Kerala Tour Package 10 Days

Most long-haul routes reach Cochin overnight through a Gulf or Southeast Asian hub, and our airport host waits with a placard at any hour, tracking your flight online so delays are no problem. Fort Kochi is roughly seventy minutes away by car, crossing the Periyar river and the long bridges of the Ernakulam waterfront. Hand luggage, phone SIM questions and currency exchange can all be sorted on the way, and our host gives you a folder with your vouchers, guide contacts and a day-by-day sheet for the next ten days.

Hotels hand over keys in the afternoon, so arriving early is best followed by brunch and a nap. Since the old town is compact and level, once jet lag loosens its grip a short stroll from the hotel to the seafront promenade shows you a town that has been trading pepper with the outside world for well over 500 years. Bicycles rattle past old godowns, cafés occupy former Dutch merchant houses, and fishermen gather around the waterfront fish market. Your driver is on call for the day if you want to go somewhere further, such as a pharmacy or a SIM card shop in Ernakulam.

At about 5 pm your guide meets you for a short ride on the government ferry that crosses the harbor channel between Fort Kochi and Vypeen island, a five-minute trip used daily by office workers, students and fish traders on scooters. Standing at the rail, you see container ships heading for the port, dolphins now and then in the channel, and the line of fishing nets silhouetted against the sky while the sky turns orange over open water. Back on shore, dinner tonight might be a simple plate of grilled seer fish with lime and a coconut-based curry. Overnight in Kochi.

Comfortable sandals matter today, since the morning is spent on foot with your guide. The route starts at St. Francis Church, where Vasco da Gama lay buried for fourteen years before his body went home to Portugal, then moves through Princess Street and the old parade ground to the Santa Cruz Basilica, whose ceiling panels show the Passion. Your guide points out the mix of styles on almost every corner: Portuguese tiled roofs, Dutch gables, British verandas and Kerala wooden balconies. Coffee is at a café set in a restored warehouse, where the iron rails used to haul spice sacks are still bolted to the ceiling.

A short drive takes you on to Mattancherry. Lisbon gave the Mattancherry Palace to a Kochi raja around 1555 and Holland later renovated it, though what visitors queue for are the wall paintings, among them an episode of Krishna with the gopis rendered in deep reds, yellows and greens. Walk on into Jew Town for the Paradesi Synagogue, where blue willow-pattern tiles from Canton cover the floor and no two are exactly alike. Fridays close both sites, Saturdays and Jewish holidays close the synagogue too, so your two Kochi days may swap places. Spice warehouses on Bazaar Road still trade ginger, turmeric and pepper by the sack.

Afternoon is free for shopping, a swim at the hotel or an Ayurvedic massage, which your guide can book at a licensed center. At around 5 pm you head to a small theater for Kathakali, Kerala's dance-drama, arriving early enough to watch actors lying flat while artists draw a white paper-and-paste frame around the jaw and fill the face in green, red and black. The performance usually lasts about an hour and covers a single scene from the epics, with a narrator introducing the gestures in English first. Take a seat near the front to see the eye movements clearly. Overnight in Kochi.

Today the coast drops behind you and the Western Ghats take over. The drive east to Munnar runs through Perumbavoor and Kothamangalam, both busy market towns, then follows the Periyar valley into thick forest. Near Neriamangalam you cross a stone arch bridge built under the Travancore kingdom in the 1930s, still in daily use, and a stop on the far side lets you look down at the river from the parapet. Plan for around four hours with stops; the second half is all bends and climbs, so a motion sickness tablet is a good idea for anyone who feels unwell on mountain roads.

Higher up, small plantations of pepper vines climbing silver oak trees give way to cardamom grown in the shade of the forest canopy, and then to the first tea estates. In and after the monsoon, falls tumble down beside the tarmac, and roadside stalls sell bananas, tender coconut and fresh lime juice. Lunch is in Adimali or at a spice farm restaurant on the way, where Kerala meals are served on steel plates with rice, two curries, pickle and papadum. You may also see the first of the many signboards for local home-made chocolate, a Munnar specialty that started with a few family kitchens.

You reach your hill resort by mid-afternoon, with rooms that typically look over tea rows and a valley that fills with cloud by evening. At this altitude nights can fall to 10 to 15°C in winter, so a warm layer comes in handy. After a cup of tea, a guided walk on the estate roads around the resort shows you the pruning patterns, the shade trees and the small temples and churches of the workers' settlements. Some resorts build a bonfire on dry winter nights; when it is damp, dinner moves indoors. Overnight in Munnar.

