Coorg and Kerala Honeymoon Tour

Welcome to India. Once you have collected your bags and cleared customs at Kempegowda International Airport, look for our team member with a sign showing your names just outside the arrivals hall. A few steps bring you to your private car and roughly an hour's drive south into Bangalore, longer in the evening traffic. Pre-dawn landings are common on routes via the Gulf, and then an extra night's booking means a made-up bed instead of a lobby sofa. Your driver will brief you on the plan for tomorrow and the long but scenic drive to the hills.

After some rest, a short outing in the late afternoon helps the body adjust to Indian time. Cubbon Park, laid out by the British in 1870, covers a large green area in the middle of the city, with bamboo clumps, flowering trees and quiet paths used by local walkers and runners. At one edge stands the red colonial State Central Library, and across the road rises the Vidhana Soudha, where Karnataka's lawmakers meet in a huge granite hall completed after independence in a Neo-Dravidian style. It cannot be visited inside, but its floodlit front looks impressive on a slow evening drive past.

Bangalore has one of the liveliest food scenes in India, and you can be dropped at a restaurant serving coastal Mangalorean seafood, Andhra-style biryani or a simple South Indian dinner of dosa and filter coffee. If you would rather stay close to the hotel, room service and a long sleep are just as sensible on the first night. A small welcome touch of fresh flowers and a bottle of wine or juice is placed in your room on request. Pack a light sweater in your day bag for tomorrow, because Coorg is noticeably cooler than the plains, especially after sunset. Overnight in Bangalore.

Leave Bangalore soon after breakfast to avoid the worst of the city traffic. The expressway toward Mysore is fast and smooth, and your driver will take the bypass west toward Hunsur, where sugarcane and coconut farms gradually give way to scrub forest and small hill villages. This is the longest drive of the honeymoon, so it is broken into easy sections with a coffee stop and lunch on the way. Ask your driver to play some Kannada film songs if you want a little local flavor in the car, and keep the camera ready once the hills begin to rise ahead of you.

Just before the climb to Madikeri you reach Kushalnagar and the forest park of Nisargadhama, a river island in the Kaveri reached by a swaying rope-and-plank bridge. Paths wind through tall bamboo, teak and sandalwood, and small cottages and treehouse platforms stand among the trees. Monkeys and deer are often seen, and in the drier months you can walk down to the rocky riverbank and sit with your feet in the shallow water. It is an easy place for a picnic or a quiet hour before the last stretch of road, which climbs through coffee and forest to the district town of Madikeri.

By late afternoon you arrive at your plantation homestay or hill resort in Coorg, a region whose Kodava people are known for their warm hospitality, their martial traditions and their distinctive pork and rice dishes. Take a cup of estate coffee on the balcony while the light falls across the hills and the sounds of crickets and birds take over. Dinner tonight is a home-style Kodava meal, served at the homestay table or in the resort restaurant, with dishes such as bamboo shoot curry and noolputtu, delicate steamed rice noodles. Early to bed, because tomorrow's best moment comes at dawn. Overnight in Coorg.

Long before breakfast, a four-wheel-drive jeep collects you for the bumpy ride up to Mandalpatti, a high grassy ridge about 25 km from Madikeri at around 1,600 meters. Ordinary cars cannot manage the last rough section, so local drivers make the run in old jeeps that rattle and climb through coffee and forest. At the top, a short walk leads to a viewpoint where on many mornings the valleys below are filled with cloud and the hills look like islands floating in it. Bring a warm layer, because wind on the ridge can be cold even in March, and expect to share the view with only a few other early risers.

After a late breakfast back at your stay and a rest, the afternoon is for Madikeri itself. The stone fort in the center was rebuilt by Tipu Sultan and later altered by the Kodagu ruler Lingarajendra, and it now holds government offices along with a small museum in an old church. A short walk away, the Omkareshwara Temple, a Shiva shrine from the early 19th century, pairs a central dome with corner turrets and sits beside a tank full of fish, a reflection of the different influences on Kodagu at that time. Your local guide also points out the colonial bungalows and the market streets where spice sellers offer cardamom, pepper and local honey.

Lunch, or an early dinner if you prefer, is in the home of a Kodava family on an estate outside town. Your hosts may show you the traditional dress worn at weddings, with the long black kupya coat and the curved knife for men and the saree pleated at the back for women, and talk about the unique Kodava wedding customs, which are performed without priests. It is a good, personal way to understand how the community lives, and conversation flows easily in English. In the evening you return to your stay for a quiet night on the veranda under the stars. Overnight in Coorg.

