Kerala & Kanyakumari Grand Tour – 9 Days

Welcome to the grand tour of South India's tip. Over the next nine days, you'll travel from the tea hills of the Western Ghats through spice forests and backwaters to the very southern point of India, and finish on the beaches of Kovalam. Your driver meets you at Kochi airport or Ernakulam railway station, and you head east straight away, towards the mountains you can sometimes see on a clear day, a faint blue line on the horizon.

The first stretch crosses the crowded, fertile plains of central Kerala. Kerala is one of the most densely populated states in India, and the towns run into one another along the road: Aluva, Perumbavoor, Kothamangalam, each with its markets, churches, temples, mosques, schools and busy bus stands. Between them lie paddy fields, banana and tapioca plots, coconut groves and rubber plantations, with tall, straight rubber trees in long shady rows, each with a small cup tied to its trunk to catch the white latex that's tapped at dawn.

Beyond Kothamangalam, the hills close in. The Western Ghats, which you're now entering, run for about 1,600 kilometres down the western side of India, and they're older than the Himalayas. They're one of the world's great centres of biodiversity, home to thousands of species of plants and animals found nowhere else, and in 2012, they were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The mountains catch the monsoon rains as they sweep in from the Arabian Sea, feeding the rivers that water the whole of Kerala, and their forests are the source of the spices that made this coast famous.

At Neriamangalam, the road crosses the broad Periyar River on a stone bridge of tall arches, and from here, it starts to climb, twisting and turning up through thick forest. The road up the ghats is slow but spectacular, with hairpin bends, sudden views back over the plains and streams tumbling down from the hills. Stop at the Cheeyappara and Valara waterfalls, both right beside the road. Cheeyappara falls in a long series of white cascades down a rocky slope, while Valara drops into a deep, forested gorge. Stalls nearby sell tea, roasted corn, pineapple and mango sprinkled with chilli and salt, and monkeys watch hopefully from the walls.

Further up, stop at a spice garden, where a guide will show you how Kerala's famous spices grow. Pepper, the black gold that brought traders from Rome, Arabia and China to this coast for more than two thousand years, climbs up tall trees in long green vines hung with clusters of berries. Cardamom grows in leafy clumps in the shade, its pods hidden at the base of the stems. You'll see cinnamon trees, cloves, nutmeg with its lacy red mace, allspice, vanilla vines, coffee bushes and cocoa pods, and you can buy fresh spices to take home.

Lunch is at a roadside restaurant, perhaps in Adimali, where a simple Kerala meal of red rice, fish curry, vegetables and sambar costs very little and tastes wonderful. Then the road climbs the last stretch to Munnar, and the tea estates begin. Suddenly, the forest gives way to a landscape that looks almost sculpted: hills covered from top to bottom with tea bushes, clipped into neat, rounded rows that follow every curve of the land, with silver oaks standing above them and narrow paths running between. It's one of the great sights of India.

Munnar's tea country was developed in the late 19th century by British planters, who leased the hills, then known as the Kanan Devan Hills, from a local chieftain and cleared the forests for tea. The old planters' bungalows, churches and clubs still stand among the estates, and the town keeps something of the atmosphere of a colonial hill station. You reach the tea country and check in at Munnar by mid-afternoon, with time to rest and enjoy the cool mountain air.

In the evening, as the mist settles in the valleys and the temperature drops, sit on your balcony with a cup of fresh tea and watch the lights come on in the estate villages scattered across the hills. Dinner is at your hotel or in town, and a hearty Kerala stew with appam, or a spicy chicken fry with porotta, is just right on a cool mountain evening.

Bring a warm layer for the evenings, comfortable shoes and a light raincoat, and get a good night's sleep: tomorrow starts early at Eravikulam.

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

Good to know: drive about 4 hours, plus stops. The road has many bends; sit in front if you're prone to motion sickness. Lunch is at your own cost, and breakfast on arrival day isn't included.

Visit Eravikulam National Park when it opens at 9 AM and ride the park bus up to the home of the Nilgiri tahr, a mountain goat found only in these hills. Get there early: Eravikulam is the most popular sight in Munnar, and the number of daily visitors is limited, so the queues build quickly, especially at weekends and during holidays. From the gate at Fifth Mile, the bus climbs a steep, winding road through the tea estates to Rajamala, from where a paved path leads along the side of the hill.

