The train trip to Kerala will itself take 4-5 days to and fro, even if you take teh fastest Rajdhani Express. You can take the train direct to Ernakulam (Kochi) or TRivandrum (Thiruvananthapuram).
Assuming that you have 7 days of touring at your disposal (excluding the train journey), I would spent it as follows:
- 1 day in Kochi
- 2 days in Munnar
- 1 day in Thekkady
- 1 day in Kumarakom/Alapuzha
- Balance 1 day in travelling
Kovalam is further South (near Trivandrum), you will not be able to cover it in this short duration trip.
The peak tourist season has started in Kerala and will stretch upto June now. Precious little bargaining you can do this season, since Kerala normally gets flooded with foreign and domestic tourists. Generally, hotels are more expensive than rest of India, especially the ones in most-visited places like Kumarakom and Munnar. However, if you shop around in the internet you will get lots of choice of hotels. The KTDC (Govt-run) hotels are normally more expensive than the budget private ones.
Having reached Kochi, you should hire a taxi (upto Rs 12 per km for a Innova), for the duration of your tour, since it will be difficult for you to use public transport, especially since most of the places you will cover are within 50-100 kms. Each of the palces mentioned are 1-4 hours road journeys. |