Kerala and Maldives Holiday

Welcome to Kerala. When the passport checks and baggage belt are behind you at Cochin International Airport, step out through the arrivals doors, where our representative is waiting with a sign carrying your family name. Car seats for young children can be fitted in advance if you tell us their ages when booking. The drive to your hotel in Kochi passes through the shopping streets of Ernakulam and over Willingdon Island to the old quarter, taking about ninety minutes. Along the way you will notice hoardings for jewelry shops, rows of banana stalls and church spires, mosque domes and temple roofs sharing the same streets.

Once the keys are handed over, nap, swim in the hotel pool or simply sit somewhere shady with a fresh lime soda while everyone adjusts to the time difference and the humidity. Children often find their second wind before their parents do, so the hotel garden or a short stroll along the quiet lanes nearby is a gentle first outing. If you landed early, ask your driver to show you the small neighborhood bakeries that sell banana chips fried in coconut oil and plum cake, both local favorites that make good snacks for the days ahead.

Toward sunset, an easy walk takes you down to the Fort Kochi beachfront, where families from the city come to buy ice cream, watch the ships slide out of the harbor mouth and see the light change over the Arabian Sea. The famous shore-side fishing nets are hauled up regularly at this hour, and children enjoy watching the catch spill out onto the boards. Dinner is free tonight; the hotel restaurant is an easy choice after a long flight, or your driver can recommend a family-friendly place serving mild Kerala fish curry, fried rice and fresh juices. Overnight in Kochi.

A morning with a local guide unpacks the long trading story of Kochi, a port that has welcomed traders from Arabia, China, the Levant and later Europe for well over a thousand years. You begin at St. Francis Church, where a gravestone marks the spot of Vasco da Gama's first burial, and continue past the Dutch-era bungalows and the old parade ground, now a cricket and football field. The guide then leads you to the Santa Cruz Basilica, painted inside in soft pastel colors, and tells you how three European powers in turn tried to leave their own mark on the same small peninsula.

From Fort Kochi you drive a short distance to Mattancherry, where the rooms of the Mattancherry Palace hold a collection of royal portraits, palanquins and wall paintings showing episodes of the Ramayana in deep reds, ochres and greens. Neither the palace nor the nearby Paradesi Synagogue admits visitors on Fridays; the synagogue is also closed for the Sabbath and Jewish festivals, so our team sequences this day to match your calendar. In the synagogue, look down at the hand-painted Cantonese floor tiles, each one slightly different from the next. Then wander the spice market lanes, where ginger is dried on rooftops and sacks of black pepper are weighed on old scales.

Following lunch and a siesta, the late afternoon brings a Kathakali performance. Families with children should arrive at the start of the make-up session, when the actors lie back while artists paint their faces green, white and red with rice paste and natural pigments; most children find this more fascinating than the play. The performance itself lasts around an hour, with a short introduction to the hand gestures, called mudras, that tell the story. Afterwards there is time for a seafood dinner near the waterfront, and bed in good time, as the hills are waiting tomorrow. Overnight in Kochi.

You leave the coast after breakfast and head inland, crossing the flat plains around Kothamangalam before the road begins its long, winding climb into the Western Ghats. Rubber plantations give way to pineapple fields, then to cardamom and pepper vines growing under shade trees. About halfway up, the car stops at the Cheeyappara waterfalls, which tumble down seven steps right beside the road and roar loudest in the weeks after the rains. A little further on, the Valara falls can be seen across the valley. Anyone who gets carsick is better off in a front seat with only a light breakfast inside, as the hill section has many hairpin bends.

Before reaching town, you visit a small family-run spice garden, where the owner points out cardamom pods sprouting from runners near the soil, explains why each vanilla flower needs a human hand to set fruit, and shows how nutmeg hides its red mace under a hard shell. It is a short, practical stop, and a good place to buy fresh spices at fair prices if you want them. As you gain height the air cools noticeably, and the first rows of tea bushes appear, clipped flat like green hedges and wrapping every slope as far as you can see. Munnar lies roughly 1,600 meters above sea level, so a light sweater is welcome in the evening.

Check-in at your hillside resort comes by early afternoon, and nothing else is planned. Many resorts here have walking trails through the plantations, and a stroll with the children along the rows of tea bushes, watching pickers carry their baskets home at the end of the shift, is a pleasant way to get your bearings. After dark the mercury falls fast, and a cup of local tea with milk and cardamom by the fire is the obvious end to the day. Dinner is at the resort, where the kitchen is used to preparing simple dishes for young guests. Overnight in Munnar.

