India · State of Kerala
Where to Stay in Tellicherry, State of Kerala
Tellicherry, or Thalassery, is a Malabar Coast municipality in Kannur district where Rajya Samacharam, the first Malayalam newspaper, was printed.
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Where to stay in Tellicherry
Not every neighbourhood fits every trip — here's what each one is good for.
The coast sets the frame. Thalassery lies on the Malabar Coast with its ground rising only a few metres above the water, so a room on the seaward side is a short walk from the shore and from the old colonial streets alike. Heritage is the other pull.
Thalassery Heritage City covers roughly 24 square kilometres, and the Gundert Museum and St John's Anglican Church, Thalassery both fall inside it. Mahé is 15 km up the road. St. Teresa's Shrine, Mahé pulls visitors out of the town, and the choice between a bed here and one nearer the shrine is really a question of whether the printing history or the pilgrimage comes first. Kannur is 22 km the other way.
The district headquarters carries more rooms than Tellicherry when the heritage town fills, and Vadakara lies 25 km off as a third fallback along the same coast. Mahe and Kozhikode border it. Nothing about the town demands a long stay, so most visitors take a single night and spend it near the Gundert Museum, among the streets where printing in Malayalam began.
Book by the sea or by the shrine. Those are the two poles of Thalassery, and the gap between them is small enough that the choice costs a walk rather than a morning.
About Tellicherry
Print began here.
What is Tellicherry known for?
Rajya Samacharam, the first Malayalam newspaper, was published from Thalassery, and the first novels and the first short stories written in Malayalam were produced in the same town. Learning followed the presses. Under colonial rule Tellicherry served as a centre of teaching on the Malabar Coast, and it is described as the political and cultural capital of Malabar.
What are the main landmarks in Tellicherry?
Three names carry the town's record. The Gundert Museum keeps the story of the presses, St John's Anglican Church, Thalassery stands from the colonial period, and St. Teresa's Shrine, Mahé draws pilgrims from beyond Kannur district. The museum comes first.
Anyone tracing the first Malayalam newspaper, the first novels and the first short stories starts there, then finds the rest of Thalassery Heritage City within a few streets.
What is the history of Tellicherry?
The founding year on record is 1866. Tellicherry had already served as a centre of learning on the Malabar Coast under colonial rule, and the Gundert Museum keeps that part of the story in the town where the teaching was done. Print made the difference.
Rajya Samacharam, the first newspaper in Malayalam, came off a press in Thalassery, and the first novels and short stories in the language followed from the same streets. Politics belongs to the same record. Thalassery is described as the political and cultural capital of Malabar and as a centre of progressive political and literary movements, and the communist movement in Kerala traces its origin to the town.
Faith left buildings. St John's Anglican Church, Thalassery dates from the colonial period, and St. Teresa's Shrine, Mahé stands 15 km away in Mahe, one of the two districts that border the municipality. Kozhikode is the other.
Thalassery Heritage City takes in roughly 24 square kilometres of that ground, which holds the presses, the church and the coastal town inside a single designation.
Where is Tellicherry?
The land barely rises. Thalassery stands between about two and thirty metres above the sea on the Malabar Coast, with roughly 24 square kilometres inside the municipal area and Kannur district spread behind it. Neighbours sit close on either side.
Mahé lies 15 km off, Kannur 22 km and Vadakara 25 km along the same coast, while the districts of Mahe and Kozhikode meet the town's own ground.
What is the climate of Tellicherry?
Sea air keeps the heat down. Tellicherry sits within a few metres of the water on the Malabar Coast, and that closeness is what stops the tropical band from bearing down on the town as heavily as it does further inland. Mornings belong to the shore.
The old streets around St John's Anglican Church, Thalassery hold their shade into the later part of the day, which is when walking the heritage area works best.
How do you get to Tellicherry?
Everything comes overland along the coast. Kannur lies 22 km from Tellicherry, Mahé 15 km and Vadakara 25 km, which puts the town within a short run of three neighbours on the same stretch of the Malabar Coast. Kannur district handles the rest.
Travellers from further off reach the district first and finish the journey on the coastal route into Thalassery.
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Updated September 2026