For our last week in India, my female travel group and I spent five days in Kerala, India.

The last side trip away from our home base in Delhi before heading back home after 21 days of traveling in India was to the beaches of Kerala. Our five days in Kerala, India, featured breathtaking sunsets, house boating, Southern Indian cuisine, beaches, and spectacular waves. Southern Indian cuisine features a lot of coconut and, of course, spices.

Our Driver/Transportation for our female travel group in India:

My friend put me in touch with her friend Mazin, who is a local in Kerala and also has his own travel agency. Mazin organizes trips throughout India, both in the North and South. He booked all of our stays in Kerala, India, for my female travel group, as well as the cars, along with the drivers. Transportation for five days cost 13,500 rupees.

Day 1:

We flew into Trivandrum and drove an hour and a half to Varkala. We checked into our hotel Willmount Varkala. Our hotel featured incredible sunset views, beautiful beachside villas with hammocks, and great customer service.

We had lunch at the Bait & Hook, a seaside restaurant that was only a 5-minute walk from the hotel. I skipped the rest of the outings for the day and instead opted to stay in the hotel because I was feeling nauseous. I ended my day doing yoga as the sun set upon Kerala.

My friends felt fine, however, so they ventured into town as planned to see Varkala Cliff. They went to swim but were told they were not allowed to. Below is our hotel view and the beach that was totally empty.

Day 2:

We had a slow morning and went to Kappil Beach. Honestly, Kappil Beach was kind of trashed after a festival the week prior, and not the prettiest beach. The waves were big, and no one was swimming. We had planned to stay a while, but after 20-30 minutes, we decided to leave.

We visited the Varkala Cliff market and wandered around the area, ate lunch, and returned to the hotel. We ended up back at the beach right outside our hotel again, and the waves were massive. For dinner, we went back to the Bait & Hook.

Day 3:

In the morning, my friend went surfing before we drove to Alappuzha. The drive to Alappuzha was a four-hour drive to our houseboat at Alleppey Nightstay Houseboats.

Our houseboat had two stories, the first being the two bedrooms, the wheel for driving, the living room, and a kitchen. The second floor had a pool and chairs. Our houseboat included a captain that drove our boat.

Our lunch was prepared on the boat for us around 1:30 pm. I have the spice tolerance of a toddler, so my eating options were limited. When we ate out, we told the restaurants “0 spice” and made a solid point of it. We again made a request with our lunch preparers on the boat, “0 spice, please”, but alas, it did not translate over. In an attempt to cool down the spicy food enough so I could get it down, I covered all of it in an insane amount of curd/yogurt.

After driving around in the boat, we parked back where we had first picked up the boat and headed into town to shop.  The shopping was not great, unfortunately. After an unsuccessful shopping trip, we walked to the nearest beach to watch the sunset.

We took in the sunset from the beach and then returned to the boat and hung out in the living room until bedtime. The night was quite horrible as it was extremely hot and there were lots of mosquitoes. I did not get much sleep.

Day 4:

We woke up to the boat already moving and had breakfast out on the water. The food was, again, very spicy, so I ate only eggs and toast.

Today happened to be the day that the rest of my friends were not feeling great. We think it may have been the food, just because we aren’t 100% sure of the hygiene standards, as we did see a few cockroaches crawling about. Maybe cockroaches swim now?? If so, I am not here for that.

My female travel group and I drove 5 hours to Trivandrum, India stopping at 8 Point Art Café for a little snack along the way and to take in the art on display. 8 Point Art Cafe featured an incredibly beautiful exhibit.

We stayed at Santa Maria, and after checking in, we went into town to pick up some tea and spices. I got some black tea, chai, cinnamon, and dried chilies. Ensure all of these items are sealed! My friends had their dried chilies confiscated at the airport because they were unsealed.  Mine weren’t sealed either, but I somehow got away with it.

We ate a very nice dinner at Villa Maya, a restored 18th-century Dutch manor with beautiful rooms. We wandered around the villa to explore the different rooms and the wonderful outdoor space. I had the lobster poke bowl, very delicious.

Day 5:

We had breakfast at the hotel and headed to the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple. Sadly, we were not allowed in. My friend Priya was allowed in, but because the rest of us were foreigners, we were not allowed to enter. If you are Hindu or can prove the fact that you are Hindu (although I am not entirely sure how to do that), you can and should visit the temple. Priya went inside the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple and reported back to us that it was one of the most beautiful temples she has ever seen. While Priya explored the temple, we sorted out some payment issues. We had paid online, but apparently, the payment hadn’t gone through.

After the temple, we headed to the Kerala Arts & Crafts Village. Mind you, when I arrived in India, my suitcase only had a couple of kilos to spare (poor packing on my part), so walking through this arts & crafts village was definitely a challenge. I wanted to buy so many beautiful creations, but I ended up only getting a few small things. I bought two nice chalices, which are now what I drink all of my beverages out of.

For a late lunch, we went to the Leela Kovalam, a very fancy hotel with a beach view and a gorgeous pool. After lunch, we popped over to Kovalam Beach for some chai and to hang out in the sand. I personally am not a big “hanging out in the sand” person, but my friends love it. After the beach, we drove to the airport and boarded our flight back to Delhi.

My review of Kerala, India:

I am personally not a huge beach person. My friend, who adores the beach, however, found Kerala, India, to be her favorite out of all four regions of India that we visited during our 21 days in India.

Although this region was my least favorite out of the four, I really enjoyed the arts and crafts village, the nice restaurants, doing yoga near the beach, and the very pleasant weather.

I was not a huge fan of the long drive, the general on-and-off feeling of nausea we all experienced, or the beaches. I have seen prettier beaches; in fact, there was a direct flight to the Maldives that we highly considered. That all said, however, the sunsets were incredible with the palm tree silhouettes.

Please read my 3 other India posts (links below) to learn about my remaining 17 days of traveling India…

https://wakewanderrepeat.com/21-days-traveling-india-1st-stop-4-days-in-leh-ladakh/