Gladiators presenter Caroline Flack, 28, left everything to chance and discovered luxury-for-less while backpacking in India

The choice was a tough one. But my friend Jade and I couldn’t agree. She fancied Thailand, but I preferred Kerala, India.
In the end we threw our choices into a hat and just one month later, we were on a £300 return flight to India.
I didn’t go backpacking after college but I’m making up for it now! Whenever I go on holiday, rather than hiding in a luxury hotel, I want to really experience the country I’m in and this trip was no exception. But this means there are always lots of last-minute decisions.
We didn’t know where we were going to stay until we arrived in Kerala and heard about Varkala, a picture-postcard palm-lined beach town nearby. We booked into a beautiful thatched beach hut on the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea. For just £14 per night it was very basic – two beds, a mosquito net, fan and shower – but it was absolute paradise to the two of us.
Between each palm tree along the beach there were restaurant shacks serving fresh fish, which had been caught that day and curried. One night we ate lobster for just £2 each – it was budget luxury.
We even had our own mini spa – the sea in Varkala is so rich in minerals a dip in it is said to rid the body of impurities. Lots of people did yoga on the shore at the golden hour – between 5-6pm when the sun set and turned the sky gold. It was idyllic.
Our days were very chilled out – lots of reading, lazing on the beach, getting to know the area and the locals, before a few cocktails at night.
There was only one downfall – the spiders. One night we woke up with a massive one crawling up the wall of our hut. But it was a small price to pay for experiencing the real India.


Caroline appears on Gladiators, Sundays, 6pm, Sky1. Flights to Kochi cost from £341 return with Qatar Airways (Qatarairways.com/uk).


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PHOTOGRAPHY: XPOSURE