Thiruvananthapuram Travel Forum

Hi,
My wife and I, both 60ish, want to spend about 3 to 4 weeks in Kerala next February. We will arrange our own flights to Trivandrum. We would like a nice clean, cheapish place to base ourselves. We can then try to arrange our own excursions etc. Package tours seem so so expensive.

Any help and/or advice would be much appreciated so that we can start to plan etc.

cheers, pete

Hi, This is for your trivandrum or kerela stays.

Check out on the net you will find good deals. What i suggest is to stay at Kovalam, which is about 17 kms from trivandrum. Kovalam is a beach town. You can book a hotel for 2-3 days only and within those 2-3 days, check out the beach accomadations, beach shacks etc. These should be availble for about Rs 600 to 800 per night. Even the hotels cost you about Rs 12-1400/- . In Feburary, I did stay in a hotel called Hotel Raja which I guess was for Rs 1400/-. This was fairly decent and well located. So stay here for 3-4 days and meanwhile you can look for a better place.

Auto rickshaws ( 3 wheeler taxis) will cost you about Rs 100- 150 for a trip from Trivandrum to Kovalam. The govt. has very good buses running which cost about Rs 10 but with luggae, taxis are recommended.

Hope this helps and enjoy.

Anjan,

Many thanks for your sound advice. That is more or less what I had in mind to do.
It is many years since I last visited Kerala-- was back in 1977! No tourism etc in those days! Took an old ferry type boat from Appelleye to Quillon for a few rupees.

I would like to take my wife on that and also one of those rather expensive 'riceboat' overnight trips round the backwaters. I can also recall a great elephant type festival going on in Cochin. I also took a local bus to Munnar when the raods were very hazardous in those days!

I am looking forward to returning with my wife. Just want to keep the costs down so that we can stay longer but don't want accomodation that could regarded as a 'dive'. That was Ok for me back in my backpacking days but not today.

Pete

Great. Also try to go to kanyakumari which is the southern most point of India. This is about 3-4 hrs from trivandrum and you can take a local bus from the bus stand. You can stay here for a couple of days and then return to kovalam.

Overnight ride in the back waters should cost you about Rs 5500/- for a exclusive boat. That's what I paid but also negotiate hard as I though that it could have been a bit cheaper.

Enjoy.

Anjan,

5500/- sounds a good price. Most packages I have seen seem to charge around 9000/-! I do like the idea of drifting around with my wife on one of those.

Are they exclusive use or are you sharing with many others? What was included and what sort of quality was the food?

regards, Peter

Kumarkom and Alleppy are the places where you can find most of these boats and operators. We ( 2 adults and 1 child) were the only family and had 1 boatman, 1 waiter and 1 cook for ourselves. It starts near noon and they serve you welcome drink of fresh coconut, followed by lunch , tea and local snacks in the evening, followed by dinner and breakfast next morning, after which you leave the boat. Ours was off course an NON AC boat as the season aws comfortable that time. You can choose AC / Non AC depending on the weather. The price for AC will be a bit expensive. These are motor boats. The boat has a cabin with small attached toilet & bath.

Frankly speaking, after the initial 3-4 hrs, you do tend to feel a bit bored. Some boats do have TVs installed. It is best that you have close freinds for company as it is more fun. All the boats stop at about 6pm and anchor on the side as it is not allowed after that. This stoppage is the most boring part.

Check out more operators and ask for better rates. Better to book before you arrive. Unfortunately I have thrown out the contact details of the boat company which we used. You do try and if you are not able to get a good rate, I will TRY to contact locally and hopefully they will givea good rate.

By the way I did enjoy the rails at Switzerland, France and the tube at london.

Cheers,

hiya,
We found that the tour operaters usually have cheap b&b offers and these regularly work out cheaper than flight only and then when you get there if you don't like the accomodation..move, We have just booked ours flying from Gatwick for 2 weeks for £500 each! last time we were in Kovalam we were looking for cheap accomodation and just asked on of the waiters in the beachfront cafes (Garcia) and he took us to a place nearby that was 60 irp per night, clean and just near the dhobi wallers, We will be in Kovalam again in Feb 2008 arriving on the 2nd, keep in touch.
Nick

I am from trivandrum, working in Dubai as a Network Engineer. Regarding Kovalam what Mr.Anjan replied to you is correct. But, houseboats in Alleppey (Alappuzha), will be expensive during February as it is a high season. My wife is from Alleppey, and we had gone three times in the houseboats, each time we had to pay different rates. If you want I can get some local contacts to assure a better deal for you. My e-mail ID is nahas_s@hotmail.com

Cheers