Kerala Tour Packages

A standard Kerala tour package includes hotel accommodation with daily breakfast, a private air-conditioned car with an English-speaking driver for the full route, all inter-city transfers, and one night on an Alleppey or Kumarakom houseboat with all meals included. Flights, entry tickets, lunches and dinners outside the houseboat, and personal expenses are normally excluded.

Two things are worth checking before you compare quotes, because they’re where packages differ most.

Your driver is usually not a licensed guide. In Kerala, the car comes with a driver-cum-escort who handles routes, timings and recommendations. Licensed guides at heritage sites like Fort Kochi or Padmanabhapuram Palace are hired separately, per site. If a quote says “guide included,” ask which sites it covers.

Entry fees are frequently excluded. Periyar boat tickets, Mattancherry Palace, Kathakali performances and plantation tours are often billed on the day. Individually small, they add up across a seven-day route.

Typically included: accommodation, breakfast, private vehicle and fuel, driver allowance, tolls and parking, inter-state permits if your route crosses into Tamil Nadu, airport pickup and drop, and the houseboat night with lunch, dinner and next-day breakfast.

Typically excluded: international and domestic flights, visa fees, monument and activity entry tickets, meals not specified, Ayurveda treatments, tips, and travel insurance.

Ask whether GST is included in the quoted figure or added on top. Indian tour operator services carry it, and it’s the most common reason two quotes that look identical aren’t.

Build an itemised estimate for your dates →

Fly into Kochi (COK) for most Kerala itineraries. It’s the state’s largest international gateway and sits within four hours of Munnar, Alleppey and Thekkady, which covers the classic route. Choose Trivandrum (TRV) for south-Kerala and Kovalam-focused trips, and Calicut (CCJ) if Wayanad is your main destination.

If you’re connecting from the UK, Europe or the Gulf, Kochi has the widest choice of one-stop routings via Dubai, Doha, Abu Dhabi and Muscat. For a sense of how the state’s regions fit together before you choose, our guide to Kerala’s 14 districts maps them out.

For trips of ten days or fewer, a package is usually cheaper. The reason is transport, not hotels. Kerala’s route is a loop through hills, backwaters and coast with no useful rail connections between the main stops, so an independent traveller ends up paying for repeated one-way taxi hires, each of which is priced to cover the driver’s empty return journey.

Munnar and Thekkady have no railway station at all. Getting between them independently means either a public bus on a winding ghat road, or a point-to-point taxi charged at roughly double the per-kilometre rate an operator pays for a vehicle already assigned to a full itinerary.

Hotels are the reverse — you can often match or beat contracted rates online in low season. Where packages recover the difference is 20 December to 5 January and the Easter fortnight, when walk-up rates in Munnar and Alleppey can double and availability disappears entirely. Our guide to the best time to visit Kerala covers how rates move through the year.

Plan it yourself if: you have three weeks or more, you’re happy on state buses and in homestays, and your dates are flexible.

Book a package if: you have 7–12 days, you’re travelling with children or older parents, you’re visiting between December and February, or you want a houseboat that isn’t the cheapest boat left on the jetty that morning.

See a full cost breakdown by trip length and travel style →

One night is enough for most travellers. Kerala houseboats stop cruising at sunset and moor overnight for safety and environmental reasons, so a second night adds a stationary day on the water rather than new scenery. Book two nights only if you specifically want an unhurried day with nowhere to be.

A standard one-night stay runs like this: board around midday, lunch served as you cruise, three to four hours through Vembanad Lake and the narrower village canals, moor near a village by 5:30pm, dinner on board, and disembark after breakfast around 9am. Our backwaters itinerary follows exactly this pattern.

Alleppey or Kumarakom? Alleppey has the denser canal network and closer village life, but also far more boats. Kumarakom is quieter, opens onto wider water, and sits beside the bird sanctuary — better if you want stillness over scenery. Premium and private houseboats are worth considering in either location if you want an upper-deck cabin and a dedicated chef.

