Where to start
Much of what is on this page is less than half an hour from the villa, and the rest makes a full day out. Times are approximate driving times from the villa; allow longer in traffic.
For ready-made day plans, and ideas for stays of two to five nights, see Day trips and travel plans from Cherai. We can arrange a car and driver for any of them.
From the villa · Beaches · Muziris heritage trail · Islands and village life · Fort Kochi and Mattancherry · Further afield · Festivals · Good to know
From the villa
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Boat ride and Chinese fishing nets
An hour on the lake by boat for your group, with a visit to the Chinese fishing nets. Late afternoon, as the light turns gold, is the loveliest time to go. Book it with your stay, or ask once you’re here.
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Evenings by the lake
Evening is the best time of day here. Find a spot by the infinity pool and watch the light change over the water.
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A Kerala meal at the villa
Home-style Kerala lunches and dinners are cooked in the villa’s kitchen when you ask. Order lunch by 10 am and dinner by 4 pm.
Beaches
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Cherai Beach
A long, gently sloping beach where the sea and the backwaters are only a few hundred metres apart. Dolphins are often seen offshore, and Chinese fishing nets line the water nearby.
From October to March, you can go parasailing on the beach.
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Munambam Beach and harbour
At the northern tip of Vypin Island, beside Munambam Fishing Harbour, the largest fishing harbour in Kochi. A long breakwater makes a good walk out to sea, and Chinese fishing nets line the beach.
Come early in the morning, when the boats come in and traders gather for the catch.
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Kuzhupilly Beach
A quiet stretch of golden sand lined with casuarina trees, with a floating bridge out over the sea when the weather allows.
The Muziris heritage trail
Cherai is on the edge of the Muziris Heritage Project, which links old forts, synagogues, palaces and places of worship around North Paravur and Kodungallur, named after the ancient port of Muziris.
Most of the project’s museums open from 10 am to 5 pm and close on Mondays.
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Pallipuram Fort
Built by the Portuguese in 1503, this hexagonal laterite fort is described by Kerala Tourism as India’s oldest surviving European monument.
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Sahodaran Ayyappan Museum
The birthplace of Sahodaran Ayyappan (1889 to 1968), a social reformer who fought caste discrimination in Kerala, kept as a museum of thatched houses beside the Periyar.
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Paravur Synagogue and market
A synagogue from the early 1600s, now the Kerala Jews History Museum, and the most complete of Kerala’s synagogues.
The old Paravur market beside it is busiest on Tuesdays and Saturdays and closed on Sundays. Nearby Kottakkavu church is one of the churches linked by tradition to St Thomas the Apostle.
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Paliam Palace and Paliam Nalukettu
Paliam Palace, home of the Paliath Achans who served as prime ministers to the Kings of Cochin, is now the Kerala History Museum. Next door, the family’s 450-year-old nalukettu, a house built around an open courtyard, shows how Kerala families once lived.
Photography isn’t allowed inside the palace.
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Chendamangalam and Kottayil Kovilakam
On the small hill of Kottayil Kovilakam, a Krishna temple, a church, a mosque and a synagogue built in 1614 stand within a short walk of each other. The restored synagogue is now a museum of Jewish life in Kerala.
In the church grounds are the ruins of the Vypeekotta Seminary, a Jesuit college founded by the Portuguese in 1581, where the Jesuits also ran an early printing press.
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Chendamangalam handlooms
Chendamangalam is known for its handloom: its dhotis and set mundu carry a Geographical Indication tag. After the 2018 floods ruined the weavers’ stock, the spoiled cloth was turned into small Chekutty dolls to help them recover.
Ask us to arrange a visit to a weavers’ co-operative, to watch the looms at work and buy straight from the weavers.
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Gothuruthu and Chavittu Nadakam
This small island is the home of Chavittu Nadakam, a 500-year-old Christian dance drama that mixes Kerala and Portuguese theatre, with glittering costumes and stamping footwork. Performances are put on when booked, so ask us a few days ahead.
The island also holds a boat race, usually in September, and is known for its seafood.
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Kottappuram Fort and the Muziris Museum
The overgrown ruins of a fort built by the Portuguese in 1523 at the mouth of the Periyar. Excavations here have helped trace the old port of Muziris, and a museum stands beside the fort.
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Pattanam
Excavations in this village found Roman amphorae, beads and other signs of a port that traded across the ancient world, and many believe it was part of Muziris. The finds are shown in a small site museum.
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Cheraman Juma Masjid
Believed to be India’s oldest mosque, dated by tradition to 629 AD. A long restoration brought back its old Kerala look, with a tiled roof and no domes or minarets, and a small museum tells its story.
Visitors who dress modestly and follow the customs can go inside.
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Marthoma Pontifical Shrine, Azhikode
Where St Thomas the Apostle is believed to have landed in 52 AD. The shrine keeps a relic of the saint brought from Ortona in Italy, and his landing is celebrated every year on 21 November.
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Kayaks and boats on the Muziris waterways
Water taxis and kayaks are back on the old waterways: they restarted at the Thattukadavu boat jetty in North Paravur in October 2026, and kayaking and canoeing have begun at Kodungallur too.
