Kerala luxury holiday

Planet and people

By supporting locally owned hotels and homestays we are helping to provide employment for local communities. All of the hotels on this tour are extremely proud of their strong policies regarding the environment and ecotourism. CGH Earth Group who own Coconut Lagoon, Spice Village and Marari Beach have evolved over four decades into a chain that specialises in remaining true to the environment – one of their mottos is "Nature remains the Chief Architect". While staying at their resorts the staff will be happy to show you around their various environmental projects including water harvesting and water re-cycling, organic farming, biogas facility, composting etc.

Forte Kochi is very centrally located near local shops and cafes and is part of The Paul Resorts and Hotels group. The houseboat is locally made using traditional methods and natural materials and owned by a local company. All our houseboats adhere to stringent environmental rules and regulations that are in force on the Kerala backwaters.

Coconut Lagoon, Spice Village and Marari Beach Resort are all owned by the environmentally friendly CGH Earth Group of Hotels. CGH Earth is a Kerala family owned business that has been operating since 1954. Sustainability has been their ethos from the start. At CGH Earth protecting the environment and nature is core to their business and visitors staying at their various hotels will see this in practice

This tour includes a visit to Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary. Periyar is a protected area, is committed to conserving the numbers of tigers and elephants within the reserve and practices community based ecotourism.

The ground handling of this tour is provided by our local agent and we supply him with more than 90% of his turnover. All of the drivers and staff are local people. Thus we have fifteen local families that are directly financially reliant upon us. Our drivers have a contract and are paid a monthly wage. This is very unusual in South India where most drivers are normally employed on a commission-only basis (not easy for such seasonal work). All of the guides we use are local.

Tailor-made holidays cater for couples or small groups and this means that our customers have the opportunity to interact with the locals. All of our customers are supplied with detailed information about their holiday. We supply general advice relevant to all customers as well as more specific facts about your particular tour. These documents offer our customers lots of advice and guidance including how to obtain an Indian Visa, which immunisations are recommended, how much to tip people, how to dress appropriately and how to behave in National Parks.