Kochi Travel Forum

We are a couple in our mid-60s planning to spend a couple of weeks in Kerala next March/April.

We will be flying into Goa to spend a few days there but are having difficulty sorting out the best way to get from Goa to Kochi. My preference was to go by train but having been told by "one-who-knows" not even to think about anything other than 1st Class Air-conditioned travel I have now learnt that there is no such thing on this route and that we would also need to travel overnight. Is this correct? (I am having trouble finding the information on the various Indian railway sites.) If so, what would be the best way to make the journey, but please don't suggest by bus!! An intermediate stop for a few days could be considered as our schedule is extremely elastic.

Many thanks for any advice.

Tony

The Okha Emakulam Express leaves Madgaon (GOA) for Kochi (Ernakulam Jn.) at 07.45 and arrives in at 23.00 but only travels on Mondays & Saturdays but also the train we be a possible 90% late because it starts in Okha in northern India the day before.

Train Number 6337

But other than that all trains going from Madgaon (Goa) to Ernakulam (Kochi) will be night time trips.

Checkout airlines in India.

Air Sahara (Think Jet Aiways brought out Air Sahara this year)
Jet Airlways
Indian Airlines
Air India


You could make a trip to Kochi via Hampi, Halebid, Belur & Mysore then onto Kochi.


Good Luck

Hi as you mentioned you are in your mid 60s, it is preferable to go by flight.

Its not true that you should only travel by 1st class, you can also travel by AC 2nd and 3rd, since the heat will affect and de-hydrate westerners during long train journeys it is preferable not to take a non AC train coach.

Air Deccan is also a no frill apart from the airlines covered in the previous reply, they don't fly direct from Goa i think, you can connect to Cochin via Bangalore, i.e Goa - Bangalore - Cochin.

Try makemytrip.com to check the connectivity.

all the best

HI !!!

Log on to www.irctc.co.in for railway information and bookings.

You can log on to airline websites:

www.jetairways.com
www.airdeccan.net
www.spicejet.com
www.flykingfisher.com
www.goair.in

Do let me know if you require more information.

Cheers !!!
Jimmy

Dear All,

Thanks for all that useful information.

Once I had the train number for the daytime journey I almost immediately managed to find all the necessary details on the web. Without that info. I had been conspicuously failing!!!

Now it looks like we'll be travelling by air (prob. via Bangalore), mainly because the lady wife doesn't fancy humping luggage on and off trains etc. Ah well!! bang goes another chance to sample Indian railway travel.

Once again, thanks to all.

Tony

Hi
Indigo airline is the only one flying non stop between goa and Kochi.
check up yatra.com for flight details and booking.

Hi Tony,
If you do travel via Bangalore take the opportunity to have a couple of days there as well.Is quite different and the coffee is great.Also you can take a day trip to Mysore.The wife and I,both only a little younger than you did the Mysore trip on an INDIAN Day Tripper Coach.Only forigners on the coach.Had a great time with the Indian families that wereon the trip also.Stayed in Indian 5 Star business class hotel in Bangalore,1st class service at 1100 a night for us both,then travelled around Bangalore by rickshaw.

Indian airlines has twice weekly flights from Cochin to Goa on Mondays and Fridays so it is possible they have a direct flight on the reverse direction as well on those days.
Bangalore is a nice diversion, especially the tour the other poster mentioned.
Great coffee indeed! lovely south indian tucker incl Andhra Biryani.
all the best

Hii
If you are going to stay at Bangalore, check out the hotel prices in advance, the previous posting talks about 1100 for a 5 star hotel, nowadays Bangalore is the most costliest place in the world to stay in a 5 star hotel, generally 5 star starts at 380 USD a night ( lowest priced ones).

So check out accomadation before landing here..

agree with the above post. lately prices have skyrocketed, hotels in other price ranges are still available, but you can get stuck in places like bangalore or bombay or madras. on my transit from singapore, i had to stay one night at an airport hotel in madras, and it was 180 usd and a hotel close to new year 2007, in Bombay, nothing fancy, was close to 200 usd. As I had written elsewhere, cochin hotels tend to get full quickly..

hi tony,
There are two trains every day from goa to cochin in which you can travel by 3A/C which is really good enough...or the other option is to go for a flight...for now there are daily flights from goa to cochin and that too flying has become really cheap in india with lots of budget airlines in the indian skies...it is advisable to book that flight when you get to india cause the prices would be much cheaper when you do it in india..

Well, we are now back from our holiday and spent just over a day in Bangalore in mid-March but found the experience totally unrestful and stressful.
We flew with Deccan (cheap, efficient and to be recommended) on the only flight, leaving Kochi just after 7am, arriving at Bangalore at 8am. As the only onward flights to Goa (ours with Kingfisher - cheap, efficient, with a tasty curry meal and to be recommended) were around 4pm we decided to spend the night in Bangalore to check the city out. (My grandfather was stationed there in 1898, just before being posted to South Africa and the Boer War.)
From our short time there I personally wouldn't recommend Bangalore as a place to visit unless you had business there that demanded your presence. It was extremely busy with traffic, very smelly from the exhaust fumes and on our perambulations on foot we never found any of the shops marked on our map. We found only one bar (for which we had read the city was noted) and that was closed for a private party!! Everywhere seemed to be being pulled down/rebuilt/developed (slight over-exaggeration).
Seeking rest elsewhere we repaired to the big park in the middle of the city but were besieged by beggarwomen with babies. The park itself was really just an unkempt open space with trees surrounded by busy roads and with a road running through it but it did provide some respite.
We stayed at an excellent hotel, the St Mark's Hotel, the room rate being 6100 rupees per night and I can recommend it.
In retrospect, we may have got more out of our stay with less stress if we had taken a tour of the city by car/taxi/tuc-tuc, but we prefer to walk as much as possible. We did, in fact, have a mini-tour of the city by taxi on the way back to the Airport when the taxi driver provided by the hotel offered us a tour at no extra cost!!! Having ample time in hand we were transported via the Court House and Government Buildings to (?a relative's?) jewellery shop!! We nearly ended up missing our flight, not helped by the arrival by air of a Politician and the consequent closing of the road to the airport!!
Certainly our short stay was a big disappointment but not enough to spoil our overall holiday.

I am happy to read the above post. I thought Bangalore is an unwelcoming, nerdy, dysfunctional city with very little help for the visitor. with the new airport in place it would be even worse than before. Travellers be warned, avoid Bangalore and Bangaloreans..