Kerala: Train bookings, tentative schedule

Hound

Hello everyone...

I have been looking around in this forum for quite some time while planning a tour to Kerala with my significant other. This is her first visit to India and it will be like a honeymoon.

We have 10 days available for our trip, arriving on 27th march in Cochin airport, and departing from there on a Sunday 6th April night. We are on medium budget, so not looking at any fancy hotels or expensive resorts.

We have a hotel booked for our first 3 days in Fort Kochi and then we plan to go to Alleppey where we want at least one night in a houseboat. Some questions here...

1) Three days is, I suppose enough for Kochi. Any thoughts on this?

2) We plan to travel from Kochi to Alleppey by train. Are the trains chair cars, or sleepers? Do we need to book early or is it easy to find seats? I understand its not that far but i wanted to know the seating situation.

3) We plan to stay in Alleppey on 31st March and 1st April, embark on a backwaters cruise in a houseboat on 2nd and return back on 3rd. Do we stay more days at Alleppey or is it enough?

4) After this we are a bit lost.. we want to experience the great beaches and have heard good things about Varkala. However it seems a bit south, seeing that we would have to return back to Cochin. So can we go to some beach near Cochin? Guys, need help in this part. Ideas from all of you are welcome.

Regards
Hound

vandy

Hi there, Kochi to Allepey is short journey approx
2hrs, you will need to catch early train to give you enough time to go to Main houseboat jetty and
choose a houseboat,most important to see boats for yourself, A/C is reccomended for heat and keeping mozzies at bay.Houseboats usually dept for
O'Night cruises around 11am and return mid morning
the next day,I really don't think it would matter
if your houseboat depts Lunchtime,it's up to you,
just DON"T let operators rush you when choosing.
1 bedroom A/C houseboat should cost no more than
6000rps max for 2 persons.Maybe spend an Extra night in Allepey, see hotels section top of page for accom in Allepey area, also a couple of houseboat operators mentioned in there.You can also do Country Boat cruise (day time)takes you into smaller canals,great experience,hire by the hour (approx 300rps per hr) 4 hrs is ample.

Cherrai Beach is on Vypeen island, a short ferry
ride across the harbour from Fort Cochin or from
Ernakulam.Definetly closer than Varkahla.

You could also do a Short 1 night stay to Hill station Munnar, hire A/C small car(indica)& driver
from cochin, leave reasonably early in morning,
maybe stop in at kodanand and watch & help wash an
elephant down by the river and go onto munnar.
Driver will show you around Munnar next morning,
matupetty dam, echo point, top station. You can get elephant ride on main road between dam & echo point.Dept back for cochin after lunch or stay extra night in munnar before departing next morning.See hotels section for Homestay in munnar.

Hope this helps.

vandy
Btw, go to forums and then Indian states & click on Kerala, you should find more usefull info.

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Hound

Thanks Vandy...

We are still considering the Munnar option, but seems it will be a no go. It's actually the budget..how much do you reckon is the cost of the A/C car to Munnar? We are taking things slow and easy and have a pretty open ended schedule so it should not be much of a problem to laze around and explore.

steven_ber

Very useful post as always by Vandy.

Hello Hound and welcome to indiamike.com

I'll list 4 trains, the first 2 start from Ernakulam Jn (mainline station for Cochin, known locally as Ernakulam South), so would be the best choices, they (and the 3rd train) have both Air con Chair Class (CC) and bookable 2nd class seats (2S, good for such a short journey), the last one though has the old non-air con First Class (FC), this class is always worth considering (but this train starts it's journey in Chennai, so may be delayed)

Train 6341, Ernakulam Jn 05:50, Alleppey 06:55. (CC, 2S.)

Train 2075, Ernakulam Jn 17:25, Alleppey 18.18. (CC, 2S.)

Train 6308, Ernakulam Jn 11:30, Alleppey 12.55*. (CC, 2S.)(Starts from Kannur)

Train 6041, Ernakulam Jn 09:10, Alleppey 10.50*. (2A, 3A, FC, SL.)

* - Journey time should be about 65 minutes, there's a little bit of time added to the timetables of the last 2 trains as they both terminate at Allepey, the added time is to help the train arrive 'on-time'.

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steven_ber

The 2S class is a great way to save money, I would use the class out of choice as there are no glass windows to obscure the view, the carriages don't get too crowded as you need a reservation to travel in the carriage.

Hound

No wonder they say the India Mike is one of the friendliest of forums. ......

steven ber, you are the man. Thanks a lot for the info. I guess you have travelled a lot on that route. I am an Indian and I know the train situation. Delays, overcrowding comes with the package. But what I wanted to know was that is there always a rush? I mean, could we pop over to the station a day early and book the tickets? Or maybe even buy a ticket before the journey? We are travelling light, but want a place to seat. I can rough it out, have done worse (Mumbai locals toughen you up for everything ) but the missus would need a seat.

Sleeper class is always better than AC, except when its something like 40 degrees outside. You get the breeze through the open windows, which no fancy pants air conditioner can top.