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Hello Everyone,
Come 25th of Oct and we (Hariya, Priti and myself) intend to do a week long drive from Bangalore to Kerala before we come back and I move to Bombay. My current intention is to reach the furtherest point in Kerala once we start without any breaks, and then begin touring from the southern most part till the northern end before coming back to Bangalore.

We have never been to the typical backwater areas and KL beaches and would love to go there and spend a night or two as well. Since we have around a week's time(can be extended by a couple of days as well) at our disposal, I assume it is sufficient to cover KL and get some real good driving roads and vistas.

The intention, as usual, is to see as much nature as possible, and stay away from urban luxuries and habitats.

Could all of you please advise me of a suitable itinerary including places to stay, things to do, food to eat and places to visit in chronological order.

I'd be very grateful.

I may sound a selfish animal, but, the fact is that this thread would come very handy for me! have this dream to take family to KL and see/experience best of Kerala in 5-6 days! So, I'll be hooked to this closely.

Hai,

Some suggestions:

Day 1. Drive Straight to TVM, NH47 all the way, non stop, start early from Bangalore, reach TVM late evening, through Aleppey, manage to reach Kovalam, great beach, book hotels in advance, rates are up, so hurry.

Day2: Just chill around there, geat an ayurvedic massage or two, whole region is flush with such places, seedy ones too. Try at Somatheeram, great beach, great massage, expensive too. Google it, if you have difficulty, have good friends there, they can help you out.

Day 3: Drive out early, reach Aleppey in about 5 hours, book into a houseboat, book in advance, they'd charge you anything from 5K to 10K for a day, depending on boat, package, rush etc. fix a package with food, stay, muskito repellants and a spin into the back waters. Spend day there, let them take you for a ride, I mean back-water ride, have food, sleep etc., get out early next day morning.

Day4: Drive out to Ernakulam, same as Cochin but not same :) Boat rides galore there, do not hire private boats, would cost you 250/- per hour, cheap and best (to breathe in the local air / brush shoulders with the locals) are the shuttle boats Rs.5-10/- per ride per head for 30-45 mts, go to Ft. Cochin, chinese fisning nets, Jewish Synagogue there, sit on the beach for some time / whole day, watch the ships passing in and out, cross over to Vypin Islands on local boats. Alternatively, you can drive to Vypin on the new bridge, no fun, I'd rather go to Ft. Cochin by boat and cross over to Vypin by boat crossing the sea channel, with a chance to see Dolphins there. Get back to Ernakulam, see Bolgaty Islands by local boats, get back to hotel and chill out, you'd go to sleep without help of a drink, you'd be tired.

Day 5: If you really want to enjoy back waters, stay in Bolgaty Palace Hotel for whole day to chill out or drive to Munnar, 135 kms, 5 hours, slow and steady, check in, have a drive around to top station or bull station, whatever you fancy.

Day6: From Munnar, drive on the same route back to Ernakulam but take a left turn at Perumbavour - Angamaly, join NH47, take left turn to till Chalakudy, take left towards the Niagra of India, Athirapally waterfalls. Don't know if hotels are there, its about 40 kms from Chalakydy, you can stay in Chalakudy and next day spend the whole day at the falls, come back to hotel.

Day 7: Early morning to Palakkd to to Malampuzha dam, take a drive around there lots of country roads around there, you'd get to see rustic villages life brushing forests, mountains and take the road which goes to Kanjikode which cuts into NH47, take left and go towards Bangalore. Bavani, Mettur road is the shortest route here.

Hope this is enough to keep you thinking, there are many options on the plan, I am sure others would give their views.

Call me if you need more information. Happy Traveling,

--Ramky.

devdath with a week at your disposal and since you are willing to extend it further have you considered driving along coastal Kerala ?

Say start from Kannur and drive all the way to Trivandrum ? If you are interested let know I will try and post a list of places that you can visit along the route.

No offense Sir, but all these options sound very costly to me. Can you suggest something on the "budget" side please?

