Kerala 6 Days Itinerary: Munnar, Thekkady & Houseboat

Welcome to Kerala. Your driver collects you at Kochi airport or Ernakulam railway station and, after a warm welcome, you set off inland towards the Western Ghats in a private air-conditioned car. With six days ahead, this is a trip with room to breathe: three nights in the tea hills, a day in the forests of Thekkady and a night on the backwaters, all at an easy pace.

Kochi itself is Kerala's busiest city, a mix of old and new, with modern apartment towers and shopping malls rising alongside centuries-old churches, temples and spice warehouses. As you head east, the city soon gives way to the green countryside of central Kerala. Every village seems to merge into the next, with houses set among coconut palms, banana plants and jackfruit trees, and gardens bright with hibiscus and bougainvillea. Kerala's villages feel more like one long, green, gently busy garden than separate settlements, and the road is always lively with buses, scooters, auto-rickshaws and people on their way to work, school or market.

After a couple of hours, the plains soon give way to rubber estates, then cardamom forest, then the first neat rows of tea. Rubber was introduced to Kerala by the British in the early 20th century, and today the state grows most of India's natural rubber; you'll see the tall, straight trees in neat rows, each with a spiral cut in its bark and a small cup to collect the milky latex. As the road climbs past Adimali, the rubber gives way to cardamom and pepper, grown in the cool shade of the forest, and the air becomes noticeably fresher.

Stop at Cheeyappara and Valara, two waterfalls that drop right beside the road. Cheeyappara tumbles down a rocky cliff in a series of seven steps, white water against black rock and green forest, and it's at its most spectacular after the monsoon, from August to December. Valara, a little further up, falls into a deep forested gorge and can be seen from viewpoints along the highway. Both are favourite stops for travellers, with stalls selling tea, coconut water, roasted corn and freshly cut pineapple sprinkled with salt and chilli.

You'll also stop at a spice garden to see pepper, cardamom and cloves growing. Kerala has been famous for its spices for more than two thousand years: Roman coins have been found along this coast, left by traders who came for pepper, and it was the search for Kerala's spices that brought Vasco da Gama to India in 1498. In the garden, a guide shows you how each plant grows, lets you smell the leaves and bark, and explains which spices are used in Kerala's cooking and in Ayurvedic medicine.

Then the tea begins. As you near Munnar, the hills are covered in tea bushes from the valley floors to the ridgetops, clipped into soft, rounded rows that follow every curve of the land, with paths winding between them and silver oaks standing above. It's one of the most beautiful agricultural landscapes in the world, and it changes with the light: bright green in the morning sun, silvery under passing clouds, and almost blue as evening falls.

You check in at Munnar by mid-afternoon, with the evening free to settle in. Munnar is your base for the next three nights, so unpack, relax and enjoy the cool air. The town lies at about 1,600 metres, and while the days are pleasantly warm, the evenings can be chilly, especially in winter, when you may want a fire or a warm blanket. Take a short walk around your hotel, enjoy a cup of fresh Munnar tea, and watch the mist settle into the valleys as the sun goes down.

If you're arriving on an early flight, you can stop for breakfast on the way at one of the busy roadside restaurants, where hot appams, puttu, idlis and dosas are served with coconut chutney and sambar, washed down with strong, sweet Kerala coffee. It's the perfect first taste of the state.

Munnar's evenings are quiet and restful. There's little nightlife, and that's part of the charm: most visitors simply enjoy a good dinner, a walk under the stars and an early night, ready for an early start in the clear morning air. If you'd like to shop, the little town centre has stalls selling tea, cardamom, homemade chocolates, eucalyptus oil and warm shawls, and it's lively until around 8 or 9 in the evening.

Tonight, rest well: tomorrow is a full day of sightseeing in the hills.

Included today: pick-up at Kochi airport or railway station, private car to Munnar with stops at Cheeyappara and Valara waterfalls and a spice garden, hotel in Munnar.

Good to know: drive about 4 hours. Breakfast on arrival day isn't included. Monkeys at the waterfalls can snatch food, so keep snacks out of sight.

