We had 3 x nights at Karikkathi at the end of our 2 week holiday to Mumbai & Kerala & it was absolutley amazing. We doubt that you will be able to find anywhere in Kerala, perhaps the whole of India, so private, so beautiful & so utterly friendly - thank you to the whole gang! Every meal we had was something to behold, some of the best we've had in India by a distance.
Drifting to sleep to the sound of breaking waves crashing against the sand is the most natural way to end an always perfect day.
The one regret is our own - only staying for three nights & not gettig enough magical massages before returning to a cold, dark & busy London. Next time we will stay for longer!!
Stay small, stay private - you guys are wonderfully unique,
THANK YOU!

It was the first time to visit India and I stayed Karikkathi Beach House for ayurvedic treatment.
Their location is good, very quiet and they are in front of the beach.
But I wouldn't recommend this place because I had a terrible experience there.

I was given a massage as ayurvedic treatment and was been lying on my back naked.
When I open my eyes during massage by chance, their male staff was looking down beside me!
I hadn't found and imagined that someone was around me except female massager because I always close my eyes during massage for relaxing.
Additionally, the massager was beside me near the door and knew he was coming into the room. But she hadn't said anything until I found him.
This happened on my last night there and there were no responsible person except thismale staff.
I claimed this incident directly to the owner of this hotel later, he never believed me and just tell me give me the visual evidence of this incident.
I was shocked and disappointed about this dishonest reaction again.
As a result, I reported this to local police station. But these staffs (as pictured )still work at this place.
So be carefull!! I would highly recommend other hotel if you plan to visit around this place.

Our stay at Karikkathi was incredibly special. As soon as we arrived at Trivandrum airport, we were greeted with a warm smile and driven in a lovely old ambassador to the beach house. It was the most perfect greeting that was most unexpected!

We also counted our lucky stars, as we arrived 4am after, and the room was ready for us use and crash in. After a long flight and stop over in Doha, this was such a blessing, and a very welcome and heavenly surprise for two bleary-eyed back-packers new to India!

The roar of the sea and breathtaking view of the beach & Arabian sea was absolutely magical! The hospitality, friendliness of the staff & generous servings of the delicious South Indian food were all so wonderful. I wish I could remember the name of all the dishes!

The scent of sandalwood & jasmine (that was left on my pillow) each night were most hypnotic. The smells, the different flavors of the curries & beautiful sights & sounds of the sea were all so unforgettable. I really don't think we could've asked for more out of our stay, and we felt very sad to leave the magic of it all behind! We will make plans to come back one day soon - & we've told all of our friends, so hopefully you'll be inundated with bookings in the future!

Thanks you for making our stay so special!! We look forward to staying with you once again in the near future.

Our warmest wishes to everyone at Karikkathi.

Cassie Thompson and Alasdair Orr - Oct 2009

KBH consists of two identical houses, each with two tastefully, albeit simply adorned bedrooms, and it is indeed a small paradise - as almost all reviews accuratly depict it. Wonderfully relaxing, cradled by the sound of the crashing waves and the deep-blue glittering splendour of the Arabian Sea, pampered by your waiter and cook and housekeeping-lady make up the ingredients for a lovely holiday.
It seems almost frivolous to voice some criticism of this small paradise, but some feedback concerning the drawbacks of KBH might be useful:
- beware of the waves and the surf; especially in the afternoon the surf was quite impressive even though we only had winds force 2 to 3, force 4 at the most; the surf is not as enormous as in Hawaii, but still about 1m high and therefore not at all harmless; certainly not suitable for children or timid swimmers.
- the beds are Indian style and that means a fairly solid mattress which rests on an unflexible base, a wooden board in fact. The result is a rather hard and spartan bed which is not very wide, I would estimate 160cm. At least my back protested after a few nights.
- tell Vinod whether you want your meals spicy, the cook obviously tries to cater for western tongues and we found the first meal a bit bland, after we had stated the degree of spiciness we prefer the food was lovely.
- If you do not like blaring disco-music far into the small hours make sure you do not go to KBH during one of the festivities at the nearby temple.
- It is quite difficult to find your way to the temple – and the taxi – during the night as there are no lights; Vinod provides you with a torch but the porters step ahead with the luggage and you have to find your way on your own…
- although we had mailed the exact time of our arrival shortly before we left for our prolonged trip to India mentioning that we would not be available by mail for the next three weeks, we found a mail asking for arrival details upon our return to Vienna; this slight administrative hiccup had not produced any adverse results as our rooms were ready for us upon our arrival at KBH.
- it is advisable to carry KBH's phone number with you if you travel there on your own steam, it is a bit hidden and our taxi driver had to phone a couple of times to ask for directions; also one might not find the way from the temple through the palm grove without help, so it is a good idea to announce your arrival; in our case Vinod and a porter expected us at the temple.
- it is such a nice and widespread gesture to be reiceved with a welcoming drink and a steamy towel - we did miss that at KBH.
- having stayed in numerous Indian hotels we found the cost-benefit ratio a bit lop-sided; we paid 299 Euros for the whole house (two bedrooms, February 2010) all meals included and that is certainly quite steep – you pay a lot for the location and the view.
- beware of the prices for boat-trips and taxis KBH offers – taxi rides seem to be about 20% dearer; a 2 to 3 hours boat-trip was offered for 2000 INR which also is on the steep side.
- last but not least we found the cancellation policy and the arrangement for paying the bill very strict and distrustful - we had to advance 50% of the total cost almost three months ahead, it was non-refundable, and we were told to bring the balance in cash; Mr. Sajjad told us by mail in no uncertain terms to pay the balance „on arrival“ which is unusual and unkind at the very least - that goes for the whole email-correspondence by the way, although that might be unintentional and due to a good but not quite perfect command of English - in practice we paid our bill to Vinod on the last day; also Mr. Sajjad has no fax-machine, so you either have to trust your credit card number to an email or you telephone…

We believe the above mentioned drawbacks could be remedied easily, but then I suppose, there really is no paradise without snakes - although that would of course be wonderful - and a paradise it certainly is!