This is a high, wild landscape of rolling grassland, sheer cliffs and patches of dark shola forest, with Anamudi, the highest peak in South India, rising above at about 2,695 metres. In the early morning, mist often fills the valleys below, and the tops of the hills float above it like islands. As you walk, look out for the tahr on the rocks and grassy slopes around you. They're stocky, sure-footed goats with short curved horns, the males dark with a pale saddle and the females lighter and smaller, and they're so used to visitors that they graze calmly beside the path, sometimes just a few metres away. Once hunted almost to extinction, they've recovered under protection, and Eravikulam now holds the largest population in the world.

Look out, too, for the small, colourful birds of the shola forest, the butterflies on the wild flowers, and, every twelve years, the extraordinary blue-violet bloom of the Neelakurinji, which covers the hills when it flowers all at once.

Back down the hill, tour the Tea Museum and taste a fresh cup. Munnar's tea is grown on some of the highest estates in South India, and the cool climate gives it a bright, brisk character. In the museum, old photographs, tools and machines tell the story of the estates, and a demonstration shows how the tea pickers' harvest, the youngest two leaves and a bud from each shoot, is withered, rolled, oxidised and dried in the factory. The best way to taste the difference is to try a cup of fresh Munnar tea on its own, without milk or sugar, and then with milk, Kerala-style.

Before lunch, take a walk through the tea gardens themselves. Ask your driver to stop at a quiet estate road, and wander a little way along the narrow paths between the bushes. Up close, the tea plants are glossy and dark green, with bright new leaves at the tips, and the slopes are steeper than they look from the road. If the pickers are at work, you'll see them moving steadily through the rows, plucking with both hands and tossing the leaves over their shoulders into the baskets on their backs, or using shears to cut the young growth. Many of them are women whose families have worked on these estates for generations.

In the afternoon, drive along the Mattupetty road to Mattupetty Dam, Echo Point and Kundala Lake. The road winds through eucalyptus groves, grassy meadows and some of the prettiest tea estates in Munnar, with viewpoints along the way. Mattupetty Dam holds back a long, calm lake between the hills, where wild elephants sometimes come down to the water in the evening, and the dairy farm on the slopes, set up with Swiss help in the 1960s, breeds fine cattle. At Echo Point, shout across the lake and hear your voice ring back from the far shore. Kundala Lake, ringed by eucalyptus and tea, is the place for a peaceful boat ride, and its arch dam is said to be one of the first of its kind in Asia. In spring, the cherry trees along the banks bloom pink and white.

Drive back to Munnar as the light softens, and spend a relaxed evening at your hotel, enjoying the cool, fresh air of the hills.

Munnar's little town centre is worth a wander in the late afternoon. Around the main junction, where the three rivers meet, small shops sell tea straight from the local factories, cardamom and pepper from the surrounding hills, homemade chocolates, eucalyptus oil, honey and warm shawls, and the market stalls are piled with carrots, cabbages, beans and fruit grown on the hill farms. Taste the teas before you buy; most shopkeepers are happy to brew a cup.

As evening falls, the temperature drops quickly, so keep a jacket handy. After dinner, step outside and look up: on clear nights, far from the lights of the plains, the stars over Munnar are bright and close. Tomorrow, you'll head south through the spice hills to Thekkady, so enjoy your last night in the tea country.

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 and boating are paid locally. The Tea Museum is closed on Mondays. See our Munnar tour packages for more ideas.

After breakfast, drive three to four hours through cardamom plantations to Thekkady. The road runs south through the heart of the Cardamom Hills, a region of rolling, forested hills and small towns where almost everyone's life is tied to spices. Cardamom grows in the shade of tall trees, and the hillsides here are covered with leafy cardamom plants beneath a high forest canopy, while pepper vines climb the trunks of the shade trees and coffee bushes line the edges of the plantations. In the harvest season, from about August to February, green cardamom pods are spread out to dry on mats beside the road and in small curing sheds, and the air is heavy with their sweet, warm scent.

Thekkady sits on the border with Tamil Nadu, and the town of Kumily, next to it, has a lively, cheerful feel, with spice shops, small hotels and restaurants serving both Kerala and Tamil food. Just across the border, the road drops steeply down to the Cumbum Valley in Tamil Nadu, a flat, fertile valley known for its vineyards, where grapes are grown on high trellises almost all year round. If you arrive early, your driver can take you down to the viewpoints over the valley for a striking contrast with the green hills of Kerala.

