CGH Earth is a hotel and resort chain offering responsible tourism for Kerala ayurveda and experiential holidays whose focus is on ecotourism and authentic celebrations of unique local ecologies, cultures, lifestyles, wildlife and cuisine- visit kerala for the experience of a lifetime.

Every story has a beginning, a middle and an end. For us, the Casino Hotel (See map) has been all three.

It's where the group started out. And in the half-century since, its also been the place where we cut our teeth and evolved our ideas.
It's an end too, because here is where we think, live and breathe, where we perfect many of the practices you'll see at work in our other destinations.

Willingdon Island was dredged out of the sea bed by the British in Lord Willingdon's time and it's the reason why Cochin has such a fine 'natural' harbour. The British, of course, were only the latest in a long line of civilizations that have been drawn to the magnet of Cochin's charms. Spice was the wealth of the age of sail, and the Portuguese, the Dutch, the Chinese and the Jews were all drawn here, the gateway to Kerala's mountains and forests, where gold grew out of the earth. Even today, Cochin remains a fine starting point for a Kerala sojourn.

The shores of Willingdon Island hum with activity and all the hurly-burly of a large port city.
But the centre, where we're located, is a peaceful spot of vast grassy spaces and sleepy side-roads. Here, you have the best of both worlds, because you're still a mere 15 minutes away from the city centre.

If anything, Casino Hotel is rather nondescript from the frontage. But as in many courtyard style dwellings in India (or Europe for that matter), its charms become evident once you enter.

The classic Kerala combination of tiled roof, wooden beams and rough plaster creates a haven of warmth and light around the grassy central space, which is divided up neatly between the Fort Cochin seafood restaurant and the pool.