Casa del Fauno

Alpine-style mountain lodges on a working cardamom plantation above Munnar, with glorious, misty-mountain Chinese-painting views

What used to be the owners’ cooling-off holiday home high in the plantation hills 150km from Cochin has been transformed into a beautifully designed 3-room deluxe guest lodge, first open to guests in 2007. Floors and ceilings are varnished sloping wood, walls are white-painted or chunky stone, rooves are green corrugated iron (keeping things cool and waterproof but potentially a little noisy in the monsoon) and linen is luxuriously soft and adorned daily with fresh flowers.

Three newer smaller regular rooms are tucked further down the hill, below the cardamom drying shed, each with a double bedroom and private living/dining area. All have roofed verandas from which to soak up the stunning, cliff-edge views and watch the sun rise and set behind the misty mountains.

The in-house dining is tasty, traditional Keralan, and you’ll be looked after by the charming owner, Suni. He’ll also happily take you on a wonderful walk around the surrounding cardamom plantation and slopes, or you can be chauffered to the countless other local beauty spots and attractions in one of their jeeps.

Highs

• Driving up through vivid, green-velvet tea cushions that run for ever, and adrenalin rushes on the mountain hairpins
• Watching the sun set behind the distant mountains from your terrace or bed
• A welcome serene break from India's hustle and bustle in beautiful hilly landscapes
• Pristine, fresh-flower-decked comfort

Lows

• The long (over 4 hours), bumpy, crazy-overtaking-with-horn drive up from Cochin round mountain hairpins (and seeing a recently crashed car upside-down in a ditch!)
• The loud fan that comes on with the main light in the suite bathrooms
• Quite a few of the doorbolts don’t quite meet their holes and several doors have to be shoved open, but the new wood is still settling
• The surrounding garden is quite plain (just grass) but again it’s early days
• The dawn sounds of temple wake-up calls or neighbours' TVs/radios can carry all too clearly on the thin mountain air and wake you a bit early!