Neeleshwar Hermitage
Eighteen thatched cottages on a quiet Malabar Coast beach in northern Kerala, with an Ayurvedic spa, dawn yoga and its own backwater houseboat.
- Neighbourhood
- Nileshwar, Kasaragod district, northern Kerala
- Status
- Open
Why we recommend it
The Hermitage is the case for going north. Most visitors to Kerala keep to Kochi, the central backwaters and the southern beaches; this stretch of the Malabar Coast, well beyond Kannur, remains a place of fishing boats, coconut groves and village temples, and the hotel’s beach is long and largely empty. With only 18 cottages, the scale is that of a private house with a household behind it rather than a resort.
It suits travellers who want rest with some substance to it. Days are organised around yoga, Ayurvedic treatment and the sea, but the hotel also takes the culture of the region seriously, with talks, concerts, village walks, market visits and introductions to Theyyam, the masked ritual performance of northern Kerala that often runs through the night. Readers weighing a treatment-led stay will find the background in our explanation of how a Panchakarma stay works in Kerala.
Rooms & Suites
The 18 cottages are thatched and arranged in two tiers through the gardens, some of them paired for families or friends travelling together. Each has a teak veranda, large windows and a ceiling of about five metres, which keeps the rooms cool and gives them more volume than their footprint suggests. The Private Plunge Pool Cottages, each with a small pool in a walled garden, are the most secluded category.
Two further bedrooms are afloat. The Lotus, a 32-metre houseboat operated by the hotel, takes guests on one- and two-night cruises through the northern backwaters, a far less trafficked version of the journey described in our piece on drifting through the Kerala backwaters on a kettuvallam houseboat.
Dining
There are two restaurants. Annapurna, the main one, is a pillared, open-sided hall cooled by the sea breeze, with a largely vegetarian menu. Meenakshi, beside the beach, serves fish bought from the local boats, along with breakfast, salads and lighter meals, looking out over the Arabian Sea. The kitchen draws on Indian, Middle Eastern and European cooking, and prepares Ayurvedic and vegan menus that can be matched to a course of treatment or yoga.
Design
The Hermitage was built according to traditional Keralan Vastu principles, the regional science of orientation and proportion, and its vocabulary is local: thatch, timber, carved pillars and palm-shaded paths between low buildings. The spa follows the plan of a traditional temple compound, with treatment rooms set around a central courtyard garden, and Annapurna takes the form of an open pavilion. The gardens, planted with frangipani, banana and coconut, cover 12 acres between the cottages and the beach.
Wellness & Spa
The Priya Ayurvedic Spa has five treatment rooms around its courtyard and offers classical Ayurvedic massage and therapies alongside other treatments. Yoga and meditation are taught in the Patanjali yoga hall near the beach and on the open-air Samadhi Terrace, shaded by palms and facing the sea. The infinity pool sits in the gardens above the beach. For the wider picture of treatment-led travel in the state, see our guide to Kerala for wellness and water, from Ayurveda to the backwaters.
Location
The hotel is on the coast outside Nileshwar, about 25 kilometres south of Kasaragod in the far north of Kerala. Nileshwar railway station is roughly four kilometres away; Kannur airport is about 80 kilometres to the south and Mangalore airport about 95 kilometres to the north, some two and a half hours by road. Bekal Fort, the largest fort in Kerala, stands on the shore further up the coast, and Olive Ridley turtles nest on the beach between August and March.
The distance from the state’s better-known stops is real: Niraamaya Surya Samudra, the clifftop retreat near Kovalam, lies at the opposite end of Kerala, and the two are better treated as alternatives than as a pair.
- Address
- P.O. Ozhinhavalappu, via Nileshwar, Kasaragod district, Kerala 671314, India
- Website
- Official website