Kumily's main street is one of the best places in Kerala to buy spices, as many of them are grown in the hills just outside town. Shops are stacked high with jars and sacks of green cardamom, black and white pepper, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, star anise and dried ginger, along with packets of tea and coffee, homemade chocolates, vanilla pods, Ayurvedic oils and soaps. Shopkeepers will happily explain the different grades and let you taste and smell before you buy, and prices are usually fixed. Many shops also sell carved wooden elephants, brass lamps and handwoven textiles.

In the afternoon, take the boat ride on Periyar Lake inside the Periyar Tiger Reserve, looking out for elephants, gaur and sambar deer. The reserve is one of the most important in India, covering about 925 square kilometres of forest and grassland in the Cardamom Hills, and it's been protected since the days of the Maharajas of Travancore, who declared it a game sanctuary in the 1930s. It became a tiger reserve in 1978. The lake at its heart was created in 1895, when the Mullaperiyar Dam was built across the Periyar River, and as the boat glides across the water, past the bleached stumps of trees drowned by the rising lake, you'll scan the forested shores for wildlife. Elephants are the stars: families often come down to the water to drink, bathe and play, especially in the dry months from February to May. You may also see gaur, the huge wild cattle of India, sambar deer, wild boar, otters and many birds, including hornbills, kingfishers, darters and fish eagles.

The boat rides run several times a day, starting early in the morning, and the first and last trips are usually the best for wildlife, when the animals are most active and the light is soft. Tickets can sell out in the busy season, so it's worth booking ahead or getting to the boat landing early. Bring binoculars, a hat and sunscreen, and keep your voice low on the water.

In the evening, watch Kathakali or Kalaripayattu, or walk through a spice plantation. Kalaripayattu, the martial art of Kerala, is believed to be one of the oldest fighting systems in the world, and was traditionally taught in a kalari, a sunken training pit. In the performance, fighters leap, kick and spin with astonishing speed and flexibility, and fight with sticks, daggers, swords and shields, and even the urumi, a long, flexible sword that is swung like a whip. Kathakali, by contrast, is a slow, mesmerising dance-drama in which the actors, with faces painted green, red, black and white and wearing huge headdresses and skirts, tell the stories of gods, heroes and demons through gestures and expressions. A plantation walk is a quieter choice, showing you cardamom, pepper, coffee, cloves and vanilla growing side by side.

If you'd like to explore the reserve more deeply, the Kerala Forest Department runs guided activities such as nature walks, bamboo rafting and treks led by local guides, many from the tribal communities who have lived in these forests for generations. These need to be booked in advance.

After the show, return to your hotel for dinner. Thekkady's restaurants make the most of the local spices: try a fragrant pepper chicken, a cardamom-scented biryani, or a simple Kerala vegetarian meal with vegetables from the hill farms. The nights here are cool and peaceful, filled with the sounds of the forest: crickets, frogs, the call of nightjars and, sometimes, the distant trumpet of an elephant.

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

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

Drive down from the hills to Alleppey, now officially called Alappuzha, about four hours away, and check in to a resort on the backwaters. The journey takes you from the cool forests of the Western Ghats to the warm, watery world of the coast, and as you descend, the landscape changes dramatically: tea estates and pine forests around Peermade, then steep, forested slopes, then rubber plantations, and finally the flat green paddy fields and shining canals of Kuttanad.

On the way, the road passes Kottayam, a busy town on the eastern edge of the backwaters, known as the land of letters, lakes and latex for its publishing houses, its waterways and its rubber trade. Kottayam has some of the oldest churches in Kerala, as the Christian community here traces its roots back nearly two thousand years. Not far from the town, on the shores of Vembanad Lake, the Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary is home to herons, egrets, cormorants, kingfishers and, in winter, many migratory birds.

Then the road enters Kuttanad, the rice bowl of Kerala, where farmers grow rice on land that lies below the level of the sea. Over generations, they reclaimed these fields from the lakes by building dykes of mud and stone and pumping out the water, and today, driving along the raised roads, you can look down onto the paddy fields on one side and across the canals on the other.

Check in to your resort on the backwaters and spend a slow afternoon by the water. After the busy days in the hills, it's a chance to rest and enjoy the beauty of the backwaters at your own pace. Swim in the pool, lie in a hammock under the palms, or sit on your terrace with a fresh lime soda and watch the boats go by: houseboats drifting slowly past, village canoes loaded with coconuts or vegetables, and fishermen casting their round nets into the water with a graceful twist of the arm.

Many resorts have their own Ayurveda centres, where a traditional massage with warm herbal oils is the perfect way to ease away the long drive. Or take a shikara ride, a small covered boat, into the narrow canals behind the resort to see village life up close.

