Kerala 7 Days Itinerary: Munnar, Thekkady & Houseboat

A week in Kerala is the ideal amount of time to see the state properly: long enough for the hills, the forests and the backwaters, and still relaxed enough to enjoy them. Your journey begins at Kochi airport or Ernakulam railway station, where your driver picks you up in a private air-conditioned car for the drive east into the Western Ghats.

As you leave Kochi, take in the first sights of everyday Kerala. Houses painted in bright pinks, blues and yellows sit among coconut palms and banana trees, many with neat gardens and wide verandas. Every few hundred metres there's a little tea shop, where men sit on benches reading the morning paper over glasses of milky tea, and roadside stalls sell bunches of bananas, tender coconuts, jackfruit and pineapples. Kerala is famous for its high levels of literacy and health, and its towns feel calm and orderly, with schools, libraries, hospitals and reading rooms everywhere.

Within a couple of hours the road begins to climb through rubber and cardamom plantations. The rubber trees, planted in long, straight rows, have spiral cuts in their bark and small cups or coconut shells tied beneath to catch the white latex, which is collected each morning and pressed into sheets that you'll see drying on racks outside village houses. Higher up, the rubber gives way to cardamom and pepper, grown under the shade of tall forest trees, and the air turns cool and fresh.

Break the journey at Cheeyappara and Valara, two waterfalls right beside the highway. Cheeyappara drops down a rocky hillside in seven separate steps, white water foaming over dark rock, while Valara, a short drive on, plunges into a deep, forested gorge. They're at their most powerful after the monsoon, and the spray cools the air around them. Stop too at a spice garden where you can see pepper vines and cardamom up close, along with cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, all-spice, coffee and vanilla. Your guide will explain how each one is grown and used, both in Kerala's kitchens and in Ayurvedic medicine, and you can buy fresh spices to take home.

The first tea estates appear by mid-afternoon, and they take your breath away. The hills are covered from top to bottom with tea bushes, trimmed into rounded, waist-high rows that follow the contours of the slopes like ripples on a green sea. Tea pickers move slowly along the rows, plucking the youngest leaves by hand and tossing them into baskets or sacks on their backs, and the estates are dotted with factories, workers' houses, small temples and schools.

You check in at Munnar with the evening free. Munnar lies about 1,600 metres above sea level, where three mountain streams meet, and it was developed by British planters in the late 19th century as the centre of a vast tea-growing area. The climate is cool all year, with crisp mornings and chilly evenings, especially in winter, so you'll want a jacket. Spend the evening relaxing at your hotel, enjoying a cup of fresh Munnar tea and the quiet of the hills.

Kerala's name is often said to come from "kera", the Malayalam word for coconut palm, and once you see the endless palms lining every road, canal and garden, it's easy to believe. The state sits between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea, a long, narrow strip of land with a remarkable variety of landscapes: high mountains and tea gardens, dense forests and wildlife reserves, a maze of backwaters, and hundreds of kilometres of beaches. Over the next seven days, you'll see almost all of them.

Munnar has a gentle, unhurried feel. Its small town centre has a busy market, where stalls sell vegetables, fruit, spices and tea, and a few old churches and buildings from the planters' days. But most visitors stay in the hotels and resorts scattered across the hills around the town, many with balconies looking out over the tea gardens and valleys. Wake early tomorrow if you can: the first light over the hills, with mist filling the valleys below, is one of the most beautiful sights in Kerala.

For dinner tonight, try one of Kerala's comfort foods: a plate of hot Malabar parottas, flaky layered flatbreads, with a spicy chicken or vegetable curry, or a bowl of rice with fish curry and thoran.

Then settle in for a good night's sleep in the cool mountain air, ready for a full day of sightseeing tomorrow.

Welcome to 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. The road has many bends; if you're prone to motion sickness, sit in front and carry something for it.

