Kerala is the strip of India between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea. It is green, slow and easy to travel, which is why it is the first place we suggest to anyone new to India. This guide covers where our holidays go, when to travel and the practical points people ask us about. We rewrote it in October 2026.
The route most people take
Nearly every Kerala holiday follows the same loop, and ours does too. You land at Kochi, climb to the tea country at Munnar, drop down to the wildlife reserve at Thekkady, spend a night on a houseboat out of Alleppey and finish on the coast south of Kovalam. Our 10 Nights Keralan Odyssey does exactly this: two nights in Kochi, two in Munnar, two in Thekkady, one on the houseboat and three on the beach at Poovar. You fly home from Trivandrum, so there is no doubling back.
Kochi
Kochi is the old port. The Chinese fishing nets stand on the shore at Fort Kochi, and behind them are St Francis Church, where Vasco da Gama was first buried, the Dutch Palace with its Ramayana murals and the 16th-century synagogue at Mattancherry. Our morning tour covers all of these. The synagogue and the Dutch Palace close on Fridays and Saturdays, so we plan the tour around that. We stay at CGH Earth's Casino Hotel on Willingdon Island. On the Odyssey you also cook with a Keralan TV chef and have lunch with a local family.
Munnar
Munnar sits at about 1,600 metres. The drive up from Kochi takes four to five hours and passes waterfalls and spice gardens. From the town the tea runs to the horizon in every direction. We include the plantation tour with a tasting, the tea museum and a room looking over the tea at the Tea Harvester. Pack a jumper. Evenings are cool and hill hotels have no heating. Eravikulam National Park, just above Munnar, closes from 15 January to 1 April for the calving season of its mountain goats. On those dates we visit the Thattekad bird sanctuary on the way up instead.
Thekkady and Periyar
Thekkady is the town at the gate of Periyar Tiger Reserve. You see the reserve from a boat on the lake, not from a jeep. Elephants, bison and deer come down to the water early in the morning and late in the afternoon. Tigers live there and almost nobody sees one, so go for the elephants. We stay at Pepper County, a homestay among the spice gardens, and include the boat trip and an evening of Kathakali dance and Kalaripayattu martial arts.
The houseboat
The houseboat is a converted rice barge with a bedroom, a bathroom, a deck and a crew of two or three. You board at Alleppey around midday, cruise the canals and the lake, moor for the night in a quiet stretch and come back after breakfast. All three meals are cooked on board and we include a bottle of wine. The cabin is air-conditioned from 8pm to 7am, which is normal on the backwaters, so the afternoon is spent on deck. One night is enough. A second night is the same canals twice.
The beach
Kovalam is the famous beach, with the lighthouse and a line of shack restaurants. It is busy. Poovar is half an hour further south, where the backwaters meet the sea, and it is quiet. We put the three beach nights at Isola di Cocco in Poovar, with breakfast, dinner and a full-body massage included. Trivandrum airport is 35 km away for the flight home.
North Kerala
Few British visitors go north of Kochi. Our 10 Days Charming North Kerala goes to Calicut, up to the Wayanad hills for a jeep safari at Muthanga and on to the beaches at Thottada and Nileshwaram, where you may have the sand to yourself. There is no houseboat on this one. Choose it for a second Kerala trip, or if you want fewer tourists more than you want the backwaters.
When to go
November to March is the dry season. Days are 28 to 32 degrees on the coast and cooler in the hills. December and January are the driest and the busiest, so book early for Christmas. October is the tail of the rains and cheaper. April and May are hot and humid. The monsoon runs from June to September. The hills and backwaters are at their greenest then and prices are at their lowest, but expect rain most days.
Getting there
There is no direct flight from the UK to Kerala. Our holidays include return flights, normally with one stop in the Gulf, landing at Kochi and leaving from Trivandrum. You are met at the airport and have the same English-speaking driver and air-conditioned car for the whole trip. Kochi airport is at Nedumbassery, about an hour from the city.
Paperwork and phones
You need an e-Visa before you fly and two online forms before you land. Our note on India entry requirements walks through all three. Buy a tourist SIM at the airport counter on arrival, not in town. Our note on data at the airport says why and what it costs.
Drinks
Most Kerala hotels serve beer and wine but not spirits, because the spirits licence is so dear. Houseboats usually have no licence at all. Bring your own from duty free, and read our note on drinks in Kerala before you pack.
Food
Hotel restaurants on our tours serve a buffet or menu with Indian, Chinese and European dishes, so there is always a grilled fish, a pasta or a plain chicken for anyone who wants a night off curry. Breakfast has eggs, toast and fruit alongside the local dishes. Breakfast and dinner are included on every night of the Odyssey, so you only buy lunch.
The Keralan dishes worth trying while you are there: appam, a lacy rice pancake served at breakfast with a mild coconut stew; fish moilee, cooked in coconut milk; and a sadya, the banana-leaf lunch of a dozen small dishes around rice, which the Kochi cookery class and family lunch on the Odyssey cover. Keralan food is less hot than people expect, and the hotels tone it down further for guests who ask.
Prices and who it suits
The Odyssey page shows the current price with flights, and its calendar lets you check your own dates. Single travellers have the 10 Nights Single Traveller Experience to Kerala on the same route, priced for one person in their own room. To add the Taj Mahal, Kerala Holidays with Golden Triangle puts five nights in Delhi, Agra and Jaipur before the same Kerala loop. Send an enquiry from any of those pages, or call us, and we will check dates and hotels for you.
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15 October 2026