Alleppey is often called the Venice of the East, for its network of canals and waterways, and every August, on the second Saturday, it hosts the famous Nehru Trophy Boat Race on Punnamada Lake, when long, sleek snake boats, each rowed by more than a hundred oarsmen, race across the lake to the beat of drums and songs, cheered on by huge crowds lining the shores. If you're here in August, it's an unforgettable spectacle.

The town is also the heart of Kerala's coir industry, which turns the fibre of coconut husks into rope, mats and carpets. Coir has been made here for centuries, and in the villages around the backwaters, you may still see women spinning coir yarn by hand, while small factories in the town weave it into mats in every colour and pattern. A coir doormat is a light, practical souvenir to take home.

Then walk on Alleppey Beach at sunset. The long, golden beach is lined with palms and casuarinas, and the remains of the old 19th-century pier, from the days when Alleppey was one of the busiest ports on the Malabar Coast, still stretch out into the sea. The red-and-white striped lighthouse nearby can be climbed for views over the town and the coast. In the evening, the beach fills with families, couples and friends, strolling along the sand, flying kites and buying roasted peanuts, ice cream and fresh coconut water from the stalls as the sun sinks into the Arabian Sea.

For dinner, try some of the specialities of Kuttanad: karimeen pollichathu, pearl spot fish grilled in a banana leaf, duck roast, or prawns cooked in coconut and curry leaves, with soft appam or Kerala's nutty red rice. Afterwards, enjoy the stillness of the backwaters at night, with the frogs and crickets singing and the lamps of the moored houseboats glowing across the water.

Tomorrow, you'll move from the resort to your houseboat, so before bed, pack a small overnight bag with clothes, toiletries, sunscreen, mosquito repellent and a torch. The rest of your luggage can stay in the car with your driver.

Sleep well to the gentle sounds of the backwaters; tomorrow, you'll be out on the water yourself, drifting through the villages on your own private houseboat, with nothing to do but watch the world go by.

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

Good to know: drive about 4 hours. Shikara rides and Ayurvedic treatments are optional and paid locally. Alleppey is warm and humid all year, so light cotton clothes, sunscreen and mosquito repellent are useful.

After a lazy breakfast at the resort, around noon, board your private houseboat and cruise through the backwaters past paddy fields, coconut groves and waterside villages. Your crew will welcome you on board with a fresh tender coconut and show you around: a bedroom with an attached bathroom, a lounge, a dining area and an open deck at the front, all under a curved roof of woven bamboo and palm thatch.

The crew cooks lunch, dinner and breakfast on board. Lunch is served as the boat moves out onto Vembanad Lake, the longest lake in India, and it's a feast: Kerala red rice, sambar, avial, a vegetable thoran with grated coconut, a fish curry tangy with kudampuli, the smoky fruit used to sour Kerala's fish curries, fried pearl spot, pappadam, pickle and fresh fruit.

In the afternoon, the boat leaves the open lake and winds through narrower channels, past villages such as Kainakary, where life is lived on and beside the water. Houses with tiled roofs stand on narrow strips of land between the canals and the paddy fields, their stone steps leading down to the water. Women wash clothes and pots, children paddle small canoes, old men sit chatting on the steps, and fishermen cast their nets from tiny boats. You'll pass churches with tall white facades, small temples with oil lamps burning on their steps, toddy shops, schools and ferry landings, and you'll see great flocks of ducks being herded along the banks by men in small boats.

Life on the backwaters follows the rhythm of the water and the seasons. In the dry months, from about December to April, farmers plant and harvest their rice on the fields below the level of the lake, and after the harvest, great flocks of ducks are set loose to feed on the fallen grain. During the monsoon, the water rises, the canals become busy highways, and many villages can only be reached by boat. Children travel to school by canoe or village ferry, and the post, groceries and even wedding parties travel by water.

The birdlife is wonderful. Kingfishers of several kinds perch on the overhanging branches and dive for fish, egrets and herons stand in the shallows, cormorants and darters dry their wings on posts, and Brahminy kites circle overhead. In Vembanad Lake, the small island of Pathiramanal, whose name means "sands of midnight", is a haven for birds, and some routes pass close by.

If you'd like seafood for dinner, the crew can stop at a fishermen's landing so you can buy fresh prawns, crab or fish, which the cook will prepare for you at a small extra cost. In the late afternoon, tea and snacks are served on deck as the light turns golden over the water.

