South India Honeymoon Tour 15 Days

Touching down in Chennai after a long flight, look for a smiling face and a printed sign with both your names by the arrivals exit; from there, the luggage is taken care of and the car is a few steps away. The ride to a hotel near the coast takes anything from thirty minutes to an hour, since Chennai traffic follows its own rules. We know the first day of a long trip sets the tone, so there are no early calls today. Order room service, sleep off the flight and let the trip begin in its own time, with breakfast served whenever you finally surface.

Once the heat eases, a guide leads a short drive around the old colonial core, starting at Fort St. George, where English traders put up their earliest stronghold in India in 1644. Inside the walls stands St. Mary's Church, a squat, thick-walled building still holding Sunday services, where the marriage register records the wedding of Elihu Yale, a governor of Madras who later gave his name to the American university. It is a fitting story for a honeymoon. The fort museum holds old maps, coins, weapons and portraits of the colonial period.

As evening falls, the car rolls by the red High Court, a riot of Indo-Saracenic domes and towers, and along the seafront road of Marina Beach, where food stalls light their lamps and families gather on the sand. Instead of stopping there, you head to a quieter restaurant in the city for a welcome dinner of Chettinad and coastal dishes, a good first introduction to the food you will meet over the next two weeks. Ask for a mild version if you are not used to spice, as Chennai kitchens are not shy with chili. Overnight in Chennai.

Today's drive follows the East Coast Road south, and your first halt, around fifty minutes from the hotel, is DakshinaChitra, an open-air heritage museum of more than a dozen old homes from the four southern states, each moved from its original village and reassembled on this site. Wander from a potter's hut to a Kerala Christian family home and a merchant's house with a pillared hall, and compare kitchens, prayer rooms and courtyards along the way. Craftspeople demonstrate pottery, basket weaving and glass bangle making, and the museum shop sells good handmade gifts at fair prices.

A short way further south you reach Mahabalipuram, where a guide joins you for a focused hour at the town's two best-known sights rather than a full tour. The Shore Temple looks out over the Bay of Bengal from the end of a sandy lawn, its weathered towers built in the Pallava era around the 8th century, and nearby the giant relief of Arjuna's Penance covers two great boulders with carved figures. Your guide explains why historians still argue about the story it tells. Lunch is at a beachside café in the village, where grilled fish and cold drinks are served under thatched roofs.

The afternoon drive to Pondicherry takes about two hours along the coast, past salt pans, fishing villages and small roadside temples painted in bright colors. You check in to a boutique hotel near the seafront for two nights, ideally one with a pool and a garden, as the afternoons can be warm. In the evening, wander through the streets of the old town, where the shutters of the colonial villas are open to the breeze and bougainvillea spills over the walls. A rooftop bar or a quiet café by the sea makes a good spot for a first drink of the honeymoon. Overnight in Pondicherry.

Pondicherry is closely linked with yoga through the ashram of Sri Aurobindo, and we start the day with a private sunrise yoga session for two on a quiet stretch of beach just outside town. Your teacher adapts the class to your level, for complete beginners and regular practitioners alike, and the hour finishes with breathing exercises as the sun clears the horizon. Afterwards, enjoy a long breakfast at your hotel or at one of the French bakeries in White Town, where warm pain au chocolat and good espresso are easy to find.

Later in the morning a local guide shows you the main sights of the French Quarter on foot, including the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, the seafront Promenade and the statue of Joan of Arc in the small park opposite the Notre Dame des Anges church. The guide also takes you into one or two old French homes that have been carefully restored, and explains the efforts of local groups to save these buildings. In a nearby lane, the Manakula Vinayagar Temple is open to visitors of all faiths, and its painted walls show the many stories of Ganesha in bright colors.

In the afternoon you drive about twelve kilometers to Auroville, a township founded in 1968 by the Mother, a spiritual companion of Sri Aurobindo, as a place where people of all nations could live together. The visitor center explains the history and the current work of the community, from forest restoration to renewable energy and organic farming. A path through the trees brings you within sight of the golden Matrimandir, while the inner chamber is open only with an advance booking, which we can try to arrange for you. In the evening, sample a Tamil-French fusion dinner back in town. Overnight in Pondicherry.

