At the foot of the Dhanagiri Hills in Vythiri, on one of the oldest coffee plantations in Wayanad, there is a 19th-century colonial bungalow that has been watching the mist come in over the Western Ghats for longer than anyone alive can remember. Anand Mampetta runs it as a homestay. The cook is legendary. The view from the balcony is the reason people extend their stays.
Wayanad is the Kerala that most people don’t find: the district of high, cool, forested hills in the far north of the state where the Western Ghats press closest to the sky and the coffee and tea estates run up to the edges of the forest reserves. It is sparsely populated, deeply green, and possessed of the particular quality of a landscape that has not yet been completely rearranged for visitors — where the plantations are still working plantations, the wildlife still crosses the roads, and the mist still comes in each morning from the hills as it has always come.
Dhanagiri Homestay sits at the foot of the Dhanagiri Hills in Vythiri, on a 30-acre farm that is one of the oldest coffee plantations in Wayanad. The farm grows coffee — but also jackfruit, pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, arecanut, and the small, fiery bird’s eye chilli that gives Kerala cooking its particular heat. The plantation was established in the 19th century; the colonial bungalow at its heart dates from the same era, built in the style that the British administration brought to the Kerala highlands and that the hills have preserved with remarkable fidelity ever since.
Anand Mampetta is the owner and host — a man who describes himself as someone who loves agriculture and loves interacting with guests in equal measure. His investment in every visit is genuine and consistent: guests describe him as the reason the experience feels like more than a stay, and the cook whose food makes guests joke about taking her to Bangalore to open a restaurant is the reason the meals are remembered as clearly as the mist.
The Property
Dhanagiri Farms occupies 30 acres at the foot of the hills, with the Dhanagiri Hills rising behind the plantation and the surrounding forests of the Western Ghats providing the backdrop that makes the view from any balcony worth arriving early for. The air at Dhanagiri is the air of a working plantation — coffee-scented when the blossoms are out, rich with the fragrance of cardamom and pepper at other times, always carrying the particular coolness of the Kerala highlands that arrives with the mist each morning.
The farm is a genuinely working estate: harvesting happens in season, the plants grow in the dense, varied patchwork of a traditional Kerala plantation where monoculture is not the model and the spice garden is as important as the coffee. Guests can walk the plantation trails, visit the harvest, understand the processing of the beans, and eat food made from ingredients picked the same morning.
The Accommodation
There are two distinct types of accommodation at Dhanagiri, each with its own character.
The 19th-Century Bungalow is the older structure — a colonial-era building with three spacious bedrooms, a dining area, large sofas, and the particular atmosphere of a house that was built with the solidity and proportions of an era that understood permanence. The bungalow has no air conditioning — the altitude and the plantation shade make it unnecessary — and carries the old-world charm that guests consistently single out as the thing that most distinguishes the property from anything more recently built. It is ideal for families or groups who want the run of a historic plantation house.
The Four Premium Studio Cottages offer a more contemporary and private option — modern amenities within a design that respects the plantation aesthetic. Each cottage has a balcony with views of the surrounding hills and forests, air conditioning, attached bathroom, flat-screen TV, and the quality finishes of a property that has been maintained carefully over years. Guests in the cottages describe waking up to misty mornings on the balcony as the single most memorable experience of their stay.
Together the property can accommodate up to 25 guests — making it well-suited to large family gatherings, reunion trips, and group holidays where the plantation backdrop becomes the shared memory.
The Cook and the Kitchen
The food at Dhanagiri is its most consistently celebrated feature, described in terms that go beyond polite appreciation: guests have joked about bringing the cook to Bangalore to open a restaurant. This is not hyperbole but the specific, accurate response of people who have eaten home-style Kerala cooking prepared by someone who has spent decades doing it with the same produce from the same farm.
The kitchen uses the plantation’s own spices — the pepper, the cardamom, the bird’s eye chilli, the cinnamon — in combinations that are entirely authentic to the Wayanad tradition. The breakfasts include appams and other Kerala staples, made fresh each morning. The dinners are the occasion for the home cooking that the cook is celebrated for. BBQ evenings can be arranged. The food is explicitly described as halal, with Asian cuisine as the primary style and vegetarian and vegan options available.
Guests consistently note that the quality of the cooking is inseparable from the quality of the ingredients — and at Dhanagiri, those ingredients grow within walking distance of the kitchen.
What to See and Experience
The plantation trek — led by the staff, particularly the caretaker Adarsh who receives specific and warm mentions in many reviews — is the centrepiece activity: walking through the coffee, pepper, and spice crops, learning the farming practices, seeing how the most ancient coffee estate in Wayanad has been managed across generations. The trek to the hilltop behind the plantation offers a panoramic view of the entire area — hills, forest, and the Wayanad plateau stretching into the distance.
