Day 1 — Arrive Kozhikode: Kappad Beach & Old City

We meet you at Calicut International Airport and drive into the city, about an hour away.

In the afternoon, Kappad Beach, sixteen kilometres north. There is a small stone monument on the shore marking the spot where Vasco da Gama and his crew landed on 20 May 1498 — the first Europeans to reach India by sea.

It is an unremarkable beach with an entirely remarkable claim, and standing on it is a strange experience if you know what followed.

Back in the city for the evening. Kozhikode Beach at sunset is where the whole town goes, and SM Street — Sweet Meat Street, named for the halwa shops that have lined it for over a century — is the place to eat.

Kozhikode was named a UNESCO City of Literature in 2023, the first Indian city to receive the designation, and the bookshops along Mananchira are part of why.

Day 2 — Beypore Uru Shipyards & Historic Kuttichira

The morning is the reason to come to Kozhikode. At Beypore, ten kilometres south, wooden dhows — urus — are still built by hand on the riverbank, as they have been for something like fifteen hundred years.

There are no drawings. The master carpenter, the maistry, holds the design in his head and the knowledge passes down by working alongside him. A large uru takes a year or more and most are still built for Gulf owners.

Then Kuttichira, the old Muslim quarter, and the Mishkal Mosque — fourteenth century, four storeys, built entirely in Kerala style from timber with no dome and no minaret, because the carpenters who built it built temples.

The Portuguese burned part of it in 1510 and the scorch damage is still visible. Nearby, the Pazhassi Raja Museum and art gallery hold bronzes, murals and the archaeological record of the region.

The afternoon is free. If you want lunch that justifies the trip on its own, Kozhikode biryani and kallummakkaya — stuffed mussels — are the two local things to order.

Day 3 — Kozhikode to Kannur via Historic Thalassery

North up the coast, stopping at Thalassery — Tellicherry to the British — which is among the more improbable towns in India.

The East India Company built Thalassery Fort here in 1708 to control the pepper trade, and the town inherited three things from the encounter that it has kept ever since: cricket, circus and cake.

Cricket was played here from among its earliest days in India. Keeleri Kunhikannan founded a circus school here and Indian circus history became closely connected with the town, while local bakeries developed their own tradition from the British period.

The Gundert Bungalow at Illikkunnu is where Hermann Gundert, a German missionary, compiled the first Malayalam–English dictionary and the first Malayalam newspaper.

Overbury’s Folly is a clifftop garden above the sea with a view along the coast.

Then on to Kannur, about forty minutes further north.

Day 4 — Kannur Forts, Handloom Weaving & Theyyam

St Angelo Fort in the morning — built by the Portuguese in 1505, taken by the Dutch, sold to the Arakkal family and later taken by the British. Laterite ramparts run out above the sea with the fishing harbour below.

Next door, the Arakkal Museum, in the palace of the Arakkal Ali Rajas — Kerala’s only Muslim royal family, who ruled Lakshadweep and passed succession through the eldest member of the family regardless of gender.

In the afternoon, visit a handloom weaving co-operative. Kannur is one of Kerala’s major handloom centres, and the societies here still weave on traditional pit looms for domestic and export markets.

If nothing is running, we go to Parassinikkadavu. The Muthappan temple there performs Theyyam daily, year-round, which makes it the most reliable way to experience the tradition outside the principal season.

It is a working shrine rather than a tourist performance.

Day 5 — Kannur to Bekal Fort & Valiyaparamba Backwaters

North into Kasaragod district. Bekal Fort is the largest fort in Kerala, around forty acres of laterite built out into the sea in the middle of the seventeenth century by Shivappa Nayaka of Keladi.

It is shaped like a keyhole, with an observation tower, water tank and tunnels, and the sea on three sides.

Indian visitors recognise it instantly — a well-known sequence from the 1995 film Bombay was shot here.

In the late afternoon, a boat on the Valiyaparamba backwaters, fed by four rivers and running behind a long sandbar.

It is the same broad backwater landscape associated with southern Kerala, but with a fraction of the boat traffic — quieter water, more birds and villages far less accustomed to tourism.

Kappil Beach nearby is one of the quieter beaches in this part of Kerala, with a headland at one end worth the climb for the coastal view.

Day 6 — Bekal to Kannur Airport Departure

A slow morning at Bekal, then back south to Kannur International Airport.

Allow three hours before a domestic flight and three and a half hours before an international departure.

If your flight connections work better from Mangalore, it is about ninety minutes north of Bekal instead, and we can finish the trip there rather than doubling back.

Tell us before booking your flights and we will advise which airport works more efficiently for your dates.