Kochi: Munnar & Periyar Wildlife with Alleppey Houseboat

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Free cancellationExcellent quality

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Duration5d

GroupPrivate

LanguagesEN · HI +3

PickupAt your hotel

Five Days Through Kerala's Tea Hills, Wildlife & Backwaters

You travel through Kerala's three main landscapes—tea hills, wildlife reserves, and backwaters—in a private vehicle with flexible pickup and drop-off. The five days include four breakfasts, entry to national parks and the backwater sanctuary, and one night sleeping on a traditional houseboat. All transfers and sightseeing are covered, so you don't arrange transport, book attractions separately, or negotiate prices along the way.

Step-by-step itinerary

Day 1 — Travel to Munnar and relax

Pickup from Cochin location
Drive to Munnar via scenic route
Stop at waterfalls and tea plantations
Check in to Munnar hotel
Relax or explore local markets

Day 2 — Munnar sightseeing and nature

Breakfast at hotel
Visit Eravikulam National Park
Boating at Mattupetty Dam
Visit Echo Point and Kundala Lake
Explore Tea Museum
Return to hotel for overnight stay

Day 3 — Thekkady wildlife and culture

Breakfast and check out from hotel
Drive to Thekkady
Check in to Thekkady hotel
Visit Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary
Optional boat safari on Periyar Lake
Attend Kathakali or Kalaripayattu show
Overnight stay in Thekkady

Day 4 — Houseboat cruise in Alleppey

Breakfast and depart for Alleppey
Board traditional Kerala houseboat
Cruise through backwaters and villages
Enjoy meals on board
Overnight stay on houseboat

Day 5 — Return to Cochin and sightseeing

Morning on houseboat and breakfast
Check out from houseboat
Drive back to Cochin
Short sightseeing in Cochin
Drop off at preferred location

The Experience

The private vehicle is already waiting at your Cochin pickup point—airport, hotel, or railway station—and the driver knows exactly where you're headed: Munnar, a hill station three hours inland where the landscape shifts from coastal humidity to cool mountain air. The route itself is part of the experience. You'll pass Cheeyappara and Valara waterfalls, their water catching the light between tea plantations that slope down the hillsides in neat rows. There's time to stop for photos, to stretch, to let the green settle into your eyes. By evening you're checked into the Golden Munnar Palace, a five-star property where the temperature has dropped enough that you'll want a sweater.

Day two is all Munnar's viewpoints and reserves. Eravikulam National Park sits at the top of the range, and that's where the Nilgiri Tahr—a rare mountain goat found nowhere else on earth—lives among the grasslands. After that comes Mattupetty Dam, where you can take a boat out onto the water, then Echo Point and Kundala Lake, each one a different angle on the same quiet landscape. The Tea Museum rounds out the afternoon if you want to know how the leaves became the thing that built this place. You return to the same hotel, the same cool evening air.

On day three the vehicle turns south toward Thekkady, and the landscape opens into spice plantations—cardamom, pepper, cinnamon—before you reach the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary. This is where the Kochi tour shifts from scenery to wildlife. You have the option of a boat safari on Periyar Lake, where elephants and other animals come down to drink at the water's edge. The evening offers a choice: a Kathakali dance performance, where the makeup and hand gestures tell stories older than the region's written history, or a Kalaripayattu martial arts demonstration. Both happen in the same town. You stay at Poetree Thekkady, a club-room property with air conditioning.

Day four is the houseboat. Alleppey—also called the Venice of the East, though that comparison only half-captures it—is where you board a traditional Kerala houseboat for an overnight cruise through the backwaters. The boat moves slowly past paddy fields and coconut groves, past villages where people wave from the shore. Meals are prepared on board: lunch, evening tea, dinner. You sleep on the water, wake to the sound of it lapping against the hull, have breakfast while the morning light hits the palms. It's the kind of stillness that doesn't come often.

The final day brings you back to Cochin. After breakfast and checkout from the houseboat, the private vehicle collects you for the drive back to the city. If there's time, you'll see Fort Kochi, the Chinese Fishing Nets that have been scooping fish from the harbor for centuries, and Mattancherry Palace. Then you're dropped at your chosen endpoint—airport, hotel, or railway station—and the tour ends where it began, with the driver knowing exactly where you need to be.

What’s included

Your five days include flexible pickup and drop-off from any location in Cochin, private air-conditioned vehicle for all transfers and sightseeing, four breakfasts, one night on a traditional houseboat in Alleppey with meals prepared on board, entry to Eravikulam National Park and Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary, all tolls and parking, and a water bottle. Accommodation is at the Golden Munnar Palace in Munnar, Poetree Thekkady in Thekkady, and a luxury houseboat in Alleppey.

Good to know

Easy physical level

Operated by TRAVEL INDIA ONE DAY

Is this one for you?Right for travelers who want Kerala's main regions—hills, wildlife, and backwaters—without arranging separate transport, park tickets, or houseboat bookings; the private vehicle and fixed itinerary handle all the logistics, leaving you to move through the landscape at a steady pace.