Interested? Hell, Yes, yes and yes.
I intend to drive along the coast and the mountains.

Day 1: Start 4 am: Drive to Kanyakumari on NH7. Fantastic 4 lane all through. No issues. 700 odd in 9 hrs max. Reach by 4 pm with breaks. Go to Vivekananda shila and Tiruvallur statue + sunset.

Day 2: Sunrise and go to Varkala - 137 km. Breakfast there. 50 km from there Ashtamudi Kayal. Nice backwaters area. 90km to Kottayam via Changanassery. Lunch there.
Evening reach Munnar via Thekkady - approx 250 km. Well deserved rest at Munnar.

Day 3: In and around Munnar Full Day. Or stay at Thekkady if Day 2 was too much and finish Day 3 with Munnar.

Day 4: Come down NH49 to Chalakudy. Drive up to Athirapally falls and Vazhachal. Lunch at Thrissur round. Drive to Kozhikkode and enroute the fantastic Malappuram Roads. Kadalundi Bridge would be good. Approx 150 km. Stay at Calicut.

Day 5a: Kannur (Drive-in-beach 4 km / St. Angelo fort) /Bekal (Fort). Lunch at Kanhangad. Go via Panathoor to Talakaveri to Coorg. Night at Coorg.

Day 5b. Go via Thamarassery ghats into Sultans Battery and into Mysore via Gundlupet. Good hill-drive.

Day 6: Reach Bangalore.

Day 7: Join work!!!

Btw, if you cant eat red-round-boiled-rice / fish-curry or are a vegetarian forget Kerala :)

rj, as devnath said a big yes, even I am interested to know the same as highlighted above. Pl take time to list the places.
Thanks

Sir, no offense taken :)

Which option sounds expensive? In fact you'd see that in Cochin I have suggested the most economic options. In Munnar anything othere than SN Tourist Home would be more expensive, I've stayed in SN many times in the past and spent on food instead. In Kovalam you would have a range of options, in Cape there's no better cost-effective opton than TTDC, if you skip the houseboat in Aleppey I that would save you lots of money, you can have something of this experience in Ernakulam too. Instead of Athirapally, I suggested Chalakudy because that would be an economic option too, no tourist stays there usually.

Happy Driving,

Ramky
=====

Wow, this sounds like a complete travelogue in itself. Thank you very much. I eat boiled rice and am a non vegetarian so I believe I can manage.:thumbs up

Is 5a or b an option?

I had called a few places from the Kerala tourism website at Kovalam and no rooms were less than 3-4k per night.
But yes, I would be very thankful if you could suggest the staying options at all the places you have mentioned since you have a much better knowledge of the state and the place. I have stayed at TTDC properties earlier and am a big fan of them, so I wouldnt mind booking them wherever possible.

Hai Dev,

Giving linky to Sealord Hotels, Ernakulam, bang opposite the Bolgaty Islands, talk to them, I'm sure you'd get rooms under 2 K with breakfast here. They also have a hotel at Munnar, call them and ask them for a quote. I think any hotel in Munnar would be around 2-3 K per night during this time.

:: Sealord Group of Hotels ::

Do a search here for kerala hotel reviews, Paulson Tourist Home, is another good option in the middle of town. There are great Studio Home options in Thevara and elsewere on Ernakula BP and around the Thevara area. Will try to rustle up some more for you.

Paulson Park Hotel (Kochi (Cochin)) - Hotel reviews, photos, rates - TripAdvisor

As you have a car, stay off Kovalam, you can drive down, let me see if I can get some options.

Happy Hunting,

--Ramky

Why not? My suggestion is to avoid going dn/up on the same path. It will be time consuming as no 4 lane in KL. Use the fast/quick 4L of TN to get to the bottom and enter TVM (KL) from there and then climb up. Zero retracing.

Also, get the essence of Malabar in your KL visit. Tried to avoid cities and well-known haunts to give that extra fillip to it all.

If you get bored anywhere along the route there are good exits into flat/fast 4L to reach home.

