Kerala 2022

Our first trip to India was in 2018.  We started that adventure hitting the Golden Triangle Highlights in Delhi, Agra and Jaipur.  From there we traveled south for a textile themed tour to the state of Tamil Nadu organized by Bindu Menon of Breakaway Journeys.  It was a trip we loved.

When we returned home and spoke to other travelers and friends about our trip to Tamil Nadu, we were frequently told “If you liked Tamil Nadu; you’ll love Kerala” so in 2019, well before the world was so familiar with pandemics and vaccines, we started planning our trip for April 2020.

But then covid hit and a few weeks before our departure, virtually every international flight in the world was cancelled.  Through a series of circumstances (that you can read about in more detail at The trip that covid couldn’t kill) we eventually did make it to Kerala in early August 2022 that kicked off a 6-week trip that included visits to Chennai (Tamil Nadu), The Maldives and multiple locations in Thailand.

Our itinerary took us from our home airport to Boston Logan to Doha on a Qatar Air A-359, which allowed us to experience the Qatar Q-Suites business class product for the first time. It would have to rank among the most comfortable air seats we’ve ever enjoyed and was matched by excellent service.

From Doha we took a late-night flight into Thiruvananthapuram, more commonly known as Trivandrum and the capital of the Indian state of Kerala arriving there around 2:45 am on a weekday morning.

Kerala is one of three Indian states with a Communist government.  As tourists, we couldn’t really identify anything about the government that had much if any impact on us.  While they may have been reluctant to share their true feelings with a stranger, whenever the subject would come up with a local, no one expressed any real criticism of the state government.  Virtually everyone would remind us that Kerala had the highest literacy rate of any state in India and gave credit to the government for that.

Kerala has been an important part of the world spice trade for thousands of years, which was one of the motivations for waves of foreign invasion including the Portuguese, Dutch, and British.  We were shocked at the flavor of Black Pepper we saw there.  It was so much more flavorful that what we are used to with a distinct floral taste.  While Kerala cuisine has a reputation for spices, our experience was the “spicey” was more flavor than heat.

There is an emphasis on vegetarian dishes in Kerala. “Sadya” is a form of serving multiple traditional vegetarian foods on top of a banana leaf.  We enjoyed Sadya meals all over Kerala.  You’ll find more details on dining on our Kerala Restaurants page.

You can also find descriptions of our visit in Kerala at the links below:

• Uday Garden Suites
• Trivandrum
• Alleppey (Backwater Houseboat)
• Kochi
• Palakkad        
• Pollachi
• Chennai (Tamil Nadu)