Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Route / Travel Queries (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-travel-queries/)

-   -   Driving from Cochin to Kanyakumari (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-travel-queries/69869-driving-cochin-kanyakumari.html)

The Minister of Finance has decreed that we are to visit Kanyakumari during our visit to India in December.

I'm considering driving from Cochin to Kanayakumari in the morning and then flying from Trivandrum to Chennai in the evening.

Would I have enough time to see the sights in kanyakumari? How long would the drive take ? (Hired car and driver).Road conditions?

Would I better off flying from Cochin to Trivandrum, driving to Kanyakumari and back and then flying to Chennai?

Time is of the essence.

Disclaimer: I am not a frequent traveller on this route, so mine is just a rough estimate.

Cochin to Trivandrum: Distance of about 220 km. Depending on the time of the day, this would take anywhere from 3 to 5 hours.

Trivandrum to Kanyakumari: Distance of about 80 km. Again, depending on the time of the day, anywhere upwards of 2 hours. After 9 am or so, this stretch is pretty much jam packed with traffic and it will be hard to find empty stretches.

Please note that except about 30 km of four-lane road, the entire route is a two-lane road (one lane in each direction) without any bypasses (except Trivandrum).

Again, depending on how you want to spend your time in Kanyakumari, you should allow upwards of 2 hours in Kanyakumari. The main attraction during daytime is the boat ride to the rock memorial, which will take about 2 hours (ride+visit+return).

You can do the math now :).

The saner option would be for you to fly Cochin-TVM.Am assuming you would be on the regular commercial airlines,in that case COK-TVM there is just one Air India Express flight that operates and that departs in the evening only.There are no other direct flights from COK-TVM.A better option would be the trains if you would want to consider that.There are a large number of trains available(IRCTC Online Passenger Reservation System) and the trains take around 4hr:30mins to trivandrum.there are two trains that run to kanyakumari(cape comorin) and tht takes around 6hours to reach cape.

driving from cochin to kanyakumari and taking a same day flight out to chennai just isnt advisable.in fact it wouldnt even be humanly possible,its better to factor in an additional day.

ideally you could take the evening flight out to tvm,drive to kanyakumari to reach there by 10pm or leave TVM early in the morning around 4am to reach kanyakumari by 6am(in this case you would miss the sunrise for which kanyakumari is famous for).roads(TVM-KK) are ok.you could wind up things by afternoon at kanyakumari and head back to tvm to catch an evening flight out to chennai.there is only 1 evening flight out from tvm to maa(paramount airways departs TVM at 1855)

Things to do at kanyakumari:

1.See the sunrise at Kanyakumari.Its a unique feature of the place(Sunrise & sunset.)

2.Take a ferry to Gandhi monument.You could see the meeting point of the three waterbodies:Indian,Bay of Bengal & Arabian sea.The meeting point is distinct with the three different colours.

3.Stop by enroute to kanyakumari at suchindrum temple to see the musical pillars at the temple and also a huge 18ft(9th century) high Hanuman statue.


Hope this helps in deciding your itinerary.