Best way to see Kanyakumari ?

Does anyone know if I only have one day and one night to see Kanyakumari is it best to find a hotel there, or stay in a neighboring place like Kovalam, Thiruvananthapuram, or Kochin and just bus there? I"m already planning one night in Kovalam and two in Varkala, which leaves me one extra night/day and I really want to see Kanyakumari for the Vivekananda Rock Memorial. I will be there in mid to late May if that should affect the response. Thank you!

PS Staying at Seaside Rock Hotel in Kovalam and Taj Green Cove in Varkala if anyone has opinions, experiences with either of these I'd love to hear as well.

Earlier this year we stayed in Trivandrum, and hired a taxi for the day to get to Kanyakumari and a few other places. Cost 1500 RS, and easily done. No problem.
In my opinion, the place is good to visit, but not really worth more than five or six hours. Thats enough to take the ferry out to the rocks & shrines, check out the Gandhi memorial, and have a wander round the streets.
My recommendation is spend another day in Kovalam, and take a trip from there to visit Kanyakumari, and then get back to watch sunset over nice tandori tuna steak.

If you're travelling by yourself and /or don't want to spend Rs1500 on a private taxi then you could try the Kerala Tourism Kanyakumari day tour for Rs250 per person.
(not Mondays) see http://www.ktdc.com/Tours.htm
for details of other places visited on this tour.It picks up passengers in Kovalam but returns to Trivandrum so you'll have to bus or autorickshaw on your return.
Staying overnight is only worthwhile if you're travelling on to Madurai or other points in TN.

As others have said, you can do it in a day from Trivandrum/Kovalam. Recommend that you stop and see Wooden Palace on the way.

But Kochi is much further away. It is a 6-hour train journey from Trivandrum, which you couldn't really do the return in a day.

Thank you for the responses, everyone is most kind on this forumn! I'm proposing the following itinerary if this sounds realistic/good idea:

Day 1: Go to Kovalam and stay at Seaside Hotel Rockholm enjoy beach
Day 2: Go to Varkala and stay at Taj Garden Retreat
Day 3: Go to THiruvananthapuram and stay at Hotel Lucia or Mascot Hotel (not sure which is better - abt same price for both?)

Looking at responses maybe I should switch days around so that I can go from Kovalam to Kanyakumari for some hours and then from there to Thiruvananthapuram/Trivandrum ?

I think I'll skip kochi, due to time restraints. I hope this is realistic if I'm flying into Kerala from Delhi on day 1 and need to train on day 4 to Goa.

Am I making a mistake going to Varkala for the day? Should I forget Varkala and see Kochi on the way to Goa instead? Where's the Wooden Palace?

Trivandrum and Kovalam are on top of each other. Stay in which ever takes you fancy (Beach-side or town) and you're only 20 minutes from the other.

Hotel Lucia...

We had a terrible time there last January, due to building work in progress BUT, after having an enormous row with the manager we ended up on good terms (it happens that way, sometimes, I guess). The building work must be finished by now, and judging by the new room they moved us to to get us away from the hammering, it should be quite nice now. Guess they'll have reopened the pool, and I can say that the restaurant was nice

A hotel I'll never forget --- but don't let that stop you going there!

We stayed in the town because we wanted to be within walking distance of nightly concerts at the then-on music festival. Otherwise I'd stay by the sea in Kovalam and make a shopping trip into Trivandrum.

If you want somewhere a tad more isolated, just down the coast from Kovalam is Thapovan. Nice place in a nice location. www.thapovan.com --- I think.

The Wooden palace is an hour or so South of Trivandrum, on the way to Kanyakumari. Just over the Tamil Nadu border.