This Seaside Hotel in India Is One of the Best in the World — With 2 Infinity Pools, an Ayurvedic Spa, and Gorgeous Views

08/05/2024

This iconic beachside hotel is under new management, but return guests can still expect excellent service, great food, and a nourishing spa experience.

this seaside hotel in india is one of the best in the world — with 2 infinity pools, an ayurvedic spa, and gorgeous views

Courtesy of The Leela Kovalam, a Raviz Hotel

The Leela is back on the map in Kerala.

This iconic beachside hotel is now managed by Canadian asset management company Brookfield, meaning returning guests can again expect the service standards they’ve come to expect of The Leela, along with excellent food and beverage and a nourishing spa experience.

Apart from the signature Leela mother-of-pearl accents seen throughout, recent additions to the property are the four Kovalam Palace suites. Housed within a palace built for a queen of Travancore, these four suites are outfitted opulently. You could check in and never leave — and who could blame you?

Courtesy of The Leela Kovalam, a Raviz Hotel

The rooms to book, however, are those in The Club wing, a 56-key section within The Leela Kovalam with its own restaurant, library, plunge pool, and gymnasium. Access to these venues is limited to Club residents, which gives it a sense of seclusion. You’ll be thankful for it, especially when there’s a big fat Indian wedding taking up the rest of the 188-room hotel. But best of all, every room has butler service and a stunning sea view. With a good cocktail in hand, one can quite easily slip into vacation mode while watching the sunset from the balcony of their Club suite.

If The Leela’s location, atop a cliff in the seaside resort town of Kovalam in Kerala, doesn’t do the trick, its lush gardens, two infinity pools, excellent local cuisine, spot-on cocktails, and nourishing ayurvedic massages definitely will. And, let’s not forget the service — attentive and heartfelt. The Leela Kovalam is, in fact, a great getaway for families. There’s a host of activities for children and young adults to keep them occupied and give parents the vacation they paid for.

Courtesy of The Leela Kovalam, a Raviz Hotel

If there’s a bone to pick, it’s the dated look and feel of the rooms and suites in the oldest section of this sprawling hotel. Designed by the legendary Indian architect, the late Charles Correa, its form is part of architectural lore.

However, the dark wood-heavy interiors and the dark-still bathrooms are out of sync with the embracing effect of the rooms at The Club. The hotel, mind you, began life as a state-run entity 50 years ago. Over the years, it’s changed hands — from the family-run entity that was The Leela group to the Kerala-based chain Raviz Hotels and Resorts, which is now managed by the Brookfields-led version of The Leela.

Its history aside, there are still several pluses to checking in — read on for Travel + Leisure’s full review of The Leela Kovalam.

The Leela Kovalam, a Raviz Hotel

The Leela sits in a calm corner of the Kovalam seafront and is the only hotel on Grove Beach — with a stretch exclusive to its guests.
The health-focused Aujasya menu at The Café, available only at breakfast, offers regional dishes such as pearl millet crepes from Andhra Pradesh and savory Bengal gram pancakes from Bihar.
Kite flying, origami, treasure hunts, jewelry making, cooking, archery, snorkeling, scuba diving, beach volleyball, gardening — the activities on offer check virtually every age and interest box.

The Rooms

Courtesy of The Leela Kovalam, a Raviz Hotel

The most recent additions to the property are four opulent suites in the old palace built for a queen of Travancore, sitting right on top of the hill. Interestingly, each Kovalam Palace suite is named after a matriarch of the erstwhile ruling family. The rooms to book, though, are the airy, light-filled ones in The Club section of the hotel. They are contemporary in palette and come with spectacular sea views and butler service.

The largest chunk of the hotel’s inventory, the Premier Seaview Rooms, is in the oldest wing of the hotel. The aesthetic of these rooms is defined by dark wood interiors, which seem a bit dated, though some might consider them quaint, like those olden-day Kerala homes, and take a shine to them. The terraces attached to these rooms are great for breakfast and sundowner drinks. The manicured gardens surrounding the villas (on a separate parcel of land away from the rest of the hotel) offer abundant room for children to play.

(Irrespective of the category, my favorite part of The Leela is the in-room snack offering — Calicut halwa, plantain crips, sesame seed and jaggery balls, ginger-flavored candy, amongst other such treats.)

Food and Drink

Courtesy of The Leela Kovalam, a Raviz Hotel

The Café at The Club and The Terrace, housed within the main property, serve an array of local, pan-Indian, and international fare. Greek salad, tom yum soup, lamb kebabs, Cajun spiced prawn tacos, grilled beef steak, Hyderabadi biryani, mutton mappas (a Kerala-style preparation in coconut milk), pepperoni pizza, wok-tossed Hakka noodles — you get the drift. For a more focused menu, head to The Tides, the beachside restaurant that skillfully plates up Asian-style seafood dishes alongside others.

Personally, I tend to order local fare — you know, when in Kerala and all that. Skip breakfast one day and order the Royal Travancore Thali or a traditional vegetarian sadya meal for lunch. Both consist of an array of dishes paired with rice indigenous to Kerala. While the former draws its roots from meals prepared in the royal kitchens of Travancore. The latter is served on festive occasions at homes across the state. For children, the menus feature evergreen hits: mac and cheese, loaded French fries, chicken nuggets, and fish fingers.

Activities and Amenities

Courtesy of The Leela Kovalam, a Raviz Hotel

Never did anyone ever say two infinity pools are too much, especially when they both come with infinity sea views. There are also two state-of-the-art gymnasiums to help avoid post-vacation weight gain.

But the thing to write home about — or these days post about on social media — is the dizzying array of activities on offer. There are treasure hunts, face painting, arts and crafts, dance and swimming tutorials, and kite flying for kids. For young adults, there are archery, mocktail-making classes, mehendi design workshops, scuba diving, and snorkeling sessions, most of which are offered complimentary.

The one activity that even adults will enjoy is visiting the hotel’s two-acre vegetable and herb farm. Nearly 40 percent of the produce used in the kitchens comes from here. On a recent trip, I picked winged beans and moringa leaves, which the chefs then prepped into a satisfying lunch.

Another amenity I’ve truly come to appreciate is their neck-cradling pillows stuffed with spelt husks. It’s just one of the many pillows on offer in the hotel’s pillow menu, including hypoallergenic bolsters, bacteria-resistant chimera pillows, and odor-resistant ‘smoker’ pillows.

The Spa

The Ayurveda-focused spa is a big draw with repeat visitors, some of whom I’m told come for wellness programs that last upwards of three weeks. But even those staying for a few nights could benefit from the alternate healing therapies and massages on offer, such as abhyanga, a full body massage; netra sekam, aimed at improving eyesight; and pizhichil, which is said to improve blood circulation in the body. Those new to Ayurveda should know that this is a gender-specific system with separate areas for men and women.

Accessibility and Sustainability

All 188 rooms at the hotel have walk-in showers, but only two are up to ADA standards, with lowered light switches and roll-in facilities.

Location

The closest attractions, such as the ancient Padmanabhaswamy temple, whose presiding deity is the Hindu god Vishnu, and the Chitralayam Palace Museum, which is dedicated to the history of the Travancore royals, are nine miles away in Thiruvananthapuram. If your time in Kerala is short, consider visiting the backwaters in Poovar, 10 miles from the hotel. You could also do a day-long cruise on picturesque Ashtamudi Lake on The Leela’s houseboat. Brackish water dolphins are often sighted where the lake empties into the Arabian Sea.