Go to Eravikulam National Park early, around 9 AM, before the queues build. The park protects the high grasslands and shola forests around Anamudi, South India's highest peak, and it's home to the largest surviving population of the Nilgiri tahr, a wild mountain goat found only in these hills. In the 1970s, the tahr was close to extinction; today, thanks to protection, hundreds of them live here, and they've become so used to visitors that they graze calmly beside the paths.

A park bus takes you up the hillside, where the Nilgiri tahr often grazes close to the path. From the bus drop-off, you walk along a gently climbing road through grassland and rocky outcrops, with sweeping views over the valleys. The tahr are sturdy, short-horned animals with thick brown coats, and you'll often see mothers with young kids clambering over the rocks. The air is clean and cool, and the silence is broken only by the wind and the calls of birds. On clear days, you can see far across the hills to the plains of Tamil Nadu.

Next, the Tea Museum shows how fresh leaf becomes the tea in your cup, with a tasting at the end. The museum traces the history of tea in Munnar from the 1880s, when planters first cleared the forests, through photographs, documents and old machinery, and a short film tells the story of the estates and the people who built them. Then you watch the modern processing line, where green leaves are withered, rolled, fermented, dried and sorted into different grades, and finish with a tasting of Munnar's teas. It's a fascinating visit, and the shop is the best place to buy fresh tea.

In the afternoon, follow the Mattupetty road to Mattupetty Dam, Echo Point and Kundala Lake, stopping at viewpoints over the estates. The road winds through some of Munnar's most beautiful scenery, with tea gardens on both sides and forest-covered hills beyond. Mattupetty Dam holds back a long, calm lake, where wild elephants sometimes come down to drink, and the Indo-Swiss dairy farm nearby keeps herds of cattle on the green slopes. At Echo Point, shout across the lake and hear your voice bounce back from the hills. Kundala Lake, surrounded by eucalyptus and tea, is a peaceful place for a pedal boat or a bamboo raft ride.

As the light fades, stop at a viewpoint over the estates, where the sun throws long shadows across the tea and the hills turn gold and then blue. Then return to your hotel for dinner and a cosy evening.

Munnar has many more viewpoints and corners to explore if you have time. Top Station, about an hour's drive away on the border with Tamil Nadu, is the highest point on the road and offers dramatic views down into the plains, often over a sea of clouds. Pothamedu viewpoint, just outside town, looks out over tea, coffee and cardamom estates, and the Blossom Park and Botanical Garden are pretty places for a stroll among flowers. For something sweet, the homemade chocolate shops in town are hard to resist, with chocolates flavoured with cardamom, pepper and coffee.

Munnar is also famous for the Neelakurinji, a shrub that covers the hills and flowers only once every twelve years, turning entire slopes a soft blue-purple. The last great flowering was in 2018, and the next is expected around 2030, when visitors will come from all over India to see it.

The tea estates themselves are home to thousands of families, many of them descended from workers who came from Tamil Nadu in the days of the British planters. Their neat rows of houses, small temples and schools are tucked among the tea, and you'll see children walking home along the estate roads and women sorting leaves at the collection points. Life here has its own rhythm, set by the seasons and the growth of the tea.

For dinner, Munnar's hotels serve Kerala, North Indian and Continental food, and many have a fireplace or bonfire on cool evenings. A bowl of hot soup and a cup of tea by the fire, after a day in the fresh mountain air, is one of the simplest pleasures of a stay in the hills. Tomorrow you head south to Thekkady, so enjoy your last night among the tea gardens.

If the day is clear, you'll also be able to see why the British called these hills the High Range: ridge after ridge of green mountains stretching away into the distance, fading to blue on the horizon.

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; entry tickets are paid locally. The Tea Museum is closed on Mondays. Want another day in the hills? See our Munnar tour packages.

