8 Best Hotels in Central Kerala, Kerala

Small design details, spacious grounds, and lake-view rooms with private patios just steps from the water make this large backwater resort sparkle. The traditional tile-roof buildings have ornate wooden carvings on the facades, while rooms have high ceilings, exposed wooden rafters, and decoratively tiled floors. The resort also has luxury one-bedroom and two-bedroom houseboats and floating cottages that can be booked for a day cruise or an overnight stay on Vembanad lake.

Set on the banks of Vembanad Lake, this backwater hotel offers lake-facing cottages and garden rooms with private open-air bathrooms; three bamboo villas have their own private pool. Rooms are simply furnished but lack the traditional Kerala architecture that neighboring resorts provide. There’s an ayurvedic spa, a swimming pool, and a multi-cuisine restaurant.

A seriously steep walk downhill through green environs brings you to a clutter of whitewashed, terra-cotta-roofed cottages, clinging to the slope, where you get a bird's-eye view of tea plantations for miles around, including workers' settlements and a small blue-roofed church. These snug, modest cottage rooms, with parquet floors and interiors done in soothing creams and white, and their verandas, are peaceful and make great spots to catch the valley action.

Built into a steep cliff and in a style similar to the area’s tea plantation bungalows, this luxury hotel offers sweeping views of Munnar Valley; that is, when it’s not engulfed in a thick mist. The bright and colorful rooms all offer mountain views and some have private terraces. There are two restaurants—one of which is completely enclosed in glass—a bar, a gym, a coffee shop, and an ayurvedic spa.

This is one of the few modern chain hotels in the city, where most of the rooms come with a view of the backwaters. Its popular multi-cuisine restaurant, World in the Pot, overlooks the pool; there's also a Chinese restaurant, Venice, that serves interesting cocktails. The hotel has its own houseboat and organizes a two-hour lunch cruise for an extra fee.

This lush, palm-fringed 17-acre property spanning the banks of the Vembanad Lake has cottages overlooking the lake or its private lagoon. You can board a ferry for an hour-long complimentary ride along the backwaters or climb aboard a hotel-owned houseboat for a day-long cruise. The spa offers great ayurvedic treatments and there's a doctor for consultation as well.

Getting around this hilly property is a workout—especially the hike to the skylight-topped restaurant—but the setting on 66-acre cardamom plantation is phenomenal. The cottages, all ensconced in lush greenery, come in different varieties, with some being single rooms while others occupy multiple floors and have spacious living rooms and balconies. Furnishings are of cane and rubber wood. The main restaurant has a glass roof and great location overlooking tall trees.

Less than a kilometer from the gates of the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary stands a cute two-story cobblestone building with 10 cottage-style rooms. Each room in this cozy B&B has its own outdoor entrance, and those on the second floor can be reached by individual spiral staircases. The hotel does not have its own restaurant, other than a room for breakfast, though there are a number of restaurants within walking distance.