Riverside Retreat

A budget guest house managed by a local family, the Riverside Retreat will surprise you with its low tariff slabs. Here, you can learn how to dole out amazing Kerala delicacies, for Jiji and his wife Disha, who run the place, will be too happy to usher you into their kitchen and give a lesson or two. You can choose from a number of comfortable, air-conditioned, bungalow-like cottages—all lined around the river banks. Once here, you can master some swimming strokes in the river or go fishing for the not-so-elusive pearl spot fish (karimeen). Sunrises across the river looks all the more astonishing from the guest house and is quite a surreal experience—worth waking up early.