For your night on board, pack light, comfortable clothes, a hat, sunglasses, sunscreen and mosquito repellent, with a light layer for the evening breeze on the water. Electricity on board comes from the boat's generator and batteries, so charge your phone and camera while it's running. Mobile coverage is usually good, but it can drop in the remoter channels, which many guests find a welcome break.

The boat moors for the night at about 5:30 PM, as local rules require, so that fishermen can set their nets safely after dark. As the sun goes down, the sky over the paddy fields glows orange and pink, and the coconut palms stand out in black silhouette. Lamps come on in the village houses, the sound of evening prayers drifts across the water from a nearby temple or church, and the frogs and crickets begin their chorus. Dinner is served on board, and afterwards, you can sit out on the deck under the stars, enjoying the peace of the backwaters at night.

Houseboats on the Alleppey backwaters follow rules set by the local authorities to protect the waterways and the people who live and work on them, and only licensed boats with trained crews can operate. The crews know these waters well, and many of them grew up in the villages along the banks, so ask them about the fishing, the farming, the festivals and the snake-boat races. Their stories are one of the joys of the trip, and a small tip at the end of the cruise is always appreciated. Tomorrow is an early start for the long drive south, so enjoy the peace of the night and get some rest.

Let the gentle movement of the boat lull you to sleep.

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

Good to know: bedrooms are air-conditioned at night, usually from about 9 PM to 6 AM. Tomorrow is an early start, so pack the night before. Compare boats on our Alleppey houseboat packages page.

Wake before dawn on the houseboat and step out onto the deck for a last look at the backwaters in the half-light, when the water is still and silver, mist hangs over the paddy fields and the first canoes are slipping out from the villages. After an early breakfast on board, leave the houseboat by 8 AM for the longest drive of the trip, south along the coast through Kollam and past Trivandrum into Tamil Nadu. With breaks for lunch and tea, it takes eight to nine hours, but it's a journey full of interest, running the length of southern Kerala and crossing into a different state, a different language and a different landscape.

The road heads south along National Highway 66, the main coastal artery of Kerala, through a string of busy towns. Near Thottappally, a long spillway built in the 1950s holds back the waters of Kuttanad from the sea, and beyond Kayamkulam, at Oachira, the Parabrahma Temple is one of the most unusual temples in Kerala: it has no idol and no shrine building, and worship takes place in the open air, under the trees, open to people of every faith.

Then you reach Kollam, one of the oldest ports on India's west coast. As Quilon, it traded with China, Arabia and Europe for centuries, and Marco Polo described it in the 13th century. Today, Kollam is the cashew capital of India, and its factories shell, roast and pack cashews for the world. The town sits beside Ashtamudi Lake, a beautiful, many-armed lake fringed with palms and Chinese fishing nets, and just to the north, Neendakara harbour is home to one of Kerala's largest fishing fleets.

South of Kollam, the hilltop at Sivagiri, near Varkala, is the resting place of Sree Narayana Guru, the great social reformer of Kerala, who taught the ideal of one caste, one religion and one God for all people in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Thousands of pilgrims in yellow robes visit every year at the end of December. If you'd like a short detour, the red cliffs of Varkala, rising above a long golden beach, are just a few kilometres away.

Stop for lunch on the way, perhaps a Kerala fish curry meal in Kollam or Attingal, and then continue past Thiruvananthapuram, skirting the city on the bypass. You'll come back to the capital later in the trip, so today, you keep going south through Neyyattinkara and Parassala to the border with Tamil Nadu.

As you cross the border, the change is immediate. The signboards switch from the rounded letters of Malayalam to the more angular Tamil script, the temples have towering gopurams covered with brightly painted figures of gods and goddesses, and women wear strings of jasmine in their hair and saris in vivid colours. The land opens out, with fields of rice and bananas, tall palmyra palms with their fan-shaped leaves, and the last rocky outcrops of the Western Ghats rising sharply to the east, where the great mountain chain comes to an end. You'll pass Marthandam, known for its honey and cashews, and Nagercoil, the main town of the Kanyakumari district, which takes its name from its ancient Nagaraja temple, dedicated to the serpent god.

You arrive in Kanyakumari in time for sunset at the southern tip of India, where the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean meet. For Hindus, this is one of the holiest places in India, the abode of the goddess Kanya Kumari, the virgin goddess who, according to legend, waited here for Shiva to come and marry her. The wedding never took place, and the goddess remains here, standing guard at the southern edge of the land. Pilgrims come from all over the country to bathe at the Triveni Sangamam, the meeting point of the three seas, and to see the sunrise and sunset over the water.

