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Travel guide
Kerala travel guide
Kochi to Varkala down the length of the state — colonial port, tea at 1,600 m, a tiger reserve, a houseboat night and the cliffs at the end.
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About Kerala
Kerala is not one holiday, it is three that happen to share a state border. There is the backwaters holiday — a houseboat drifting down Vembanad Lake and its feeder canals past coconut palms and paddy fields below sea level, which is what most people mean when they say they are 'doing Kerala'. There is the hill-station holiday, up in the Western Ghats around Munnar and Thekkady, where tea estates roll over ridges at 1,500 to 2,000 metres and the air is genuinely cool for the first time on the trip. And there is the coast — Kochi's old trading-port jumble of Portuguese, Dutch and Jewish history, and Kerala's own beaches further south, which are quieter and less built-up than Goa's.
The common thread is water. Kerala gets two monsoons a year, the coconut and rice economy runs on the backwater canal system, and the state's tourism board built its whole identity — 'God's Own Country' — around a landscape that is wet, green and slow-moving almost everywhere you go. That slowness is also the trade-off: a houseboat covers perhaps 40 kilometres in a full day, Munnar's roads switchback for hours, and this is not a state you rush through.
It is also the most literate and, by most measures, the most socially developed state in India, and it shows in small ways a first-time visitor notices — the state of the roads outside the big cities, the number of people who speak workable English, the visible presence of churches and mosques alongside temples in a way that is unusually integrated even by Indian standards. Malayalam is the local language and it is not related to Hindi; Kerala's own script and grammar come from a different linguistic family entirely.
What trips it up: the monsoon (June to September) that gives the state its green is also the reason a first houseboat night can mean rain drumming on a tin roof for hours, and some hill roads get landslide closures in the worst weeks. It is a real season, not a write-off — Ayurvedic treatment packages are specifically timed to it — but it is not the postcard season, and an itinerary that promises calm backwater sunsets in August is not being fully honest about the odds.
Things to do in Kerala
Vembanad Lake
A night on a converted rice-barge houseboat on Vembanad Lake
Find adventuresMunnar tea estates
Munnar's tea estates at 1,600m, cool enough for a jacket in the evening
Find adventuresChinese fishing nets
Fort Kochi's Chinese fishing nets at sunset
Find adventuresPeriyar Wildlife Sanctuary
Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary's bamboo-raft and boat safaris at Thekkady
Find adventuresAlleppey canal villages
Alleppey's canal villages, reachable only by narrow country boats
Find adventuresTraditional
A traditional Kathakali or Theyyam performance, full make-up and all
Find adventuresWayanad
Wayanad's spice plantations and Edakkal Caves petroglyphs
Find adventuresVarkala cliffside beach
Varkala's cliffside beach, quieter and less developed than the Goa coast
Find adventures
Places to see in Kerala
Named things worth going out of your way for, whichever trip you end up booking.
Alleppey backwaters
natureThe backwater system's tourist centre — a network of lakes, canals and lagoons behind the coast, toured by houseboat (kettuvallam, a converted rice barge) or smaller canoe for the narrower village channels. A one-night houseboat stay is the standard package; day cruises exist but miss the point, which is watching the light change over the water at dawn and dusk.
Munnar tea country
natureRolling tea estates across the Western Ghats at 1,500-2,000m, planted by British colonial companies in the 19th century and still working plantations today. The Tata Tea Museum explains the industry; Eravikulam National Park nearby protects the Nilgiri tahr, a mountain goat found almost nowhere else.
Fort Kochi and Mattancherry
heritageA peninsula that has been a trading post for Arabs, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch and British in turn, and looks it — Chinese fishing nets on the shoreline, a 16th-century Portuguese-built palace with Dutch-era murals, a synagogue in the old Jewish quarter, and colonial-era warehouses now selling antiques and spices.
Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary, Thekkady
wildlifeA tiger reserve built around an artificial lake, toured mainly by boat rather than jeep, which means sightings are never guaranteed but elephants, sambar deer and a long bird list are a realistic bet. Bamboo-rafting treks into the core zone go deeper and cost more.
Varkala cliff beach
beachA red laterite cliff running along the beach with cafes and guesthouses built into the top of it, a genuinely different beach geography from anywhere else on India's west coast. Also a pilgrimage site — the Janardhana Swamy temple sits at the north end.
Wayanad
natureKerala's least-visited hill district relative to its scenery — spice plantations, the Edakkal Caves with petroglyphs several thousand years old, and forest that connects into the wider Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, one of India's most important wildlife corridors.
Kumarakom
natureA quieter alternative base to Alleppey on the same Vembanad Lake, built around a bird sanctuary and a scatter of backwater resorts. Less trafficked by day-tripper houseboats, which makes it a better choice for a slow second or third night.
Kathakali and Theyyam performances
heritageKathakali is Kerala's classical dance-drama — elaborate face paint applied over an hour before the show, exaggerated eye and hand gestures telling stories from the Hindu epics. Theyyam, mostly seen in the north around Kannur, is older and closer to a trance ritual than a stage performance, and considerably harder to catch on a standard itinerary.
Kovalam beach
beachKerala's original beach resort, just south of Thiruvananthapuram, built around a crescent of three linked beaches. Busier and more developed than Varkala, useful mainly as a first or last night near the airport.
Athirappilly Falls
waterfallKerala's largest waterfall, roughly 80 metres wide, at its fullest and most photogenic just after the monsoon in September and October and a comparatively easy day trip from Kochi.
