Eighth Bastion

Fort Kochi's legend counts seven bastions, raised by the Portuguese and strengthened by the Dutch. CGH Earth's boutique hotel on Napier Street names itself the eighth, and it takes the joke seriously: the plot it stands on has been built and rebuilt by colonial settlers since the early 1700s, and the old Dutch cemetery sits just down the road.

A Dutch soul in a modern shell

From the street this is a strikingly contemporary building, all clean cubic lines. Inside, the theme declares itself. Nautical paintings, enamel work and Delft China are on display through the public spaces, and the reception holds a scale model of the Batavia, the Dutch East India Company merchantman that was wrecked off Western Australia on its maiden voyage in 1629. It is a hotel that wears its history as decoration rather than dust.

There are three room categories, all variations on one theme: the Bastion Room, a version with a private terrace, and a version opening onto a garden verandah. The pool stays inviting even through the monsoon, and the hotel keeps bicycles, including Vaan electric bikes for hire, for the short pedal to the Chinese fishing nets, Mattancherry's spice market and the antique shops of Jew Town. A tuk-tuk tour of the old town can be arranged for a slower morning.

The ship model at reception is the Batavia, wrecked off Australia on its maiden voyage in 1629.

Port-hopping on a plate

The East Indies restaurant is the better half of the Dutch conceit. The kitchen calls its food contemporary Indo-Dutch, old recipes from the spice-trade ports reworked with Kerala ingredients, and the menu splits simply into Ocean, Earth and Meat. Ask for the Bruder, a Dutch speciality bread; a small bakery in the Fort Kochi bylanes still bakes the original recipe.

The quiet virtue here is CGH Earth's environmental habit: around 12,000 plastic bottles a year kept out of the waste stream in favour of glass, and toiletries in earthenware pots. Cochin's airport is 48 km away; Ernakulam station is 17 km. In our view this is the thinking traveller's Fort Kochi base, playful about history without turning into a museum.