Beach and Backwater Holidays in India

Upon arrival, you will be met by our ICS representative at the airport, transfer to Kovalam. Kovalam is an internationally renowned beach with three adjacent crescent beaches. It has been a favourite palace for tourists to visit, especially Europeans, since the 1930s. A massive rocky promontory on the beach has created a beautiful bay of calm waters ideal for sea bathing. The leisure options at this beach are plenty and diverse. Sunbathing, swimming, herbal body toning massages, special cultural programs and catamaran cruising are some of them. The tropical sun acts so fast that one can see the faint blush of coppery tan on the skin in a matter of minutes. Life on the beach begins late in the day and carries on well into the night. The beach complex includes a string of budget cottages, Ayurveda health resorts, convention facilities, shopping zones, swimming pools, Yoga and Ayurvedic massage centers. Balance day free at leisure. Overnight in Kovalam.

Day free at leisure. Overnight in Kovalam.

Day free at leisure. Overnight in Kovalam.

Morning after breakfast, drive to Alleppey On arrival board a Houseboat. Private boat trip along the beautiful backwater canals of Kerala is a highlight of any visit to the South. These converted rice barges or "Kettuvallams" sail along shallow, palm-fringed lakes and narrow canals where coconut and cashew is loaded onto dugouts. You pass villages built on narrow spits of land, stopping to visit local markets by bullock-cart, or to marvel at craftsmen engaged in centuries-old boat-making tradition. Overnight at Houseboat (all meals included)

Morning after breakfast, drive to Cochin. Cochin, originally built by the Portuguese, has a natural harbor with lagoons, canals and fishing hamlets. One of the three biggest ports on the West Coast, it is also an industrious developed area. An excursion by boat through the backwaters is enchanting. Later proceed for the sightseeing of Cochin. Visit the Mattancherry Dutch Palace - open from 10.00 to 15.00 hrs. (Closed on Fridays and public holidays), which was built by the Portuguese in 1555 and renovated by the Dutch in 1663. In the ancient rooms are 17th century murals that relate in vibrant color the story of the epic Ramayana. Visit a Jewish Synagogue - open 10.00 to 12.00 hrs. & 15.00 to 17.00 hrs. (Closed on all Fridays and Saturdays and Jewish holidays) in Jew Town and Fort Cochin Area - Legend dates Jewish trade with Kerala from the times of King Solomon. There are a couple of streets of picture-postcard houses out of another age, in 17th century Dutch and traditional Kerala styles. Visit St. Francis Church - open from 09.00 to 13.00 hrs. And 14.30 to 17.30 hrs. (Closed for visitors on Sundays from 08.00 to 11.00 hrs.) the oldest European Church in India. It has several antiquities including a wealth of records. These include a palm-leaf title deed the local Raja gave the Portuguese in 1503. See the Chinese Fishing Nets, along the tip of Fort Cochin unique to this part of Kerala and living symbols of a centuries-old Chinese influence on this coast. Evening witness the Kathakali dance at the Auditorium. Kathakali performances, a dance-drama based on the ancient epics forming among the most colourful of the country’s stage tradition. Male actors in makeup that takes as much as two to three hours to apply, cavort on the stage in a spellbinding display of morality-theatre. The women perform the more graceful dance form, the Mohiniattam. Overnight in Cochin.

Morning after breakfast, take a flight to Goa via Mumbai. The Land of Goa is covered with paddy fields and groves of cashew, mango and coconut. Strung along the 100 km. The coastline is golden stretches of beaches with picturesque names like Arambol, Vagator, Baga, Anjuna, Calangute in the north, and the raw beauty of Colva, Betul and Palolem in the South. Goa’s Portuguese history, which began in 1510 and ended in 1961 makes for a fabulous amalgam of Iberian and Indian, Christian and Hindu lifestyles. “Golden Goa” was the capital of the Portuguese Empire in the east and they imposed upon its essentially Hindu environment their own architectural styles. Goa still has the look of the Iberian coast, with its tiled houses, imposing baroque churches, eternal carnivals and as Kirt clad, mantilla-wearing women. The Portuguese were not able to entirely obliterate Goa’s Hindu ancestry, and some fine temples can be seen, built in an architectural style quite different to that elsewhere in India. If Hindu traditionally influenced the Old Catholic churches, Catholic tradition has permeated the new Hindu temples. It exemplifies the strange correspondence and amity between the two religions, which exist in Goa. Balance Day free at leisure. Overnight in Goa.

Morning after breakfast, proceed for half day sightseeing of Goa. Old Goa has half a dozen imposing churches and cathedrals and a fragment of a gateway are all that remain of the second capital of the Adil Shahi dynasty of Bijapur and the Portuguese capital that was once said to rival Lisbon in magnificence Old Goa has declined from a vibrant city of over a hundred thousand souls to little more than a handful of potent architectural relics. Old Goa is still the spiritual heart of Christian Goa, and its most famous building is The Basilica of Bom Jesus, which contains the tomb and mortal remains of the peripatetic St Francis Xavier, credited with introducing Christianity to much of South-East Asia. The largest of the churches is the Portuguese-Gothic Se Cathedral, dating from 1562, which houses the so-called 'Golden Bell', whose resonant peal can be heard thrice daily. Balance day free at leisure. Overnight in Goa.

Day free at leisure. Overnight in Goa.

Day free at leisure. Overnight in Goa.

Morning after breakfast, take a flight to Mumbai, stay in transit and connect flight to onward destination.