The Old Courtyard Hotel

The Old Courtyard is a 200-year-old Portuguese-style mansion on Princess Street in Fort Kochi. It belonged to the Koders, a prominent Jewish family of the area, and was Lily Koder's house before it fell into ruin. Two hoteliers who met at Les Roches in the Swiss Alps found it in the late 1990s, after running a restaurant, and put their savings into restoring it. It reopened as a hotel in 1999 with the original arches and pillars kept and the rooms furnished with antiques collected from neighbouring estates.

You enter through a plain door off the street. Inside is the courtyard the hotel is named for: a lawn with cast-iron tables and blue and white umbrellas, potted plants and flowering orchids, a small pool with a timber deck, and two tiers of white arches with an external staircase running up to the galleries. The whole house is nine rooms, so the courtyard is shared by very few people.

The rooms come in four categories. Standard Rooms have twin beds and sit away from the street; one is at the top of the spiral staircase. Superior Rooms are on the first and second floors, some with twin beds and a wall of windows, some with a large double bed. Deluxe Rooms on the first and second floors have twin beds and a wooden-floored bathroom, and are the only rooms besides the suite that take an extra bed. The single Suite Room on the first floor is a large room with original artwork, a small dining and sitting area and a spacious bathroom. Throughout you get dark timber floors and ceilings, four-poster or netted beds, and the hand-picked antique wardrobes, desks and chairs that the restoration was built around. Every room has a safe deposit box.

Rates are room only; breakfast is charged separately. Check-in is at 1pm and check-out at 11am, and the hotel keeps the same front-office hours every day from 7am to 10pm. The hotel notes that street parking is available for guests. Bedrooms are non-smoking, with designated open areas outside, and pets are not allowed.

The hotel describes itself as a stone's throw from Fort Kochi's sights, cafes and restaurants, and its own history ties it to the Jewish quarter of the old town. The hotel publishes a seasonal tariff on its own site; we contract directly with the hotel and quote on enquiry.