By road
~90 km from Kozhikode, ~250-265 km from Kochi
South India · Kerala
Wayanad, Kerala
Rainforest, caves and coffee country · ~90 km from Kozhikode, ~250-265 km from Kochi
Getting there
By rail
Kozhikode (Calicut), ~85-110 km
By air
Calicut International Airport (Kozhikode), ~90 km; Kannur International (~58-120 km depending on the part of Wayanad) is sometimes closer
Best time to visit
October to May — trekking weather; monsoon is lush but wet
Don't miss
Edakkal Caves
Banasura Sagar Dam
Soochipara Falls
Things to do
Chembra Peak trek
Bamboo rafting at Kuruva
Coffee estate stays
Where to eat
Sources: open-meteo, wikimedia, Photo: Nitin Pai from India · CC BY 2.0
What to pack
Trekking shoes, leech socks in monsoon, light woollens
A quieter corner
Edakkal Caves' Neolithic carvings, up a steep fissure in the hills
About Wayanad
- Hills
- Forest
Where it is
Wayanad is a district of north-east Kerala on a plateau in the Western Ghats, bordering Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, with forests, hills and plantations lying between about 700 and 2,100 m.
History
Engravings in the Edakkal Caves show that people lived in these hills in Neolithic times. In the late 18th century Wayanad passed under Mysore and then the East India Company, and its forests sheltered the guerrilla war of Pazhassi Raja, who fought the Company until his death in 1805. The British opened the plateau to coffee, tea and pepper, and Wayanad became a district of Kerala in 1980.
People
Wayanad has the largest Adivasi population of any Kerala district, including the Paniya, Kurichiya, Kuruma and Kattunayakan peoples, alongside Malayalam-speaking families whose forebears came from central Travancore in the 20th century to farm the plateau. Kurichiya archers once fought alongside Pazhassi Raja.
Known for
- The Edakkal Caves and their rock engravings
- Chembra Peak and its heart-shaped lake
- Coffee, pepper and spice plantations
- Wildlife of the Wayanad sanctuary
- Banasura Sagar Dam and Soochipara Falls
Did you know?
The Edakkal Caves are not true caves but a deep cleft formed where a huge rock split away; their engraved walls were brought to wider notice in 1890 by Fred Fawcett, a police officer in Malabar.
We haven't written a guide for this place yet — you can still plan a trip here.