Sacred South Passage: Coastlines & Backwaters

Three seas meet at Kanyakumari, and this route starts there. It runs up the Coromandel to Rameswaram’s thousand-pillared corridors and the sand road to Dhanushkodi, then inland to Madurai, where Meenakshi’s night ceremony carries…

Length: 13 days, 12 nights
From: ₹3,28,000 per person
Pace: Active
Stops: 7
Best months: November to March

The route

7 stops over 13 days

Thiruvananthapuram
Kanyakumari
Rameswaram
Madurai
Thekkady
Alleppey
Kochi

Sunrise where three seas meet at Kanyakumari
The 1,200-foot corridor at Ramanathaswamy, Rameswaram
Meenakshi’s night palanquin ceremony at quarter past nine
Bamboo rafting at dawn on Periyar’s drowned forest
Padmanabhapuram Palace, the largest wooden palace in Asia

Day by day

What actually happens

Length: 13 days
Stops: 7
Pace: Active
From: ₹3,28,000

1

Thiruvananthapuram

Arrive Thiruvananthapuram

Arrival at Thiruvananthapuram, where the airport is close enough to the coast that you can smell the sea on the apron. Transfer to Kovalam, thirty minutes. The remainder of the day is unplanned. Swim, sleep, or take the path along the headland to the lighthouse at Vizhinjam. Your guide joins you at seven to outline the route south.

Night: Taj Green Cove Resort, Kovalam
2B

Thiruvananthapuram

The Reclining Vishnu

Padmanabhaswamy first, before the queue: dhoti on, phone left behind, and Anantha Shayana Vishnu seen in three parts through three doorways. The temple’s granite came from Thirumala, dragged by elephant. Later, the Kuthiramalika palace with its 122 carved horses, and the Napier Museum’s woodwork. In the evening, a Kalaripayattu demonstration — the oldest martial art still practised, and startlingly fast.

Night: Taj Green Cove Resort, Kovalam
3B

Kanyakumari

Padmanabhapuram and Land’s End

Two and a half hours south, stopping at Padmanabhapuram Palace: the largest wooden palace complex in Asia, black floors polished with egg white and coconut shell, a mother’s chamber lit by coloured mica. Cross into Tamil Nadu and reach Kanyakumari by four. Sunset from the shore where the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean meet.

Night: The Gopinivas Grand, Kanyakumari
4B

Kanyakumari

Sunrise, Rock and Suchindram

Be on the beach by 6.10 for the sunrise; on full-moon days in April the sun rises and the moon sets across the same horizon. A ferry runs to the Vivekananda Rock Memorial and the 41-metre Thiruvalluvar statue. Inland, Suchindram’s Thanumalayan temple has musical pillars cut from single blocks of granite. Afternoon at the Gandhi Mandapam, then rest.

Night: The Gopinivas Grand, Kanyakumari
5B L

Rameswaram

Along the Coromandel Coast

A long day east, six hours through Tirunelveli and the palmyra country of Ramanathapuram, with a stop at Tiruchendur where the temple stands on the beach itself. The last stretch crosses the Pamban bridge — two kilometres of rail and road over green water, with the old cantilever span alongside. Arrive by late afternoon on Pamban island.

Night: Hyatt Place Rameswaram
6B

Rameswaram

Corridors and the Sand Road

Ramanathaswamy at dawn, where pilgrims are doused at 22 wells in turn before darshan, and the third corridor runs 1,200 feet — the longest in India, and worth walking slowly for the light. Later, the road to Dhanushkodi, a town the 1964 cyclone took in a night; the church gable still stands. Sri Lanka is 30 kilometres beyond.

Night: Hyatt Place Rameswaram
7B

Madurai

Inland to the Temple City

Four hours inland, leaving the sea behind for black cotton soil and chilli drying on the verge. Madurai has been continuously inhabited for 2,500 years and it feels like it. Settle in, then an evening walk through the bazaars that ring the temple: tailors on North Chitrai, flower sellers on West, brassware and bell metal on South Avani Moola.

Night: Heritage Madurai
8B

Madurai

Meenakshi, Dawn to Bedtime

The temple opens at five. Fourteen gopurams, 33,000 sculptures, the Potramarai tank where the Sangam poets are said to have tested verse. Mid-morning, the Thirumalai Nayak palace and its 25-metre dome built without girders. Return at 9.15pm for the palli arai ceremony, when Sundareswarar is carried in a palanquin to Meenakshi’s chamber, drums leading the way.

Night: Heritage Madurai
9B D

Thekkady

Up to the Cardamom Hills

Four hours north-west and back into Kerala, climbing through Kumily’s spice gardens. In the afternoon, a plantation walk: cardamom under shade, pepper vines trained on silver oak, nutmeg with its scarlet lace of mace, and clove trees that take seven years to earn their keep. Evening Kalaripayattu, or a Kathakali performance with the make-up done in front of you.

Night: Spice Village, Thekkady
10B L

Thekkady

Bamboo Rafting on Periyar Lake

Out at six with a forest guard for the bamboo raft: four hours on the lake, drifting past drowned trees left standing since the 1895 dam, watching for gaur at the shoreline, Malabar grey hornbill overhead and otters working the shallows. Back for a late lunch. Afternoon free — an Ayurvedic massage, or the tea road towards Vandiperiyar.

Night: Spice Village, Thekkady
11B L D

Alleppey

Down to the Kuttanad Water

The descent to the coastal plain takes four hours and drops 900 metres. Your houseboat leaves the Punnamada jetty at noon: two cabins, teak decking, and a cook who buys prawns from a canoe that pulls alongside. Afternoon on the water — toddy shops, coir yards, snake-boat sheds. Dinner as the light goes; moored by nine, generator off.

Night: Overnight on board
12B

Kochi

Ashore, and North to Fort Kochi

Breakfast on deck — puttu, kadala curry, a banana off the stem — then ashore at ten and ninety minutes north to Fort Kochi. The afternoon is unstructured: the Chinese nets, the Dutch cemetery wall, Bazaar Road’s ginger godowns. At five, Kathakali; the make-up alone takes an hour, and the eyes are reddened with a seed placed under the lid.

Night: Malabar House, Fort Kochi
13B

Kochi

Departure from Cochin

Tea on the terrace while the container ships work the channel towards Vallarpadam. Depending on your flight, there may be time for a last walk to the Santa Cruz Basilica or the fish stalls by the nets. Transfer to Cochin International, about an hour with traffic. Our representative sees you through check-in and stays until you are airside.

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