If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (INR16,949.15), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
On a remote stretch of the Kerala backwaters, Coconut Lagoon’s reclaimed tharavad ancestral homes are reborn on a criss-cross network of canals and lagoons connected by swoon-worthy humpback bridges. Days are spent in idly paced holistic heaven at the ayurvedic spa, sipping cocktails by the pool, and coveting curry at every mealtime. A sunrise search for birdlife may bring glimpses of graceful migratory egrets and darters fishing for breakfast, and in the butterfly garden or sacred forest grove, peaceful reflections arrive unprompted.
Smith Extra
Get this when you book through us:
A two-for-one dinner in the main restaurant on one night of your stay
11am. Check-in is at 2pm. Late check-out and early check-in can be arranged when availability permits.
Prices
Double rooms from £192.55 (INR20,000), including tax at 18 per cent.
More details
Rates include Continental, Keralan and spicy south Indian breakfast options at Ettukettu.
Also
Though one Heritage Bungalow has been adapted for wheelchair users, unfortunately the resort isn’t ideal for those with mobility issues. The grounds can often only be traversed via canal-spanning humpback bridges and twin-level Heritage Mansions have the bathrooms downstairs and bedrooms upstairs.
At the hotel
WiFi throughout, and a gift shop. In rooms: air-conditioning, minibar, tea- and coffee-making kit, free bottled water, bathrobes, slippers, and organic Kimirica bath products.
Our favourite rooms
Heritage Mansions, with their traditional carved wood-panel exteriors and upper-level canal views are perhaps the most beautiful of the resort’s accommodation options, but if it's abundant wildlife-watching you want (and your own private pool, to boot), it’s the Lake Front Villa every time. Here, a private deck promises views of Vembanad Lake in widescreen, your peaceful sunset contemplation interrupted only by the delicate whirr of a damselfy’s wings, or a graceful Oriental darter jubilantly tossing its fish supper skywards before dining.
Poolside
The resort’s curvaceous pool, which has a shallow children's pool to one side, is framed by manicured lawns overlooking the lake, ideal for those who prefer to do their bird-watching from the comfort of a lounger, cocktail in hand.
Spa
The Coconut Lagoon Ayurveda Centre applies traditional local techniques in its herbal massage therapies. There are six treatment rooms, open from 9am–6pm.
Packing tips
Overpacking is your friend, in such a remote spot. While hotel staff will do their best to supply forgotten items, bringing the full line-up of Kerala-worthy threads, plus a rotation of hats and sunglasses, can only add to your peace of mind.
Also
Coconut Lagoon is the sister stay to shoreside hotel and Smith-approved Marari Beach Resort, a 40-minute drive away.
Children
Extra beds can be accommodated in all rooms and kids aged up to five stay free. The wealth of wildlife to check out and canals to explore means Little Smiths won’t bore quickly, but there’s also a TV room and table tennis, just in case.
Sustainability efforts
That it is accessed by solar-powered boat might give you some idea of this Lake Vembanad resort’s eco credentials. Here, native flora and fauna are king: the lake is a birder’s nirvana and the resort has cultivated a dedicated wildflower garden that’s home to more than 50 different species of butterfly, as well as dozens more dragonflies and damselflies. Heck, there’s even a sacred patch of pristine forest in the grounds. The accommodation has been put painstakingly together from the reclaimed remnants of heritage mansions (or tharavadus), and furnished with antique artefacts and pieces crafted by Keralan artisans. But that’s not all: Coconut Lagoon even has its own water treatment and bottling plant; eco-friendly bath products come in ceramic bottles, and you won’t find a piece of single-use plastic anywhere on the resort.
Secure a spot on the terrace at lakeside Aymanam for the win.
Dress Code
Floaty tropical-print cottons and loose, light linens will help you keep your cool over a hot curry; long sleeves and trousers are also recommended if you hope to avoid inviting the local mosquitoes to dinner.
