If you are looking for a small experience of what is the INDIAN PARADISE, the only adress in the BackWaters area is certainly the AYANAT HOUSE Homestay.
Owners of this homestay, Johnny and Rani, are delightful people.
Everything was Perfect : Rooms, Food with a fantastic cooker, Garden, and that very peaceful area where you can have quiet time in an hamac with Backwaters view.
Unfortunatly , we stayed only one night on the way back to the airport but we really dream of coming back.

We spent 2 amazing nights at Ayanat House. The attention to detail, stunning art deco estate house, fabulous traditional Kerela cooking and antique furnishings took us back to a fabulous era of bygone India. Our expectations were exceeded by the superb hospitality offered to us by Johnny
and Rani. A private tour of his ancestral plantations, buildings of
antiquity and passion for his
township made our trip one of our best family holiday highlights. Rani
looked after us all superbly. Ayanat
House is a hidden jewel which any
trip to Kerela is incomplete without stopping. traditional and luxurious we felt like we had come home!
Gold stars all round - loved it!

The residents and owners of this homestay, Johnny and Rani Tharakan, are delightful people. If you had friends to visit on your trip to India, you could do no better than Johnny and Rani. They are warm and welcoming. We truly felt that we had arrived at the house of friends. To rate service and etc at this homestay seems somewhat to diminish the experience though all were as good as anything we experienced ANYWHERE in our world travels, and superior to our night at the 5 star Jaypee Palace in Agra. Rani's, cook, a worker in this household since Johnny was a lad, cooks up exquisite Kerala-style cuisine. Of the styles of Indian cooking I've experienced I like Keralese the best. It is less complex with simpler spicing, and lots of coconut. I took a couple hours out to watch and learn. The Ayanat house offers lots of opportunities for this sort of thing because folks in the countryside still do a lot for themselves. This estate hosts a working coconut and bannana grove, as well as lots of other spices and such growing on the premises. I was bowled over by the collection of huge mortars collected in the families interior courtyard. It represents some 60+ years of grinding and mashing spices and grains for the family table. OK, the household is totally engaging, but time to move on to the church. Johnny's ancestors founded the Syrian Christian church in ThyKattssserry. St Anthony's was a very cool guided field trip, and then since we were there Sunday morning we were invited to join the family at Mass. If you're a catholic you can't miss this. This this feature in the village alone is worth a day. But the whole village is worth a few... If you enjoy vacation adventures and exploration this is for you. We spoke with many folks in the village about the schools, banking, area agriculture, and happened upon Vishnu who invited us to a local brahmin family's compound. There we saw there rudimentary rubber tapping and processing effort, the modest though nicely maintained hindu shrine, and life at the village level as its been for probably 4-500 years. My greatest regret on this trip is that I didn't stay at least 3 days at the Ayanat house. It was among my favorite experiences in India from our 2 weeks there. Kerela is not to be missed, and Ayanat house - being half way between Cochin and Alleppey is a must visit. Be sure to arrive by ferry from the NH. The ferry shows the Indian spirit of can do at it most, well, doing. Five stars for Ayanat house and another star just for the kind, gracious hospitality of Johnny and Rani.

If you are looking for a homestay experience that is more than your average Keralan homestay then Ayanat House is the place. The imaculately preserved art-deco house situated on its own private quiet backwater land is not your typical homestay. The amazing food - far superior in flavours and quality than any previous Indian food I had tasted makes the stay at Ayanat House worth it, as well as the wonderful hospitality of Johnny and Rani who are both a wealth of information. One morning was spent being punted along the narrow backwater canals by the smiley house boatman and then lounging in the hammock by the waters edge - a delightfully relaxing way to spend a few hours.
I would highly recommend staying at Ayanat House for at least 2 nights if you are looking for a stylish homestay experience and appreciate fabulous Indian food .