A three-to-four-hour drive south through cardamom country brings you to Thekkady, on the edge of the Periyar Tiger Reserve. The road winds through the Cardamom Hills, past small towns, spice estates and patches of forest, with views across the Western Ghats at every bend. Look out for farmers drying cardamom pods on mats outside their homes, and for the tiny roadside shrines decorated with marigolds.

Thekkady is a small, friendly town on the border of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, surrounded by forest and spice plantations. It's the gateway to the Periyar Tiger Reserve, one of the oldest and best-protected wildlife reserves in India, covering a large area of evergreen forest, grassland and hills around Periyar Lake. You'll spend two nights here, so there's plenty of time to enjoy it.

In the afternoon, take the boat ride on Periyar Lake, where elephants, gaur (Indian bison) and sambar deer often come down to the water's edge. The lake was formed in 1895 when the Mullaperiyar Dam was built across the Periyar River, and as the boat glides along, you pass the bare white trunks of trees drowned when the valley flooded, still standing in the water more than a century later. Cormorants and darters perch on them to dry their wings, and kingfishers dive for fish from the branches. The forest rises on all sides, and the banks open out into grassy clearings where animals come to drink. Elephant herds, wading into the lake to bathe and play, are the highlight for most visitors.

In the evening, watch a Kathakali dance-drama or a Kalaripayattu martial-arts show, or book an Ayurvedic massage. Kathakali is one of the great classical arts of India, combining dance, music and drama, and the actors' faces, painted in vivid green, red, black and white, are unforgettable. Kalaripayattu, Kerala's ancient martial art, is a breathtaking display of strength and agility, with leaps, kicks, sword fights and acrobatics performed by firelight. An Ayurvedic massage, using warm herbal oils, is the perfect way to relax after the journey, and Kerala is the home of Ayurveda, India's traditional system of medicine.

Thekkady's spice markets are the best in Kerala. The small town of Kumily, right next to Thekkady, is lined with shops selling cardamom, pepper, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, tea, coffee and Ayurvedic oils, much of it straight from the surrounding plantations. Prices are fair and the quality is excellent, so this is the place to stock up on spices to take home. The town also has small restaurants serving both Kerala and Tamil food, reflecting its position on the border.

The Periyar Tiger Reserve has a long history of protection. It became a wildlife sanctuary in the 1930s under the Maharaja of Travancore and a tiger reserve in 1978, and today it's one of the best-managed reserves in India, known for involving local communities in its protection. The forests are home to elephants, gaur, sambar deer, wild boar, leopards, sloth bears, lion-tailed macaques, Nilgiri langurs and tigers, as well as more than 300 species of birds and many reptiles and butterflies. Even if you don't see a tiger, the variety of wildlife you can spot from the boat is remarkable.

As evening falls, the forest comes alive with the sounds of insects, frogs and birds, and the air is cool and fragrant with spices. Enjoy dinner at your hotel and a quiet night surrounded by nature; with two nights here, there's no need to pack tomorrow.

Thekkady is also an excellent base for a little shopping and wandering in the evening. The main road through Kumily is lined with spice shops, cafés, small restaurants and handicraft stores selling Kerala lamps, carved wooden elephants, Kathakali masks and handmade soaps. It's lively but relaxed, and a nice place for an evening stroll before dinner.

Many travellers are surprised at how cool and pleasant Thekkady is. At around 900 metres above sea level, it's warmer than Munnar but much cooler than the coast, and the evenings are comfortable for sitting outdoors. In the early morning, the forest is often wrapped in mist, and the calls of birds and monkeys echo through the trees.

The Mullaperiyar Dam itself has an interesting story. It was built by the British engineer Colonel John Pennycuick to divert the waters of the Periyar River east across the mountains, irrigating the dry farmland of southern Tamil Nadu. The work was difficult and dangerous, through dense forest and heavy monsoon rains, and the story goes that when funds ran short, Pennycuick sold his own family's property in England to finish it. In the farming villages that still depend on its water, he is remembered as a hero.