Heading away from the sea after an unhurried breakfast, the car turns west for Trichy, or Tiruchirappalli, a big working city spread along the Kaveri. The route passes through sugarcane and banana plantations, small towns with colorful temple towers and stretches of road shaded by old banyan trees. Your driver stops for coffee at a highway restaurant, and if you are keen, at the temple town of Chidambaram on the way, where the great Nataraja temple honors Shiva as the cosmic dancer. Plan on about four and a half hours of driving before reaching the hotel in Trichy, without the detour.

Check in to your hotel and rest through the hottest hours. Around four your guide meets you for the Rockfort Temple, perched on a granite outcrop that looms over the rooftops. A stairway of roughly 400 steps, partly cut into the rock and partly covered, leads past the lower Thayumanavar Temple to the small Ucchi Pillayar shrine to Ganesha at the summit. The climb is steep but manageable at a steady pace, and you should leave your shoes at the bottom. Only Hindus may step into the sanctums themselves, yet for most visitors the stairs and the summit are what matter.

Up at the summit, the panorama takes in the entire city, the curving Kaveri and the great towers of Srirangam on its island to the north, and the view is at its best as the sun sets and the lights of the city come on below. Couples often linger here for the cool breeze and the sound of temple bells drifting up from the streets. Back at ground level, the bazaar around the base of the rock is full of shops selling saris, bangles, brass vessels and sweets. Dinner tonight is at your hotel or a local vegetarian restaurant. Overnight in Trichy.

The island of Srirangam, surrounded by the Kaveri and its branch the Kollidam, holds the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, often described as the largest functioning Hindu temple in India. The complex is enclosed by seven concentric walls, and the outer rings hold whole streets of homes, stalls and lodges, which means you pass through an ordinary neighborhood long before the holy core. Your guide arrives early to avoid the heat and the crowds, leads you to the beautifully carved Horse Court, where stone warriors ride rearing horses, and shows you the rooftop viewpoint over the gopurams, which requires a small ticket.

As in other major temples, non-Hindus may not enter the innermost sanctum where Vishnu lies on the serpent Adisesha, but the halls, corridors and shrines around it are full of life. Priests, pilgrims, cooks and flower sellers fill the courtyards, and you may see a group of women preparing kolam designs or a family bringing offerings for a new baby. After the visit, you drive south to Madurai, a trip of about three hours along a good highway. A highway restaurant serves lunch en route, and by mid-afternoon you are resting in your Madurai room.

Toward evening, drive across town for the Vandiyur Mariamman Teppakulam, an enormous square tank east of the center with a small temple on an island in the middle, built by the Nayak king Thirumalai in the 17th century. For most of the year the tank is dry or half full, and local boys play cricket on its bed, but during the float festival in January or February it fills with water and the temple images are carried across on a decorated raft. At sunset its broad steps make a quiet place for the two of you to sit and see the sky turn pink above the rooftops. Overnight in Madurai.

The Meenakshi Temple opens before dawn, and the early hours are the best time to see it as pilgrims arrive for the first prayers and priests carry flowers, milk and sandalwood paste to the shrines. Your guide collects you around six for the short walk or drive to the eastern entrance. Mobiles and cameras go into a locker counter at the gate, and non-Hindus are not allowed into the two main sanctums, but the corridors, pillared halls and the golden lotus tank are open to all visitors. Dress modestly with arms and legs covered, and leave your sandals at the shoe stand, since the stone floors are walked barefoot.

Small things are easily overlooked here, so your guide shows you the stone columns that chime like a xylophone, the ceiling paintings of the city's founding legend, the parrot cages near the goddess's shrine and the sculptures of the god's many forms in the Thousand Pillar Hall, which also contains a small museum of temple art. Breakfast and a long rest at the hotel follow. In the afternoon, take an optional walk through the cloth market and tailors' lanes off the temple's south side, where shopkeepers can run up a cotton shirt or kurta overnight.

