When was the last time a vacation felt like reliving a childhood adventure? 

Your next trip to the Kuruvinakunnel Tharavadu homestay in Kerala’s Kottayam is bound to feel like it. 

For one, you can spend time poring over a family genealogy chart that the host, Louis Kuruvilla (62), maintains, going right back to 1770. 

When you aren’t doing that or feasting on typical Kerala specialities, you can take a torch down to the underground cellars where dried pepper continues to be stored, just as it was, centuries ago, in this 400-year-old home. 

The people of the Edamattom village have always looked at the home and its surrounding 15-acre rubber estate as a living relic, a timekeeper of the town’s changing facade and habits. Louis explains that the Kuruvinakunnel ancestors were early agriculturalists who ventured deep into the Western Ghats, cultivating pepper. He will regale you with these stories over some piping hot tea and quintessential Kerala snacks. 

Louis’ Kuruvinakunnel Tharavadu homestay is part of Raahghar, a collective that connects travellers with handpicked homestays across India. Its founder Mayuresh Bhat (47), insists, “This is the magic of a homestay. There is always a story.”

Many homestays, one mindset

When I catch up with Mayuresh over a call, he’s just returned from a trip to Ooty. And while his vacation was filled with a myriad of experiences, the highlight, he says, was his stay at the Red Hills Nature Resort, another one of Raahghar’s homes. 

“It wasn’t just about the ambience or the food or the views. The highlight is always the people,” he explains, going on to add that he sees Raahghar as “matchmakers for........

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