If you're planning things to do in Wayanad or shortlisting the best places to visit in Vythiri, expect a very different side of Kerala. Sitting at around 700 metres in the Western Ghats, Vythiri is the misty, forested gateway to Wayanad, Kerala's only plateau district and a hill station in Kerala built on tea, coffee, and spice estates rather than beaches and backwaters. Streams cut through the rainforest, waterfalls drop off nearly every ridge, and the surrounding Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary sits within the wider Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, so elephants and other wildlife are never far from the plantation trails. Add centuries of tribal heritage carried by communities such as the Paniya and Kurichiya, and Vythiri becomes less a single sight and more an entire slow, green world to spend a few unhurried days in.

The days here run on nature and a little adventure. Trek towards the heart-shaped lake below Chembra Peak, Wayanad's highest point, or walk out to the multi-tiered Soochipara Falls and Meenmutty Waterfalls for a swim under the spray. Cross over to the bamboo groves of Kuruva Island on a raft down the Kabini river, test your nerve on the 900 Kandi Glass Bridge, South India's first glass-floored skywalk, or step back several thousand years at the Edakkal Caves, where petroglyphs carved into the Ambukuthi hills date back to the Neolithic age. Faith has its own trail too, from the ancient Thirunelli Temple tucked into the hills to the centuries-old Jain Temple at Sulthan Bathery, while a morning at Pookode Lake or a walk through a working tea and coffee plantation rounds out a gentler day.