1. From Chalakudy go to Pollachi via Valparai. Get out.
2. From Palakkad get out to CBE - Krishnagiri. Get out.
3. Is the same as 5b

Thank you very much Ramky Sir and looking forward to more options from you.

Makes sense to me. And yes, I have spent half of my life close to nature and am not yet bored of it, so I guess, I will never get bored of it. It is the cities which bug me.

Sorry couldnt post earlier, devdath my idea was the reverse of what ramkya mentioned.
Simple as a fact that you start coastal vacation from Kasargode and then continue along the coastal line.

Day 1 : Bangalore to Kasargode . Halt at Kasargode for the night and visit Bekal fort.
Check this post here for details of the hotel and the place.

Day 2 : Drive to Kannur and visit St.Angelo's fort and Muzhappilangad Beach . More details on this post.

After you visit these places you can make a choice to drive all the way to Kochi or halt at Calicut for the evening.

If you plan to stay back at Calicut then you can visit the Kappad/Kappakkadavu beach.Its the same beach that the Portuguese Navigator Vasco Da Gama landed on his discovery of the sea route from Europe to India.

Else you drive all the way to Cochin which should be about 270 kms or so from Kannur and stay over at Cochin for the night.

Day 3 : Cochin has a lot of tourist spots and its easy getting around here. You would easily need two days to cover most of the places around Cochin.

Day 5: Head to allepey/Kumarakom and enjoy the backwaters.You can hire a houseboat if you have the budget from Allepey and they will take you on a round trip thru the backwaters.

Once done with this you have two options , either drive to TVM and visit Kanyakumari and come back to bangalore.

Else drive to Kottayam and visit this place called Vagamon. I have posted a travelogue about our trip to Vagamon, check here.
Just in case you decide against going to Trivandrum and Kanyakumari you can always deviate towards Kottayam and go the Vagamon way.

You would need a minimum of 2 days for both these places, so decide whats best for you and take the plunge. Regarding hotels check HolidayIQ | India holidays, India hotels, Reviews, Maps, Packages, Weekend Getaways, Forums , the have most of the good hotels covered in reviews.

Dev,

Kerala is full of possibilities for a holiday, so many options !!!!! Hills, forests, waterfalls, back waters, sea, beach, plantations, religious circuits, fishihg, boating almost anything you can name for a perfect holiday. I've travelled all over India and some more outside; few places as beautiful as Kerala. Such a tragady, they don't allow tourist trade to flourish. A friend who owns Cabay Group of Hotels opened a resort in Quilon, was closed twice within 24 months due to strikes, he's cursing his decision to start in Kerala!!!!!!

Now that home-stay options have also opened up in North Kerala, the costs have come down, if you are not keen on town and have a car of your own places like Ottapalam, Pattambi, Nemarrah, Pazayanur, Alathur all have decent hotels which you can use as base to explore rustic villages/ rivers / temples around. There are lots of options like this in secondary towns / villages all over Kerala, you only have to dig.
--Ramky

Hello Everyone,
The final plan has almost taken shape and is as under:
1. Travel from Bangalore to Kannur via Mysore, Nanjungud and Waynad to enjoy the jungle drive.
2. Stay for 2 nights at Kannur and see all the places including the Bekal fort as mentioned by Riju.
3. Drive further down to Calicut, see the Vasco Da Gama's first beach, and drive on to Guruvayoor and Thrissur before halting at Ernakulam for the night.
4. Stay for 2 days at Ernakulam and do local sightseeing. Staying at a homestay called Watson's which is highly recommended by TripAdvisor.
5. Drive to Ambalapuzha and stay at "RiversideRetreat".
6. Stay for a couple of days and visit Varkala either during the stay or after leaving the place. Also a one day backwater cruise to be undertaken at Ambalapuzha and its nearabouts.
7. Go on either to Kanniyakumari and back to Bangalore or drive up via Periyar, Munnar and Thekkady to Bangalore.

Comments and suggestions looked forward to eagerly from all.