LGBTQ+ Goa and Kerala Tour

You are met with a name card at the arrivals exit of Manohar International Airport in Mopa or at Dabolim, whichever your flight uses, and drives you to the village of Assagao or neighboring Siolim in inland North Goa. These villages sit among paddy fields, cashew orchards and coconut palms a few kilometers back from the coast, and many of their old Indo-Portuguese houses have been restored as boutique guesthouses and private villas. For friend groups we can book a whole villa with a pool and a cook, so everyone has their own room but shares one house, which makes evenings together easy and private.

The first afternoon is for settling in. After a long flight, most people want a swim, a shower and a quiet lunch, and the villa staff or guesthouse kitchen can prepare something light. For a stroll, follow the village road to see whitewashed chapels, shuttered houses with deep verandas and small bakeries selling poi, the soft Goan bread. Assagao has become known for its independent cafés, yoga studios and design shops, and its crowd is a relaxed mix of artists, Indian city dwellers who have moved here and travelers from around the world, many of them openly queer.

Come evening, it is only fifteen minutes by car to Vagator or Anjuna for a sundowner on the cliffs, or you can stay in and let the cook prepare a first Goan dinner of prawn balchão and coconut rice. Queer visitors generally find Goa among the least complicated places in the country, and a same-sex couple having dinner in a North Goa café is an ordinary sight. Away from the beach towns, villages are still traditional and churchgoing, so a little discretion on village lanes is sensible. Overnight in Goa.

After a slow breakfast your driver takes you south to Reis Magos Fort, a compact laterite stronghold above the Mandovi estuary looking across to Panjim. Raised in the 1550s, later a prison and restored in the 2010s, it now has exhibits on Goa's history and good views from its walls across the river to the capital. Next to it stands the Reis Magos Church, one of the oldest in Goa, named after the three wise men, whose feast in early January is marked with a colorful local festival. Allow an hour; mornings here are usually quiet.

From the fort it is a short drive across the bridge into Panjim, where you can walk the riverside promenade along Dayanand Bandodkar Marg and see the old Secretariat building, once a palace of the Adil Shahi sultans before the Portuguese arrived. Rather than a full city tour, today is about Goan food, and your guide leads you through the Panjim municipal market, where fish sellers, spice traders and stalls of chorizo-style Goan sausages share the hall. You pick up a few ingredients for the afternoon and can taste kokum juice, cashew sweets or a fresh coconut on the way out.

In the afternoon you join a Goan cooking class in a family home near Panjim or back in the villages of the north. The host shows you how to grind a fresh masala on a stone, balance tamarind, vinegar and coconut, and cook two or three classic dishes such as chicken xacuti, a coconut fish curry and a simple vegetable dish, finishing with bebinca or a coconut sweet. Classes are relaxed and hands-on, and groups of friends usually turn them into a small party. You eat what you cook for an early dinner before driving back to your villa. Overnight in Goa.

Today belongs to the beach, and the far north of Goa has some of the calmest stretches on the coast. Thirty minutes up the coast are Ashwem and Mandrem, where wide, clean sand is backed by casuarina trees and a small number of beach huts and cafés. There are no big hotels here, and the water is usually calm in season, making it a good place to swim, sunbathe and read. Loungers and shade come free with a meal or drinks at most beach cafés, and you can stay in one spot all day without anyone hurrying you along.

Around midday, try a lunch of grilled fish or a Goan thali at one of the beach cafés, many of which also serve good salads and international dishes for those wanting a break from spice. Later there is the option of a yoga session, a massage on the sand or a stand-up paddleboard lesson, or simply walk along the shore, where a small river lagoon at Mandrem forms a quiet bend lined with palms. If you prefer something more social, Morjim next door is livelier, and its beach clubs draw a younger crowd. Olive ridley turtles nest at Morjim in the winter, so some areas are roped off for protection.

As the sun goes down, your driver brings you to the cliffs above the mouth of the Chapora River, where the ruined walls of Chapora Fort look over the water toward Morjim. It is a short uphill walk, and the reward is a view of fishing boats returning to harbor and the sea turning gold. Afterwards, the Siolim and Assagao area has good restaurants for a final dinner in Goa, from modern Goan cooking to wood-fired pizza and Asian menus, many in old houses with garden seating. Our team reconfirms your flight to Kochi for tomorrow. Overnight in Goa.

