalamandalam. An interaction with students and masters of classical dance and music school of Kerala. Return to Hotel for Lunch. Thereafter relax at the hotel. Overnight in Nila. |
| Day 6: | Nila - Chimmony Wildlife Sanctuary: Drive to Chimmony, approx 2hrs drive. Trek through the wilderness of Chimmony to the campsite. Light trekking with our naturalist to explore the wilderness and forest area comprise of Tropical Evergreen forest and deciduous forest. Rainforest Camping at night. |
| Day 7: | Chimmony - Fort Cochin: Morning: Go on a birding tour and thereafter leave for Cochin - 2hrs drive. Arrive and check into Hotel in Fort Cochin. In the evening attend Kathakali performance in a Theatre at Fort Cochin. Overnight in Fort Cochin. |
| Day 8: | Cochin: This day guided tour of Fort Cochin Jew town, Synagogue, Spice Markets, Dutch Palace, St Francis Church, Chinese Fishing nets. Overnight in Fort Cochin. |
| Day 9: | Cochin: Drive to Periyar-5hrs drive. Arrive and proceed to Hotel in Thekkady. Relax till the evening. In the night we start three hours trekking at the fringes of Periyar tiger reserve starting at 7 or 10 at night. Return back to the Hotel. Overnight in Periyar. |
| Day 10: | Cochin - Periyar: Bamboo rafting: This full day programme is combination of dawn to dusk trekking and rafting on reed raft along the Periyar Lake. Good chance of spotting wildlife in your close vicinity. Return back to the hotel by evening. Overnight in Periyar. |
| Day 11: | Periyar - Kumarakom: Drive to Kumarakom - 4hrs drive. Kumarakom is about 10kms from Kottayam; one of most beautiful backwater stretches of Kerala. Proceed to backwater resort in Kumarakom. Relaxation at the backwater resort and overnight in Kumarakom. |
| Day 12: | Kumarakom - Alleppey: Check out after breakfast and proceed to Jetty to board the houseboat. Backwater Cruise. All meals on board. View the village life while on boat cruise. Overnight on the Houseboat. |
| Day 13: | Alleppey - Marari: Disembark the houseboat at Alleppey after a short morning cruise and transfer to beach resort in Marari (45minute drive). Overnight at the beach resort |
| Day 14: | Marari - Cochin Aiport: Transfer to Cochin airport. |
travellers' tales
It was all memorable, and the sheer variety is probably the most important aspect... We will certainly look at your website for future holidays – many thanks. (more)
highly commended
This tourism business was Highly Commended in our 2006 First Choice Responsible Tourism Awards - the largest awards of their kind in the world, and organised by responsibletravel.com in association with The Times, World Travel Market and Geographical Magazine, of the Royal Geographical Society. Since 2004, the Awards has recognised individuals, companies and organisations in travel making a big commitment to the culture and economies of local communities and helping to conserve biodiversity.
how this holiday makes a difference
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Being one of the pioneers of Responsible Tourism in India, our company works closely with government authorities, industry stake holders and communities to promote Responsible Tourism in the state.
Spice tours in Wayanad were initiated to support small time farmers and spice planters to find alternative, supplementary source of income. This provides a glimpse of the issues surrounding the struggles of spice farmers in terms of price crash and issues of globalization. The boats used as well as the oarsmen are from the local communities. This makes an alternative, supplementary source of incomes to sand miners, coconut processors, and small size property owners. Promoting the martial arts provides supplementary source of income for a non profit school that runs the ‘Kalari’ to maintain the school. Certain part of the proceeds from this go to support the school and the Kalari. Supplementary income coming to the members of the school also makes sure that they maintain their interest in the martial art forms in terms of economic viability. Evening with the folk artists is part of revival of folk art and music forms. All the houseboats we use are eco friendly and minimises the damage to the eco system of the backwaters. We use only Bio toilets, use solar panels for electricity and traditional lamps. We use large mineral water cans to avoid usage of several disposable mineral water bottles. All the staff in the boats are from local areas. In Periyar the programs are operated by local community members belonging to the Eco Development Committees (EDCs). The benefits are transferred directly to the community members. Trekking assistants and guides were mostly poachers and the entire program in Periyar was designed to rehabilitate them. Our company was set up to help raise funds for a river foundation with the goal to revive a sadly neglected river in the area of central Kerala. The project Travellers forest aims to involve travellers in reforestation programs of the area. We advise cooperating hotels to use the 3R policy: Reuse, Reduce, Recycle. We promote the services of Atmosfair for carbon offset of international flights |
Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people. We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel. 'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left). We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've led the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays. We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism. This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards. |