Check in to your hotel and head to the sunset point on the western side of town, where crowds gather every evening to watch the sun go down over the Arabian Sea. Kanyakumari is one of the very few places in India where the sun can be seen both rising and setting over the ocean, and as it sinks, the sky glows orange and red, and the waves crash against the black rocks below. On the full moon of Chitra Pournami in April or May, the sun sets and the moon rises at almost the same moment, a rare sight that draws huge crowds.

After sunset, wander through the lively streets near the temple, lined with stalls selling seashells, strings of beads, colourful sand from the beaches, palm-leaf crafts and souvenirs. For dinner, try South Indian food: crisp dosas with coconut chutney and sambar, a Tamil-style meal on a banana leaf, or fresh fish fried with chilli and spices. Then get an early night: tomorrow begins before dawn.

Included today: breakfast on the houseboat, private car from Alleppey to Kanyakumari, hotel in Kanyakumari.

Good to know: drive 8–9 hours with stops. Lunch is at your own cost.

Get up early to watch the sun rise over the ocean. Set your alarm for around 5:30 AM and head down to the shore near the temple, where crowds of pilgrims and travellers are already gathering on the beach and the rocks. As the sky slowly lightens from grey to pink to gold, a hush falls over the crowd, and the sun rises out of the Bay of Bengal behind the silhouettes of the Vivekananda Rock Memorial and the Thiruvalluvar statue, a moment many people travel across India to see. Many hotels in Kanyakumari have sea-facing rooms or rooftop terraces with views of the sunrise, and the skies are usually clearest between October and March.

After breakfast, take the ferry to the Vivekananda Rock Memorial and see the 133-foot statue of the Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar beside it. The ferries, run by the Poompuhar Shipping Corporation, leave the jetty every few minutes from about 8 AM, and queues build quickly, especially at weekends and holidays, so it's best to go early. The short crossing gives you lovely views back to the town, the temple and the shore.

The memorial stands on one of two rocks about 500 metres offshore. In December 1892, the young monk Swami Vivekananda, who had travelled the length of India on foot, swam out to this rock and meditated here for three days. It's said that here he resolved to devote his life to the service of India's people, and the following year he travelled to Chicago, where his speech at the Parliament of the World's Religions made him famous across the world. The memorial, completed in 1970, combines temple architecture from different parts of India, and inside, a bronze statue of Vivekananda stands in the main hall. Below it, the Dhyana Mandapam is a quiet, dimly lit meditation hall where visitors can sit in silence. On the same rock, the Shripada Mandapam shelters a mark on the rock that is believed to be the footprint of the goddess Kanya Kumari.

On the neighbouring rock rises the Thiruvalluvar statue, a stone figure of the Tamil poet and philosopher Thiruvalluvar, whose Thirukkural, a collection of 1,330 couplets on virtue, wealth and love, is one of the great works of Tamil literature. The statue's height of 133 feet represents the 133 chapters of the Thirukkural, and it was unveiled in 2000. Since December 2024, a glass-floored bridge links the two rocks, so you can walk across from the memorial to the statue with the sea swirling beneath your feet.

Back on the mainland, visit the Kumari Amman Temple, dedicated to the goddess Kanya Kumari, on the shore. Inside, the goddess is shown as a young girl holding a rosary, and her diamond nose ring is said to have sparkled so brightly that sailors once mistook it for a lighthouse; for that reason, the eastern gate facing the sea is kept closed except on special days. Men must remove their shirts before entering. Nearby, the Gandhi Mandapam marks the spot where an urn containing some of Mahatma Gandhi's ashes was kept before being immersed in the sea in 1948. It was designed so that every year on 2 October, Gandhi's birthday, a ray of sunlight falls through a small opening in the roof onto the place where the urn stood.

Then drive about two and a half hours to Kovalam. A short distance from Kanyakumari, the coast road passes Vattakottai, a small circular fort of granite built by the rulers of Travancore in the 18th century to guard the coast, with views over the sea from its walls. Further on, near Thuckalay, Padmanabhapuram Palace, the old seat of the Travancore kings, is one of the finest wooden palaces in India, with carved ceilings, polished black floors, painted murals and cool courtyards, and makes a wonderful stop if you have time. The palace is closed on Mondays.