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

Good to know: drive 3–4 hours. The boat ride, shows and Ayurvedic treatments are optional and paid locally. Boat tickets are limited and sell out early in busy months.

This is the day that makes a week in Kerala feel relaxed. There's no drive, no check-out and no schedule, so sleep in and enjoy your hotel, or set out to explore the forest and spice country at your own pace. Many of Thekkady's hotels are set among spice gardens and forest, with swimming pools, spas and quiet terraces where you can sit with a book and listen to the birds.

If you'd like to explore, try one of Periyar's eco-tourism activities run by the forest department: a guided nature walk, bamboo rafting on the lake, a longer trek, or a full-day trip to Gavi, a quiet forest area with a lake and cardamom estates. These activities are led by guides from local tribal communities, who know the forest intimately. On a nature walk, you follow forest trails with your guide, learning to spot animal tracks, medicinal plants and birds. Bamboo rafting takes you out onto the lake on a traditional raft, with a chance to see wildlife along the shore. Longer treks take you deeper into the reserve, and Gavi, about 40 kilometres away, is a remote, beautiful area of forest, grassland and cardamom estates with a small lake, where you can trek, boat and look for wildlife in peace.

You could also visit a spice plantation for a guided walk, explore the spice shops of Kumily, or simply relax by the pool. If you'd like, your driver can take you to see a traditional elephant camp or the village markets around Thekkady.

If you'd prefer something gentler, there's plenty to do close to town. A guided spice plantation walk shows you how cardamom, pepper, coffee, cocoa, vanilla and many other spices are grown, and you can taste fresh fruits and pods straight from the plants. A visit to a local tea or coffee estate, an elephant interaction camp, or a boat trip on the lake are other options, all easy to arrange with your driver or hotel.

Thekkady is also one of the best places in Kerala to experience Ayurveda, India's ancient system of natural medicine. Many hotels have Ayurvedic spas offering traditional massages with warm herbal oils, steam baths and treatments for relaxation and rejuvenation. A full-body abhyanga massage, followed by a herbal steam bath, is a wonderful way to spend a lazy afternoon, and the therapists are trained in techniques passed down over centuries.

The forests around Thekkady are rich in birdlife. Keen birdwatchers can see great hornbills, Malabar grey hornbills, Malabar trogons, woodpeckers, barbets and flycatchers, while butterflies, including the huge southern birdwing, flutter through the gardens. Even a slow walk around your hotel grounds in the early morning can be rewarding, with the jungle waking up around you.

In the evening, if you didn't see one yesterday, catch a Kathakali or Kalaripayattu show in town, or wander through the spice shops of Kumily before dinner. Many visitors say this free day was exactly what they needed in the middle of their trip, a chance to rest, explore at their own pace and enjoy the peace of the forest.

Gavi deserves a special mention. This remote forest area, about 40 kilometres from Thekkady inside the Periyar landscape, has become one of Kerala's best-loved eco-tourism destinations, with rolling hills, cardamom plantations, misty grasslands and a small lake surrounded by forest. Visitor numbers are controlled to protect the environment, so it's quiet and unspoilt, and you may see elephants, gaur, sambar deer and many birds. The journey there, through dense forest and estates, is an adventure in itself.

If you'd like to get closer to local life, visit a small village market near Thekkady, where farmers sell vegetables, fruit, spices and fish, or stop at a roadside tea shop for a glass of sweet milky tea and a plate of hot banana fritters. The people of these hills are warm and welcoming, and many speak both Malayalam and Tamil.

Whatever you choose, enjoy the rare luxury of a day with no plans in the middle of a holiday. Many travellers spend it reading by the pool, napping in a hammock among the spice plants, or simply sitting on the veranda with a cup of cardamom tea, listening to the forest. It's the perfect pause before the second half of your journey, down to the backwaters of Alleppey.

If your hotel offers a cooking class, try learning to make a simple Kerala dish such as fish curry, avial or appam: it's a fun way to spend an hour, and a recipe to take home.