Start early for Eravikulam National Park, where the Nilgiri tahr, a stocky cliff-dwelling animal endemic to these southern ranges, grazes on the slopes. Private cars stop at the gate; from there forest department buses run uphill to the visitor section at Rajamalai, and a paved path climbs gently along grassy slopes with views over rolling hills. Many animals have grown relaxed around visitors and feed a few meters away. Expect the park to shut for some weeks between February and April during the calving season, and queues can be long on Indian holidays, so arriving early makes a real difference. Mist can roll in fast, so carry a light rain jacket.

Heading back toward town, the next stop is a tea museum belonging to one of the estate companies, where a short film covers the history of tea growing in the High Range, and old rollers and sorting machines stand beside a working mini-factory. You watch green leaf wilt, pass through rollers, oxidize and turn into the familiar black granules, then taste a few grades side by side. Lunch is in town, where small restaurants serve dosa, parotta with vegetable curry and good filter coffee. If you visit on a weekday, the town market is busy with vegetables brought down from the higher farms.

In the afternoon your driver follows the valley road to Mattupetty Dam, where you can take an optional pedal or motor boat ride on the reservoir surrounded by forest and tea. Nearby, the dairy farm, a long-running livestock research center, raises cattle on the cool grasslands. The road continues to Echo Point, a lakeside spot where children love yelling their names at the hillside opposite and hearing it answer. Now and then a herd of wild elephants crosses this road near dusk, always from the car and at a respectful distance. Back at the resort, there is time to pack before tomorrow's descent to the backwaters. Overnight in Munnar.

An early breakfast lets you leave the hills before the mist thickens, and the road winds back down through the forest toward Adimali and Kothamangalam, then south across the lowlands to Alleppey. Expect about five hours, the biggest road day of the holiday, so your driver plans a stop for coffee and stretching halfway. You notice the change in landscape as you approach the coast, from steep green slopes to an almost perfectly flat world of paddy, waterways and palm groves. Houseboats normally board around noon, and the drive is timed to bring you to the jetty in the early afternoon, ready for a late lunch on board.

Your private Alleppey houseboat has a crew of three or so, who handle the steering, the cooking and your comfort, and bedrooms with attached bathrooms and air conditioning that runs at night. For families, boats with two or three bedrooms are booked so everyone sleeps on board together. Lunch is laid out on the dining deck: fish fry, a coconut-based vegetable dish, pickles, papadam and Kerala rice. Afterwards the boat moves slowly into the canals, past churches whose steps go right down into the water, small toddy shops on stilts and children waving from their verandas. For many families, the slow, rocking pace is where everyone finally slows down too.

Regulations bring all boats to a halt for the night by early evening, and before dark your captain picks a mooring beside a paddy field or village path. One of the crew can take you on a short walk along the dyke, where farmers return from the fields and ducks are herded home in noisy flocks. Children can try their hand at fishing from the deck with a simple line, under the crew's watchful eye. Evening tea with fried banana fritters is followed by dinner from the little galley in the stern, and the cook will happily tone down the spice for younger guests. Overnight on the houseboat.

Idli or appam arrives on the breakfast table as the boat chugs toward the landing point, and by about 9 am you are on shore saying goodbye to the crew; a tip is customary if you were well looked after. A two-hour road run follows to Cochin International Airport, where you board the flight to Male, nonstop on some days and with one connection on others. Maldivian time is half an hour behind India. Every passport holder is granted a free tourist visa valid for thirty days at the airport, provided they hold a confirmed resort booking and onward ticket, and each traveler, including children, fills in the online IMUGA traveler declaration shortly before the flight; we send the link and reminders.

Velana International Airport stands on its own small island, and resort staff meet you as soon as you leave the arrivals hall. A speedboat then carries you across to your Maldives island resort, which we choose within reach by boat to avoid the daylight-only seaplane schedule and long waits for families. Life jackets for children are provided on board. Once on the island, check-in is often done at your villa with a cool towel and a fresh juice. Use what is left of the afternoon for a first swim in the lagoon and a look around. Dinner is included on a half-board plan. Overnight in the Maldives.

After breakfast, head to the dive and water sports center, where the staff run a quick snorkel orientation in shallow water, fit masks for everyone and point out the safest entry points to the house reef. Children who swim confidently can join with a life vest, while younger ones are happy watching small fish in knee-deep water near the beach. Out along the reef edge, look for moray eels peering from holes in the coral, angelfish, Moorish idols and schools of fusiliers flashing blue and yellow. Snorkeling at the right tide and with a buddy is the golden rule, and the staff will tell you when conditions are best.