Start the day at Eravikulam National Park, which opens at 9 AM. Arriving early means shorter queues and the best chance of clear views before the afternoon clouds roll in. The park covers about 97 square kilometres of high grassland and shola forest, the unique patches of stunted evergreen trees that grow in the folds of the hills, and it was set up in the 1970s to protect the Nilgiri tahr, which had been hunted almost to extinction.

A park bus takes you up to the grassy slopes where the Nilgiri tahr, a mountain goat found only in the Western Ghats, grazes close to the visitors' path. The tahr is a sturdy, chocolate-brown animal with short curved horns, and the older males have a pale saddle on their backs. They're remarkably calm around people, so you can watch them from just a few steps away as they graze and clamber over the rocks. The walk along the path is easy and the views are magnificent, across rolling hills and deep valleys to the peak of Anamudi, the highest point in South India.

Next is the Tea Museum, where you see tea processed from fresh leaf and taste the result. The museum is run by the company that manages most of Munnar's estates, and it tells the story of how tea came to these hills, starting in the 1880s, when British planters cleared the forests and brought workers from the plains of Tamil Nadu to plant and pick the tea. Among the exhibits are old photographs, a sundial carved by prisoners, and machines used in the early factories. A short film explains the history, and then you watch the processing line in action, from withering and rolling to drying and grading.

In the afternoon, drive out to Mattupetty Dam, call across the water at Echo Point and take a pedal boat on Kundala Lake. The road to Mattupetty winds through tea estates and grassland, and the lake behind the dam is calm and blue, with forested hills rising behind it. Wild elephants are sometimes seen along its shores, especially in the late afternoon. Echo Point, on the edge of a lake a little further on, is a favourite stop where your voice echoes clearly back from the hills. Kundala Lake, surrounded by eucalyptus and tea, is the perfect place for a slow pedal-boat ride or a trip on a traditional bamboo raft, with the hills reflected in the still water.

As the sun lowers, stop at a viewpoint above the estates, where the low light picks out every row of tea and the shadows of the silver oaks stretch across the slopes. It's one of the most photogenic moments of the day.

If you have energy left, Munnar has many more corners to explore. Pothamedu viewpoint offers a wide view over tea, coffee and cardamom plantations, and the Blossom Park and Botanical Garden are pleasant places for a stroll among flowers. For the adventurous, Top Station, high on the border with Tamil Nadu, looks down over the plains thousands of feet below; on clear mornings, the valleys are filled with clouds, and you feel as if you're standing above the sky.

Munnar's weather is changeable, and that's part of its magic. A bright, sunny morning can turn misty by noon, and a short shower can sweep across the hills and pass just as quickly, leaving the tea gardens glistening. Carry a light jacket, an umbrella and comfortable shoes, and don't let a little mist put you off: the clouds drifting through the estates make for some of the most beautiful photographs of the trip.

For lunch, try a traditional Kerala meal at a local restaurant: rice served on a banana leaf with sambar, rasam, avial, thoran, pickles, pappadam and a sweet payasam to finish. In the evening, many hotels in Munnar serve dinner by a fireplace, with Kerala, North Indian and Continental dishes. Try a hot bowl of soup or a mug of cocoa on a chilly night; Munnar's cool air makes them taste even better.

With three nights in Munnar, there's no rush. If you'd like a slow morning tomorrow before the day trip, simply let your driver know.

Munnar is also famous for its homemade chocolates, sold in little shops all over town. They come in dozens of flavours, from classic milk and dark chocolate to versions flavoured with cardamom, pepper, ginger, coffee and fruit, and they make lovely gifts to take home, as long as you keep them cool.

Included today: Munnar sightseeing by private car, breakfast.

Good to know: Eravikulam usually closes for a few weeks early in the year for the tahr's calving season, and entry tickets are paid locally. The Tea Museum is closed on Mondays. Our Munnar tour packages page has more ideas for your time here.