Included today: a free day at Thekkady, breakfast.

Good to know: eco-tourism activities are booked separately with the forest department and have limited places, so tell us in advance. Your car is not at disposal on the free day unless arranged. For more ideas, read our guide to Thekkady tourist places.

Drive down from the hills to Alleppey, now officially called Alappuzha, about four hours away. The road descends through spice and rubber plantations, small towns and villages, and onto the green lowlands of Kuttanad, where the backwaters begin. The change is striking: the cool forest air gives way to the warm, humid breeze of the coast, and the landscape flattens into a shining world of paddy fields, canals and coconut palms.

Check in to a resort on the backwaters and take the afternoon slowly: a swim, a book, a walk along the canal. Alleppey's lakeside resorts are among the most peaceful places to stay in Kerala, with gardens of palms and hibiscus running down to the water's edge, hammocks strung between the trees and terraces where you can watch the boats go by. Houseboats glide past, village canoes carry people and goods along the canal, and ducks paddle in long lines across the water.

Before sunset, head to Alleppey Beach and its old pier, or browse the shops in town. The beach is a long, wide stretch of golden sand lined with palms, where the iron ruins of a 19th-century pier, built when Alleppey was a busy port, stretch out into the Arabian Sea. Local families come here in the evening to stroll, fly kites and buy roasted peanuts and ice cream, and the sunset over the sea is beautiful. Alleppey town has shops selling coir mats, handicrafts and spices, and the old canals in the town centre are lined with warehouses from its trading days.

Alleppey's history is closely tied to the water. In the 18th century, the Raja of Travancore developed it as a port, and its canals were dug to carry goods from the backwaters to the sea. For many years, it was famous for its coir industry, turning coconut fibre into rope, mats and carpets that were shipped around the world, and you can still find coir factories and shops in the town. The red-and-white striped lighthouse, built in the 19th century, still stands near the beach, and you can climb it for a view over the town and the coast.

The backwaters around Alleppey are home to a remarkable way of life. In the region of Kuttanad, farmers grow rice in fields that lie below sea level, protected by earthen dykes, and families live on narrow strips of land between the canals, travelling everywhere by boat. Ducks are raised in huge flocks on the water, and fish, prawns and crabs are caught in the canals. It's a landscape shaped by water, and life moves gently with it.

For dinner, try the local speciality, karimeen, the pearl spot fish of the backwaters, marinated in spices and fried, or wrapped in a banana leaf and cooked as karimeen pollichathu. Duck roast, prawn curry and crab are also local favourites, and vegetarians will enjoy a traditional Kerala meal of rice, avial, thoran, sambar and pickles.

In the evening, sit on your terrace and watch the last light fade over the water, as the houseboats moor for the night and the sounds of the village drift across the canal.

Alleppey is also the home of Kerala's famous snake boat races, held on the backwaters during the monsoon season. The best known is the Nehru Trophy Boat Race, held every August on Punnamada Lake, when 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. Even at other times of the year, you may see the great boats resting in their sheds along the canals.

If you'd like a closer look at village life before tomorrow's houseboat, add a shikara ride in the late afternoon. These small covered boats can slip into the narrowest canals, past village homes, little churches and paddy fields, where the big houseboats can't go, and the golden evening light makes it one of the most peaceful experiences in Kerala.

Tonight is a good night to rest well: tomorrow you board your houseboat, and there's nothing to do but relax on the water. If you're up early, take a walk along the canal at dawn, when the mist hangs over the water, fishermen paddle out in their canoes and the villages slowly come to life; it's the most beautiful time of day on the backwaters.

Backwater resorts often offer evening cultural shows, Ayurvedic massages or short canoe rides, so ask at reception what's on.

Keep a little cash handy for small purchases, tips and boat rides; many small shops and boatmen in the backwaters prefer cash or UPI.

Included today: private car from Thekkady to Alleppey, backwater resort in Alleppey, breakfast.