Chinese fishing nets
heritageThe cantilevered shore-nets along Fort Kochi's waterfront, said to have arrived with Chinese traders in the 14th century, are still operated by hand by local fishing families and are one of the most photographed sights on the whole coast — worth watching worked rather than just photographed.
Spice plantation tours, Thekkady
marketGuided walks through working cardamom, pepper, clove and vanilla plantations around Thekkady, usually ending at a shop — the plantations are real and the produce is real, but treat the sales pitch at the end as exactly that.
Where to base yourself in Kerala
The backwaters' main town and houseboat departure point. Stay here if the boat is the whole reason for the trip; the town itself is a modest transit point rather than a destination.
See adventuresThe hill-station base, an old colonial planters' town surrounded by tea estates. Cool evenings, good walking country, and the jump-off for Eravikulam National Park.
See adventuresThe heritage and food base — walkable streets, the best concentration of restaurants and cafes in the state, and the standard first or last stop on most Kerala itineraries given its airport connections.
See adventuresThe wildlife base, built around Periyar Lake and the tiger reserve. Also spice-plantation country, and a common stop between Munnar and Kumily on the Tamil Nadu border.
See adventuresThe beach base for travellers who want sand without Goa's scale, built along the cliff rather than a flat shoreline.
See adventuresThe least-trodden of the standard bases, further north near the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu borders, worth the extra drive for wildlife and plantation country with a fraction of Munnar's crowds.
See adventures
Planning a trip to Kerala
Getting there
Kochi (Cochin International Airport, COK) is the main gateway with the best international and domestic connections, followed by Thiruvananthapuram in the south and Kozhikode/Kannur in the north — which airport to fly into depends on whether the itinerary runs north-south or is centred on one region. All three connect well to Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai, and Kochi has direct Gulf connections given the size of Kerala's expatriate workforce there.
Road transfers inside Kerala are slower than the map distance suggests — Kochi to Munnar is around 130km and typically four hours on winding hill roads, Kochi to Alleppey is a more straightforward 90 minutes to two hours. Kerala's own rail network along the coast is well used for longer hops (Kochi to Thiruvananthapuram, for instance) but doesn't reach the hill stations.
When to go
November to February is the reliable season — dry, warm rather than hot, and the standard window for houseboat trips and beach time. March to May turns hot and humid on the coast, though Munnar's altitude keeps it comfortable and is arguably at its best in this window with fewer crowds.
June to September is the south-west monsoon, heavy and sustained rather than the afternoon-shower pattern further north in India — some backwater and hill routes see disruption, but it is also when Kerala is at its greenest and when Ayurvedic treatment packages are traditionally timed, on the belief that the cooler, humid air opens the skin's pores. A shorter second monsoon, the north-east one, arrives October-November and is milder.
Money, connectivity and staying in touch
Cities and towns have reliable ATMs and 4G coverage; signal on a houseboat can be patchy mid-lake depending on carrier, though it rarely drops out entirely close to shore. Houseboats and most homestays take cards or UPI now, but carry cash for spice-market purchases, tips for the houseboat crew, and smaller towns off the standard route.
Food and where you sleep
Kerala's food runs on coconut, curry leaf, rice and fish along the coast, and is noticeably different from north Indian cooking — appam and stew, fish moilee, a proper Onam-style sadya (a banana-leaf vegetarian feast with a dozen-plus small dishes) if the trip coincides with a festival. Toddy shops serve fermented palm wine alongside strong, simple food and are a genuine local institution rather than a tourist add-on, though standards of cleanliness vary and it is worth asking a local for a recommendation rather than walking into the first one.
Houseboats sleep aboard with a cook preparing meals on board; on land, homestays are common and often a better way to eat well than hotel restaurants, particularly in Munnar and Wayanad.
Getting around
Houseboats and smaller canoes are the way to move through the backwaters — there is no road equivalent. Elsewhere, hired cars with a driver are the standard way to cover the Kochi-Munnar-Thekkady-Alleppey circuit, since the hill roads are demanding and public buses, while extensive, are slow for a time-limited holiday. Kochi itself has a metro and is walkable in the Fort Kochi core.
Good to know
Nearest airport
Cochin International Airport (COK), Kochi — the main gateway; Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode/Kannur also serve the south and north respectively.
Nearest railhead
Ernakulam Junction, Kochi, on the main coastal line; Kerala's rail network runs the length of the state.
Best time to visit
November to February for the dry, reliable season; March-May for Munnar specifically, given the altitude keeps it cool while the coast turns hot.
Language
Malayalam is the state language, from a different linguistic family than Hindi. English is widely spoken in tourist areas and by the educated workforce generally.
Connectivity
Strong 4G in towns and cities; patchy but rarely absent on the backwaters, thinner in remote hill and forest areas.
Currency
Indian rupee; cards and UPI widely accepted in tourist areas, cash still useful in markets and smaller towns.
Getting around
Hired car with driver is standard for multi-region itineraries; houseboats and canoes for the backwaters; Kochi has a metro for the city core.
Health
Standard India travel precautions apply — bottled or filtered water, mosquito repellent in the backwaters and forest areas. No altitude concerns; Munnar tops out around 2,000m.
Facts about Kerala
Who is actually running this trip?
The operator you picked on the compare screen. You book and pay MyAdventure; the operator runs the trip for us. MyAdventure handles refunds, and steps in if the batch is cancelled.
What if I cannot complete it?
Ask the operator what their turn-back protocol is — it varies by trip, and the good ones publish it.
Is the batch mixed-gender and solo-friendly?
Most departures take solo travellers and share accommodation by gender. Confirm with the operator for this batch.
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