Today you see a completely different side of the Munnar hills, one that most visitors never discover. After breakfast, you drive north-east from Munnar on the road towards Tamil Nadu, through tea estates and forest, and over the next few hours the landscape changes dramatically, from cool, green, misty hills to dry, rocky country that looks more like the Deccan than Kerala.

Your first stop is Lockhart viewpoint, where the land falls away sharply and you look out over tea-covered slopes and deep valleys. Then comes Lakkam waterfall, where a stream tumbles down a series of rocks into a shallow pool at the foot of the falls, good for a paddle. A short forest path leads to the falls, with butterflies and birds all around, and it's a refreshing place to stop.

Next is Marayoor, home to Kerala's only natural sandalwood forest. Sandalwood, prized for its fragrant oil and wood, is one of the most valuable trees in India, and the trees here are so precious that each one is numbered and guarded by the forest department. You can visit the forest depot, where the fragrant wood is collected and auctioned, and smell the sweet scent of the heartwood.

The town is also known for its dolmens, stone burial chambers several thousand years old, and for the dark jaggery made from local sugarcane. The dolmens, known locally as muniyaras, are made of large stone slabs arranged like little houses, and they date back to the Iron Age and perhaps earlier, built by people who lived in these hills long before the tea planters arrived. Marayoor jaggery, made by boiling sugarcane juice in huge iron pans, has a rich, smoky sweetness and has been given a special geographical indication tag for its quality; you can watch it being made in small farm sheds by the road and buy a block to take home.

Continue to Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary, which lies in the rain shadow of the Ghats: dry, scrubby hills that look nothing like the rest of Kerala, and home to the rare grizzled giant squirrel. Because the mountains block most of the monsoon rain, Chinnar receives very little rainfall, and its thorny scrub, dry deciduous forest and riverside trees are home to wildlife adapted to these conditions, including the grizzled giant squirrel, a large grey squirrel with a long bushy tail that lives in the tall trees along the river. You may also see spotted deer, gaur, elephants, langurs and many birds, and the sanctuary is known for its star tortoises and mugger crocodiles. The forest department offers guided treks and watchtower visits, including a walk to Thoovanam waterfall, if you'd like to explore further.

Return to Munnar in the evening, as the landscape turns green and misty once more, and enjoy a relaxed dinner at your hotel.

The drive itself is one of the highlights of the day. Leaving Munnar, the road winds through some of the highest tea estates in Kerala, then begins a long, sweeping descent, with views opening up across deep valleys and distant hills. As you go, you'll notice the vegetation changing: the lush green of the tea gives way to drier grassland, sugarcane fields and, finally, the thorny scrub of the rain shadow. It's a lesson in how much mountains shape the land and the lives of the people around them.

Marayoor is also known for its quiet, rural charm. It's a small farming town in a broad valley, with fields of sugarcane, vegetables and fruit, and the people here are a mix of Tamil and Malayali farming families. The valley has a pleasant, mild climate, and in recent years farmers have begun growing fruits not usually found in Kerala, including oranges, apples and plums, in the nearby village of Kanthalloor.

Chinnar is also one of the best places in Kerala to see a dry forest ecosystem, completely different from the evergreen forests of Thekkady and the shola grasslands of Eravikulam. The Chinnar River and the Pambar River flow through the sanctuary, lined with tall trees where the giant squirrels build their nests, and in the evening, herds of animals come down to the riverbanks to drink.

By the time you return to Munnar, you'll have seen sandalwood forests, ancient burial stones, sugarcane fields and rain-shadow scrub, all within a couple of hours of the tea estates. Many travellers say this day showed them a side of Kerala they never expected.

Then enjoy a quiet evening at your hotel, your last night in the hills.

Included today: day trip by private car to Lockhart viewpoint, Lakkam waterfall, Marayoor and Chinnar, breakfast.

Good to know: this is a long day trip, around 2 hours each way plus stops. Entry tickets and any guided treks at Chinnar are paid locally. Carry water, a hat and sunscreen, as Chinnar is much warmer and drier than Munnar.