Arrive in Kovalam in the afternoon, check in to your hotel and spend the evening on Lighthouse Beach. Kovalam's three crescent-shaped bays, separated by rocky headlands and lined with palms, are the most famous beaches in Kerala, and Lighthouse Beach, the southernmost, is the liveliest, with a promenade of cafés, restaurants and shops. Climb the red-and-white lighthouse on Kurumkal hill for sweeping views over the bays and the coast, then walk along the water's edge as the sun sets over the Arabian Sea. As darkness falls, the beachfront restaurants lay out the day's catch on ice, and you can choose fresh fish, prawns or lobster to be grilled or cooked Kerala-style for dinner.

Sleep well to the sound of the waves; tomorrow is yours to spend exactly as you like.

Included today: private car from Kanyakumari to Kovalam, hotel in Kovalam, breakfast.

Good to know: drive about 2½ hours. Ferry and entry tickets are paid locally. Padmanabhapuram Palace is closed on Mondays.

A free day to enjoy the beach, book an Ayurvedic massage or take a boat ride through the mangroves at Poovar. After the long journey south and an early start at Kanyakumari, today is for slowing down, and Kovalam is the perfect place for it.

Begin with a walk along the shore in the cool of the early morning, when the sand is quiet and the fishing boats are coming in. On Hawa Beach, teams of fishermen haul in long nets from the sea, chanting as they pull, while families wait to buy the catch straight from the boats. Then spend the morning swimming in the calm water of the bays, lying under a palm umbrella with a book, or sipping fresh lime soda at a café on the promenade. Kovalam's sheltered coves are usually calm from October to March, but always swim where the lifeguards are on duty.

Kovalam's three beaches each have their own character. Lighthouse Beach is the busiest, with sun loungers, surf schools, cafés and shops; Hawa Beach, next to it, is small and lively with local life in the mornings; and Samudra Beach, to the north, is the quietest, with fewer people and a more local feel. Walking between them along the shore and over the rocky headlands is a pleasant way to spend an hour.

Kerala is the home of Ayurveda, and Kovalam is one of the best places to try it. Dozens of Ayurveda centres and resort spas offer treatments given by trained therapists, from a relaxing full-body massage with warm herbal oils to Shirodhara, in which a slow stream of warm oil flows over the forehead, and longer programmes for those who want them. Many also hold yoga classes in the morning and at sunset, often on terraces overlooking the sea.

In the afternoon, drive about half an hour south to Poovar, where the Neyyar River meets the Arabian Sea, for a boat ride through the mangroves. The boat winds along quiet backwater channels, past fishing villages, coconut groves and mangrove forests full of birds, to a long, golden sand bar between the river and the ocean. Here, you can walk on the beach with the calm river on one side and the crashing waves of the sea on the other, and in the late afternoon, the light is beautiful. Along the way, you may see kingfishers, herons, egrets and fishing eagles.

Just south of Kovalam, the fishing harbour at Vizhinjam is colourful and busy in the early morning, when the boats bring in their catch, and nearby is a small rock-cut cave temple from around the 8th century. Today, Vizhinjam is also home to one of India's newest deep-water seaports, built for the world's largest container ships.

If you'd like some sightseeing, visit Trivandrum (Thiruvananthapuram), about 30 minutes away: the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple (open to Hindus only), the Napier Museum, the Sree Chitra Art Gallery and the Kuthiramalika Palace. The temple, with its seven-storeyed gopuram rising above a great stepped tank, is one of the most important Vishnu temples in India, and inside, the god reclines on the serpent Anantha in an idol so long that it's seen through three doors. Hindus can join the darshan in the traditional dress the temple requires, and everyone can admire the gopuram and explore the busy streets around it.

Beside the temple, the Kuthiramalika Palace, built in the 1840s by Maharaja Swathi Thirunal, a celebrated composer of Carnatic music, takes its name from the 122 wooden horses carved along its eaves, and part of it is now a museum of royal treasures. In the north of the city, the Napier Museum, finished in 1880 in a striking blend of Kerala and European styles, holds bronzes, carvings and jewellery, while the Sree Chitra Art Gallery, next door, displays the paintings of Raja Ravi Varma, Kerala's most famous artist, along with works by Nicholas Roerich and others.

Whichever way you spend the day, be back in Kovalam for the sunset. Find a table at a beachfront café, watch the sun sink into the sea and the lights of the fishing boats appear on the horizon, and enjoy a last seafood dinner by the waves. Kerala's seafood is superb, so try something new: a fiery Kerala fish curry with red rice, prawns cooked with coconut and curry leaves, or a whole fish grilled in a banana leaf.

Make it exactly the day you want it to be, whether that's busy, lazy or a little of both.

