Kerala Silk Tour

Your Independent Cochin travel through Kerala begins in Bangalore. Hopefully, you've already explored Bangalore, as today you’ll set off for Mysore. The trip will take about 3½ hours and along the way you’ll enjoy beautiful views of the tropical landscape and the typical Indian mayhem. Mysore is renowned for its high-quality silk, but incense and sandalwood are also made here, and the air is thick with exotic, musky scents. The rich Maharajas invested heavily in Mysore, commissioning brilliantly ornate palaces and temples. Later today you'll visit the immense palace of Mysore to gaze in awe at the huge silver doors and lavishly decorated rooms of marble and gold. You'll also visit the Chamumdi Hill Temple. For your first night of your Cochin travel we have selected on an estate of an elegant little palace (authentic accommodation) with lush green gardens that was once built for the princess of Mysore. Your room in the palace has beautiful high ceilings is stylishly decorated in the original style with colonial furniture.

This morning, your Kerala and Cochin travel continues after a peaceful breakfast when you’ll drive across the green tea plantations and palm valleys of the Wayanad hills. Upon arrival, you’ll check-in to your own spacious stilted bungalow situated in a lush valley amongst coffee, pepper, rubber and vanilla plantations. Your bungalow has a private veranda where dinner can be served if you like. The evenings here are pleasantly cool, a nice place to stop off on your way to the tropical south. In the afternoon, you'll continue on to the Tholpetty National Park for an afternoon guided jeep safari. We have chosen this park because it is quite unspoilt and nature can take its course relatively undisturbed. The park is home to herds of wild elephants, deer, monkeys, bears and tigers and you can find otters and crocodiles in the waterways. After the safari, you’ll head back to your hotel where you can spend the rest of the day unwinding and enjoying the surrounding plantations, forests and wildlife.

Waking up in the peaceful, green surroundings of your hotel means you can take your time getting ready for today’s drive through the mountains of Wayanad to Ooty. Along the way you can stop off at the local market for some local delicacies to nibble on during the drive. When you arrive in Ooty, we will arrange for you to board an old-fashioned steam train known as a “toy train” for an hour trip through the breathtaking Nilgiri Hills to Coonor. In the afternoon you'll immerse yourself in the lush green hills of Coonoor tea. All across the tea fields you can see the women in their brightly coloured saris picking the tea leaves, and big baskets filled with freshly picked tea leaves waiting to be picked-up by the side of the road. On your Cochin travel path you’ll be stopping off at a plantation to see the whole tea production process and even have a go at tea-picking yourself. At the end of the day you will be able to relax in a cosy hotel in Coonor where you will spend one night.

After breakfast, your Cochin travel continues as your driver takes you to the train station in Coimbatore where you will board a day train for the rest of the trip to Cochin. Cochin (the new name is Kochi), is a quaint coastal town with heavy Portuguese and Dutch influences. Cochin is the largest city in Kerala and an important seaport for trade in gold, textiles and fish. Down by the water, you can see the legendary Chinese fishing nets in action – incredible wooden structures that are used to catch fish even to this day. Cochin also used to have a lively trade in spices, and the spice market here is still one of the best in Kerala. This Independent Cochin travel has you staying in a charming colonial hotel in the historic Fort Cochin district. The rooms are decorated in a colonial style and overlook a courtyard where you’ll also find the excellent hotel restaurant.

In the evening, you can explore Cochin some more and perhaps visit a traditional Keralan Kathakali dance show. Kathakali literally means "story play" and is characterized by excessive makeup, clothes and music.

After breakfast, your driver will be ready to take you out to look around Cochin. You’ll visit the Dutch Palace, the Jewish Synagogue in the heart of the Jewish district, and the Saint Francis Church (the oldest European church in India). You’ll also take a look at the Chinese fishing nets that arrived in Cochin with the Chinese traders many centuries ago. In the afternoon our Independent Cochin travel comes to an end, you can leave the hotel (probably with a suitcase full of silk) to travel on to your next destination. If you are in the mood to explore more of Kerala you might like our Kerala houseboats module or perhaps you'd like to take a flight to Chennai for the South India travel module; Living Temples of the South.