After a slow breakfast you head south through Gonikoppal and Kutta, small Kodava towns surrounded by coffee and pepper estates, toward the Kerala border. The last section of the road runs through the Nagarhole and Tholpetty forests, part of a much larger protected area that also covers Bandipur and Mudumalai. Driving inside the reserve is allowed only during daylight hours, and stopping or getting out of the car is not permitted, but this rule works in your favor, because wildlife is often seen from the road. Chital herds, grey langurs and strutting peafowl turn up often, and with luck, wild elephants cross the road ahead of you.

Across the border you are in Wayanad, a high district of Kerala covered in spice gardens, rice paddies and forest, with a rich tribal culture that goes back thousands of years. After a short stop in Mananthavady, a market town on the Kabini River, the road climbs to your honeymoon stay: either a treehouse built high in a tall forest tree or a private pool villa with a deck facing the hills. Treehouses here are surprisingly comfortable, with proper beds, attached bathrooms and a balcony at canopy level, but they do require climbing stairs or using a rope-pulley lift, so tell us your preference at booking.

Spend the rest of the afternoon at your stay, listening to the forest from your balcony. The resort naturalist can lead a short walk along the estate trails to look for Malabar giant squirrels, hornbills and flying lizards, and to point out wild orchids, cardamom and coffee plants. As the light fades, birdsong gives way to cicadas, and you may hear the odd distant call of a deer. Dinner is served at the resort restaurant or brought to your treehouse or villa, with Malabar dishes such as chicken ghee roast and appam with vegetable stew among the choices. Overnight in Wayanad.

Breakfast is served on your treehouse balcony or private villa deck this morning, a slow start with fresh fruit, Kerala puttu and hot coffee before the day's outing. Active couples can attempt the trek to the heart-shaped lake on Chembra Peak, the highest point in Wayanad at about 2,100 meters, a steep climb through tea and grassland. The forest department controls access, limits the number of daily trekkers and has closed the trail for long periods in recent years, so we confirm before your trip whether it is open. If it is not, or if you prefer something gentler, the day continues with the sights below.

Grassy embankments hold back Banasura Sagar, an earthen dam on a Kabini tributary that ranks among the biggest of its type anywhere in Asia. Its reservoir spreads between green hills and small islands, and the speedboat rides on the water are a fun outing for couples. The Banasura hills behind it are also a popular sunrise trek. Later you drive to Pookode Lake, a natural freshwater lake shaped a little like India, surrounded by forest and quiet walking paths. Rowing boats and pedal boats are available for hire, and an hour on the still water is a good contrast to the speed of the morning.

Coffee and spice gardens line the roads across Wayanad, and before returning you call in at a family plantation where you can see pepper vines, cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla growing side by side. Many families here also keep honeybees, and fresh forest honey is an easy gift to pack. Return to your stay for a relaxed evening. If your stay has a pool, it is a lovely spot at dusk, and a short couple massage in the resort spa can be added if you wish. Pack tonight, as tomorrow you leave the hills and head for the coast. Overnight in Wayanad.

Today the honeymoon comes down from the mountains. Below Lakkidi the road from Kalpetta tips over the edge into the Thamarassery ghat, nine tight switchbacks that look out over the coastal plain to the sea on clear mornings. Your driver takes them unhurriedly and pulls over at the lookout close to the crest for photographs. In Kozhikode, the old port where Vasco da Gama first landed in 1498, you can stop for a lunch of the city's famous Malabar biryani before boarding an afternoon train to Ernakulam.

The train runs south along the Malabar coast in around four hours, passing rivers, coconut groves and small towns, and your reserved seats are in the air-conditioned chair car. Your driver carries your luggage with the car and meets you again at Ernakulam station, so you travel light. Couples who would rather stay in the car can drive all the way instead, roughly seven hours with breaks. From the station it is a 30-minute drive to your boutique hotel in Fort Kochi, and dinner is at your leisure. Overnight in Kochi.

Fort Kochi wakes early, and a gentle walk with your guide before the heat sets in is the most pleasant way to see it. You start near the beach road, watch the fishing teams already at work on the cantilevered nets, then follow quiet lanes past the old Dutch Cemetery, whose weathered gravestones date back to the 1700s. The route continues to St. Francis Church, whose floor held Vasco da Gama's grave for 14 years before his body was returned to Lisbon, and on to the grand bungalows built by spice traders and colonial officers. Your guide tells the story of each group that ruled Kochi, from the Portuguese and Dutch to the British.

