Finally we are coming to the last Blog of this series – actually the most relaxing part as after all that exciting sightseeing it is now time to enjoy the sun and the beach. Plus another speciality for which Kerala is famous for – Ayurveda. One of the world oldest whole-body healing systems.
For all this we have chosen the amazing Marari Beach Hotel, which is another property of the CGHEarth Hotels (www.cghearth.com/marari-beach). Please refer to my previous Kerala Blogs to learn more about the fantastic sustainability concept of this hotel brand.
So let´s see now what the Marari Beach Hotel was holding for us. Already upon arrival with entering the lofty reception area, you step out of the hectic street life into a tranquil paradise. The real friendly Marari team will welcome you with a great sense of hospitality.
The whole Marari Beach is set over a large garden with various bungalows located throughout this area. We were staying in a cozy Garden Villa – if you like to splash out some more money and have a more luxurious experience you can also go for the Garden Villa with private pool or the Deluxe version of it.
Rooms are allocated in traditional thatched houses, with a small terrace at the entrance and my beloved open-air bathroom feature.
The tropical garden area is huge so you can take nice walks around and admire the stunning flora and fauna of the hotel. If you like to know a bit more about the nature in Marari then make a stop at the Earth Lab building. Some experienced nature guides will take you here through the surrounding nature and they will for example spot out the cute residential owl family.
If you didn´t go for the room option with a private pool, that is not a problem as the hotel has a large saltwater swimming pool in the middle of its garden. It was never crowded and we could enjoy some real relaxing time over there.
Or walk over to the beach area where you can have a nap in one of the hammocks that are fixed in between the palm trees. On the beach you will also find some hotel-owned sunbeds, although the beach itself is not private. At the time of our visit, they did not have umbrellas at the beach, but there are enough palm trees to find shade.
The beach is a long stretch of white, unspoilt sand. Although it looks quite peaceful, be aware that the sea has quite some strong currents and most of the time you will have waves, which do have some very strong under currents as well. Therefore, the sea here is not suitable for children or elderly people.
The food experience at Marari was also top-notch. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are served in their main restaurant. The food was always fresh with a lot of variety and different options. During buffets there were also live cooking stations and theme nights.
But you have other food choices at Marari as well as the easy-going Beach Grill bar that serves nice light lunch options, also visit for dinner when they have live music over here. Then there is an excellent fish restaurant by the beach – where you can choose your fish fresh out of the chiller.
Also don´t miss to take part in their active Farm Kitchen experience – here you will accompany the Chef through the hotel´s organic garden, pick your own vegetables and prepare it together with the Chef in the Farm Kitchen. A highly recommended experience!
Usually we came here to relax, but the Marari Beach Hotel brings also a lot of activities on the way for its guests. As various hotel and nature tours (you will see the resident owl family on this tour), archery, coir making demonstrations plus live dance performances. Also don´t miss out on the daily Afternoon Tea ceremony at the garden area.
Further if you like to bend a bit forwards and backwards and do the downward facing dog in a proper way guided by a very experienced local teacher - take an early morning visit to the Yoga Shala. The morning routine there was very different from our softend European version of Yoga - it rather felt a bit like a boot camp, but the feeling aftwards was just soooooo good!!!
And then we have last but not least the excellent Ayurveda Center at the hotel. You will have a consultation with the experienced Ayurveda doctor first, who will discuss with you a treatment schedule. Ayurveda is an ancient old medical science – for a full benefit you would need to do a full Panchakarma treatment that will last at least for 3 weeks inclusive of an initial detox and then the full treatments with the according meal plan. But if you are here for only a few days you can already take advantage of some of the excellent massages like the head massage with warm oils (Shirodara) or the four-handed full-body massage (Abhyanga).
At Marari you can easily spend a week or two – but it is worth to have a small walk in the surrounding village with some nice small restaurants and shops along the road. And very recommended is also an early beach walk to watch the local fishermen coming back from the see to prepare their catch for the sale on the local markets.
So that was an extensive experience of Kerala and we had it all merged in one trip – culture, nature and some very unique local experiences. I hope you enjoyed reading this Blog series. If you have questions on Kerala or any other part of India, please reach out to me at any time.
Poyivaraam – Goodbye Kerala!
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