Leave Munnar after breakfast for a three-to-four-hour drive through cardamom plantations to Thekkady. The road winds south through the Cardamom Hills, past small villages, viewpoints and estates where the green pods are grown in the shade of tall forest trees. Kerala produces most of India's cardamom, and the Idukki district you're driving through is its heartland.

Thekkady sits on the edge of the Periyar Tiger Reserve, on the border between Kerala and Tamil Nadu. It's a small, friendly town of spice shops, homestays and resorts, surrounded by forest, and it's one of the best places in South India to see wild elephants.

In the afternoon, take the boat ride on Periyar Lake, inside the Periyar Tiger Reserve, looking out for elephants, gaur (Indian bison), sambar deer and otters along the banks. The lake was created in 1895 by the Mullaperiyar Dam, and as the boat glides across it, you pass the bare trunks of trees drowned when the valley flooded, standing like silver sculptures in the water. The forest rises steeply on both sides, and the banks open out into grassy clearings where animals come to drink and graze. Elephant herds, with their young, are often seen bathing at the water's edge, especially in the warmer months.

In the evening, choose a Kathakali performance, a Kalaripayattu martial-arts show or a guided walk through a spice plantation. Kathakali, Kerala's classical dance-drama, combines dance, music and mime, with performers in extraordinary make-up and costumes telling ancient stories through their eyes and hands. Kalaripayattu, the traditional martial art of Kerala, is thrilling to watch, with high leaps, fast sword and stick fights and acrobatic displays. A spice plantation walk shows you cardamom, pepper, vanilla, coffee and cocoa growing side by side, and the guide will explain how each is harvested and processed.

Thekkady is also an excellent place to slow down and enjoy nature on foot. The Periyar reserve runs several eco-tourism programmes led by trained guides from local tribal communities, who once lived by hunting and gathering in these forests and now help protect them. Choose from short nature walks along forest trails, longer treks, bamboo rafting on the lake or night patrols with the forest guards; places are limited and need to be booked in advance through the forest department, so tell us if you'd like one.

The forests of Periyar are home to more than 300 species of birds, and even a short walk can reveal hornbills, woodpeckers, barbets, flycatchers, drongos and colourful kingfishers. In the early morning, the forest is alive with their calls, and the mist hangs among the trees. Butterflies are everywhere too, including the huge southern birdwing, India's largest butterfly.

In the evening, the little town of Kumily, next to Thekkady, comes alive with shoppers. It's the best place in Kerala to buy fresh spices, with dozens of shops selling cardamom, pepper, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and tea, as well as Ayurvedic oils, handmade soaps and Kerala handicrafts. Prices are good and the quality is excellent, as much of it comes straight from the surrounding plantations.

For dinner, try something new: many Thekkady restaurants serve dishes from both Kerala and Tamil Nadu, reflecting the town's position on the border, from Kerala fish curry and appam to Tamil-style dosas, parottas and chicken Chettinad. Then enjoy a quiet night surrounded by the sounds of the forest.

The drive from Munnar to Thekkady is also one of the most beautiful in Kerala, and it's worth taking slowly. The road passes through the small towns of Pooppara and Nedumkandam, where the hillsides are covered in cardamom and pepper, and you'll see farmers drying the green cardamom pods on mats outside their homes. If you'd like, ask your driver to stop at a cardamom estate, where you can see how the pods are picked, dried and graded.

Periyar is also an important elephant reserve, and the elephants here are part of one of the largest populations of wild Asian elephants in the world, which roams across the forests of the Western Ghats. They move in family herds, led by the oldest female, and it's wonderful to watch a herd of mothers and calves wading into the lake to drink and bathe, splashing water over their backs with their trunks.

The Periyar Tiger Reserve is also a pioneer in community conservation. Many of the people who once lived by cutting wood or poaching in the forest now work as guides, rangers and boatmen, earning their living by protecting it instead. When you join a nature walk or a bamboo rafting trip, you're supporting this work directly, and your guide will have stories of the forest that no book can match.

Included today: private car from Munnar to Thekkady, hotel in Thekkady, breakfast.

Good to know: drive 3–4 hours. The boat ride, shows and spice walk are optional and paid locally. Read more in our guide to Thekkady tourist places.