Bamboo river rafting on the small stream near the property is a gentle, specifically Wayanad experience — not white-water adventure but the quiet pleasure of being on a slow-moving stream through the forest on a bamboo raft, which is its own perfect kind of afternoon.
Camping in tents amidst the coffee plantation is available on request — sleeping on the farm itself, under a sky unpolluted by city light, with the coffee plants visible in silhouette and the sounds of the Wayanad forest all around.
The broader Wayanad landscape is accessible for day excursions: Phantom Rock, a dramatic formation in the hills, is nearby. Banasura Sagar Dam — the largest earthen dam in India, set in a landscape of considerable beauty — is within reach. Soochipara (Sentinel Rock) Waterfalls, one of the most spectacular in Wayanad, is accessible. Pookode Lake, a natural freshwater lake ringed by forest, is approximately 8 kilometres away. The Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary encompasses the broader forest ecosystem around the property, and wildlife — elephants, deer, peacocks, monkeys — is regularly encountered on the route through the Bandipur forest reserve for guests arriving from Mysuru and Bengaluru.
Why It Stays With You
A guest described it as feeling like their own ancestors’ home — not in the polite sense that homestay descriptions often deploy the metaphor, but as a genuinely felt recognition of the old bungalow, the plantation, the cook’s food, and Anand Mampetta’s hospitality as things they had somehow always known. Another guest extended their stay by a full day simply to remain in the property.
This is what Dhanagiri is: a 30-acre coffee plantation at the foot of the Wayanad hills, with a 19th-century bungalow that has been watching the mist for a century and a half, a cook whose food is the stuff of guests’ culinary memories, and a host who loves his farm and is happy to share it. The mornings are misty. The birds arrive before you do. The coffee tastes of the soil it grew in.
Plan Your Visit
Address: No. 4/81, Nera Dhanagiri Farm, Anoth Road, Pozhuthana Post Office, Vythiri — 673575/673576, Wayanad, Kerala Phone / WhatsApp: +91 94974 92882 Email: hellodhanagiri@gmail.com Booking: Direct via phone/email · Also on Booking.com and MakeMyTrip
Owner: Anand Mampetta Caretaker: Adarsh (consistently praised in guest reviews)
Property: 30 acres · One of the oldest coffee plantations in Wayanad · Coffee, pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, arecanut, bird’s eye chilli, jackfruit
Accommodation: 7 units total, up to 25 guests — 19th-century Bungalow: 3 bedrooms, dining area, sofa beds — no AC (natural cooling at altitude). Old-world colonial charm. — 4 Premium Studio Cottages: each with balcony (hill and forest views), AC, attached bathroom, flat-screen TV, garden views.
Meals: Authentic Kerala home cooking · Plantation-grown spices · Halal · Breakfast included (appams and Kerala staples) · Lunch and dinner available · BBQ evenings on request Facilities: Free Wi-Fi · Free parking (covered, 3 cars) · UV-filtered drinking water · Library · Indoor games (carrom, table tennis) · Badminton court · Outdoor fireplace · Campfire on request · Children’s playground Experiences: Plantation trek · Hilltop trek (panoramic views) · Bamboo river rafting · Tent camping in the coffee plantation · Farm walks · Spice garden tour · Bird watching
Check-in: 12:00 PM · Check-out: 10:00 AM Note: Road to the cottages requires a short trek on foot. Some approach roads have rough sections — coordinate final approach with Anand on booking.
Getting There — Calicut International Airport (CCJ): approximately 82 km — around 2 hours by road. The closest major airport. — Kozhikode (Calicut) Railway Station: approximately 75 km — around 2 hours by road. — From Bengaluru: approximately 270 km — around 6–7 hours via Mysuru and Bandipur Tiger Reserve (wildlife sightings on the route are common: deer, peacocks, elephants). — From Kochi: approximately 220 km — around 4.5 hours. — From Ooty (Tamil Nadu): approximately 100 km — around 2.5 hours. — The property is in Anoth Road, Pozhuthana, Vythiri — coordinate the final approach with Anand as GPS may not be precise on the last stretch of plantation road.
Nearby — Phantom Rock: 5 km · Pookode Lake: 8 km · Soochipara (Sentinel Rock) Waterfalls: 20 km · Banasura Sagar Dam: 25 km · Lakkidi Viewpoint: 12 km · Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary: 30 km · Calicut Airport: 82 km
Best Time to Visit: October to March for cool, clear weather and the most comfortable trekking · December to February for the best wildlife encounters on the Bandipur route · June to September for the dramatic monsoon — the Western Ghats in the rains are spectacular, though outdoor activities are limited · April to May for the coffee blossom season, when the plantation fills with the intoxicating scent of white flowers