Night changes the temple completely, and we suggest coming back for the palliyarai ceremony, held around nine every night, when the god Sundareswarar is carried to the goddess Meenakshi's chamber in a procession of musicians, priests and devotees. The ritual is short but intense, with drums, chanting and the scent of camphor filling the corridors. Your guide finds a good place to stand where you can see without blocking the way. Afterwards, stop at a street stall for a glass of jigarthanda, a cold Madurai drink made with milk, almond resin and ice cream. Overnight in Madurai.

Today you leave Tamil Nadu and climb into Kerala, a drive that shows you the full range of South Indian landscapes in a single morning. The road west from Madurai crosses dry farmland with cotton, grapes and coconut groves before reaching the foothills near Bodinayakanur, where the climb begins. From here a long series of hairpin bends winds up through cardamom forests until you crest Bodimettu at the Kerala line, and the air turns cool and fresh as the first tea gardens appear. Photo stops at the bends are easy to request, and with breaks the whole run is close to five hours.

Coming down the Kerala side of the pass, the road runs past Anayirangal Lake, a reservoir surrounded by tea estates and forest where wild elephants sometimes come to drink in the evening. You may stop at a small tea shop here for a cup of local tea and a snack of fried banana. A little further on, the town of Munnar grew up where three hill rivers join, its hillsides covered in tea bushes trimmed to waist height in neat rows. Your hotel is a tea estate bungalow or a hill resort on the edge of town, chosen for its views.

Once checked in, let the afternoon go by on your balcony as the clouds move across the valleys and the light changes on the tea slopes. In the evening the temperature drops quickly, so you may need a light sweater for a short walk around the grounds. Many hill resorts in Munnar serve a mix of Kerala and North Indian dishes along with continental options, and a hot cup of cardamom tea after dinner is a local habit. If your room has a fireplace, ask the staff to light it before you go to bed. Overnight in Munnar.

Eravikulam National Park, a short drive from town, shelters the world's biggest herd of Nilgiri tahr, a curved-horned wild goat that is also the state animal of neighboring Tamil Nadu. A forest department minibus carries visitors from the ticket gate to the Rajamala section, where a paved path winds across grassy slopes and you can often see the tahr grazing close to the road. Calving season shuts the park for some weeks around February to April, and if your trip overlaps we swap in a different morning walk. Arriving soon after opening means thinner crowds and clearer slopes.

After lunch your guide leads a gentle walk along tea trails through a working estate, where you learn how the tea is planted, pruned and picked by teams of women who work the slopes year-round. The walk is easy and mostly flat, and the guide shares stories about the British planters who first cleared these hills and the Tamil families who came to work on the estates. You may also stop at the Tata Tea Museum in town, where old machines and photographs show how the industry developed. At the counter, small cups of several grades are poured for tasting side by side.

Later, a drive of roughly thirty kilometers east brings you to Top Station, a lookout right on the state boundary where the hills drop away steeply toward Tamil Nadu. On the way you pass the reservoir at Mattupetty and the lake at Echo Point, where you can stop for a short boat ride or simply enjoy the view. At Top Station a short walk down the hillside leads to the viewpoint, and on clear evenings the sunset over the valley is spectacular. Return to Munnar after dark for a quiet dinner at your resort. Overnight in Munnar.

The drive south from Munnar to Thekkady is one of the prettiest in Kerala, winding through tea estates, cardamom hills and small towns where the morning market spills onto the road. The route takes around three hours, and a halt at a lookout or at a stall selling the homemade chocolate these hills are known for is easily arranged. As you descend, the tea bushes give way to dense forest and spice plantations, and the air becomes warmer and more humid. By lunch you are settling into a jungle resort or plantation lodge close to the boundary of the Periyar Tiger Reserve.

Later, a planter's son or daughter guides you around a family spice plantation, showing how cardamom pods sprout near the soil, how pepper vines climb tall trees and how cinnamon is cut from the bark. Other plants include nutmeg, cloves, vanilla, coffee and allspice, along with fruit trees such as jackfruit and papaya. Along the way you hear which spice goes into which Kerala dish and which home remedy. The farm shop at the end sells its own produce, usually fresher and cheaper than anything in town, and vacuum-packed bags travel well in a suitcase.