Start early at Eravikulam National Park, before the tour buses arrive, when the Nilgiri tahr are often grazing the Rajamala grassland near the path. The forest department runs the shuttle from the entry point, and the visitor zone is a walk of a kilometer or two on a paved road with railings, easy for most ages. Sightings vary from day to day, and calving season shuts the park for part of February and March, so we check the dates when you book. On clear mornings you can see far across the high grassland and the shola forest pockets.

Mid-morning brings you back to town for a guided visit to a tea factory and the KDHP museum next to it, where the story of Munnar's planters and workers is told through tools, photographs and an old steam-era roller. Your guide talks about how the estates were organized, how tea is graded and why the high-grown teas of Munnar have a light, bright flavor. A tasting session follows, and the factory shop sells loose tea, green tea and spice blends at fair prices. For lunch, the cafés of the bazaar dish up idiyappam string hoppers with egg curry or a vegetarian thali.

The afternoon drive follows the road toward Top Station, passing Mattupetty Dam, the Indo-Swiss dairy farm area and Kundala Lake, a reservoir lined with eucalyptus where pedal boats and Kashmiri-style shikaras are rented out. Top Station stands on the state line, and from its rim the ground plunges toward Theni district, visible for miles when the air is dry. Mist can close this view within minutes, so your guide may suggest a short tea plantation walk instead if the clouds are low. Evening has no fixed plan. Overnight in Munnar.

Thekkady lies to the south, a winding road ride through the Cardamom Hills, one of the main cardamom growing areas in India. The road winds via Poopara and Nedumkandam, through small towns where buyers sit on verandas weighing green pods, and past cardamom drying sheds that give off a sweet smell when the doors are open. It is a quieter route than the main tourist highway, with fewer trucks and good views over the rolling plantations. Your driver can stop for tea at a roadside shop where cardamom tea is served in small glasses, very sweet and very strong.

You check in at Thekkady around lunchtime, then join a local guide for ninety minutes on a family-run spice plantation. Here pepper, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla, coffee and allspice all grow side by side, and your guide shows you how to tell ripe pepper berries from green, how nutmeg grows inside a red web of mace, and why vanilla flowers are pollinated by hand. Many plantations have a small shop at the end, and while you are free to buy, quality and prices vary, so ask your guide for advice before you pay.

In the early evening you attend a Kalaripayattu demonstration, the traditional martial art of Kerala, held in a small arena with the audience sitting around a sunken pit. The performers show unarmed combat, kicks and leaps, before switching to sticks, knives, swords and shields, and finally the flexible urumi sword, which is swung in fast circles. Expect sixty minutes that are noisy, quick and very physical, which children usually enjoy. Photography is normally allowed, but flash is discouraged during the weapon sequences. After the show, Kumily's shops stay open late for spices, tea and handicrafts. Overnight in Thekkady.

Get up before sunrise for the first boat on Periyar Lake, run by the forest department from the jetty inside Periyar Tiger Reserve. The lake was created in the 1890s when the Mullaperiyar dam flooded the valley, and bleached stumps of the drowned forest still poke out of the water. The ninety-minute cruise follows the shoreline; on some mornings herds of elephant, gaur or sambar come down to drink, on others only cormorants and darters show up, and nobody can promise which. Ticket counters open early and seats are limited, so your guide queues in advance. Breakfast is back at your hotel.

From Thekkady you leave the high ranges and drive west toward the backwaters, via Vandiperiyar, the tea town of Peermade and Kuttikanam, where pine woods planted decades ago line the road. Near Kuttikanam you can make a short stop at Ammachi Kottaram, a former summer retreat of Travancore royalty, if it is open to visitors that day. The road then drops steeply through rubber estates to Mundakayam and on through Kottayam, the town of printing presses, rubber traders and old Syrian Christian churches. Count on roughly 210 minutes of driving, more when trucks crowd the ghat.

By mid-afternoon you are at Kumarakom, a string of lakeside villages facing Vembanad from the east, settling into a resort with lawns running down to the water. A short canoe ride with a local boatman takes you into the narrow canals behind the resort, where life is quieter than on the main houseboat routes and you may see kingfishers, egrets and cormorants close up. Kumarakom is also known for karimeen, the pearl spot fish, and many resorts cook it in a banana leaf wrap with a spicy coconut paste. Sunset over the lake is the highlight of the evening. Overnight in Kumarakom.

At first light a naturalist leads the way into the Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary, laid out on land that a planter called George Alfred Baker once used for rubber and coconut. Early morning is best, when herons, darters, kingfishers and bee-eaters are most active, and from November to February migratory birds from the north can add to the count. Birdlife changes with the season and nothing is promised, but the walk itself, on a shaded path with water channels on both sides, is pleasant at this time of day. Binoculars are useful, and your guide carries a pair.

