Planning · two days
Two days in Kochi: the plan that leaves nothing important out
Two days is Kochi done properly: the first for fort Kochi, the second for mattancherry and the water, and a third, if you have it, for the harbour's villages. Each day below is ordered by light, not by list — tick as you go.
Day 1 — Fort Kochi
Dawn — the nets in silhouette, from the walkway.
Morning — St Francis, the Dutch Cemetery key, Santa Cruz, the Parade Ground streets.
Midday — lunch at Kashi Art Café or a fish-curry meal.
Afternoon — the Indo-Portuguese Museum, then Fort Kochi beach.
Evening — Kathakali, make-up first; the Pappanji ground at New Year.
Day 2 — Mattancherry and the water
Morning — Bazaar Road's godowns loading, then Jew Town and the synagogue at ten.
Late morning — the Dutch Palace murals.
Midday — Kayees for biryani.
Afternoon — Water Metro to High Court; Marine Drive at sunset.
Evening — dinner in Ernakulam, or the ferry back.
Day 3 — The harbour's villages
Early — Thoppumpady fish auction at half past six.
Morning — Kumbalangi by canoe; the hundred nets, the crab ponds.
Midday — a Kumbalangi village lunch.
Afternoon — the ferry to Vypeen and Cherai beach, or the Muziris circuit at Kodungallur.
Evening — Hill Palace and Tripunithura if the Metro tempts you; otherwise a last rooftop.
Worth leaving town for
Kumbalangi. Fifteen kilometres south: India's first model tourism village — a hundred Chinese nets on the backwater, crab farms, canoes — and, on dark nights in spring, water that can glow blue.
Muziris. Kodungallur, 35 km north: the Pattanam excavation museum, the restored synagogues of Chendamangalam and Paravur, Kottappuram fort, and a mosque that claims to be India's first.
Cherai and Vypeen. The island the flood made, by the ro-ro ferry every fifteen minutes; Cherai's ten-kilometre beach, Pallippuram's 1503 fort, the Puthuvype lighthouse at three.
Getting there and away
By air: Cochin International (COK) at Nedumbassery, about 40 km and 60–90 minutes from Fort Kochi — prepaid taxis (≈ ₹1,250–1,350) and app cabs (≈ ₹600–1,000) in arrivals, or the feeder bus to Aluva Metro and the train south.
By rail: Ernakulam Junction (South) and Ernakulam Town (North) on the mainland; Fort Kochi is a ferry or a forty-minute road hop from either.
By road: Alleppey 55 km / 1½–2 h; Munnar 130 km / 4–4½ h up the Adimali ghat; Kodungallur's Muziris sites 35 km / 1 h.
Keep going
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