Indian Kerala: Backwaters, Munnar, Alleppey & Kochi Complete Guide 2026
Browse more guides: India travel | Asia destinations Indian Kerala: Backwaters, Munnar, Alleppey & Kochi Complete Guide 2026 TL;DR Kerala sits on the southwest coast of India, a thin green strip wedged between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea, and the state tourism board officially brands it "God's Own Country." After three separate trips totalling about five weeks, I can say that tagline is one of the few I have seen that the destination actually earns. The list of what fits inside this single state is faintly ridiculous: a 96.5 square kilometre backwater lake you can cruise overnight on a converted rice barge, tea hills climbing past 1,600 metres at Munnar with Tata estates that have been picking leaf since the 1880s, a 500 year old port at Fort Kochi where Chinese fishing nets still dip and rise at sunset, a wildlife sanctuary at Periyar where you spot wild elephants from a lake boat, and a red sandstone cliff at Varkala that drops straight onto a clean A...