Coconut Lagoon Kumarakom- a CGH Earth Experience

Guests praise the eco-friendly location, friendly staff, spacious villas, modern conveniences, and clean surroundings. They also appreciate the comfortable beds and refreshing open-to-sky bathrooms.

We stayed two nights for a bit of down time at the end of a busy trip round South India. It’s a nicely designed and set out, and very attractive resort hotel. Accommodation is in traditionally designed units scattered throughout the property and they are comfortable if a little idiosyncratic - ours had an outdoor bathroom at the back and was on two floors, the bedroom upstairs; the stairs were a little perilous at night! It also was very creaky and the sound insulation to next door wasn’t great. There’s a very nice pool and it’s right on the lakeside, a great location. Your car drops you at a ferry point and the hotel boat takes you to the hotel itself - which was great although we needed to build time in for our early morning departure as a result. The hotel is a bit isolated - you might go stir crazy if there for a longer stay, there are two restaurants but one is buffet style and that might get boring. They put on lots of activities; the birdwatching was really good, the butterfly talk also, and we had a two hour cruise ***** backwaters which they arranged for the two of us which was really excellent. They do a complimentary boat trip out on the lakeside to watch the sunset which also was good. They do cultural stuff - dance performances, a traditional drummer and flute player as well as a band playing in the restaurant which was ok if you like that sort of thing - the Indianised western classics played by the band were a bit odd!

It's an amazing place for anyone who wishes to experience the backwaters in a more localised way. Coconut lagoon is a great space combining diverse experiences in a single place!! Their staff is amazing, prompt and responsive. We went for the village visit through the e-bikes and cycled across the villages on the backwaters, met with some locals, learnt about the coir making process, toddy tapping! And to make this easier for us, we had Vishnu who is the naturalist at coconut lagoon. He has a really good understanding of his subject and makes sure we don't miss out on the details of our events. It's a must visit place for offbeat backwater experiences.