Islands and village life
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Kadamakudy islands
Fourteen small islands of rice fields, prawn farms, mangroves and Chinese fishing nets, linked by narrow bridges and still largely untouched by mass tourism. Take a canoe or kayak along the canals, cycle the village lanes and stay for sunset over the fields.
Pokkali, a rice that grows in salty water, is planted here in the monsoon.
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Kumbalangi
Promoted as India’s first model tourism village: watch Chinese fishing nets at work, see crab farming and coir making, and take a country boat through the mangroves. It is on the far side of Kochi, so pair it with a day in Fort Kochi.
Fort Kochi and Mattancherry
Kochi’s old port is about an hour away. Go on a Sunday to Thursday: the Dutch Palace is closed on Fridays, and the Paradesi Synagogue on Fridays, Saturdays and Jewish holidays.
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Fort Kochi
Fort Kochi is famous for its Chinese fishing nets on the shore, and for St Francis Church, described by Kerala Tourism as India’s oldest European church. Vasco da Gama was first buried there in 1524.
Walk on to Santa Cruz Basilica and the old Dutch cemetery.
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Mattancherry Palace
Also called the Dutch Palace: built by the Portuguese in the 1550s for the Kings of Cochin and later repaired by the Dutch, it is famous for its wall paintings of Hindu epics. Photography isn’t allowed inside.
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Jew Town and the Paradesi Synagogue
The synagogue, built in 1568, opens from 10 am to 12 noon and 3 to 5 pm, and visitors go in barefoot. The lanes outside are full of spice warehouses and antique shops.
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The Jain temple at noon
At about noon each day, hundreds of pigeons circle the Dharmanath Jain temple and come down to be fed: a quiet, unexpected sight.
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Kathakali in the evening
Kerala’s classical dance drama, staged every evening at the Kerala Kathakali Centre. Arrive around 5 pm to watch the actors paint their faces before the show starts at about 6; a show of Kalaripayattu, Kerala’s martial art, follows.
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Kerala Folklore Museum
A private collection of masks, costumes, carvings and musical instruments from across Kerala and South India, in a building that mixes the region’s old styles of architecture.
To get to Fort Kochi, drive south along Vypin Island and take the ro-ro ferry across from Vypin, which carries cars as well as people, or drive round through Kochi city over the Goshree bridges. The ferry is sometimes out of service, so check before you set off.
Further afield
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Athirappilly and Vazhachal waterfalls
Kerala’s largest waterfall, in forest on the Chalakudy River. One ticket also covers Vazhachal falls, 5 km further on, on the same day. The falls are fullest after the monsoon, and mornings are cooler and quieter.
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Abhayaranyam elephant shelter, Kodanad
Kodanad’s old elephant training centre has closed, and its elephants now live at Abhayaranyam, a forest shelter 2 km away on the banks of the Periyar, where you can watch them being bathed and fed.
Kalady, the birthplace of the philosopher Adi Shankaracharya, is on the way.
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Thattekad Bird Sanctuary
Kerala’s first bird sanctuary, which the ornithologist Salim Ali called the richest bird habitat in peninsular India, with more than 270 species. Go between October and March, early in the morning, with a local guide booked ahead.
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A houseboat day at Alappuzha
Most day cruises on the Alappuzha backwaters run from about 11 am to 5 pm, with lunch on board, so leave the villa by 8 am. For quieter water closer to home, take our own boat ride or a canoe at Kadamakudy.
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Kerala Kalamandalam
Kerala’s great school of Kathakali and the classical arts, founded in 1930 by the poet Vallathol Narayana Menon. Its A Day with the Masters visit, about ₹2,000 a person, lets you watch classes and meet the teachers. Book ahead and arrive by 9:15 am.
Festivals and events
- November
- 21 November: the feast of St Thomas’s landing at the Marthoma shrine, Azhikode.
- December
- The Cochin Carnival fills Fort Kochi in the last weeks of December: a giant Pappanji figure is burnt at midnight on New Year’s Eve, and a parade follows on New Year’s Day. The Chuvadi festival of Chavittu Nadakam at Gothuruthu usually falls in the last week of December. The 7th Kochi-Muziris Biennale, India’s largest contemporary art show, opens in December 2027.
- March and April
- The Bharani festival at Kodungallur Bhagavathy Temple, and Easter.
- April
- Thrissur Pooram, Kerala’s grandest temple festival, on 17 April 2027.
- August and September
- Onam, Kerala’s harvest festival, and the boat race at Gothuruthu, usually in September.
Good to know
- Temples
- Many Hindu temples in Kerala admit only Hindus, so you may see some only from outside. Ask us which ones you can enter.
- What to wear
- Cover your shoulders and knees at temples, churches, mosques and synagogues, and take your shoes off where asked.
- Closing days
- Mondays: the Muziris museums and Abhayaranyam. Fridays: Mattancherry Palace. Fridays and Saturdays: the Paradesi Synagogue.
- Photos
- Not allowed inside Paliam Palace or Mattancherry Palace.
- Getting around
- We can arrange a car and driver for any trip on this page. See our travel plans for full days that start and end at the villa.
Stay by the lake
Come back to the pool and the lake after a day out. Book the whole villa for up to 10 guests, or just the rooms you need. Breakfast is included.