India's Beautiful South: Kerala with Elspeth Beard

The same Kerala loop, this time joined by Elspeth Beard, the first British woman to ride a motorcycle solo around the world – twelve nights through South India’s tea hills.

From£3,699pp

Duration12 days

StyleGuided

Best suited toExperienced riders

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An independent Stradora pick. Details from the operator's published information, last checked 28 Oct 2026. Stradora DiscoveryChosen independently by our editors because we think it's worth the drive. We're not partnered with this operator: dates, prices and booking are handled by them, and we last checked their published details on 28 Oct 2026.

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12 nights through India

Twelve nights in a loop from Kochi, guided, 1,150 kilometres through Kerala, ridden in the company of Elspeth Beard.

Beard is the draw on this edition. In 1982 she set off from London on a 1974 BMW R60/6 and came back two and a half years and 35,000 miles later, the first British woman to have ridden a motorcycle around the world, having done it with no sponsorship and no support vehicle.

The route is the operator’s standard Kerala loop. Fort Kochi opens it, a port the Portuguese, Dutch and British each ran in turn, then the Alleppey backwaters at Punnamada with a boat tour through the lagoons. Munnar follows in the hills, where the tea estates run over the ridges in clipped terraces, then Valparai through the Anamalai Tiger Reserve, Ooty and Coonoor, hill stations built for the climate, and the coffee country of Wayanad, with Thrissur on the way back.

Accommodation in inns, plantations and hotels in single or double rooms, the airport transfers, the Royal Enfield, all the meals, two professional guides, first aid, a chase vehicle with a driver, mechanic, tools and spares, all the fees and permits, the drinking water and the extras including the backwaters boat tour, the temple visits and the plantation walks are all included; the India visa, flights, medical insurance, gratuities, alcohol and any damage to the motorcycle are not. The full day-by-day itinerary sits behind an enquiry form on the operator’s site. October to March is the season. The premium over the standard tour is modest for the company it buys.

Style

Guided, Luxury

Duration

A fortnight (11-15 nights)

Region

Asia

Vehicle provision

Vehicle provided

Departures

February

Starts/ends

Kochi, India