Checkout is after breakfast, and today's flight to Kochi runs nonstop on certain days and via Bangalore or Mumbai on the rest, taking between one and a half and four hours in total. We pick the most sensible timing for your date and allow for the drive from Assagao to the airport. On landing at Cochin International Airport, a Kerala driver takes over for the 90-minute run to Fort Kochi, the old port district on a peninsula at the mouth of the harbor, where heritage hotels occupy former warehouses and colonial bungalows.

Around 4 pm a local guide joins you for a stroll through the art side of Fort Kochi. Kochi is home to the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, a contemporary art festival held roughly every two years, and even outside festival months its streets keep murals, galleries and cafés that grew out of it. You pass old warehouses on Bazaar Road converted into exhibition spaces, studios where young Kerala artists work, and walls painted with large portraits and political art. Kochi has a young, creative and open-minded scene, and it is one of the places in Kerala where queer travelers tend to feel most comfortable.

As evening falls, walk down to the seafront near Vasco da Gama Square, where the cantilevered fishing nets stand in silhouette against the sky and street stalls fry banana chips and spicy fish. Families, couples and groups of students gather here to watch the ships sail in and out of the harbor, and it is an easy, relaxed place to stroll. For dinner, try Kerala seafood in a heritage courtyard restaurant, perhaps karimeen pollichathu, pearl spot fish cooked in banana leaf, or a fragrant Malabar biryani. Leave room for a pazham pori, the sweet banana fritter sold on every corner. Overnight in Kochi.

Mornings in Mattancherry are cooler and quieter, so the day opens at Mattancherry Palace, the so-called Dutch Palace, where the upper rooms are covered with Hindu murals painted in natural colors. Look for the coronation hall, where the rajas of Kochi were crowned, and the display of palanquins and royal robes. Down the lane in Jew Town, the Paradesi Synagogue, founded in 1568 by Kochi's Malabar-coast Jewish community, still has its small clock tower and a hand-painted porcelain floor shipped from Canton. Mind the calendar here: the palace takes a Friday rest day, while the synagogue stays shut Friday and Saturday plus Jewish festivals, and we plan the order to fit.

The lanes around Jew Town smell of ginger and dried pepper, and some of the old spice warehouses still trade from their courtyards. Your guide explains how this small strip of land became a meeting point for Arab, Chinese, Jewish, Portuguese, Dutch and British merchants, and how Kochi's mixed communities still live side by side. Post-lunch hours are yours for antique shops, boutique clothing stores and cafés in old trading houses. If you would like to relax, an Ayurvedic massage at a center in Fort Kochi is a good way to recover from the flight and the walking.

Tonight brings Kathakali, Kerala's masked-face dance drama, in a small hall with only a few rows of seats. Rather than watching the make-up being applied, which many visitors do, you can arrive just before the show begins and sit near the front to follow the eye movements and finger gestures that carry the story. Each evening a single scene from one of the great epics is acted out, with drummers and singers at the side of the stage, and a narrator explains the scene beforehand in English. Some theaters also offer Kalaripayattu martial arts demonstrations on other evenings. Overnight in Kochi.

Today the sea is left behind for the Western Ghats. For the first two hours the highway runs past pineapple farms, rubber groves and market towns, then starts to climb through forest and spice gardens. Your driver stops at the Cheeyappara waterfall, which tumbles down the hillside next to the road in several steps and is fullest after the monsoon. Small stalls sell tea, roasted corn and fresh fruit, and the air already feels cooler. Friend groups traveling in a larger vehicle will appreciate the extra space on the winding road.

As the road gains height, the first tea gardens appear, cut in neat rows across the slopes like green hedges, with tall silver oak trees planted for shade. Munnar, whose name means three rivers, lies roughly 1,600 m up and grew out of tea estates cleared by Scottish planters from the 1870s. Its bazaar is cramped and noisy, so your base is in a tea estate resort or hill resort a little outside, with views across the valleys. Hill areas of Kerala are more conservative than Kochi, but the resorts we use are used to international guests and have confirmed they are happy to host same-sex couples.

