Kochi, Vagamon, Thekkady & the Backwaters — Five Nights

Met at Kochi airport and driven to Fort Kochi, about ninety minutes. The first evening is for the seafront, the Chinese fishing nets at sunset and dinner nearby; if you land by mid-morning there is time first for St Francis Church and Mattancherry — the palace is shut on Fridays and the synagogue on Fridays and Saturdays, when Santa Cruz Basilica and the Jew Town spice warehouses take their place.

East and then up through Pala, around three and a half hours in all. The St Alphonsa shrine at Bharananganam on the Meenachil is a working pilgrim church and the stop on the way, visited quietly. Beyond Erattupetta the road climbs out of rubber into the Vagamon grasslands at around 1,100 m. Marmala waterfall is a short detour on a slippery estate path and is worth it only in and just after the monsoon, so it is offered in season rather than promised. Arrive mid-afternoon with time for the pine forest before dark.

Kurisumala at opening, the monastery road walked at the top, then the Mottakunnu meadows on the Elappara road — the bare rolling hills the place is known for — Thangal Para and the rock-cut Murugan Mala, and the pine forest and Vagamon lake in the afternoon with a rowboat. Two things are optional and never promised: tandem paragliding from the Kolahalamedu ridge, which flies from September to January and again from March to May when the wind allows, and the glass bridge, which sells a thousand timed tickets a day and closes in rain or high wind. A full day, and none of it is a transit stop.

The shortest transfer on the route: an hour and a half south through the Peermade tea to Kumily on the Tamil Nadu border, arriving by late morning. So the afternoon takes both of Thekkady's things — a working plantation walk, cardamom under shade and pepper on the trunks, and the mid-afternoon boat slot on Periyar lake, booked on the reserve's own system in advance — with Kathakali or kalaripayattu in town in the evening, bought at the door. Wildlife-first travellers can take the dawn boat instead the next morning before the drive.

Leave after breakfast, about four hours west and down to Alappuzha, to board the houseboat around midday. 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. Nothing else is scheduled; the afternoon on the water is the point.

Off the boat by nine and driven to Kochi airport, about two and a half hours, which makes a flight after about one in the afternoon comfortable. For a departure after three there is time for an hour in Fort Kochi on the way — the fishing nets on the point and the Paradesi synagogue in Mattancherry, shut Fridays and Saturdays, are a short walk apart.