Kerala & around in 2 weeks: New Traveller - where to go?

htid

Ok I know the title is cliched and all but it's true. Me and my girlfriend are very inexperienced travellers, (she's only 18, I'm 23) the furthest (and only) place we've been was Nice in the South of France last summer so looking at India is a big step for us.

Having read these forums a bit it seems like Kovalam is a bit touristy, but I think that's good as we'd feel a bit safer round there. We want a bit of luxury at first so would be hopefully staying a few days at the Leela Kempinski, relaxing on the beach and such. However we want to spend a total of around 10-14 days over there so don't want to spend all the time in Kovalam as I doubt there will be enough to do. Reading about I see you can rent house boats. Would it be possible to go from Kovalam to Alappuzha and then travel by houseboat through the backwaters to Kochin and spend some time there?

We can basically only go in May as she has exams before and the Monsoon comes in June so we don't want to get caught in that.

Thanks for any advice

rachelinindia

you can get a bus from kovalam to alleppey, takes about 4 hours. a trip on the backwaters is a must - but bring lot of insect repellent! kochi also gets the thumbs up. i'd also try and get to the western ghats if i were you - you can get buses from kochi (takes about 6 hours). the periyar national park is beautiful!

if your girlfriends exams aren't until the summer could you go during the easter break? the weather will be cooler and less humid during march/april.

kerala is an amazing, beautiful state with really friendly people. highest literacy rate in india too! i felt very safe and welcomed there. definitely a good place to start if you've never been to india before.

hope this has helped,
from a honorary sheffielder

htid

Thanks a lot

So if I understand correctly you can't get from alleppey all the way up to Kochi in a boat? I guess it would be more like going to alleppey, going on the boat for a day, coming back there then going from there to Kochi.

The Western Ghats..hmm, I've not read anything about them as of yet. Budget is around £1500 I guess (including flights of course). I'd love to go, the National Park sounds great but I'm not sure if our budget would accommodate :/

As for her exams, they are in April, the thing is her retake dates (in case she is ill) are beginning of May up to the 15th, then a single 1 on the 28th! Very inconvenient as it means we would have to go within that time frame!! The likelihood she will be ill is very low so it probably won't even matter about the retakes - we're currently calculating if it's worth taking the risk and crossing our fingers that she won't be ill so won't need the retakes, although that's a silly idea I guess.

Anyway thanks again for the advice
(are you an ex Sheffielder living in India or an Indian living in Sheffield?)

rachelinindia

i'm a londoner, studying in sheffield, who lived in delhi for 8 months!

Check on sta travel website for flights, if you’re both students and/or under 26 you can often get cheaper flights with them, if you do, then use the money you saved and go to periyar! I booked a return to delhi last week for £360.

Most of the backwater boat trips just go in a big circle over one day and night, so you start and end in the same place. From kovalam, you can get a bus to alleppey (4 hours), do a night or more on a boat, then get another bus to kochi (1 ½ hours). I think you can get a houseboat from alleppey to kochi but they’re are bigger, noisier and more expensive

www.keralatourism.com should give you more details on the houseboats, its big business though, so be careful about rip offs. Book once you're there and you can actually see the boat you’ll be going on.

As for dates, monsoon will be starting at the end of may. When i lived in delhi they started mid may and that was all the way up in north india. Unless she has a serious problem that could flare up at exam time i would try and go earlier.

pundabee

htid, I don't know what you mean by "safe", but from a security perspective Kerala is very safe. As a foreigner, having been in Kerala for more than a year, I feel infinitely safer here than I do in the UK (not that safety is something that is a major concern to me). Paradoxically, the traditional tourist locations like Kovalam, Varkala and Fort Kochi are probably the least safe places in Kerala.

This pretty much summarises Kerala:

Considering the climate in May you should go into the mountain, at least for a few days, to get some respite from the hot and humid lowlands.

Instead of doing an overnight houseboat stay, which is quite expensive and will, potentially, be an unpleasant experience in the May heat and humidity, you should consider the one day backwater tour from Kochi mentioned elsewhere in the Kerala forum.

Getting Rough Guide to Kerala is a must. It pretty much tells you all you need to know.

rachelinindia

yeh buy a guide book, everything i told you is coming straight out of the lonely planet anyway . like pundabee said, another good reason to go into the ghats - it'll be cooler.

htid

Thanks a lot both of you, I'll look at getting that

Concerning the safety aspect, it's simply that I've never been outside Europe therefore it may not be dangerous but I'm still weary of something totally new. I don't know about crime rates etc. for example. But if you say it's safe I trust your judgment, after all you have no reason to lie to me!

A mountain visit would be really good, but that's also something I've not even began to look into, so I'll have to check prices and stuff.