At dusk, seats are booked for Kalaripayattu, a fighting tradition from Kerala that mixes fighting moves, acrobatics and the use of swords, shields and staffs. The show is held in a small arena and lasts about an hour, with the performers moving with great speed and skill. Some historians believe it is one of the oldest martial arts in the world. Afterwards, return to your resort for dinner in the garden, where the sounds of the forest take over as night falls and fireflies blink in the trees. Overnight in Thekkady.

An early morning boat ride on Periyar Lake is the classic way to see the wildlife of the reserve. A dam completed in 1895 flooded the valley to create the lake, and the dead tree trunks still poke up from the water, making perches for cormorants, darters and kingfishers. Herds of elephant, gaur and sambar often graze on the grassy banks, most reliably in the dry months. A tiger sighting, though possible, is extremely unlikely. The boat ride lasts about ninety minutes, and tickets are limited, so we book them ahead.

After the boat ride you return to the resort for breakfast and a free morning. You can relax by the pool, read in a hammock or take an optional bamboo rafting trip or guided nature walk inside the reserve, run by the forest department with trained local guides who were once poachers and now protect the forest. These activities need to be booked in advance and have limited spaces. Alternatively, the town has many small shops selling spices, tea, handicrafts and Ayurvedic products, and a stroll through the main street is a pleasant way to spend an hour or two.

In the afternoon you enjoy a couple's Ayurveda massage at a traditional treatment center, booked for the two of you together. Two therapists work in sync with warm herbal oil and long, flowing strokes, followed by a herbal steam bath. The full session lasts around ninety minutes, and you leave feeling deeply relaxed. Later the staff carry dinner out to a private deck above the trees, lit only by brass oil lamps, while the forest grows loud with crickets and night birds. Ask for the deck nearest the reserve boundary, where the canopy comes closest and you may hear a sambar's alarm call in the dark. Overnight in Thekkady.

An early breakfast and a prompt departure get you to the backwaters in time for houseboat check-in around noon. The road descends from the hills through rubber plantations and small towns near Kottayam before reaching the flat, water-filled landscape of Kuttanad, where paddy fields lie below sea level behind earthen dikes. At the jetty in Alleppey your crew welcomes you aboard a private one-bedroom houseboat with an open upper deck, a small dining area and an air-conditioned bedroom. Nobody else boards for the next twenty-two hours apart from the captain, cook and helper.

As the boat pulls away from the jetty, lunch is served on deck: rice, a coconut fish curry, a vegetable stir-fry and pickles, followed by fresh fruit. The route today avoids the busiest stretches of open water and heads instead into narrow canals, where the boat passes so close to the banks that you can wave to families sitting on their porches and children walking home from school. You will see small churches and temples, toddy tappers climbing coconut palms and ducks swimming in neat lines. The pace is slow and the silence broken only by birds.

Local regulations require houseboats to drop anchor by early evening, and the crew picks a quiet spot by a village or a paddy field. Before dinner you can take a short walk with a crew member along the dike, watching farmers finish their work and the sky turn orange behind the palms. Tea and snacks are served on deck as the light fades. Dinner tonight includes a Kerala chicken or prawn curry, rice and vegetable dishes, and the cook will tone down the chili on request. Sleep comes easily with the gentle rocking of the boat. Overnight on the houseboat.

Morning arrives with birdsong and the soft splash of oars as fishermen pass by in their dugout canoes. Breakfast on deck is a Kerala classic, perhaps appam with stew or idiyappam, string hoppers made from rice flour, with coconut milk. Back at the landing by nine, you step ashore with you with plenty of time for the drive south. Your driver follows the coastal highway through Kollam and Varkala, and if you like, you can stop for lunch at Varkala, where a red laterite cliff rises above a long beach lined with cafés and small guesthouses.

By mid-afternoon the car pulls up at a cliffside resort in Kovalam, your base for the final three nights. We request a sea-view room or villa, and many resorts here have infinity pools, private terraces and direct access to the sand below. Three curved bays line this stretch, divided by low rocky points, with the Lighthouse Beach the most lively and Hawa Beach quieter. The first evening is free to settle in, take a swim and enjoy the end of the long road trip. You have earned some time to do nothing at all.

