People booking holidays to India have been advised not to ignore the northern region of Kerala in favour of some of its better-known attractions.
A travel journalist on a trip across Kerala commented that the northern areas of the state are “well worth exploring”.
Writing for the Daily Telegraph, Clover Stroud described a trip that took her from a safari in the Nagarhole National Park to the coffee plantations in northern Kerala and on to a remote region of the Malabar Coast.
She began her trip in Orange County with a boat ride across the Kabini River for a morning safari.
From there, she travelled through the spice and coffee plantations to reach her next destination, where she stayed at a family-run guesthouse.
Ms Stroud said: “Arriving at the estate, after a long, zigzag drive through the mountains, was rather like stepping into a pocket of Eden.”
Her trip ended with a stay at a new retreat on an untouched section of Kerala’s coastline, which Ms Stroud described as “gently glamorous”.
Kerala, which is located on the south-western tip of India, has been bestowed with the nickname of “God’s own country”. The region was also selected by the National Geographic Traveller as one of the 13 paradises in the world.
Written by Ruth Norris