My main concerns are that we are strict vegetarians and I'm not sure weather smaller places will cater for us, and the fact that if we stayed in cheaper hotels but did more, we may bring back bed bugs. I have no idea of the prominance of bed bugs in India but we've had them before for 2 years, not a pleasant experience, so I would rather not take the risk by staying in a cheaper (and maybe therefore less clean) hotel. Anyway we're just at the beginning stages of all this at the moment, I'm not sure we'll even do it, since we've not even sorted out anything and May is quite soon! We're still at the stage of thinking "we can't go to India, can we???".

pundabee

Don't trust me! If you can be bothered you can check Kerala Police. They have crime statistics. Kerala Police are renowned for being good at reporting everything. Unfortunately, the population is not; small issues, e.g. simple theft, will often not get reported, but I would expect that more serious matters like violent crimes are. I seem to remember that the risk of being a victim of violent crime in Kerala is 1% of the risk in the UK.

I am vegan and can eat South Indian food without any problems. Eat where the locals eat, and you shouldn't have a problem with the food. Again, good guide books will feature recommended eateries.

Consider staying in homestays rather than hotels. You will, in most locations, be able to find homestays for less than £10 a night. It is also worth noting that these tend to be very well maintained and very clean. I have never had any problem with the level of cleaning in a homestay. Generally, but this depends on location, you won't need to book in advance since May is low season.

I would say that your only concern is the climate. You have to be able to deal with heat and humidity, and take necessary precautions (liquid intake, sun protection etc.).

And generally: what people say about India often doesn't apply to Kerala: in many ways it feels like a separate state.

rachelinindia

india is a vegetarians paradise! don't worry about that! the fish is great too in kerala, if you're one of those psuedo veggies that don't think fish is meat

you've got plenty of time to sort it all out. go buy a guidebook tomorrow, (i recommend lonely planet but there are hundreds out there) see exactly what you want to do, ask us if you need to and get booking. the opportunity might not come round again. once you've been to india you'll wonder why it took you 23 whole years to get there!

htid

Hi again,

I'm not back home (was in Germany the last week) and will look for a book tomorrow. As for the mention of periyar national park, I looked into it on here and it seems Nagarhole is better for viewing wildlife.

Now I tried to find a way to get from Trivandrum -> Mysore but it doesn't look very straightforward so we're wondering if it really is worth the effort/possible. Maybe we should settle for Periyar and hope to see something there. It sounds like in May you're more likely to see wildlife anyway, so it may not be a problem.

Basically do people think it's worth going from down in Trivandrum all the way up to Nagarhole JUST for the national park? Is it that much better?

Thanks!

(Oh and btw I'm no pseudo veggie, so fish is a no go for me )

steven_ber

Kovalam - Backwaters - Periyar - Madurai - Kovalam would make a nice little 6 - 7 day tour (or replace Madurai with Cochin).

Mysore is too difficult to get to/from.

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htid

Cheers Steve. Although the thing is we're looking at spending 2 weeks over there. I was thinking Kovalam - Trivandrum - Periyar - Kochi but I'm not sure there is enough to do in those places for 2 weeks. I mean it's a long way, lot of money on a flight and visa, just for 7 days.

I thought maybe we could throw in a trip up to Bangalore for a few days, get an internal flight from Trivandrum to there or something.

steven_ber

The 7 days wasn't including Kovalam, say maybe 3 days in Kovalam, then the tour, then 3 more days relaxing in Kovalam before returning home.

Maybe include both Cochin (then via Periyar) and Madurai, this will take maybe 9 days (not including Kovalam).

Just a thought, Kovalam will be empty, mostly closed, and the sand un-touchable by your feet (heat) in May.

htid

Hmmm that's a point I'd not considered. The fact that the beaches will be empty is a good thing, a whole beach to ourselves! As for the shops being closed etc, that may be a bit of a problem but oh well, we're limited to May so that's the way it has to be. Thanks for the forewarning though

htid

Ok I'm starting to get a plan together I think, but just a few questions.

(journey details in red)

Fly to Trivandrum
Kovalam (3 nights) train
Kottayam (1 night) ?
Periyar (2 nights) ?
Madurai (2 nights) ?
Cochin (3 nights) ?
Fly back from Trivandrum

This is not quite set as I said we want 2 weeks there and that's 11 days. I'm thinking about throwing in a flight from Cochin -> Bangalore, few days there and then Banglore -> Trivandrum for the flight home or just fly straight home from Bangalore (whichever of those 2 is cheapest). All that would obviously depend on price, but it seems Cochin -> Bangalore -> Trivandrum = around £90, which is reasonable.

Now my question: how do I manage the other journeys? It seems there are no train lines (looking on maps/timetables) between those destinations with the "?". On google maps it seems after the train to Kottyam, there's a road (NH220) to Thekkadi (I assume this is where we'd stay when going to Periyar? Or do you stay in the park itself?). From there we could continue up to Theni and take the NH49 to Madurai. Finally we take the NH49 all the way back from Madurai to Cochin. I did find a train journey for that route but it takes 11 hours?! Surely going by road would be faster? We won't be driving ourselves so I guess we just get a taxi for the road journeys?

Sorry for this being such a long post, I just want to get it clear in my head how it will all work Thanks for any help!