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 (INR32,810.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
On a cliff above the Arabian Sea, Niraamaya Retreats Surya Samudra hotel in Kerala is a palm-shaded tribute to Southern India. Rooms are set in historic cottages, each transplanted and immaculately restored to maximise privacy and panoramic sea views. The restaurants showcase the fresh flavors that made Kerala the hub of the spice trade, including seafood curries and grilled prawns. Even the award-winning spa is an experience in India’s culture, with exceptional Ayurvedic treatments to guarantee total serenity.
Smith Extra
Get this when you book through us:
A sundowner cocktail each, either on arrival or once during your stay in the Madira bar
Noon, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 2pm.
Prices
Double rooms from £382.41 (INR39,044), including tax at 19 per cent.
More details
Rates include full breakfast.
Also
To channel the architectural heritage of Kerala, the Niraamaya team moved historic, traditional local homes — called tharavads — from throughout the region to the property, restoring them and transplanting them throughout the palm-dotted hillside.
At the hotel
Beach, yoga, free WiFi throughout. In rooms: flatscreen TV and DVD player, minibar, tea/coffee facilities, Forest Essentials bath products.
Our favourite rooms
Take in the sea views from the veranda of a Heritage Premium rooms, which have tubs in the outdoor gardens. Each is a tharavad, a meticulously restored traditional Keralan home.
Poolside
Cleverly cut into the cliff, the sun-warmed jade infinity pool overlooks the Arabian sea with prime sunset views.
Spa
Sprawled over eight treatment rooms and 626sq m, the exceptional spa utilises Ayurvedic, Thai, Chinese and European treatments to offer the most soothing escape. Treatments include massages, facials, guided meditations, wraps, hydro-baths, couples’ treatments and massages. Warm ginger and chilled spice teas are on offer, as well as healing green tea.
Packing tips
Save room for spices: as India’s southwest port region, Kerala was an important hub for the spice trade, and remains an excellent source of fragrant cooking supplies.
Also
Greet the day with yoga to the sound of crashing waves in the hotel’s serene cliffside pavilion.
Children
Welcome. The hotel can provide babysitting and kids’ menus, but the cliffs and tranquility are not especially ideal for little ones.
At Essence, request a table on the patio overlooking the sea. At Café Samsara, the garden tables are most romantic.
Dress Code
Loose linens should keep you covered on breezy evenings.
Hotel restaurant
Perched on the cliff, high above the sea with uninterrupted views, Essence serves south-east Asian cuisine, with a focus on Thai flavours. The chefs meet with fishermen and farmers daily to ensure the freshest seafood and local produce for dishes like jumbo prawns krapao and mahi mahi baked into banana leaves. For casual all-day dining, Café Samsara serves regional and international dishes, including Malabar fish curry and a coconut masala, all overlooking the pool, with prime sunset views.
Hotel bar
The laid-back Madira serves drinks on a sandy terrace with sea views, for those who’d like their toes in the sand as they sip tropical drinks. There is a full selection of wines and beers, but the cocktails are excellent, including a Pineapple Basil Martini with ginger, and a mint-laced Coconut-tini with fresh coconut water. The food menu includes baked mussels, stir-fried beef with onions, tandoor-grilled chicken breasts and several prawn dishes, including skewers and beer-battered.
Last orders
Café Samsara serves all day, from 7:30am until 10:30pm. Essence offers dinner from 7 to 10:30pm. Madira serves drinks from 11am until 11pm.
Room service
A selection of classic local dishes, appetisers, sandwiches, salads and desserts is available any time of day. For those with specific cravings, the hotel can accommodate most any reasonable requests.
Pulinkudi, Mullur PO
Thiruvananthapuram 695 521
Kerala, India
Thiruvananthapuram
695 521
India
Niraamaya Retreats Surya Samudra is in Southern Kerala on the Arabian Sea.
Planes
The nearest hub is Trivandrum International Airport, a 40-minute drive from the hotel. Flights from Europe and North America will necessitate a stop, likely through Delhi or Mumbai. Arrange transfers with the hotel or through Smith24.
Trains
Trivandrum Central Station, a 40-minute drive from the hotel, is the largest station in Kerala, and connects with all major Indian cities.
Automobiles
The hotel offers valet parking, and has a car park just outside the property, but driving in India can be chaotic and is not recommended for the unfamiliar.
Worth getting out of bed for
Perched above the rolling waves of the Arabian Sea, tranquil Niraamaya can captivate guests for days on end. The hotel’s culinary programme is exceptional, and the hotel customises cooking classes to showcase dishes or ingredients to please each guest. For the real sea-to-table experience, accompany the chefs to the dock to select a fish to prepare for dinner. The team can then arrange candlelit dinner in the yoga pavilion overlooking the sea or on a secluded strip of beach. The Niraamaya Spa alone is worth a journey, and books up well in advance. The menu of à la carte treatments has enough to please any spa enthusiast, but the ultra-devoted can join month-long retreats for maximal relaxation.
Niraamaya’s remote location is part of its appeal, but there are plenty of activities nearby for those eager to explore the best of Kerala. The hotel can arrange for boat trips, including through the nearby mandrake groves. Kerala is home to exceptional art and architecture, including Padmanabhapuram Palace 16th-century wood palace that is the largest and best preserved example of wooden architecture in the country. The intricate and dazzling Shree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram (W Nada) is the wealthiest Hindu temple in the world, estimated to hold £17 billion in gems in its vaults. Near there, Napier Museum and Art Gallery (LMS Vellayambalam Road) holds its own amazing collection of treasures from the Maharajas.
Local restaurants
In a restored 18th-century Dutch manor house, Villa Maya pays tribute to the spices of the region with exceptional food that showcases the region's incredible local bounty in dishes that show off local specialties and global fare that incorporates Kerala’s spices. Should jetlag strike, the restaurant at the Leela Kovalam serves a buffet of Asian, European and local Indian dishes 24 hours a day. Overlooking the pool, the restaurant serves particularly good seafood.
Local cafés
Stock up on pastries for a day of exploration at the German bakery in Kovalam.
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 beach hotel in Kerala and unpacked their yoga mats and spices, a full account of their Indian break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Niraamaya Retreats Surya Samudra? in Kerala…
Niraamaya Retreats Surya Samudra can feel like the edge of the world. On the southern tip of India, where the Bay of Bengal meets the Arabian Sea, the hotel has panoramic water views and utter privacy. Sunsets sipping tropical cocktails by the infinity pool are the picture of romance.
Though it’s tempting to succumb to the total relaxation and lift only the most minimal of muscles, the hotel is rich with Indian heritage for those interested in learning more about Kerala. Each historic cottage — all transplanted and immaculately restored — showcases the local architecture. In the yoga pavilion, expert instructors can guide aspiring yogis in sun salutations with sea views. Up the hill, the superlative spa specialises in Ayurvedic treatments alongside more traditional massages and wraps. As a hub of the ancient spice trade, Kerala naturally has exceptional food, and Chef Prakash makes some of the region’s best dishes, showcasing Thai and Indian flavours with local seafood and palate-enlivening spices that are the ideal reminder of the very best of Kerala.
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