An 8 AM start gets you down from the hills to Alleppey, now officially called Alappuzha, in about four hours, in time to board your private houseboat between noon and 1 PM. As you descend, the spice hills give way to rubber plantations and then to the flat, watery world of Kuttanad, where paddy fields stretch to the horizon and canals run alongside the road.

Your houseboat, a kettuvallam, is a traditional Kerala rice barge transformed into a floating home. Its hull is made of jackwood planks, traditionally stitched together with coir rope, and its curved roof is woven from bamboo and palm leaves. Inside are a bedroom with an attached bathroom and a sitting area, and at the front, an open deck with comfortable chairs. Your crew welcomes you aboard with a drink, and then you set off.

Through the afternoon you glide along the backwaters past rice paddies, coconut groves and lakeside villages, while the crew cooks a Kerala lunch on board. The backwaters are a world of their own, where water is the main road and life moves at the pace of a paddle. You'll see schoolchildren crossing by ferry, women washing clothes on stone steps, fishermen with their nets, ducks herded along the canals by men in canoes, and little shops selling everything from soap to snacks from the water's edge. Lunch, served on deck, is a feast of Kerala dishes: rice, fish curry, fried fish, vegetable thoran, sambar, pappadam and pickles.

The boat moors for the night at about 5:30 PM, as local rules require, and dinner is served on deck. As the sun sets, the sky turns gold and pink over the paddy fields, and the palms stand dark against it. Then night falls, the backwaters grow still, and the sounds of the village, crickets, frogs and distant temple music, drift across the water.

Houseboats in Alleppey come in many sizes and styles, from simple deluxe boats to premium and luxury boats with glass-walled bedrooms, upper decks and modern interiors. All have a private bedroom, a bathroom, a sitting area and a deck, and all come with a crew of two or three, including a cook. Bedrooms are usually air-conditioned at night.

In the late afternoon, the boat may stop at a village so you can stretch your legs and walk along the narrow paths between the paddy fields and the water. You might see a small coir-making workshop, where women twist coconut fibre into rope by hand, or a toddy shop, where palm wine tapped from coconut trees is sold fresh each day. Your crew can also buy fresh fish, prawns or crab from local fishermen to cook for your dinner, if you'd like, at a small extra cost.

The backwaters are especially rich in birdlife. Look out for kingfishers flashing blue and orange along the banks, cormorants and darters drying their wings on posts, herons and egrets wading in the paddy fields, and Brahminy kites circling overhead. As the light fades, flocks of birds fly in to roost in the palms, and the evening air fills with their calls.

After dinner, sit on the deck in the warm night air and look up at the stars. With no traffic and few lights, the backwaters are wonderfully dark and quiet, and the only sounds are the frogs, the crickets and the gentle lapping of water against the boat. For many travellers, this night on the water is the highlight of their whole Kerala trip.

Kuttanad, the region you cruise through today, is one of the most remarkable farming landscapes in the world. Much of it lies one to two metres below sea level, and farmers have grown rice here for more than 150 years, in fields reclaimed from the lake and protected by earthen dykes and pumps. The United Nations has recognised it as a globally important agricultural heritage system. Twice a year, the fields turn from emerald green to gold as the rice ripens, and at harvest time, the paths between them fill with workers carrying sheaves of rice.

The backwaters are also the setting for the famous snake boat races of Kerala, held during the monsoon season, especially the Nehru Trophy Boat Race on Punnamada Lake every August. Long, narrow wooden boats called chundan vallams, each rowed by around a hundred oarsmen singing traditional boat songs, race across the water before huge cheering crowds. If you visit at another time of year, your crew may point out the boat sheds where the great snake boats are kept.

Before you sleep, step out onto the deck once more: on a clear night, the stars are reflected in the still water all around you.

Included today: private car from Thekkady to Alleppey, private houseboat with lunch, dinner and breakfast on board.

Good to know: drive about 4 hours. Bedrooms are air-conditioned at night. Compare boat categories on our Alleppey houseboat packages page.

