If the boat cruise from my previous Blog is not so much your thing, then you can also find a huge number of all type of accommodations within the canal and lake areas. We stayed at the beautiful Coconut Lagoon Hotel in Kumarakom (www.cghearth.com/coconut-lagoon), which is also part of the cghearth hotel group. This place really feels like a paradise on earth and is a peaceful sanctuary that I can highly recommend.
Coconut Lagoon is located at the shores of Vemband Lake, which is one of India´s largest inland lakes with its very distinctive ecology. Your water experience starts already upon arrival, as the hotel can be only accessed for guests by water. The hotel taxi boat will pick you up from the boat jetty by the road and you approach the property with a scenic ride through a backwater canal.
The super friendly Coconut Lagoon Team will welcome you in the lofty open-air reception area.
Coconut Lagoon stretches over a wide area, which will give you the opportunity for an extensive exploration tour.
During your stay you will be accommodated in one of the heritage houses that are spread around the vast hotel property. My recommendation would be to take a lake view housing as that will give you some spectacular views onto the canal and open lake.
The houses are remnants of old mansions that were once the family homes of the nobility of the land. They were all brought in pieces and skilled craftsmen have put them together again. During your stay you can therefore experience the heritage of the people living in the backwater area. There are various room categories on offer – as smaller bungalows, whole mansions which are suitable for families and luxury lake front villas with a private pool.
We stayed at a cozy bungalow that had lake view.
The feature that I liked most was the open-air bathroom. The inside of the bungalow itself had a rustic outlook.
Below an example of larger mansions, suitable for families.
As I have already mentioned the hotel property is huge with a stunning tropical garden, an own canal system and various areas for guests to enjoy and to relax.
Although the hotel is located directly at the lake – the lake is not for swimming – but you still have the chance to splash out in the large garden pool.
Coconut Lagoon is also a culinary heaven and you can enjoy delicious national and international cuisine in the main hotel restaurant, which also resembles the local architecture. Further you have a small grill restaurant beside the pool during the day and a speciality dining restaurant. On several days you can enjoy a local dance performance show before dinner and some live music while eating.
Yummy food at Coconut Lagoon.
In my first Blog about Kerala, I have already told you a bit about the philosophy of the cghearth hotel chain and their target to include the local community into the hotel operation. Here in Coconut Lagoon for example a local lady from the nearby village comes by boat and serves a tasty afternoon tea to the hotel guests.....
....or you can observe another local lady doing traditional handcraft.
The stunning garden area of the hotel also deserves to be covered here separately. There are so many different trees and flowers that can be explored, plus opposite the hotel on the other side of the canal you can find a bird sanctuary. And as obviously there are no borders to that place the feathery inhabitants of that sanctuary often venture over to the hotel.
I would highly recommend to take part in the daily bird watching tour of the hotel.
At the end of the tour your guide will hang a paper beside the reception of all the bird species that you have seen – in our case it was the stunning number of 27 different species!
And of course during that walk you can also experience the flora and other fauna of the hotel, we even saw a water snake in the canal!! – told you the lake is not for swimming 😊 and that lizard here.....
Don´t miss a visit to the butterfly garden.....
.......and experience the sunset over the lake on a sunset cruise, which is a complementary activity of the hotel.
Some further lake and garden impressions:
Another interesting activity is the hotel tour in which the sustainable concept of the hotel is explained closer to you. Like in all the other cghearth properties they have their own bottled water filling station and a biogas plant.
Further facilities of the hotel are a reading room, a small gym, playroom, bike rental station and a very nice yoga shala where you can have a morning practice and an evening meditation guided by an experienced yoga teacher.
With all this it was hard to say goodbye to this beautiful place and the warm departure ceremony of the hotel staff made it even harder.
But it is just a goodbye for now – as we will return for sure again.
So what comes next? Actually a complete change of scenery, as we are leaving the low lands of the Backwaters and are making our way high up into the Western Ghats mountain region, where we will visit the picturesque teafarm land around Munnar.
For the area of the backwaters I also have one further tip for you if you like to have a more basic experience in the middle of the forest. The Hornbill Camp (www.hornbillcamp.in) is a very laid back place amidst a wild and unspoilt nature. Here you will stay in a simple, but very comfortable tent accommodation. The experienced guides at the camp will take you on super interesting bird watching tours on foot or by canoe. The Hornbill Camp is very recommended for all nature lovers and bird enthusiasts!
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