At sundown, stroll down to the Lighthouse Beach promenade, where small restaurants put their catch of the day on display on beds of ice: red snapper, tiger prawns, squid and lobster. Choose your fish, agree on a price and have it grilled or cooked in a Kerala masala while you sit at a table on the sand. The red and white striped lighthouse at the end of the beach can be climbed in the daytime for a view of the coast. Return to your resort for a quiet night by the sea. Overnight in Kovalam.

Following a lazy breakfast, the car heads roughly twenty kilometers down the coast to Poovar, a small village where the Neyyar river meets the sea. Here you board a small motorboat for a two-hour ride through mangrove channels and backwaters to the golden sand beach at the river mouth, a narrow strip of sand between the backwater and the ocean. The ride passes floating restaurants, fishing villages and coconut groves, and you may see kingfishers, herons and the occasional sea eagle. At the beach you can walk on the sand and take photos, but swimming is not safe because of the strong currents.

On the way back you stop at the Vizhinjam fishing harbor, one of the busiest fishing ports in Kerala, where colorful boats return with their catch in the late morning. The harbor is a lively scene of fishermen unloading boxes of fish, women sorting and selling them, and buyers bargaining loudly. Nearby are the ruins of an old rock-cut cave temple from the 8th century, and the cliffs above are dotted with small shrines, mosques and churches serving the fishing families. It is a good place to see the everyday life of the fishing communities that live along this coast.

Afternoon hours belong to you for a nap, a swim or an optional Ayurveda treatment, as Kovalam has many good centers. In the evening, we arrange a private beach dinner for two at your resort, laid out on a terrace or right on the beach, with candles, flowers and a menu of seafood and Kerala dishes chosen by the chef. Waves break on the rocks just below, a row of lights marks the fishing fleet on the horizon, and the staff leave you alone between courses so the conversation can run as long as you like. Overnight in Kovalam.

Trivandrum, the capital of Kerala, is only about fifteen kilometers from Kovalam, and a half-day tour shows you its main sights. First comes the Napier Museum, an 1880 landmark of gabled roofs and striped brickwork, which houses a collection of bronzes, ivory carvings and old jewelry. The nearby Sree Chitra Art Gallery has paintings by Raja Ravi Varma and others. The Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple, known for the vast wealth found in its vaults, is open only to Hindus, who must follow a strict dress code, but you can see the gopuram from outside.

After the museums, stop at the Kuthira Malika Palace, a wooden palace raised in the 1840s for the Travancore king Swathi Thirunal, who was also a famous composer. The palace has 122 carved wooden horses supporting its roof and a small museum of royal items. Then take a stroll through the Chalai Market, a busy old bazaar where you can buy spices, banana chips, halwa and Kerala handicrafts to take home. Lunch is a traditional Kerala sadya at a city restaurant, a vegetarian feast of many dishes on a banana leaf.

Return to Kovalam for your last free afternoon at the beach. Use the time to swim, read, pack and enjoy the sea view from your terrace, or book a last coconut-oil head massage at the resort spa. In the evening, have a farewell drink at a sunset bar on the cliff and look back on two weeks that took you from the temples of Tamil Nadu to the hills, forests and backwaters of Kerala. If you have energy, one last barefoot walk at the water's edge, watching lamps flicker on the boats offshore, closes the trip quietly. Overnight in Kovalam.

Enjoy a final breakfast overlooking the sea before you check out. Your driver takes you to Trivandrum International Airport, a thirty-minute ride away, in good time for your flight. From Trivandrum there are flights to the Gulf, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Indian cities with easy links to flights for London, Frankfurt, New York or Sydney. For an evening departure, ask us to request extra hours in your room, which depends on the resort and costs extra. Your driver waits until you are inside the terminal doors.

Fifteen days and two states later, the honeymoon ends where the subcontinent nearly runs out of land. Temple bells in Madurai, fog over Munnar, elephants at Periyar and the long hush of the canals should keep you talking for years. Send us your photos once you are home and settled, and when an anniversary or a second trip comes up, from Karnataka to the Andaman Islands, our team will be ready to start sketching it with you. Safe travels home.