Private journeys in seven lands · a planner replies within one working day
Try "Udaipur", "tiger", "honeymoon", "Ladakh in July"
An eight-night journey through Kerala by its kitchens: Kochi's spice warehouses, fish market and home cooks from three communities; cardamom and pepper estates in the hills at Thekkady; and the lake food of Kumarakom, from karimeen and duck to toddy-shop curries and a sadya on a banana leaf.
Kerala's food is the story of its trade. Pepper drew Arab, Chinese, Portuguese and Dutch merchants to this coast, and each community that settled here, Syrian Christian, Mappila Muslim, Jewish and Hindu, developed its own cooking from the same coconut, rice, fish and spices. This journey follows that story from the spice warehouses of Mattancherry to the plantations where the spices grow and the lake villages where the fish is caught.
In Kochi you spend three nights with guides and home cooks who explain the differences between a Syrian Christian beef fry and a Mappila biryani. At Thekkady, planters show you cardamom drying and pepper on the vine. At Kumarakom, you canoe to a village kitchen, eat at a canal-side toddy shop and learn to cook a sadya. Cooking sessions are hands-on, and recipes go home with you.
Highlights
Day by day
We meet you at Cochin International Airport and drive about 1.5 hours to Brunton Boatyard on the Fort Kochi harbour. In the late afternoon, walk to the Chinese fishing nets, where you can buy fish straight from the crews and have it cooked at a stall nearby, a Fort Kochi tradition. Dinner at the hotel, whose kitchen serves Anglo-Indian and Kochi Jewish recipes rarely found elsewhere.
A morning walk through Fort Kochi and Mattancherry with a guide who specialises in the spice trade: the old warehouses of Bazaar Road, wholesale merchants grading pepper, ginger and turmeric, and the story of how Kochi's harbour made it the centre of the Malabar spice coast. Lunch is in the home of a Syrian Christian family, with dishes such as beef fry, fish molee and appam.
Go early with a cook to the Ernakulam market, where vegetables, bananas, coconuts and fish are traded in the narrow lanes, and buy ingredients for the day's lesson. Back in Fort Kochi, a home cook teaches you to grind a coconut masala, make a Kerala fish curry with kudampuli, a vegetable thoran and soft appam. Eat what you cook for lunch. The evening is free, or watch Kathakali.
Leave Kochi for Thekkady, stopping near Vazhakulam, known for its pineapples, and at a rubber estate to see latex tapped and rolled into sheets. Climb through Kuttikkanam's tea estates to Thekkady. Check in at Spice Village, where much of the kitchen's produce comes from local farms. In the evening, the chef talks you through the hill cuisine of the Cardamom Hills.
Spend the morning on a family cardamom and pepper estate in the hills, walking through the shaded plantation and seeing how pods are picked, cured in drying houses and graded by size and colour for auction. Lunch is cooked by the family using their own spices: perhaps pepper chicken, a cardamom-scented rice and a jackfruit curry. In the late afternoon, optional time in the Periyar Tiger Reserve.
Drive down from the hills via Kottayam to Kumarakom and cross by boat to Coconut Lagoon. In the late afternoon, a canoe takes you through the village canals to a family-run toddy shop, where you try karimeen pollichathu grilled in banana leaf, duck roast, kappa with red fish curry and fiery pickles. Fresh toddy is offered to those who wish to taste it.
Go out early on the lake with a fisherman to see how karimeen and prawns are caught with nets and traps. Later, visit a duck farmer in Kuttanad, where flocks are herded through the harvested paddy. Lunch is with a village family, who show you how to make a traditional coconut and shallot fish curry over a wood fire. The afternoon is free at the resort.
Your last full day is given to the sadya, Kerala's vegetarian feast. With the resort's chef, prepare several of its dishes: avial, olan, thoran, pachadi, sambar and a payasam. Learn the order in which they are served on the banana leaf and how to eat with your hand. Lunch is the sadya you helped cook. Spend the afternoon by the pool or on a sunset boat on the lake.
After breakfast, we drive you to Cochin International Airport, about 2.5 hours away, with time for a stop at a spice merchant if you want to buy more to take home. We provide vacuum-packed spices on request. Our team in India stays in touch until you are through check-in.
Included
Not included
Where you sleep
A heritage hotel on the Fort Kochi waterfront, rebuilt on the site of a Victorian boatyard, where every room faces the harbour channel and ships pass …
A CGH Earth resort of thatched cottages among spice gardens on the edge of the Periyar Tiger Reserve, built in the style of the area's tribal …
A CGH Earth resort on the shore of Vembanad Lake, reached only by boat, built from old Kerala wooden houses dismantled and reassembled on the site, …
Shape your own journey Tell us your dates and what you hope to feel. We draw the route around you. Begin Not sure where to start? We match the land to your month, your pace and the people travelling with you. Begin Talk to a planner A first route and an indicative price within one working day. No payment to start. BeginGood to know
Questions travellers ask
Yes. Kerala has a rich vegetarian tradition, from the sadya to dosa, avial and thoran, and every cooking session can be fully vegetarian. Home cooks and toddy shops adapt their menus if told in advance. Let us know when you book.
Some dishes, such as toddy-shop curries and Syrian Christian roasts, are quite hot; others, like stew, olan and appam, are mild. Coconut softens much of the heat. Our hosts adjust the spice level for you, and you can always ask for milder versions.
A vegetarian feast served on a banana leaf, with more than 20 dishes placed in a fixed order, including chips, pickles, rice, sambar, avial, olan, thoran and payasam. It is central to Onam and weddings. On this journey, you help cook one and then eat it.
Yes. You grind masalas, cut vegetables, cook on the stove or wood fire and plate the dishes yourself, with guidance from the home cook or chef. Each session ends with a meal of what you made, and you receive recipe notes.
Yes. We take you to wholesale merchants in Mattancherry and to the estate at Thekkady, where you buy fresh, good-quality spices at fair prices. We can arrange vacuum packing. Check your home country's import rules before you fly. Keep receipts for customs.
November to February, when the weather is comfortable and cardamom and pepper are being harvested. August and September coincide with Onam, when sadya is everywhere, though there is some rain. March to May is hot. Book December and January dates early.
We choose places with high turnover and clean kitchens, and focus on cooked food served hot. Avoid raw salads and cut fruit from street stalls, drink bottled water and wash your hands before eating. Most guests have no problems on this journey.
From about ₹2,45,000 per person, twin sharing, including hotels, private car, guides, cooking classes, home lunches and the boat trips listed. Peak season dates cost more. Flights are extra. We send a detailed quote with room options once you share your dates.
Yes. Kozhikode and Thalassery in the north are famous for Mappila cooking, including biryani and pathiri. We can add two or three nights in North Malabar, combined with Theyyam in season, by travelling north from Kochi by train. Theyyam can be added in season.
More in Kerala
Begin a journey
Dates, who is travelling and what you hope to feel. A planner replies within one working day with a first route and an indicative price.