Travel

Kovalam : The Essence of Kerala

So recently I had a few days to spare and since I have visited Goa and Kochi/Kumarakom mutiple times in recent years, I decided to head to Pondicherry ( Puducherry ) and Kovalam. After staying in Pondicherry for 3 days, we drove down to Chennai Airport to catch a flight to Thiruvananthapuram . After a short flight of around 50 minutes we landed at our destination and the first thing i liked about Kovalam is that it is situated so close to the Thiruvananthapuram airport from where it is a 20 min. drive depending upon where you want to go in Kovalam. I had booked us in Taj Green Cove resort and had called the hotel ahead for a pickup and we were at the property in around 15-20 mins. Now I have to confess it is a beautifully landscaped property, among the best I have seen. The only drawback is that it is built along a cliff and one really has to do a fair bit of walking to get around to the various restaurants and other facilities and although they have golf carts too.

Beach near the Bait Restaurant

Jasmine Bay is their multicuisine restaurant and it has very good views the infinity pool and beyond to the sea…The food quality, selection and service in all their restaurants/bar is very good.

Jasmine Bay Restaurant

So the next day we headed to the tours of the Backwaters In Poovar which is around 15 Kms from Kovalam Town. We took a motorboat from the Poovar jetty and very soon we were in in thick of the Backwaters..

Backwaters at Poovar

It really was a very serene place and we had a wonderful couple of hours on the boat exploring the backwaters…

The next day we headed to the Neyyar Dam which is around 35 odd kms from Kovalam . Neyyar Dam has a wildlife sanctuary, a Lion Safari and beautiful lake ( of course ! ) ..

It was really thrilling to see the lions up close from a bus..

The Wildlife park had very few animals like deers . a crocodile enclosure etc but some of the paths and treks in the park were truly beautiful..

I would say that Kovalam is one place where you can easily spend 3-4 days and it really is a place you should visit once.

These are  videos which show the places there..

 

Here are some of the pictures from my trip, do let me know in the comments below if you liked any of them….

 

4 Comments

  • Chrissy

    Thanks for that..lovely overview and photos….we are sitting awaiting more snow in Wales. Doing our last packing g before going to kerala next week……

    • admin

      Thanks Chrissy for your kind comments, I wish you a terrific trip and look forward to reading about it in the forums…I also hope the weather improves in Wales soon….

  • Ruth Holt

    Lovely to read about Kovalam. We visited last year. We needed a few days to relax so didn’t venture very far. Our kids loved the surfing and had lessons. We also loved a visit to SISP charity school which also runs the surfing lessons. We must return and visit the backwaters and Neyyar Dam.

    • admin

      Thank you so much Ruth for appreciating the post, I missed out on the SISP charity school, next time maybe… Yes Neyyar dam is a beautiful and serene place…

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