The Spice Trails of Kerala

Last night’s The Spice Trail took Kate Humble on a fascinating adventure into the tropical paradise of Kerala in Southern India and Sri Lanka in search of the ancient spices of pepper and cinnamon.

What I found most interesting was that she ventured right into the heart of local tribal communities that still harvest these spices as it has been done for centuries using ancient techniques.

Kate talked to Victor Dey, a plantation owner in the Wynad region, who incidentally also runs one of our favourite homestays, Tranquil Plantation. He has a couple of amazing treehouses that rise up from the pepper rich jungle, and we think it’s one of India’s most amazing secret corners.

Kerala is a fantastic destination for couples and families alike.

Couples can escape the hustle and bustle, retreat to plantation life at Shalimar Spice Garden in Thekkady and take strolls through vast estates containing a myriad of exotic spice plantations and smiling estate workers collecting pepper from the trees.

For families, children always adore seeing where the funny coloured stuff Mummy puts in their food comes from – so to see the process of how peppers are picked is great fun. You can also put it all together by having a cookery lesson with a local family and even hire your own elephant for the day to wander through the plantations.

In short, discover the land of pepper and palm trees, of elephants and festivals, tea and spice…