Please help in my Kerala Trip Itinerary: (Sep-Oct 09)

Hi,

I am planning to visit Kerela in the last week of September (or the first week of October) on honeymoon trip. I have full 7 days in my hand (Saturday to Saturday). I will start from Hyderabad by Train and reach Cochin on Saturday. I prefer to stay in Cochin for that day and start for any place from Sunday to avoid any hassle. I want to visit one Hill station (most probably Munnar) and then either backwaters or beaches.

I need your suggestions on following?

1. Should I visit Beaches or Backwaters? I am not fond of still water. Anyways I will be taking small boat ride in the Lake in Munnar.

2. Will it be good to go with travel packages which include transportation, accommodation and site-seeing? Do you know of any good value for money travel organizer?

3. Or should I try to book hotels and cabs separately? Any suggestions for hotels in Munnar?

4. If I have to choose a beach then which one will be the best? Near Trivendram or Cochin? is there a good beache in Cochin?

5. Do you know any good hotels/beach resorts with good value for money? I will prefer the resorts/hotels right on the beach so that I don't have to carry any bag or any stuff.

6. My total budget (excluding hyd<->cochin train travel) is upto 35k.

Thanks..

- Nitesh

Nitesh

1. Do not miss the backwaters in Kerala - near alleppey / kollam...

2. As regards beaches - kovalam / varkala are good options..check out the taj holidays and hotels......they do provide some attractive offers - especially if it is in september...

3. You might be better off doing two ways - book hotels seperately. and hire a cab for the entire trip.

4. if u r starting ur trip in cochin, may be u can finish in trivandrum and depart back..

Cheers

ribhu

1 In that case visit beaches . If it is sunny good otherwise into good .

2 Up to you . So better take a directory or simply buy a Jaico travel guide and it has so many listings you can check one by one find the suitable one .It will be much better compared to wasting time here for this type of info.

3 Lot of them . Go to the website of Kerala Tourism . They have a page listing accomodation of different places. Much easier as full details are there . Chance of email getting wrong or telephone numbers getting wrong are there .
If you book seperately cab opertators do not get the TAC from the hotels . If you book the Cabns directly hotle owners do nto get the commission form travel agencies.

5 Beach near Cochin is Cherai .

Beaches near Trivandrum are Kovalam Varkala . Every one is different and different accomodation options.

6 If you are lookign for a beach right across on the beach it is built against the law .
7 That is a nice budjet . Nice things can be done with that .

Also Nitesh after 3 it is 4 not 5.

Thanks for your suggestions guys. I like backwaters but I really worry about the mosquitoes. So I am a little hesitant in going for houseboats.

Have any of you been to Munnar recently. Which hotel is the most preferred (location wise)?

Hi Nitesh,

I have just returned from Kerala. Some pointers:

1. There are no mosquitoes in houseboats. I stayed overnight in one from Kumarakom with my 1.5 year old daughter and we had absolutely no issues.

2. I stayed at Eastend Edassary in Munnar which is a very good hotel, even for honeymoon couples. In fact, Kesari honeymoon tour had put up the couples in this hotel. I would strongly recommend it to you. You can visit their website and ask them for a good quote. (www.eastend.in). However, please note that this hotel is located centrally in Munnar town. If you want secluded hotel/resort in the hills, then this is not the hotel for you.

Would recommend you to complete your travel by September end if possible as from Oct 01 season starts in Kerala and everyone hikes up prices by 20-30%.

Hi Nitesh,

Talk to this guy Sreekumar. He is a excellent tour operator and specializes in Honeymoon tours. Check the details at his home page www.keralahoneymoonholidays.com

His Number is 9447797564. He has arranged a lot of exciting honeymoon packages in Kerala for me and my friends. He is highly reliable. You can refer my Name. B.S.Prasad from Chennai.

Thanks very much. From the recent developments, seems like I can not make in September end. I have to postponed by trip October Mid.