Nothing else is scheduled for the afternoon, which gives your body a chance to get used to the altitude. Evenings in Munnar can be chilly from December to February, so bring a warm layer. With energy to spare, ask for a ride to a viewpoint near town for sunset over the hills, or to a small spice shop selling cardamom, pepper and fresh tea grown on the estates around you. Dinner at the resort often features Kerala dishes alongside lighter options, and many resorts light a bonfire in the evening, a pleasant way for friends to sit together under the stars. Overnight in Munnar.

Set out soon after dawn, while cloud still fills the valley floors and the first pluckers move onto the slopes with baskets on their backs. A local guide leads you on a gentle tea estate walk along narrow paths between the bushes, explaining how leaves are plucked, how often each bush is harvested and how the plantations are run. You may pass small settlements where estate workers live with their families, many of whose ancestors came from Tamil Nadu generations ago. The walk takes about two hours and is easy, though sturdy shoes are useful on the damp ground.

Mid-morning is for the Tea Museum at Nallathanni, displaying a 1905 rolling machine, planters' photographs and a sundial carved by estate workers. In its small factory you watch fresh leaf go through the full process from withering trough to sorting sieve, and the visit ends with a tasting. In the afternoon the road leads to Mattupetty Dam and its long reservoir, surrounded by forested hills, where you can take a short boat ride. A little further on is Echo Point, a lakeside spot where your voice bounces back across the water.

Another morning option is Eravikulam National Park, which closes for a calving break each year, usually from about February into March. These sure-footed wild goats live only in this mountain range, and a forest department shuttle runs visitors to the Rajamala walking zone, and lines can be long on weekends. Back at the resort, the late afternoon is free for a spa treatment or a walk in the gardens. Tonight is your last in the hills, so make the most of the cool evening ahead of the descent to sea level. Overnight in Munnar.

An early start is needed to reach the backwaters by around noon, when houseboats begin their cruise. Hairpin bends lead you down through cardamom forests and rubber plantations, then crosses the flat, watery country of central Kerala. At a jetty outside Alleppey a private Kerala houseboat sits ready with its crew. For a couple we book a one-bedroom boat, and for a group of friends a larger boat with two to four bedrooms, each with its own bathroom, so the whole group shares one deck and one crew. The boat has been checked in advance to welcome same-sex couples.

Lunch is served as you move off: rice, fish curry, crisp vegetable dishes, pappadam and pickles, all cooked by the boat's own chef. The route usually follows the wide Punnamada Lake before turning into smaller channels where village houses, churches and temples stand right on the banks. Rice fields stretch away on both sides, some lower than the water itself, protected by narrow embankments. In the afternoon light, look for cormorants, egrets and kingfishers, and for women in bright saris washing clothes on stone steps. Many guests simply lie on the deck and watch village life pass by.

Kerala rules end cruising at dusk, so as the light softens the crew ties up beside a paddy embankment for the night. Evening tea comes with banana fritters, and you can walk briefly along the embankment or sit on deck as the light fades and lamps come on in the houses across the water. Supper comes from the boat's small galley, and the cook can make a mild or vegetarian menu if you ask. Night on the backwaters is calm and dark, broken only by the sound of insects and the occasional fishing canoe. Overnight on the houseboat.

Dawn brings low mist and villagers already rowing to work. Over appam and stew the boat glides back, and you step ashore at about 9 am. Before leaving Alleppey, you can stop briefly at Alleppey Beach and its old pier, or at a coir-making workshop, where coconut husk fiber is spun into rope and woven into mats, a traditional industry in this part of Kerala. Coir is one of the oldest industries on this coast, and some workshops still use hand-turned wheels. Your driver then heads south on the coastal highway toward Kollam and Varkala.

The road passes through busy towns, lakes and coconut groves, and you can break the drive at Kollam, an old trading port at the edge of Ashtamudi Lake. By early afternoon you reach Varkala, where your room in a small clifftop resort looks out over the Arabian Sea. Varkala is unusual in Kerala because its beach lies below tall red laterite cliffs, with a path running along the top lined with cafés, guesthouses and small shops. The atmosphere is relaxed and international, and many visitors come for yoga, Ayurveda and long, quiet days by the sea.

