Grand Kerala Circuit

Met at Kochi airport and driven to Fort Kochi, about ninety minutes. Nothing is scheduled beyond checking in — the first evening is for the seafront, the Chinese fishing nets at sunset and finding dinner nearby.

The morning is Fort Kochi and Mattancherry on foot: St Francis Church, where Vasco da Gama was first buried, Mattancherry Palace for the murals and the Paradesi Synagogue — both shut on Fridays, the synagogue on Saturdays too, when Santa Cruz Basilica and the Jew Town spice warehouses take their place. Then the climb, around four hours through rubber and spice country into tea, with the Cheeyappara and Valara falls beside the road when there is water behind them, arriving in Munnar before dark.

Eravikulam National Park at opening, by the timed shuttle from Rajamala, for the Nilgiri tahr — entry is capped daily and the park closes for calving, roughly February to March. Then straight out along the Mattupetty road while the sky is still clear: the dam, Echo Point, the Kundala lake and Top Station on the Tamil Nadu border, where the escarpment falls away into the Theni plain. Cloud usually closes that view by late morning, so it comes before lunch rather than after. Back to the Tea Museum at Nallathanni in the early afternoon; it is closed on Mondays, and a Monday here gives that hour to an estate walk instead.

Down out of the tea and across to Kumily on the Tamil Nadu border. A spice plantation walk in the afternoon — cardamom, pepper, vanilla and clove growing in the same few acres — and Kalaripayattu in the evening if you want it.

The first boat slot on Periyar lake, when elephant, gaur and sambar are still at the water and the drowned trunks of the 1895 reservoir stand out of the mist; later departures see materially less. Then west and down to Alappuzha, about four hours, to board the houseboat in the early afternoon — the boat holds the boarding. It works through the narrow canals and out onto open Vembanad water, moors before dark — none may move at night — and every meal is cooked aboard, karimeen in banana leaf if you ask.

Disembark after breakfast and drive south down the coast road, about four hours to the Kovalam headland below Trivandrum. The afternoon is the beach — three crescent coves under a laterite headland, with the 1972 lighthouse on the point and a walk up it for the view toward Vizhinjam. Ayurvedic centres line the road behind Lighthouse Beach if you want a consultation.

Nothing is required. Swimming is between the flags on Lighthouse Beach, the headland path links the three coves, and a treatment can fill the afternoon. If you would rather move, Kanyakumari is two and a half hours south and the cape, the rock memorial and the sunset make a full day of it — say so and the driver is booked.

The morning is the city, twenty minutes away: the Padmanabhaswamy temple's gopuram from the tank — the temple admits Hindus only, with a strict dress code — then the Napier Museum and the Kuthiramalika palace. Trivandrum airport is fifteen minutes on, which makes even a midday flight comfortable.