"Tree houses and a cave room on a Vandanmedu tea and cardamom estate"
Carmelia Haven sits inside a working tea and cardamom plantation near Vandanmedu village, half an hour's drive from Thekkady, and the estate is the whole point: plantation tours and mountain jeep safaris run on the resort's own land, with cardamom bushes, pepper vines and fruit trees pressing in on all sides.
There are three ways to stay. The tree houses — wood on solid stilts, rising into the canopy — are the adventurous option, with wrap-around balconies looking down over the plantation. Planters Villas make the opposite case: spacious cottages among orange trees, cardamom and coffee bushes, their balconies facing the cardamom valley below. Between the two sits the Plunge Pool Villa, with private garden, airy veranda and its own unheated pool.
The scent of cardamom does the room service here.
Evenings run to bonfires with a local twist and themed dinners; days to bird watching, trekking, boating and fishing, or an Ayurvedic massage. There is a library with a coffee shop for the idle hours, and a spice shop for taking the plantation home in a bag.
Rustic, spacious tree house built of wood on solid stilts, rising into the canopy with ethnic-themed furnishings, modern amenities and a wrap-around balcony looking over the plantation below. Standard occupancy two.
Tastefully furnished villa with private garden and lawn, airy veranda and its own unheated plunge pool, with views of the surrounding plantation. Air-conditioned; standard occupancy two.
Spacious, elegantly furnished cottage among orange trees, cardamom and coffee bushes, with a private balcony overlooking the swimming pool and the cardamom valley below. Standard occupancy two.
By enquiry Founded in 1978, a few years after Ladakh first opened to travellers, and now stewarded by Ladakhis, this slow-travel base sits in Ayu village in the Indus Valley, built in traditional stone-and-mud style. Stay in a mud hut, a chalet or the duplex suite. Televisions have been removed from every room; a shared set waits in the Sarai Hall, which tells you what the place is for.
By enquiry A contemporary hotel on Old Leh Road, built the old Ladakhi way: thick, buttressed walls of compressed earth blocks made on site. Leh's main market is 350 metres away, Leh Palace just over a kilometre. Juniper, the ground-floor restaurant, works Ladakhi and Tibetan flavours through its menus, and the bathroom floors are heated — which, in a Leh winter, is no small thing.
By enquiry A small boutique resort between the Kannan Devan and Bison Valley hills, in Munnar's high ranges, with fourteen suites and two pool villas spread across the Muttukadu and Kumbappara hills. Every suite looks over the valley; some add Victorian jacuzzis, plunge pools or copper tubs. The outdoor pool is solar-heated mountain spring water, and the tea lounge is called 300 BC.
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