Good to know: drive about 4 hours. A shikara ride through the narrow canals can be added in the late afternoon at extra cost.

Today, you begin the morning at your resort, with time for a leisurely breakfast and perhaps a swim before you check out. Your driver then takes you to the jetty, where your crew welcomes you on board with a fresh drink.

Around noon, board your private houseboat, a kettuvallam built from wood and coir in the traditional style. These graceful boats once carried rice and spices along the backwaters to the port of Kochi, and today they've been transformed into floating homes, with a bedroom, bathroom, sitting area and open deck, and a crew of two or three to look after you.

You glide past paddy fields, coconut groves, village churches and fishermen at work, with an hour's stop for a lunch of Kerala dishes cooked on board by the crew. Lunch is a feast: steaming rice, fish curry or chicken curry, fried fish, vegetable thoran, sambar, pappadam and pickles, served on deck with the backwaters all around you. Through the afternoon, the boat drifts through narrow canals and across wide lakes, past villages where life revolves around the water: women washing clothes, children swimming and fishermen casting their nets.

The boat cruises until about 5:30 PM and then moors for the night, as local rules require. Watch the sunset from the deck as the sky turns gold and pink over the paddy fields, and the palms stand dark against it. Dinner and breakfast are served on deck. As darkness falls, the backwaters grow still and quiet, and the only sounds are frogs, crickets and the soft lapping of water against the boat.

The backwaters are a world of their own. As you cruise, you'll pass through narrow canals barely wider than the boat, where palms arch overhead and village homes stand right at the water's edge, and then out across wide lakes, where the water stretches to the horizon and the breeze is cool. You'll see small churches and temples, schools, toddy shops and little stores that sell everything from soap to snacks from the water's edge. Look out for the ferry boats that carry villagers between islands, and the long wooden canoes loaded with coconuts, sand or bricks.

Birds are everywhere: kingfishers flash blue and orange along the banks, cormorants and darters dry their wings on posts, egrets and herons stalk through the paddy fields, and Brahminy kites circle overhead. In the late afternoon, flocks of birds fly in to roost in the palms, and the air fills with their calls.

In the late afternoon, enjoy tea and banana fritters on deck. If you'd like, your crew can buy fresh fish, prawns or crab from the local fishermen and cook them for dinner, at a small extra cost. After dinner, sit out under the stars; with almost no lights around, the night sky is beautiful, and the stars are reflected in the still water. For many travellers, this night on the backwaters is the highlight of their whole week in Kerala.

The backwaters are also at the heart of Kerala's farming traditions. The region you cruise through, Kuttanad, is one of the few places in the world where rice is grown below sea level, in fields reclaimed from the lake and protected by dykes and pumps, a system recognised by the United Nations as a globally important agricultural heritage. Twice a year, the paddy fields turn from bright green to gold as the rice ripens, and at harvest time, the paths between them fill with workers carrying sheaves of rice on their heads.

Houseboat life is wonderfully simple. There's nothing to do but sit on the deck, watch the water, read a book, chat with your crew and enjoy the passing scenery. Your crew will happily tell you about life on the backwaters, the boats and the villages, and point out the birds and the sights along the way.

Your crew will also be happy to adjust the menu to your taste: let them know if you're vegetarian, prefer milder food or would like to try a particular Kerala dish. Many travellers say the simple, home-style meals cooked on board, with fresh ingredients bought from the villages along the way, are among the best food of their whole trip. And as you watch the sun go down from the deck, with a cup of tea in hand and the backwaters glowing gold around you, you'll understand why a houseboat night is on so many people's lists of things to do in India.

Wake early tomorrow for the gentle morning cruise before breakfast.

Remember to keep valuables and phones safely inside the cabin when you're not using them.

Included today: private houseboat cruise with lunch, dinner and breakfast on board, breakfast at the resort.