A short tuk-tuk ride takes you to Mattancherry, the trading district where Arab, Jewish, Gujarati and Konkani merchants once lived side by side. The Mattancherry Palace holds wall paintings of Hindu epics in warm reds and ochres, and in nearby Jew Town the Paradesi Synagogue still holds services more than four centuries after its founding. Friday closes the palace, and the synagogue stays shut every Friday and Saturday plus Jewish holidays, so this walk is placed on a day when both doors are open. The narrow streets are full of antique dealers, spice stores and boutique shops selling handwoven cotton and Kerala crafts.

In the late afternoon a private motorboat takes you on a sunset cruise around the harbor, past Willingdon Island, Bolgatty Island and the tall cranes of the container port, with the old town glowing in the evening light behind you. Dolphins are sometimes seen near the harbor mouth. Back on land, dinner can be at one of Fort Kochi's garden restaurants or in a heritage café serving seafood with a modern twist. Later, you might walk back through the lanes to see the old town lit up and quiet after the crowds have gone, the best time for photographs. Overnight in Kochi.

After breakfast and check-out, your driver takes you south along the coast to Alleppey and the boat jetty, where your private houseboat waits for check-in around midday. The boat is yours alone for the next 22 hours or so, with three crew members: someone at the wheel, someone in the galley and a deckhand who keeps tea coming. The honeymoon category boats we book have an air-conditioned bedroom with a large window over the water, a private bathroom and an open deck with comfortable chairs and loungers. Flowers and a small welcome gift are arranged for you on board, and you can ask the cook to adjust the menu for your taste.

The first meal arrives as the mooring ropes come in: fish curry in red chili and kodampuli sauce, crisp vegetable dishes, red Kerala rice and pappadam, followed by fruit. The boat glides through the wide lake of Vembanad and then into narrow waterways where you see houses, temples, churches and schools along the banks, with locals using the canals like roads. Kingfishers, egrets and cormorants hunt along the edges, and you pass farmers working rice fields that lie below the water level. This part of the day is for lying back on the deck together, reading, chatting and watching village life slip past.

In the late afternoon the crew stops near a village and a small country canoe is waiting to take the two of you through narrow canals too small for the houseboat, with only the boatman's pole making a sound. You return for tea and banana fritters while the houseboat ties up at a quiet bank, since cruising after early evening is not allowed here. Under a string of small lights on deck, supper is laid out, with chicken or prawn curry, fresh vegetables and a sweet rice pudding. The evening is calm, with frogs and crickets for company and the stars above. Overnight on the houseboat.

Early morning on the backwaters is cool and quiet, and you can watch the mist lift from the water with a cup of tea while the crew prepares breakfast. Fishermen and boat traders pass in small canoes, and the first ferries carry school children and office workers across the lake. Breakfast of idiyappam, egg curry and fresh fruit is served as the boat returns slowly to the jetty for check-out around 9 am. Your driver is waiting with the car, and the drive to Marari, a fishing village beach just north of Alleppey, takes only half an hour on quiet coastal roads.

Marari Beach is a long, quiet stretch of sand lined with coconut palms, where traditional fishermen still pull their wooden boats onto the beach in the early morning. Your beach resort, with villas set in palm gardens a short walk from the sea, makes an easy and relaxing end to your honeymoon after nine busy days. Check-in time is usually afternoon, but we will request early access to the room. Spend the late morning by the pool, take a stroll along the waterline or simply sleep in the shade. Swimming at Marari depends on sea conditions, so always ask the resort staff first.

Later on, the resort spa expects the pair of you for an Ayurvedic massage, using medicated herbal oils, with the two of you treated side by side by trained therapists. It is a welcome treat after days of travel, and the resort can suggest a treatment that suits you. Toward dusk, take a barefoot walk along the sand with your partner and watch the fishing boats come in. Dinner at the resort restaurant can feature fresh fish of the day, cooked in a Kerala style of your choice. Enjoy a peaceful final evening of your honeymoon by the sea. Overnight in Marari.

Take a final walk on the beach after breakfast and enjoy the last hours at the resort before check-out. The ride to Cochin International Airport is about two hours, depending on traffic through Ernakulam. Leaving time is set so that you reach the counters well before your flight closes. For a flight late at night, keeping the room into the afternoon can be requested in advance at extra cost, and a short stop at a spice store for pepper or tea is easy to fit in.

Over ten days you have watched clouds below you in Coorg, slept in the forest in Wayanad, walked the colonial lanes of Kochi and drifted on the backwaters of Alleppey together. Someone from our office remains on the phone until you have your boarding passes, and we always enjoy hearing how the trip went once you are home. If you would like to come back for an anniversary in Munnar's tea country or on an Andaman beach, we would be glad to help. Wishing you a safe flight and a very happy married life.