Kerala.. God's Own Country

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Well, it had been a long time since we went on a vacation, so one evening we decided to go to Kerala, one of the most talked about destination in South India.

Be it Backwaters, Ayurveda, Spices, Mountains, Rivers, Beaches, Wildlife, Culture, Food... Kerala has something to offer for everyone. There are multiple itineraries that can be followed because Kerala is a diverse state, some of the prominent destinations being Munnar, Periyar, Trivendrum, Alappuzha (Alleppey), Cochin, Kovalam, Thekkady and many more. But since we were travelling with an infant, our 8 month old baby, covering everything was not possible in one trip. So we shortlisted Munnar, Cochin and Alappuzha for this trip.

How to Go: Can be visited by Flight, train, bus or a self driven car. From Bangalore, it is an overnight journey by Bus or train to Cochin.

For us, we were just wondering what to do next weekend, and it was almost an instant thought. We opened the internet and checked the flight tickets to Cochin.To my surprise, flight tickets from Bangalore were not very expensive for the next weekend, onward journey on Friday morning and return on Monday night. So we immediately booked it ~1500-2000 per head one side.

For local travel in kerala, we hired a cab for 4 days along with a driver, this was ~ 1500 per day. Fortunately our taxi driver, Mr.Aji was awesome, he knew every corner of the city and also guided us on sightseeing.

When to Go: The best time to visit South is always during winters. The weather is great and the season is festive but at the same time the hotels and resorts are a bit expensive. We went in early March, which is supposedly the Off Season. So, we were able to book good resorts for our stay and the cities were not too crowded. The weather was also not very hot, so we could enjoy the trip.

Detailed Itinerary:

Now we had to plan the itinerary for 4 days and arrange for our stay and travel.Since I was travelling with an infant, our 8 month old baby, I wanted to travel light and did not pack too much sightseeing into the trip, but at the same time make the most of it too.

So here goes our itinerary:

Day 1 -

Early morning flight from Bangalore to Cochin - 5.50 am -> Reach Cochin by 7.30 -> Travel to Munnar -> Reach Munnar by 11.30 am -> Check in to Hotel -> Relax

Go for sightseeing in evening
Detailed post on Munnar

Day 2 - Chill and enjoy the awesome weather -> Check out of hotel -> Visit some more sightseeing -> Leave for Allepey -> Enjoy tea gardens on the way and also there are some nice photo spots, spice garden etc on the way -> Reach Allepey by late afternoon -> Relax
Detailed post on Alleppey

Day 3 - Enjoy the resort -> Go for some backwater shikara ride or may be half day houseboat trip -> visit some nice beaches in the evening and watch sunset by the beach

Day 4 - Check out of resort and leave for Cochin -> visit Fort Kochi -> Sightseeing -> shopping -> local cultural dances or enjoy an ayurvedic massage - kerala special -> take a late night flight (Our flight was at 10.30 pm so we had an entire day at our disposal)
Detailed post on Cochin