Northern Kerala's largest city, Kozhikode (still widely known as Calicut), has been a prosperous trading town since at least the 14th century and was once the capital of the formidable Zamorin dynasty. Vasco da Gama first landed at Kappad, 9 miles (15km) north of the city, in 1498, on his way to colonize part of the subcontinent for king and country (Portugal that is) – though the Zamorins resisted and remained independent until Tipu Sultan's army invaded in the 1760s, with the city then colonized by the British in 1792.

These days agriculture and the timber industry are economic mainstays. Though Calicut is also famous for its Malabar cuisine, for travelers it's mainly a jumping-off point for Wayanad or for the long trip over the ghats to Mysuru or Bengaluru.