Two nights genuinely suits one group: families with young children who’d rather not pack and move hotels again mid-trip.

Yes, but there are two different things sold under the same word, and they don’t combine the same way. Single rejuvenation treatments of 60–90 minutes — Abhyanga oil massage, Sirodhara, Kizhi — slot into any sightseeing itinerary and can be booked at your hotel. A genuine Panchakarma programme is medical treatment: it requires a doctor’s consultation, a minimum of seven to fourteen days at one centre, and a controlled diet. It cannot be combined with a touring itinerary.

If you want the medical version, plan it as its own trip, or as a block at the end of a shorter tour. Our eight-day wellness and Ayurveda journey is built around that structure.

On timing: the monsoon months of June to August are traditionally considered the best season for Ayurvedic treatment — the cooler, more humid air is held to open the pores and improve absorption. It’s also the quietest and least expensive time to visit, which is why Kerala’s wellness resorts fill up in exactly the months everyone else avoids. See our monsoon season itinerary if that appeals.

Almost all international visitors do. Citizens of the UK, USA, most of Europe, Australia and many other countries can apply online for an Indian e-Tourist Visa — no embassy visit needed. Apply at the official government portal at least four to seven days before you fly, and carry a printout. Both Kochi and Trivandrum airports accept e-Visa arrivals. Rules and fees change, so check the official site when you book; we send every confirmed guest a current visa checklist.

As working figures: 3–5 day trips start from ₹9,999 per person, our most-booked 5–7 day itineraries from ₹14,999–₹19,999, luxury trips with premium stays from ₹29,999, and honeymoons from ₹16,999 per couple — all excluding flights, on twin sharing, varying by season and hotel category. December 20 to January 5 runs well above these floors. For a figure built on your actual dates and group, the trip cost calculator takes two minutes.

Kerala is consistently rated among India’s safest states for women — high literacy, strong public infrastructure, and a long tourism tradition. Sensible practice still applies: dress modestly at temples, prefer your assigned driver over late-night public transport, and keep our 24/7 line saved. The same driver stays with you for the entire route, which is the single biggest comfort factor our solo guests report. We also run a dedicated women-only group trip.

Yes, if the itinerary is designed for it — which is exactly what customisation is for. We cap driving legs at three to four hours, book ground-floor or lift-access rooms, skip steep sites like the Edakkal caves, and choose houseboats with easy boarding. Munnar’s altitude (1,600m) is gentle. Tell us about mobility needs at enquiry and the route is built around them, not squeezed past them.

Drink bottled or filtered water only — every hotel we use provides it, and your car is stocked. The food itself is one of Kerala’s great pleasures and freshly cooked meals are very safe; ease into the spice levels over the first days rather than on day one. On the houseboat, your crew cooks everything aboard, including the lake fish they buy that morning.

It is appreciated, never mandatory. Reasonable guidelines: ₹200–₹300 per day for your driver, given at the end of the trip; ₹500–₹1,000 per night for the houseboat crew, pooled; 5–10% in restaurants when no service charge appears on the bill. Nobody will chase you for it, and no tip is ever included secretly in our quotes.

Easily — it is our second speciality. The natural combinations run 12 to 17 days: Kerala’s hills and backwaters first, then east to Madurai’s Meenakshi temple, Rameswaram or the Chettinad mansions. Inter-state permits are included in every combined quote. See our Kerala & Tamil Nadu Highlights Tour (12 days) or Temple Trails & Tropical Retreats (17 days) for ready-made versions, or ask us to join any two itineraries.

A part-payment confirms your booking; the balance is due before or on arrival, as agreed in writing. We accept cards, UPI and bank transfer through secure gateways, and every booking comes with a proper invoice and written confirmation of exactly what is included. Cancellation terms are published in full in our cancellation policy — read them before you pay, and ask us anything that is unclear. View Cancellation & Refund Policy