Included today: hotel in Kovalam, breakfast. Trivandrum sightseeing or a drive to Poovar by private car, if you choose.

Good to know: Padmanabhaswamy Temple entry is for Hindus only, with a strict dress code. Kuthiramalika Palace and the Napier Museum are closed on Mondays. Entry tickets, boat rides and Ayurvedic treatments are paid locally.

Enjoy a final morning by the sea before your driver takes you to Trivandrum airport or railway station, about 30 minutes from Kovalam. Rise early to watch the sun come up behind the palms, and walk along the beach while it's cool and quiet, with the waves washing over your feet and the fishermen pulling their boats up onto the sand after the night's work.

Have a last swim, join a sunrise yoga class, or simply sit on your balcony with a cup of coffee and look out over the sea. Then enjoy a leisurely breakfast: perhaps fluffy idli and crisp vada with coconut chutney and sambar, a paper-thin ghee roast dosa, or appam with a gently spiced vegetable stew, with a glass of fresh juice and strong South Indian filter coffee.

If your flight or train leaves later in the day, there's time for one or two last visits on the way to the city. On the banks of the Karamana River, a short drive from Kovalam, the Thiruvallam Parasurama Temple is one of the very few temples in India dedicated to Parasurama, the warrior sage who, according to legend, threw his axe into the sea and raised the land of Kerala from the waves. The temple's quiet riverside setting makes it a peaceful place to stop.

Kovalam itself has a long history as a place of rest. In the 1920s, Maharani Sethu Lakshmi Bayi of Travancore built a summer palace, Halcyon Castle, on the headland above the beach, and in the 1970s, travellers on the hippie trail made Kovalam famous around the world. Today, it's one of India's best-known beach destinations, yet it still has much of the relaxed charm that first drew those visitors.

For a few last souvenirs, the shops along Kovalam's promenade and in Trivandrum sell Kerala handicrafts of every kind: brass oil lamps, carved wooden elephants, Kathakali masks, coconut-shell bowls, coir mats, handwoven kasavu sarees and mundus in cream and gold, and bags of spices, tea, coffee and cashews. Banana chips fried in coconut oil and sweet halwa from Trivandrum's bakeries make good gifts and travel well.

If you have a few hours to spare before an evening flight, Trivandrum has more to see. The Chalai Bazaar, near the Padmanabhaswamy Temple, is the city's oldest market, crowded with shops selling spices, brass, flowers and textiles. Shanghumugham Beach, right beside the airport, is a broad city beach with a giant reclining mermaid sculpture, the Jalakanyaka, and a lovely place to watch the sunset and the planes taking off over the sea.

If you'd like one last taste of Kerala before you fly, ask your driver to stop at one of Trivandrum's well-known vegetarian restaurants for a full Kerala sadya, the festive feast served on a banana leaf. It's a parade of small dishes: rice with parippu, a mild lentil curry, and ghee, sambar, rasam, avial, thoran, olan, a creamy dish of ash gourd and coconut milk, kalan, sweet and sour pachadi, pickles, crisp pappadam, banana chips and, to finish, two or three kinds of payasam. It's the meal Keralites serve at weddings and at Onam, the harvest festival, and there's no better way to say goodbye to Kerala.

Your driver will take you to Trivandrum International Airport, just a few kilometres from the city centre, or to Thiruvananthapuram Central railway station. Leave plenty of time, as traffic can build up in the city, and check your terminal before you set off. Before you say goodbye, take a moment to thank your driver, who has looked after you all the way from Kochi to the tip of India and back, and who has probably become a friend along the way; a tip is always appreciated.

Looking back on your nine days, you'll have seen the many faces of South India: the misty tea gardens of Munnar, the spice hills and wildlife of Periyar, the peaceful backwaters of Alleppey, the sacred meeting of the three seas at Kanyakumari, and the golden beaches of Kovalam. It's a journey of remarkable variety, colour and warmth, and we hope it has given you memories you'll treasure for years to come.

Our team will stay in touch until you're home safely, and we're always just a call or a WhatsApp message away. Thank you for travelling with Dreamland Vacations, and we look forward to welcoming you back to Kerala, or wherever in the world your next journey takes you.

Safe travels, and until next time. We hope the sunrise at Kanyakumari, the quiet of the backwaters and the warmth of the people you met along the way stay with you for a long time.

Included today: private car to Trivandrum airport or railway station, breakfast.

Good to know: drive about 30 minutes. Book a flight that leaves at least 3 hours after you reach the airport.