Room one · Sleeps 2–3
Morning room
Wakes up first. The glass faces straight into the coffee, and the balcony is wide enough for two chairs, a table and a long breakfast.
Wayanad, Kerala — a working coffee estate
The plantation starts at the glass.
Two rooms on a working Robusta estate near Kalpetta. The coffee, the pepper and the fruit outside your window are grown by the family that hosts you.
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What this is
A lot of places in Wayanad sell you a view of a plantation.
This one puts you inside it. The estate is Mathew's — he grows the Robusta, the black pepper climbing the shade trees, and the exotic fruit you'll be handed at breakfast. The rooms were built on top of the family bungalow, so you're staying in the middle of a farm that is still being farmed. Some mornings you'll hear it happening.
- Rooms
- Two
- Grown here
- Robusta coffee, black pepper, exotic fruit
- To the drying yard
- Five-minute walk
- Your host
- The grower himself
The rooms
Two glass boxes in the green.
Each room is its own suite — bed, sitting area, balcony, bathtub, separate shower and toilet. Take one, or take both and have the terrace to yourselves.
Room two · Sleeps 2–3
Evening room
Better after dark. Warm lighting, the plantation going black outside the glass, and nothing on the other side of it for a long way.
- Air-conditioned
- Full-height glass wall
- Private balcony
- Bathtub
- Separate shower room
- Separate toilet
- Wi-Fi
- Television
- Kettle and coffee
- Hot water
The estate walk
Out of the door, into the coffee.
You can do the whole thing barefoot-slow in an hour, or stretch it all morning. Mathew walks it with you if you'd like — that's when you find out what everything is.
The glass rooms
Start here, with a cup. The path drops off the end of the balcony steps and disappears into the bushes within about ten paces.
Start · 0 minThrough the coffee
Robusta under old shade trees, pepper vines running up the trunks, fruit trees filling the gaps. Wet leaves, and it smells like it.
5 min · easyKappikkalam
The drying yard — a wide open ground with the storage shed, where the coffee is spread out to dry. Empty most of the year, and the best flat open sky on the estate. Sunrise yoga, barbecue, beer, music.
5 min from the roomsThe south ridge
Keep going to the southern end. A short steep bit, then it flattens out and opens into a panorama. This is the one people sit down at.
10 min · one short climbThe west pocket
Back past the kappikkalam and west into thick tropical growth that's been left alone. Malabar giant squirrel — malayannan — lives in here, along with the Western Ghats birds. Move quietly and you'll see something.
15 min · go slowOr keep walking
The plantation runs further than the loop. Turn back for breakfast, or carry on and lose an hour. Nobody is waiting on you.
As long as you like
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The table
Malabar food, cooked in the house.
Dinner is homely Kerala Malabar — the food the family actually eats, not a hotel version of it. Breakfast is Kerala or continental, your call the night before. If you want something else, our partner restaurants in Kalpetta deliver.
The estate year
A farm doesn't look the same twice.
Worth knowing what you're walking into before you pick your dates.
Monsoon
Everything is loud and green, streams run, mist sits in the trees. Fewest people. Bring something waterproof.
Clearing
Skies open up, cherries filling out on the branch. The ridge view is at its sharpest now.
Harvest
Picking season. The kappikkalam fills with coffee drying in the sun and you can help, or just watch it happen.
Blossom
The whole estate turns white for a few days and smells like jasmine. It's over almost as soon as it starts.
Fruit
Hot everywhere else, mild up here. The exotic fruit trees come in, and breakfast gets more interesting.
Getting around
You don't have to plan your holiday.
Tell us roughly what you're after and how long you have. We'll put the days together and arrange the driver.
Guided treks
Wayanad's trails, with someone who knows which ones are worth the early start and which are crowded by nine.
Transport
A driver for the day, or a pickup from wherever you're coming in from. Sorted before you arrive.
The real ones
The local places and people that don't turn up in a search — arranged, not just recommended.
Follow along
Tropical Robusta, day to day.
Harvest mornings, the rooms in different light, whatever's brewing — posted as it happens.
Stay with us
Two rooms. Book one, or take the whole terrace.
Message us with your dates and how many of you there are. We'll come back with what's free and what it costs — and if you want the estate to yourselves, say so.