Good to know: boats come in Deluxe, Premium and Luxury categories; compare them on our Alleppey houseboat packages page. Bedrooms are air-conditioned at night.

After a short morning cruise and breakfast, leave the boat by 9 AM and drive about two hours to Kochi. Try to be on deck early, when the mist is still lifting off the water and the villages are waking up; it's one of the most peaceful moments of the whole trip.

With an evening flight or train, there's time for Fort Kochi: the Chinese fishing nets, St Francis Church, Santa Cruz Basilica, Mattancherry Palace and the spice shops of Jew Town. Fort Kochi is where Kerala's long history as a spice-trading centre comes alive, with Portuguese, Dutch, British, Jewish and Chinese influences all around you. The Chinese fishing nets, worked by teams of fishermen, are the city's most famous sight. St Francis Church, from the early 16th century, is one of the oldest European churches in India. The Santa Cruz Basilica, with its twin spires and painted ceilings, is one of the most beautiful churches in Kerala. Mattancherry Palace has superb Kerala murals, and Jew Town is full of spice warehouses and antique shops.

Your driver drops you at Kochi airport or the railway station, with a week of Kerala memories behind you.

Before you reach Kochi, take a moment to look back on your week. You climbed from the coast to the tea gardens of Munnar, saw the Nilgiri tahr on the slopes of Eravikulam, watched elephants bathing in Periyar Lake, wandered through spice plantations and forests in Thekkady, relaxed at a resort on the backwaters, and spent a peaceful night aboard a houseboat. It's a journey that shows you the very best of Kerala, at a pace that lets you truly enjoy it.

Fort Kochi rewards a slow wander. Its quiet streets are lined with old Portuguese and Dutch houses, many now converted into boutique hotels, art galleries and cafés, and the walls are decorated with colourful street art. The waterfront promenade is lovely in the late afternoon, when families gather to watch the ships glide in and out of the harbour and the sun set behind the Chinese fishing nets. If you're visiting in a Biennale year, between December and March, the Kochi-Muziris Biennale fills the town's old warehouses and galleries with contemporary art from around the world.

Fort Kochi is also the perfect place for a last Kerala meal. Try a seafood thali, fish moilee cooked in coconut milk, or appam with chicken stew, and finish with a sweet payasam. Its cafés serve excellent coffee, cakes and fresh juices in shady courtyards.

Before you leave, pick up a few souvenirs: spices and tea from Jew Town, a handloom mundu or sari with a golden border, a brass lamp, a small Kathakali mask or a carved wooden elephant. Pack spices and tea safely in your checked luggage, and keep your ID and tickets handy for the journey home.

Thank you for travelling with Dreamland Vacations. We hope your week in Kerala stays with you for a long time, and that you'll return to discover more, from the beaches of Kovalam and Varkala to the waterfalls of Athirapilly and the temple town of Guruvayur.

Kochi itself has a long and fascinating history. For more than two thousand years, traders from Arabia, China, Rome and later Europe came to the Malabar coast for its pepper and other spices, and Kochi became one of the most important ports in the Indian Ocean after a great flood in 1341 opened its natural harbour. The Portuguese arrived in 1500 and built the first European fort in India here, followed by the Dutch in 1663 and the British in the late 18th century. Each left their mark, and today Fort Kochi is a living museum of these many cultures.

Safe travels home, and we hope to welcome you back to God's Own Country soon.

Kochi airport is one of the busiest in South India and is known for being the world's first airport to run entirely on solar power, with fields of solar panels next to the runway. Allow plenty of time to get there, as traffic in the city can be heavy in the evening, and keep a little cash handy for parking, entry tickets and small purchases along the way. Remember that tender coconuts and large quantities of liquid can't go in your hand luggage.

Then it's time to say goodbye to Kerala, with a camera full of photographs and a week of memories to share.

Finally, remember your driver: a small tip at the end of the trip is customary and much appreciated.

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 stop with our Fort Kochi tourist places guide.