A boat on a river running beside dense green forest in Kerala

Kerala · 12 Days

Kerala Complete Journey

The full length of Kerala in one unhurried trip. Fort Kochi, Wayanad, Munnar and Thekkady, then a Kumarakom houseboat and the Varkala cliff.

Day by Day

12 Days, In Full

The complete run, hills to backwaters to coast, over twelve days. Fort Kochi opens it. Then three nights in Wayanad for wildlife and the Edakkal caves, two in Munnar for the tea, two in Thekkady for the spice hills and Periyar. The road drops to Kumarakom for two nights, one of them on a private houseboat. It ends with two clifftop nights at Varkala and time for Ayurveda. Nothing is rushed and every landscape Kerala has is in it.

Kochi

Arrival in Kochi — Fort Kochi & the Spice Quarter

Your driver meets you at Cochin airport. The road runs out to Fort Kochi, where four centuries of trade left their mark on one small peninsula. Walk the lanes on foot. St Francis Church, the Dutch Cemetery, the godowns of Jew Town still stacked with ginger and pepper. Evening is free for a Kathakali performance if you want one.

A road climbing through lush green hills into the Wayanad plateau

Kochi → Wayanad

Kochi to Wayanad — Up the Thamarassery Pass

The drive to Wayanad takes about four and a half hours and climbs the whole second half. The road up from the coast turns nine tight hairpin bends through the Thamarassery pass. Rubber gives way to coffee, then to forest. Wayanad is Kerala's only plateau, held high in the Western Ghats. By the time you reach the resort the air is cool and the light is going.

Wayanad

Wayanad — Wildlife Sanctuary & Edakkal Caves

A dawn jeep safari through Muthanga or Tholpetty, booked through the forest department. Elephant, gaur and deer are the usual sightings; tiger and leopard are here and rarely seen. Later you climb to the Edakkal Caves, two rock shelters on Ambukuthi hill. Their walls are cut with carvings that are thousands of years old, some among the oldest in India. The last stretch is a steep set of stairs and iron ladders.

Wayanad

Wayanad — Chembra Trail & Banasura Sagar

The morning is a guided walk on Chembra, the district's highest hill, past a small heart-shaped lake said never to dry. Numbers are capped each day and the upper section is often closed for weather or fire risk. The afternoon is Banasura Sagar, the largest earthen dam in India. Its reservoir has flooded the low hills into islands, and a speedboat runs out among them. The Banasura ridge stands behind the whole scene.

A curved mountain road cutting through a lush green hillside in the Western Ghats

Wayanad → Munnar

Wayanad to Munnar — Across the High Ranges

This is a long transfer, six to seven hours, and a scenic one. The road drops off the Wayanad plateau, crosses the low country, then climbs again into the high ranges. Coffee and forest turn to cardamom and then to tea. Munnar sits at around 1,600 metres, in a bowl of estates first planted in the 1880s. You arrive in the late afternoon with the tea light at its best.

Green tea plantations covering rolling hills under a warm orange sky

Munnar

Munnar — Tea Estates & the Old Plantation Machinery

Munnar is tea, and has been since the 1880s. Spend the morning walking a working estate with a planter who can explain what you are looking at. The Tata Tea Museum houses the original rollers and a functioning miniature factory. Afternoon at Mattupetty Dam and Echo Point.

A row of tall trees along the crest of a lush green hillside in the Cardamom Hills

Munnar → Thekkady

Munnar to Thekkady — Along the Cardamom Hills

Three and a half hours south through the Cardamom Hills. The road is good and the views are constant. You can smell the plantations before you see them. Thekkady sits on the edge of Periyar Tiger Reserve, so the last stretch runs through genuine forest.

Rows of plantation crops on a hillside field with mountains behind

Thekkady

Thekkady — A Working Spice Plantation

Thekkady grows cardamom, pepper, clove, nutmeg and vanilla, often on the same hillside. A guided walk through a working plantation shows you how each one actually grows, which is rarely what people expect. Buy directly from the estate if you want the good stuff at the real price.

A boat moving down a palm-lined backwater towards Kumarakom

Thekkady → Kumarakom

Thekkady to Kumarakom — Down to the Backwaters

The road down from Thekkady loses altitude quickly through cardamom and rubber. It is about four hours to Kumarakom, on the eastern shore of Lake Vembanad. The change is complete: from cool spice hills to hot, flat, waterlogged country in a single morning. You arrive for lunch and an afternoon on the lake. The sunset from the resort jetty is the thing to be back for.

A Kerala houseboat moored against a palm-lined bank on Lake Vembanad

Kumarakom

Kumarakom — Overnight Houseboat on Vembanad

You board a private houseboat in the late morning. These are built on the frame of the old rice barges, with a bedroom, a deck and a cook aboard. The Kumarakom side of the lake is quieter than the Alleppey routes. Lunch and dinner are Kerala home cooking, fish bought from a passing boat. The crew moors for the night against a bank, and it is properly dark and quiet. You come off after breakfast.

A palm-fringed beach on Kerala's southern coast near Varkala

Kumarakom → Varkala

Kumarakom to Varkala — Down the Coast

The drive south is about four and a half hours. It leaves the backwaters behind and picks up the coast road towards Thiruvananthapuram. Varkala is the one place in southern Kerala where cliffs meet the sea. You arrive at a clifftop hotel with the afternoon free. The path along the cliff edge, with its cafes and the long drop to the beach, is the first walk to take.

Varkala

Varkala — Ayurveda & Departure

The morning is free for a treatment at a Green Leaf certified centre, or a last walk on the beach. Varkala's cliff cafes do a long breakfast well. The drive to Thiruvananthapuram airport is about an hour; the railway station is ten minutes away for a train north. Your driver times the transfer to your departure. This is the usual last stop on a southern Kerala trip.

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luxury · 11 Nights