This morning, after breakfast, you leave for the visit of Mattanchéry Palace. Also called “Dutch palace”, this palace was built in 1555 by the Portuguese, first Westerners who arrived in the region, as a gift for the Cochin raja, Veera Kerala Varma.
Its nickname is in fact due to the restoration assumed by the Dutch in 1663. Despite these western origins, the palace is built in Indo-Kerala style, with beautiful carpentry work, magnificent painted coffered ceilings and roofs reminiscent of the pagodas Chinese.
In the afternoon you will visit the synagogue of Kochi, the oldest synagogue in all Commonwealth countries (closed on Friday and Saturday), the Jewish quarter, Saint Francis Church and Santa cruz Basilica.
In the evening you will have the chance to attend to a kathakali dance performance. Overnight at the hotel.
After breakfast, you take the road to Thekkady, a small village near the Periyar reserve and many spice plantations. You settle at the hotel when you arrive. In the late afternoon, you visit spice plantations in Kumily. There, you will have the opportunity to find spice plantations such as cardamom, pepper, ginger or curcumin.
A boat safari in Periyar Lake is scheduled for the evening. (If, for any impediment, we are unable to make the tour by boat tonight, we will shift this activity the next morning) Overnight at the hotel.
After breakfast, you board on a train that takes you to Coonoor crossing the mountains. When you arrive you visit the city of Coonoor. You then return to Ooty by road and you discover “The Queen of the Southern Mountain Resorts” which has long been a haven for British officials and tea growers in South India. Located at 2,286 m altitude, the climate in winter is indeed much colder here than in plain and the evenings can be quite cold.For those who want, we offer a pleasant walk to Snowdon Peak (2,450 m) through a huge variety of flora (eucalyptus, conifers, Shola), before returning to the city to discover the Botanical Garden which maintains more than 1,000 Varieties of plants, shrubs and trees such as orchids, ferns and other alpine plants all grouped amidst beautiful lawns. In the late afternoon, you stroll around the city’s bazaars and can taste the local chocolate. Overnight at the hotel.
After breakfast, you start for Banglore. Upon arriving, you settle directly at the hotel before departing in the afternoon for a visit to the Legislative Assembly and the LalBagh Botanical Garden, which houses the largest collection of tropical plants, a public aquarium, as well as two lakes. Overnight at the hotel.