Hotel restaurant
The focus is on aromatic Keralan dishes at all three of Coconut Lagoon’s restaurants, where live music sometimes accompanies evening dining. Ettukettu is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with buffet options and à la carte dishes served on fresh banana leaves. Lakeside Aymanam is the hotel's formal dining spot, with dosas at lunch and speciality Keralan plates in the evening. Adventurous palates are in for a treat: gorge on green mango calamari, turmeric fish fingers with gochujang, and zingy fish curry with crushed bird’s-eye chilli. Seafood and fish dishes are the trump cards at casual restaurant Vembanad Grill, where plates are prepared with a light touch to showcase the freshest ingredients; the daily-changing menu is written on a chalkboard, and the catch of the day is the one to go for.
Hotel bar
Heron's Pond Lounge Bar is a cosy space for sipping signature manga inchi (ginger mango) cocktails over a game of chess or while flipping through a birdwatching book from the reading room.
Last orders
Breakfast is served between 7.30am and 10am; lunch hours are 1pm until 3pm, and for dinner it's 7.30pm until 10pm.
Room service
In-room dining’s not an option but rooms come with minibars and there’s a small kitchenette in each Lake Front Villa.
Set adrift amid coconut groves and rice paddies on the Kerala backwaters, Coconut Lagoon is an eco nirvana for travellers and birdlife alike, around 30 minutes west of Kottayam.
Planes
Cochin International Airport is two hours by road from the resort. Transfers for up to four people can be arranged with at least 24 hours’ notice at a cost of 4500 Indian rupees one-way, luggage included.
Trains
Kottayam Railway Station is half an hour from the resort and a one-way transfer costs 2500 Indian rupees.
Automobiles
The drive from Cochin Airport to Coconut Lagoon is a scenic one, albeit even experienced drivers may find some of the narrower village roads… challenging. You can pick up rentals at the airport and should shoot for the gated Coconut Lagoon car park off the Kumarakom-Cumbam Road. From here it’s a short boat ride to the resort, available between 8am and 6pm. Outside these hours, you should continue along the (very) narrow canalside road for 200 metres to the resort gates. Vehicles with a width north of 1.8 metres need not apply.
Worth getting out of bed for
There’s a lovely bunch of outdoor pursuits at Coconut Lagoon, where free activities available during your stay run the gamut from traditional mat-weaving to sunset cruises on the lake. Get up with the (ahem) lark for a bird-spotting excursion led by the resident naturalist, who’ll guide you to lakeside hides for close up views of herons, harriers, darters and, if you’re lucky, Siberian steppe eagles out on breakfast manoeuvres.
If the butterfly garden – home to more than 50 species of the colourful critters – doesn’t set your heart aflutter, perhaps the subtle spices of Keralan curries conjured up at afternoon cooking classes will. Rent an electric bike to cruise the banks of Vembanad Lake without disturbing the resident birdlife, and get a heron’s-eye view of it on a guided kayak tour of the backwaters.
Beyond the resort (but only just), Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary presents further opportunities to ogle flocks of migrating birds on vacation from Siberia, the Himalayas and beyond.
Local restaurants
You’re unlikely to want to dine away from the Coconut Lagoon’s polished Keralan plates – and it’s not something the hotel recommends. If you’re determined to dine elsewhere during your stay, however, there are a handful of rustic, mostly family-run restaurants within a few kilometres of the hotel, plus Kottayam and sister stay Marari Beach Resort are each a half-hour’s drive away.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this lakeside resort in the Kerala backwaters and uploaded a gazillion potentially prizewinning wildlife snaps to their socials, a full account of their off-grid eco-break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Coconut Lagoon in Kerala…
Coconut Lagoon is one of those rare beasts: a sustainable destination resort that feels entirely off-the-map. That sense of complete seclusion starts the minute the gate rises to allow your boat to cruise into dock, and continues as the pace starts to slow and you sip that first reviving mango-ginger cocktail. The feeling’s sustained when you spy prehistoric-looking darters fishing on the lake; and as you nod good day to the resident Vechur cows (a critically endangered dwarf species, protected and nurtured on-site). Staff light traditional kallu villaku stone lamps among the trees every evening as dusk settles, an absorbing and beautiful spectacle that makes moaning about this lakeside idyll’s occasionally dodgy WiFi seem suddenly rather churlish. So, lean into the lo-fi seduction, switch off your phone, and instead revel in the serenity, starry skies and oh-so-rare solitude of these tranquil Kerala backwaters.