Many family-friendly resorts run a kids' club with supervised games, crab hunts, sandcastle contests and craft sessions, which gives parents a few free hours. Use them for a quiet lunch, a nap in the villa or a spell in the infinity pool. Remember that the sun near the equator is fierce, so rash vests, hats and reef-safe sunscreen are worth bringing from home. Couples traveling without children might prefer a session in the spa or simply a long lunch by the water. The lagoon around the island usually stays shallow and calm, making it ideal for kayaking or paddleboarding, often free at many resorts.

In the late afternoon, consider booking the optional sunset fishing outing aboard a traditional wooden dhoni. Maldivian crews still use simple hand lines with a hook and weight, and they teach you to sense the tug on the line and haul up red snapper, grouper or jackfish from the reef. As the sun drops, the western sky fades from gold to rose, and children are usually thrilled to land their first fish. Back on the island, the kitchen can grill your catch for dinner for a small fee, a fun change from the regular half-board menu. It is the sort of evening most families talk about long after they get home. Overnight in the Maldives.

Today offers a look at how Maldivians live away from the resorts, on an optional half-day trip to a nearby inhabited island. A local guide shows you the island's school, mosque, small harbor and the coral-stone houses with their shaded courtyards, and you may meet fishermen unloading skipjack tuna or women weaving palm mats. Dress modestly for this trip, covering shoulders and knees, and remember that inhabited islands are dry, with no alcohol sold. Small cafés serve tea with short eats, such as fried fish rolls and coconut sweets, and there is usually a souvenir shop or two selling lacquerware and handmade crafts.

Back at the resort by lunchtime, the afternoon is open for another swim, a game of beach volleyball or simply some time in the shade. If your family has older children or teenagers, a guided snorkeling excursion to a nearby reef, run by the resort boat, can reveal more corals and bigger fish than the house reef, including the occasional turtle. Couples might prefer to book a massage or a quiet hour on the jetty with a book. Keep an eye on the tide charts the resort shares; at low tide, walking across the lagoon to a nearby sand spit can be possible on some islands.

Late in the day, an optional dolphin cruise sets off as the light softens. The boat heads out to the channels and deeper water where spinner dolphins often gather around this time, sometimes in groups of dozens, leaping and spinning beside the bow. Sightings depend on the day and the atoll, so the crew will make no promises, but the chances are good in many areas. With or without dolphins, the cruise offers a chance to see your resort from the sea and to watch other islands slip past against the setting sun. Dinner is at the resort as part of your meal plan. Overnight in the Maldives.

The final full day in the Maldives begins with an optional boat trip to a sandbank, a small island of pure sand with no buildings, no trees and often nobody else. The boat crew sets up an umbrella, towels and a cool box with fresh fruit, sandwiches and drinks, and leaves you to enjoy the place for a couple of hours. Children usually make straight for the shallow water and the tiny hermit crabs on the shoreline. Do bring water, hats and sunscreen, because a sandbank offers no shade at all, and watch the little ones closely, as currents can be stronger off the sandbank than in the resort lagoon.

After returning for lunch, keep the rest of the day light. It is a good moment to take one more swim along the house reef, maybe with an underwater camera, or to try something new, such as a short introductory diving session, which many resorts offer to children from around ten years old and to adults. For guests who would rather keep their hair dry, a glass-bottom kayak or semi-submarine trip, where available, gives a look at the reef without getting wet. Parents can leave the youngest at the kids' club once more and enjoy a quiet hour together on the beach with a drink from the bar.

As the sun sets, gather the family on the beach for a final evening walk around the island and take photos as the sky turns colors. Many resorts host themed nights, such as a Maldivian buffet with local curries and coconut dishes or a beach barbecue, often accompanied by a performance of bodu beru, traditional drumming that soon has guests clapping along. If you want to make the last night special, a private beach dinner can be arranged at an extra cost. Pack this evening, check your passports and flight time, and let the front desk know your preferred breakfast hour. Overnight in the Maldives.

Take a relaxed breakfast and a last swim if time allows. Resort check-out is usually at noon, and the front office books your return speedboat so you reach Velana International Airport with plenty of time before your international flight, normally three hours ahead. Families with an evening departure can request extra villa hours or a day room at a charge, so children can nap and shower before the long flight home. Porters bring the bags down to the jetty, and from the boat you watch the coral islands strung out across the blue water.

Male is well connected through Dubai, Doha, Abu Dhabi, Istanbul, Colombo and Singapore to cities across Europe, North America and Australia. Over ten days your family has gone from Portuguese churches and spice markets in Kochi to the plantations around Munnar, the calm canals of Alleppey and the bright reefs of the Maldives, a good balance of learning and pure holiday. When you are ready for another trip, the Tamil temple towns or the forts and gardens of Karnataka make a natural next step, and our team is always glad to help you plan it. Have a safe flight home.