After breakfast at the resort you check out and drive about an hour to Alleppey, where your private houseboat waits at the jetty from around noon. This part of Kerala is called Kuttanad, and much of its farmland lies below sea level, protected by embankments built by hand over the last 150 years. Once on board, your crew explains the layout of the boat and the safety rules and serves a welcome drink. The Alleppey houseboat usually has one to three bedrooms with attached bathrooms, a lounge deck at the front and a galley at the stern where every meal is cooked.

Lunch comes out as the boat starts cruising, with rice, sambar, avial, a fish or chicken curry and fried vegetables. The route heads into the wider canals and across open stretches of the lake, past churches, schools, toddy shops and boat-builders' yards. As the light turns golden, the crew ties up for the night by a village landing, as all houseboats stop cruising at sunset. One of the deckhands can lead you along the dike past cottages, where grandmothers sit on doorsteps and kids practice cricket between the coconut palms. Dinner is served on deck by candlelight. Overnight on the houseboat.

Dawn brings low mist and a few paddlers heading for the market. After puttu and kadala curry on deck, the captain has you back at the jetty for the 9 am checkout. Then it is south by road along the coast through Kayamkulam, Karunagappally and Kollam. The roads are busy, with small towns almost joined together, but the scenery is varied: coconut groves, cashew factories, fishing harbors and church festivals with decorated arches if your visit falls on the right weekend. Your driver knows the clean rest stops along this coastal highway.

Around lunchtime you take a short detour to Varkala, a beach town backed by high red laterite cliffs. A narrow walkway follows the cliff edge on the northern side, lined with cafés, yoga studios and small shops, and the view over the beach is one of the most photographed in Kerala. Lunch is at a cliff-top restaurant, where the menu runs from grilled fish and Kerala curries to salads and fresh juices. If you want, you can walk down the steps to Papanasam beach, where pilgrims offer prayers for departed relatives. Swimming here is best done only between the lifeguard flags.

Kovalam is a further ninety minutes south, passing the outskirts of Trivandrum, the capital of Kerala. Kovalam is made up of a series of small crescent bays, the most popular being Lighthouse Beach, named after the striped tower on its rocky point. Your beach resort is ready by late afternoon, leaving time to walk on the sand before sunset. The evening is free, with a wide choice of seafood restaurants along the beach promenade, where the day's catch lies on ice and you point at what you want. Overnight in Kovalam.

After breakfast you drive about 30 minutes into Trivandrum, or Thiruvananthapuram, for a half-day city tour with a local guide. The first stop is the area around the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple, the grand temple of the Travancore royal family, with a seven-tiered gopuram reflected in the Padma Theertham tank. Only Hindus are admitted, dressed traditionally, men bare-chested in a white mundu and women in a sari, so most visitors see it from the outside. Your guide covers the temple's history and the sealed vaults that made world headlines in 2011 when their contents were documented.

Nearby, the Kuthiramalika Palace, or Puthenmalika, is a wooden palace museum raised in the 1840s on the orders of Swathi Thirunal, a ruler, poet and composer of Carnatic music. Kuthira means horse, and a long row of carved timber horses holds up the eaves on the façade. Mondays are a closing day here, and we plan around that. You then visit the Napier Museum, a red and white building of the 1880s in the public gardens, which holds bronze statues, temple carvings and ivory works. The Sree Chitra Art Gallery in the same grounds hangs canvases by Raja Ravi Varma, Kerala's best-known painter.

The afternoon is all yours at Kovalam beach. You can swim within the lifeguard area, take a short walk up the lighthouse for a view of the coastline, or try an Ayurvedic massage, with your guide pointing you to a government-approved center. Toward dusk, crews on the central beach drag the shore seine in by hand, a long, slow process that takes a whole team and draws a small crowd of curious visitors. For your last dinner in Kerala, a meal of grilled tiger prawns or a Kerala-style fish curry with rice is a fitting way to end the trip. Overnight in Kovalam.

A last breakfast on the terrace, perhaps a final swim, and then Trivandrum International Airport, roughly thirty minutes from Kovalam. We set the pickup so that check-in for an overseas flight is comfortably on time. Flights from Trivandrum connect to the Gulf hubs and to Singapore, Colombo and Indian cities for onward travel. For a midnight departure, a late checkout or a day-use room can be booked in advance.

Over ten days your trip has covered colonial Kochi, the tea and spice hills, Periyar Lake, the lakes of Kumarakom, a night on the backwaters and the red cliffs and beaches of the south. That range of landscapes in a single small state is the reason so many guests come back. If you are thinking of another trip, Wayanad, the far north of Kerala or the Chola temples across the border in Tamil Nadu would each suit a second trip, and our team can shape the route around your interests.