Kerala and Sri Lanka Beach Holiday

Sand, sea and slow mornings are the main point of this Kerala and Sri Lanka beach holiday, but each stop also gives you something to do when you have had enough sun. The first half follows the Arabian Sea coast of Kerala: two nights in Fort Kochi for the old port, two nights on the quiet fishing beach of Marari, and two nights on the red laterite cliffs of Varkala. A short flight from Trivandrum then carries you across the Gulf of Mannar to Colombo, where the Indian Ocean side of the trip begins.

In Sri Lanka the road runs south along the coast. Bentota gives you a wide beach, the mangrove-lined Madu River and the gardens of the architect Geoffrey Bawa. On the way to Mirissa you spend half a day inside the ramparts of Galle Fort, a living Dutch-era town listed by UNESCO, and in Mirissa an early boat goes out to look for blue whales in season. Drives are short on both sides of the water, usually two hours or less, and you never sleep in fewer than two nights per beach.

We built the Kerala Sri Lanka beach tour for couples, groups of friends and families on long-haul tickets from London, Frankfurt, Toronto, Chicago or Sydney, and for NRI guests who would rather swim than queue at temples. The best window is roughly December to March, when both the Kerala coast and the south-west coast of Sri Lanka are dry and the sea is calm. Whale watching off Mirissa runs roughly November to April. Nothing on the Kerala and Sri Lanka beach holiday is shared with strangers, so hotel grade and daily rhythm stay flexible.