Planning the Trip of A Lifetime – Kerala, South India

Extended travel is the dream of many people living in the western world; to get away from it all for more than just a week or two and to live a foreign culture, take in the sights and feel truly free; even if slightly flustered, hot, and probably worn out for much of the time.

This post is about a trip that I took with my wife recently – 3 months of travel in Kerala, South India. It was the trip of a lifetime, so much so in fact that we are already planning the next one!

How Long Have You Got?

Needless to say, the longer the better, I would suggest that you need at least a month if you want this to be more than just a vacation. 2 Months plus and you have the makings of something more profound.

Money and Bills

This is the sticking point for most people, but this really needn’t be an expensive thing to do. The cost of living in Kerala is very cheap and when you are travelling for months at a time the cost of flights become negligible and you can save a lot of money that you would be spending at home.

Visa

For people from the US or UK (or most of Europe) getting a visa is pretty simple, there is a nominal fee, but it’s not a lot and a tourism visa is usually good for up to 6 months.

Note: These regulations can change without notice, so double check all of this before travel. When you get your visa it will say what you are allowed to do, so read it.

Vaccines

The great thing about Kerala is that it is a low malaria risk area, so you probably won’t need tablets. You will need some jabs though, Japanese B Encephalitis is the most obscure, so plan in advance to make sure you have time to get the required 2 or 3 shots. (Needless to say, double check this with a doctor before travel)

Language

India is a very broken country in terms of language and the official languages change between states and even within them. The official language is Malayalam, but the dialect changes from north to south and since the language is made up of 53 different letters it’s challenge for westerners. That said, English is not widely spoken, especially in poorer areas, so learning a few basic phrases is worthwhile if you can.

Travel Styles

Going somewhere as different as India can be a scary prospect if you are not a seasoned vagabonder so you might be forgiven for not daring turn up without any plans; fortunately there are other options.

We booked a tour in advance to last a couple of weeks. During that time we were driven around by a tour guide and we stayed in hotels every night. It was a great vacation and let us get used to the country before we really dived in.

The actual cost of this 2 weeks was a lot compared to our living costs the rest of the 3 months, but it was still silly cheap. We did some hunting around online before we left and booked with a company based in India – this worked out about a third of the price that a US or UK based company would charge. We did have to pay a small deposit over the internet, but the rest we paid in cash on arrival, once we had actually met the tour guide.

Once you have had some time to acclimatise, you can end your guided tour in perhaps Allepy, Varkala or Munnar depending on where you fancy basing yourself. Your tour guide will probably be happy to assist with arranging some more long term accommodation too.

Getting There

Right, let’s start our trip then! There are plenty of ways to get to India and the best options depend a little on what you want to do and where you are coming from.

Option 1 – Easy, LameFlying directly to Kerala is the cheapest and simplest option, you can fly to either Cochin or Trivandrum, so check both options to see which is cheaper. This is the easy option, but consider option 2 please.

Option 2 – Less Easy, Breath takingYou can fly into India via Delhi or Mumbai. My recommendation is to fly to Delhi and take a few days to get to Kerala. Make sure you stop by to see the Taj Mahal and then catch a train down south. Depending on how you do it, the journey might take 24 hours or more, but you will see much of India on the way and the views are simply breath taking. The cost of the trip should be about $25 for Tier 3 accommodation (that’s the top one).

(Whichever option you choose, click here to save some money on your airport parking, it all adds up.)

Getting Around

Getting around within small towns and villages is as simple as hopping on a Tuc Tuc – these are incredibly cheap and do the job just nicely. You wouldn’t want to go a great distance, but a few miles into the nearest city will cost literally pennies.

For longer distance travel, you can get a bus if you are brave, or just hire a taxi. Even a couple hours’ journey shouldn’t cost a lot, try to negotiate the price in advance though, just to be on the safe side.

Trains and such like are also an option, but it’s a bit intimidating trying to get your head round the schedules and figuring out where you need to go. Taxis are cheap, so personally I wouldn’t bother with trains for day to day travel.

Accommodation

If you haven’t gone with my advice about booking a tour for the first couple of weeks, booking a homestay for the first few days is a good idea whilst you find your bearings. Read up on each region of the country and decide where you want to live and then book a hotel there so that you can look around for accommodation.

If you are planning to travel a lot you might just want to stay at hotels. If you are staying for a few nights at each one you can probably negotiate a good price, although of course this option will always be more expensive than just staying in an apartment for a month at a time.

If your intention is to travel constantly then I recommend the rough guide to Kerala – with it you will never be far from a reasonable value hotel.

Food

If you’re into curry you won’t every struggle in Kerala. Most of the country is vegetarian, if you are desperate for meat you can usually find it easily enough, but if you’re indifferent this certainly won’t cause any problems.

We were advised to avoid salad as it is often washed in water that us westerners would consider unclean. In reality we rarely came across salad anyway – but try to get plenty of cooked veg and/or fruit to make up for the lack of salad.

Unless you are on a seriously tight budget you probably won’t ever need to cook for yourself. Eating out 3 meals a day costs little – the cheapest meal we had during our travels cost about $1 for both of us. If you stay on the coast costs go up a lot but even so, we rarely had to spend more than $10 on a meal for 2.

A Guide To Kerala

Kerala is made up of 28 regions, all of which have their own set of things to do, landscapes, climates etc. My advice is to research each one before you leave and write a wish list of the places you most want to visit. You don’t need to plan every last detail, but having an idea of where you are heading helps a lot.

Here are some highlights (roughly north to south):

KasaragodThe northern most region, check out Bakal Fort and Bakal Beach.

KannurThe Cherukunnu Annapoorneshwari Temple is amazing and worth the trip.

WayanadOne of my favourites, Wayanad is mountainous.  This region can get cold due to the altitude. Lots of waterfalls to gaze at.

IdukkiMunnar is in Idukki and is one of my favourite areas. This region has mountains and flat lands with lakes such as Thekkady lake and the Idduki dam. Lots of wildlife in these parts, particularly wild elephants.

Kottayam & AlappuzhaHome of the world famous backwaters. Do an image search for Alleppey and you’ll see why you have to go here. Taking a trip on a house boat is relatively expensive, but well worth the cost.

ThiruvananthapuramPerhaps the most difficult to pronounce place in the world, home to Varkala right on the southern tip of Kerala – it gets very hot here and the beach is nice. This is also a more expensive and touristy area, but still pretty cheap in the grand scheme of things.

So there you have it, that is just a handful of the regions, but do make sure you look into each. If you are staying for 3 months or more you should have plenty of time to see every area, even if only passing through. Alternatively though, picking your favourites and just hopping from place to place every 2 weeks is good plan for a more relaxing trip.

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(Guest Author – Ricky Peterson)