Wayanad & Bekal — Malabar's Hills and Northern Coast

Met at Kozhikode airport or station and driven inland — an hour of coconut country, then the Thamarassery ghat through nine numbered hairpin bends into cool air, with the Lakkidi viewpoint at the top. Around two and a half hours to Kalpetta or Vythiri, where the stays are estate bungalows and homestays rather than hotels. An estate walk in the late afternoon: Wayanad grows coffee, pepper and areca under shade, not tea.

Edakkal Caves first, at opening: around 45 minutes of steep steps to a rock shelter carved with petroglyphs several thousand years old, the last stretch by ladder. Entry is capped at around 1,900 a day and the caves are closed on Mondays, so a Monday swaps this day with the Chembra day. The heritage museum at Ambalavayal below it puts the carvings in context. Banasura Sagar in the afternoon — India's largest earth dam — and the boat ride among the drowned hilltops of its reservoir.

The climb to the heart-shaped lake on Chembra, starting at opening: entry is capped daily, a forest-department guide is compulsory, and the trail closes in dry months on fire risk at short notice. The day carries a fallback — Soochipara falls with its rock pool, or Meenmutty — so it holds either way. Pookode lake on the way back if there is light left, which there usually is; the climb takes the morning, not the day.

The long day, and it is broken well: down the ghat and up the coast to Kannur, about three and a half hours, for St Angelo fort on its point and the drive-in beach at Muzhappilangad, and in season — November to May — a Theyyam performance at a village shrine, which your specialist times if one falls on your date. Then the last hour and a half north to Bekal, arriving by late afternoon with the fort headland in view.

Bekal fort in the morning, the largest in Kerala — laterite ramparts on a headland with the sea on three sides, an observation tower and the tunnel to the shore. Then north to the Valiyaparamba backwater for a boat between the islands, and the quiet sand at Kappil beach on the way back. The afternoon is free; Chandragiri fort on its river mouth is a short drive if you want one more.

A last morning on the beach, then north across the state line to Mangalore airport, about an hour and fifty minutes, which serves Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai. If your flight home is from Kannur instead, that airport is under three hours south and the driver goes that way; Kozhikode is five hours and is not the right exit from here.