In the evening, walk the North Cliff path as the sun goes down, when the cafés light candles and the sea below turns orange. Most cafés serve fresh seafood displayed on ice, from tuna and snapper to tiger prawns, cooked as you like it, along with Western dishes and good coffee. The crowd here is mixed, with yoga students, backpackers, couples and groups of friends, and it is an easy, low-key place to spend the evening. Keep a small torch for the cliff path after dark, as parts of it are unlit and close to the edge. Overnight in Varkala.

After the busy days of the tour, this morning is free for the beach below the cliffs. Papanasam Beach, directly below the cliff, is a holy shore where Hindu families offer prayers for the dead, which is why swimwear is best kept to the main bathing area and the northern part of the beach. Lifeguards watch the swimming zones, and the sea can be strong, so swim only where the flags allow. Down the stairs at the north end, Black Beach is quieter, with dark sand and fewer people, and good for an hour with a book.

After lunch it is a twenty-minute drive north to Kappil, where a backwater lake meets the sea across a narrow sand bar. A local boatman paddles you through mangrove channels and along palm-lined banks in a traditional country canoe, a very different scale from the houseboat. You can also continue south of Varkala to Ponnumthuruthu Island, the Golden Island, in the Akathumuri backwaters, reached by a short boat ride and known for its small temple among the coconut palms. Both trips are calm and slow, with good chances to see kingfishers, herons and fishermen with their nets.

Back in Varkala, the early evening is a good time for an Ayurvedic massage at one of the many licensed centers on the cliff, or for a yoga class with views over the sea. The Janardanaswamy Temple, more than two thousand years old according to tradition, stands just inland of the cliffs, and non-Hindus may see its exterior, its large bell and the temple tank, though not the inner sanctum. For dinner, you could try a Kerala sadya, a vegetarian feast on a banana leaf, or another night of fresh seafood on the cliff. Overnight in Varkala.

Your last full day is open, and most guests choose to do very little. Take a morning swim before the sun gets strong, walk along the beach to the fishing village at the south end to watch boats come in with the night's catch, or book a longer Ayurveda treatment. Plenty of yoga shalas on the cliff take walk-in students of any level, and some run sessions at sunrise or sunset on rooftops facing the sea. Friend groups often book a private class together, which instructors are happy to arrange at short notice.

If you would like one more outing, your driver can take you about an hour south to Trivandrum, Kerala's capital, to visit the Napier Museum, with its colorful Indo-Saracenic building and collection of bronzes, carvings and old temple chariots, and the nearby Sree Chitra Art Gallery, known for its Raja Ravi Varma canvases and Tanjore and Rajput miniatures. Another option is the Kovalam coast, with its lighthouse and sheltered bays. Both make good half-day trips, though many travelers prefer to stay put and save the drive for tomorrow, when the airport road passes the city anyway.

In the evening, plan a final dinner together on the cliff, perhaps at a café with a table right on the edge as the sun sets. If you are marking a special occasion, whether an anniversary, a birthday or the end of a big trip with friends, tell us beforehand and a reserved table, flowers or a cake will be waiting. Tonight we confirm your flight and morning pick-up, leaving you free to think back over twelve days that have taken you from Goa's villages through Kochi, the hills and the backwaters to this cliff. Overnight in Varkala.

Have breakfast at your own pace and take a last look at the sea from the cliff before checking out. The road to Trivandrum International Airport takes roughly 90 minutes, and your driver sets the pick-up time to leave a good margin for check-in. Trivandrum connects nonstop with Gulf hubs, Singapore and Colombo for onward connections, as well as domestic flights to Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. For a night departure, a paid late checkout or day room keeps you comfortable until it is time to leave.

Someone from our Kerala office waits with you at the terminal doors. Over twelve days you have cooked Goan food in a family kitchen, walked past Kochi's murals, slept among Munnar's tea gardens and on a houseboat, and watched the sun set from Varkala's red cliffs. If you would like to see Tamil Nadu's temples, Pondicherry or Hampi on a future trip, just get in touch and we will shape another LGBTQ+ friendly holiday around you. Safe travels home.