Kerala Tour: 10 Days of Fort Kochi, Munnar's Tea Hills, Periyar and a Houseboat

Arrive in Kochi

Your driver meets you at Kochi airport and takes you to your hotel in Fort Kochi, the old harbour quarter on a peninsula facing the Arabian Sea. For centuries this was one of the great spice ports of the world, visited by Arab, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch and British traders, and its streets of old warehouses, churches and colonial bungalows still show it.

Rest after your journey. In the late afternoon, walk along the seafront to watch the Chinese fishing nets, huge cantilevered nets lowered and raised by teams of fishermen, silhouetted against the sunset. Their origin is debated, but they are usually said to have arrived with Chinese traders more than 500 years ago. Fishermen are often happy to show you how the counterweights of stones work, and stalls beside the nets sell the day's catch, which small cafés nearby will cook for you.

For a first Kerala dinner, try fish moilee, a mild curry made with coconut milk, or karimeen pollichathu, pearl spot fish cooked in a banana leaf, with appam, a soft, lacy rice pancake. Fort Kochi is compact and easy to walk in the evening, with small cafés and galleries along Princess Street.

• ArrivalMeet and greet and transfer to Fort Kochi
• SunsetThe Chinese fishing nets on the seafront
• EveningKerala seafood dinner in Fort Kochi

OvernightFort Kochi, 2 nights now and 1 at the end.

Fort Kochi, Jew Town and a Kathakali performance

Fort Kochi is small and flat, and the best way to see it is slowly, on foot, in the cooler morning. Walk with your guide to St Francis Church, where Vasco da Gama was first buried in 1524; the Santa Cruz Basilica, with its painted ceilings; and lanes of Portuguese and Dutch houses now filled with cafés and galleries.

Continue to Mattancherry and Jew Town, home to one of India's oldest Jewish communities. See the Paradesi Synagogue, built in 1568, with its blue and white Chinese floor tiles and Belgian glass lamps, and browse the antique and spice shops, where the air smells of pepper and ginger. The Mattancherry Palace, built by the Portuguese for the Raja of Kochi, has some of the finest Hindu murals in Kerala. The synagogue is closed on Fridays, Saturdays and Jewish holidays and the palace on Fridays, so we plan the day around them. Shoes come off and photography is not allowed inside the synagogue.

In the evening, watch a Kathakali performance, Kerala's classical dance drama, in which the dancers tell stories from the epics through facial expression and hand gestures. Arrive early to see them apply their elaborate make-up.

• MorningFort Kochi: St Francis Church and the Santa Cruz Basilica
• AfternoonJew Town, the Paradesi Synagogue and Mattancherry Palace
• EveningKathakali performance

OvernightFort Kochi.

Up into the tea hills of Munnar

Drive east into the Western Ghats. The road climbs through rubber and spice plantations, past waterfalls such as Cheeyappara and Valara, into Munnar, a former British hill station at about 1,600 metres, wrapped in emerald tea estates.

The last stretch winds up through many hairpin bends, so take a travel-sickness tablet if you need one. On the way, you can stop at a spice garden to see cardamom, pepper and cinnamon growing, and, as you near Munnar, the first tea estates appear, with pickers working along the steep, clipped rows. Your driver will stop at viewpoints for photographs.

Check in to your resort among the tea gardens and enjoy the cool air and the views. Evenings in Munnar can be chilly, especially from December to February, so have a warm layer handy. With a cup of fresh local tea, try pazham pori, ripe banana fritters, a favourite Kerala teatime snack. Munnar town is small and busy, and most resorts are a short drive outside it, which makes for quiet evenings.

• DayDrive to Munnar via spice plantations and waterfalls
• AfternoonOptional spice garden stop and tea estate viewpoints
• EveningFree at your resort

OvernightMunnar, 3 nights, at a resort among the tea estates.

Tea gardens and the Tata Tea Museum

Walk through Munnar's tea plantations with a local guide in the cool of the morning. The town's name is usually explained as 'three rivers', after the streams that meet here. Learn how the British planters cleared these hills in the late 19th century, how the leaves are plucked by hand, and how the different grades of tea are made. The neatly clipped bushes, cut to waist height for the pickers, cover the slopes like green velvet.

Visit the Tata Tea Museum to see the old machinery, photographs of the early planting days and a working demonstration of how tea is processed, then taste the local blends; it is closed on Mondays. Buy tea here or at the estate shops in town, where it is fresh and well packed.

The afternoon is free to enjoy your resort and the views, or walk to a nearby viewpoint over the valleys. Munnar can be cool, especially from December to February, so bring a fleece for the evenings. For dinner, try Kerala appam with vegetable stew, a mild coconut-milk curry.

• MorningTea plantation walk and the Tata Tea Museum
• AfternoonFree; optional viewpoint walk
• EveningDinner at your resort

OvernightMunnar.

Eravikulam National Park and Echo Point

Visit Eravikulam National Park, home to the endangered Nilgiri tahr, a mountain goat found only in the Western Ghats, which grazes calmly near the visitors' road. Park buses take you up through the Rajamala section, where you walk along a paved road with views over rolling grassland and shola forest. The high grasslands rise towards Anamudi, the highest peak in South India. Arrive early, as queues build by mid-morning in season. The park usually closes in February and March for the calving season. Every 12 years the hills turn blue with the flowering of neelakurinji; the next bloom is expected around 2030.