After a short morning cruise and breakfast, leave the boat by 9 AM. The early morning is the most peaceful time on the backwaters, with mist on the water and the villages slowly waking up, so try to be on deck as the boat sets off.

Take a walk on Alleppey Beach, a long, wide stretch of golden sand where the ruins of an old pier reach out into the sea and fishing boats are drawn up on the shore. Then drive about two hours to Kochi.

If you leave in the evening, there's time for Fort Kochi: the Chinese fishing nets, St Francis Church, Mattancherry Palace and the antique and spice shops of Jew Town. Fort Kochi's mix of Portuguese, Dutch, British, Jewish and Kerala influences makes it one of the most fascinating places in South India, and its quiet streets, old houses and waterfront are perfect for a gentle final walk. The Chinese fishing nets, rising and falling over the water, are the classic photograph; St Francis Church holds the original grave of Vasco da Gama; and Mattancherry Palace has some of the finest Kerala murals in existence. In Jew Town, browse the antique shops and spice warehouses and visit the area around the Paradesi Synagogue.

Your driver drops you at Kochi airport or the railway station, with six days of Kerala memories: the tea hills of Munnar, the sandalwood and ancient dolmens of Marayoor, the elephants of Periyar and a peaceful night on the backwaters.

Before you leave Alleppey, look out for the town's canals, lined with old warehouses and bridges from its days as a busy trading port, when coir, spices and coconut products were shipped from here to the world. Alleppey's lighthouse, a red-and-white striped tower from the 19th century, can be climbed for a view over the town and the coast.

Fort Kochi rewards a slow walk. Its quiet lanes are lined with old Portuguese and Dutch houses with tiled roofs and wooden shutters, now home to boutique hotels, art galleries and cafés. Look out for colourful street art, the open green of the Parade Ground, and the old Dutch cemetery near the beach, one of the oldest European cemeteries in India. In the evening, families gather on the waterfront to watch the sunset over the harbour, as ships glide in and out of the port.

If you have time, enjoy a last Kerala meal in Fort Kochi: a seafood thali, fish moilee in coconut milk, or a plate of appam and stew. Cafés here also serve excellent coffee, cakes and fresh juices, often in shady courtyards of old colonial houses.

This is also your last chance to shop for souvenirs. Jew Town is the best place in Kochi for spices and tea, and the antique shops are full of old furniture, brass lamps, carved doors and curiosities from Kerala's past. Look too for handloom mundus and saris with golden borders, small Kathakali masks and wooden elephants. Pack spices and tea safely in your checked luggage.

Thank you for travelling with Dreamland Vacations. Six days is a lovely amount of time to see Kerala, and we hope you'll return one day to discover more, perhaps the beaches of Kovalam and Varkala, the waterfalls of Athirapilly or the temple town of Guruvayur.

Fort Kochi's history is full of fascinating stories. The Jewish community of Kochi, one of the oldest in India, is said to have arrived on the Malabar coast more than 2,000 years ago, and the Paradesi Synagogue, built in 1568, is the oldest active synagogue in the Commonwealth. Its floor is covered with hand-painted blue-and-white tiles from China, no two exactly alike, and it's lit by Belgian glass chandeliers. Only a handful of members of the community remain, but the synagogue and the street around it are a living reminder of Kochi's long history as a meeting place of cultures.

As you head to the airport, look back on your six days in Kerala: the waterfalls and spice gardens on the road to Munnar, the Nilgiri tahr and the tea gardens, the sandalwood forests and ancient dolmens of Marayoor, the elephants of Periyar and a peaceful night on the backwaters. Few places in India offer so much variety in such a short distance, and fewer still are as relaxing to travel through.

Safe travels home, and we hope to welcome you back to God's Own Country soon. Keep a little cash handy for parking, entry tickets and small purchases along the way.

Included today: morning cruise and breakfast on the houseboat, private car to Kochi, Fort Kochi if time allows, drop at Kochi airport or railway station.

Good to know: drive about 2 hours. Book a flight that leaves at least 3 hours after you reach the airport. Plan your visit with our Fort Kochi tourist places guide.