"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.
The resort sits at Vandanmedu in Idukki district, amid working cardamom and tea plantations in what it calls India's spice capital. Its distance chart lists Cochin airport at about 150 km, Madurai airport at 145 km, Kottayam railway station at 122 km and Munnar at 80 km.
They are rustic, spacious tree houses built of wood and mounted on solid stilts, rising into the tree canopy, with ethnic-themed furnishings, a bathroom, ceiling fan and a wrap-around balcony looking over the plantation.
Guided plantation walks through cardamom, pepper and coffee with a resident naturalist, a cardamom-factory tour, bird watching with an ornithologist, yoga, bonfires and outdoor barbecues. Guests can also visit Kailasam, the resort's sister estate 22 km away, for boat rides on a private lake and jeep safaris.
Kolumban, the resort's multi-cuisine restaurant, serves Continental, Pan-Asian, North and South Indian, Mediterranean and vegan dishes alongside traditional Kerala recipes the resort says have been passed down through centuries.
Options range from cottages and planters' villas to plunge-pool villas and tree houses, all set within the plantation.
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.
Members only, and joining is free: if you're not in yet, the send button opens a one-tap WhatsApp join right here. Indiaesque arranges this end to end: Manish replies personally on WhatsApp and takes care of the whole booking with you.
One tap on WhatsApp. No password, no card, leave anytime. Every new find reaches members first.
Message us on WhatsAppOpens WhatsApp — send the ready-made message, tap Join in our reply, done.
This page unlocks itself the moment you're done. Done it? Unlock now →
Nothing arrived? Send us a quick “hi” instead — that works every time. Message us on WhatsApp →
Your booking is handled personally by the Indiaesque team, start to finish — no call centre, no middlemen.
You're in. 🎉 New finds land on your WhatsApp before they land here, and the concierge is one message away.
One tap on WhatsApp and you're in. Every new find reaches members before anyone else. Never spam, leave anytime.
Message us on WhatsAppOpens WhatsApp — send the ready-made message, tap Join in our reply, done.
This page unlocks itself the moment you're done. Done it? Unlock now →
Nothing arrived? Send us a quick “hi” instead — that works every time. Message us on WhatsApp →
Free forever. We'll confirm on WhatsApp and send our best finds there — leave anytime.
New finds reach members first — on WhatsApp, before the site. Free, leave anytime.
We use cookies to measure how the site is used and how well our ads work. That includes cookies set by PostHog, Meta and Google. How we use them.