In the afternoon, continue to Mattupetty Dam and Echo Point for sweeping valley views, with time for a pedal boat on Kundala Lake if you would like. On a clear day, drive on to Top Station on the Tamil Nadu border for a view across the plains, best before the afternoon mist rolls in.

Bring layers, a rain jacket from June to September, and good shoes; paths can be wet and slippery.

• MorningEravikulam National Park
• AfternoonMattupetty Dam, Echo Point and Kundala Lake
• OptionalTop Station

OvernightMunnar.

To Thekkady and the spice forests

Drive south through the hills, past tea estates giving way to cardamom plantations shaded by tall forest trees, to Thekkady on the edge of Periyar Tiger Reserve. The road is narrow and winding but rarely busy, with views across the Cardamom Hills and small towns where the morning's harvest is sorted and dried. Your driver can stop at a viewpoint or a roadside tea stall on the way.

Arrive in time for lunch. Thekkady and its small neighbouring town, Kumily, sit right at the park gate, and the main street is lined with spice shops selling cardamom, pepper, cloves and vanilla, as well as tea, coffee and Ayurvedic oils. Prices are usually fixed and quality is good, but it pays to compare.

Check in to your lodge among the spice gardens. In the evening, you can watch a Kalaripayattu performance in Kumily, Kerala's ancient martial art, said to be one of the oldest in the world, or a short Kathakali show. Otherwise, enjoy a quiet dinner of Kerala vegetable curries and appam, and an early night before tomorrow's dawn boat safari.

• DayDrive through cardamom country to Thekkady
• AfternoonKumily's spice shops
• EveningOptional Kalaripayattu martial arts show

OvernightThekkady, 2 nights, at a spice-garden lodge near Periyar Tiger Reserve.

Periyar Lake and a spice plantation

Start early with a boat safari on Periyar Lake, a reservoir in the heart of the tiger reserve, created in 1895. Dead trees still stand in the water, and wild elephants, gaur, sambar deer and otters are often seen along the shoreline in the morning. Tigers live here but are rarely seen. The first boat of the day is the best, for wildlife and for soft light on the water. Wear muted colours, and bring binoculars and a warm layer for the early start.

Later, walk through a working spice plantation with a local guide to see how cardamom, black pepper, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves are grown, and buy fresh spices to take home. Many plantations end the walk with a cup of cardamom tea, and some offer short Kerala cooking demonstrations if you ask in advance.

If you would like more time in the forest, the park runs guided nature walks and bamboo rafting with local tribal guides; tell us in advance so we can book. Otherwise, rest at your lodge in the afternoon, when the heat and the birdsong both settle.

• MorningBoat safari on Periyar Lake
• AfternoonSpice plantation walk
• OptionalGuided forest walk or bamboo rafting

OvernightThekkady.

A night on a houseboat in the backwaters

Drive down from the hills to Alleppey (Alappuzha), the gateway to Kerala's backwaters, a network of lakes, canals and rivers running parallel to the coast. Around midday, board your private kettuvallam, a traditional rice barge converted into a houseboat with bedrooms, a deck and your own crew. The name means a boat of knots: the hulls were traditionally made of wooden planks tied together with coir rope.

Cruise slowly along palm-lined canals and across Vembanad Lake, past paddy fields below water level, village churches and temples, and people washing, fishing and paddling canoes. Kingfishers, egrets and cormorants are easy to spot from the deck. Your cook prepares Kerala meals on board, with fish curry, vegetable dishes and fresh coconut; tell the crew if you prefer milder spicing.

By local rules, houseboats moor for the night in the early evening. Watch the sunset from the deck, then sleep surrounded by the quiet of the water. On most boats the air conditioning runs only at night, so bring a hat and sunscreen for the deck, and insect repellent for the evening.

• MorningDrive to Alleppey
• MiddayBoard your private houseboat
• AfternoonCruise through the backwaters and across Vembanad Lake
• EveningSunset and dinner on deck

OvernightOvernight aboard a private houseboat on the Alleppey backwaters, all meals included.

Back to Kochi

Wake early on the houseboat to watch the backwaters come to life: mist on the water, fishermen setting out in narrow canoes and kingfishers on the palm fronds. After breakfast on board, disembark at Alleppey and drive back to Kochi, about an hour and a half to two hours.

Spend the afternoon on last-minute shopping for spices, tea and handicrafts in Mattancherry. The old warehouses along the waterfront still trade in ginger and pepper, and the lanes of Jew Town are lined with antique and textile shops. Look for Kerala's cream-and-gold kasavu cotton, sold as saris, shawls and the men's mundu, and for good-quality cardamom, pepper and cinnamon.

Or relax at your hotel. If you would like, take a sunset cruise around Kochi harbour, past the Chinese fishing nets, Willingdon Island and the busy shipping channel. For a last dinner, try a Kerala seafood dish such as fish moilee, a mild coconut-milk curry, or karimeen pollichathu, pearl-spot fish cooked in a banana leaf.

• MorningSunrise on the houseboat; disembark and drive to Kochi
• AfternoonFree for shopping in Mattancherry or a harbour cruise
• EveningFarewell Kerala seafood dinner

OvernightKochi, 1 night.

Fly home from Kochi

Transfer to Cochin International Airport, about an hour to an hour and a half from Fort Kochi, for your onward or departing flight. Kochi has direct flights to the Gulf, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and major Indian cities. Morning traffic out of the city can be slow, so we time the transfer with a margin. Pack tea and spices in sealed packets in checked luggage, and keep any liquids over 100 ml out of your hand baggage.

• DepartureTransfer to Kochi airport