Vanilla County

From the Hills of Kerala to the Alps of Switzerland Indo Swiss Heritage Villa For nearly three decades, Vanilla County has welcomed guests from around the world into our home in the hills of Kerala. Many have arrived as strangers and left as lifelong friends. This July, the roles were beautifully reversed. My parents travelled to Switzerland at the invitation of our dear friends, Adrian and Karin Menzi, becoming the very first guests at the newly opened Indo-Swiss Heritage Villa. Their...

There is a certain pressure in hospitality that never quite goes away. To add more rooms.To grow faster.To become something bigger than what you started as. Over the years, we’ve heard it many times—“Why don’t you expand?”“Why not add a few more cottages?”“There’s so much potential here.” And they’re not wrong. But somewhere along the way, we realised something simple: Not everything that can grow, should. Vanilla County has remained an eight-room home—not because we lacked opportunity, but...

Some ideas don’t arrive with fireworks.They arrive quietly — like a conversation that lingers, or a place that stays with you long after you’ve left. Estate Pantry began that way. A few months ago, the three of us — myself, Tharun, and Lakshmi — found ourselves crossing paths in Pullikanam, without any grand plan or fixed agenda. What we did share, though, was a common feeling: that this landscape deserved something thoughtful. Something rooted. Something done properly. There was no dramatic...