Complete South India Tour
16 Days | 9 Destinations | Heritage Hotels stay at Chettinad and Pondicherry | Luxury Beach & Jungle Resorts | Houseboat Stay | Luxury Tea Garden Stay |
Best Months to Travel: From August to April
Add a 16-day Rajasthan Tour to this tour from NZ $9990 p/p (All Flights Included)
Book for 2025-26 and get a Complimentary Ayurvedic Spa at a Luxury Resort.
Our guests took all the photographs below during their travel:
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Your host has been there.
Vishal with Mr Abraham from Abraham Spice Garden, Thekkady.
ITINERARY
Day 1 - arrival at Kochi Airport Day 2 -Kochi Sightseeing
Embracing Fort Kochi's Colonial history.
Fly from New Zealand and Welcome to Kochi! After an airport welcome, you will be transferred to your hotel and able to relax for the night. The next 2 days, you will explore historical and cultural sites in Kochi at your own pace, like Mattancherry Palace and a morning walk on Beach Walkway to see the Chinese Fishing Nets and famous and ancient Churches of Fort Kochi, which explain its History. A relaxed walk on Princess Street to enjoy shopping, local cafes and restaurants. Don't forget to take a complimentary evening boat ride from your hotel to take a breathtaking view of Fort Kochi.
Highlights –
• Arrival in India. • Guided tour of Kochi. • Mattanchery Palace & Fishing Village.
• Boat Tour.
Day 3 Coconut Lagoon Resort Stay
An interplay of coconut groves and backwater canals, with old wooden Keralan homes transplanted, preserved and cherished.
From Kochi, your vehicle will take you to the luxury beach resort for an Ayurvedic spa session and a traditional lunch. After getting rid of your tour fatigue here, travel to Alleppey, truly a paradise! The backwaters, the coconut lagoon, the culture, the village life and the food. Your experience of Kerala Tour is incomplete without visiting Alleppey and its backwaters.
Highlights – • Luxurious stay at Coconut Lagoon
• Complimentary Ayurvedic spa session • Traditional lunch at a luxury beach resort
Day 4 Luxury Houseboat Stay
A way to get intimate with the bewitching waterways of the Vembanad Lake in the heartland of Kerala.
The houseboat at the Vambanad Lake on this Kerala Tour gives you a taste of a unique way of life that was extant in these parts. You get to journey upon a 'Kettuvalam', a traditional houseboat, that was once used to carry cargoes of rice and spices up and down these same waterways for centuries. The service and food onboard also faithfully capture a dying tradition of the backwaters for you to sample first-hand.
Highlights – • Backwaters of Allepey• Houseboat stay and local food experiences.
Day 5 Munnar
Travel to the beautiful tea hills of Munnar. The real scenic beauty of the tea garden starts after Munnar. Your road to the luxury resort out in the hills of Top Station not only gives you a fabulous location to stay, but also gives you great stopovers to appreciate God's Own Country. These stopovers include Photo Point, Madupatty Tea Factory, Echo Point, Matupetty Dam, Elephant View Point and the Top Point itself.
Check in at your luxury resort. At your convenience, go for guided tea garden walks, trekking, or mountain biking around tea estates.
Highlights – • Visit to the tea Factory
• Echo Point
• Madupatty Dam
Day 6 Top Station
Embraced by soaring peaks, mysterious forest-clad valleys and the expanse of sky above, the mist is an enchantress, casting sinuous veils and shrouded illusions. Here, eternity lies in a drizzle drop.
Indulge in the scenic beauty of the Top Point while you enjoy the luxury of The Drizzle Drop Resort. A jeep safari will be booked for you, which will take you through the Tea Gardens.
Highlights – • Top Station• Jeep Safari through the Tea Gardens
Day 7 & 8 Periyar National PArk
Travel to Thekkady and Periyar National Park. Check into your luxury jungle resort. Plenty of local activities include spice & rubber plantation visits, a guided tour of Periyar Tiger Reserve, and a bath with elephants at Thekkady Elephant Sanctuary. Also visit Abraham's Spice Garden to be amazed by the variety of spices Kerala can offer. Do not forget to join us on a cultural dance show, 'Kathakali' and the ancient martial art show 'Kalaripayattu'. Your traditional resort also offers plenty of activities that you can choose from.
Highlights – • Wildlife of Kerala • Visit to Elephant Junction
• Spice & Rubber Plantation visits
• Abraham's Spice Garden Visit• Periyal Forest Lake Boat RIde
• Kathakali Dance and Kalaripayattu Show.
Day 9: Chettinad
After breakfast, drive to Madurai, famous for its colourful Meenakshi Temple. After which, there’s lunch in a typical Tamil Nadu restaurant in Madurai before you continue to Visalam. It’s been a long day, so spend the evening by the pool before dinner. A classical music concert has been arranged as an accompaniment to your meal.
Day 10 Chettinad
After breakfast, visit the weekly market called Vaara Sabdhai with the chef, where greengrocers, fisherfolk and fruit vendors display their wares under colourful canopies. Back at the hotel, join our kitchen staff in preparing your lunch, which, as per tradition, is served in the kitchen. After lunch, a visit to the Chettinad Palace and the handloom weavers of Chettinad is in order.
Day 11: Pondichery
Today’s drive will take you to the east coast and the Union Territory of Pondicherry.On leaving Visalam, you visit Thanjavur, a town known for its great Chola temples, the most impressive of which is the Brihadeshwara temple located in the centre of the city.. After a pit-stop for a typical South Indian vegetarian lunch, you come to the next high-point of your journey: the great Chidambaram temple. Said to be the birthplace of Shiva as the dancer (Nataraja), this temple is located upon Earth’s magnetic equator and thus considered by some to be the centre of the world. Reach Pondicherry and check in to your luxurious room at the Palais de Mahe. Once you’re settled, take a walk down Old Pondy to one of the popular local restaurants for dinner.
Day 12 Pondichery
Pondicherry is a wonderful town with a long and interesting history of trade and war. You can explore this history on foot or by bicycle. Visit the Aurobindo Ashram, the French, Christian, Hindu and Muslim quarters, the incredible, colourful main market, the beach promenade and the Ganesha Temple. Drop in at the Aurobindo paper factory and the Auroville Store.
En route, have a cup of coffee at the Kafe Express, or some French food at La Maison Rose, a treat that’ll transport you to old Europe. Lunch is served at Maison Perumal, our boutique hotel in the Tamil Quarter, and a gala farewell dinner awaits you at Palais de Mahe to put a fine finishing touch to your culinary tour of the south.
Day 13: Chennai via Mahabalipuram
A 4-hour drive to Chennai through the 7th - 8th century Mahablipuram ancient temples that reflect the glory of the erstwhile kingdoms, pristine beaches that emanate matchless natural beauty, rich cultural heritage that welcomes you with warmth.
Day 14 Chennai
Spend your day exploring Chennai's cultural hub of Mylapore with this day tour. Your morning will be spent visiting the iconic 7th-century Kapaleeshwar Temple and the San Thome Basilica, followed by a traditional South Indian lunch in a local restaurant and a visit to the shrine at Ramakrishna Math, followed by a visit to the 17th-century Fort Saint George before returning to your hotel.
Day 15: Chennai Airport Departure
Travel further if you choose an add-on to Varanasi, Amritsar or add a North India Tour of Rajasthan at special prices. Or else take your scheduled flight back to New Zealand.
Day 16 Arrival Back Home
Welcome back to New Zealand after a fabulous tour of India.