Visit the incredible ancient city of Hampi and explore tranquil Kerala

Saturday, 20 June 2026

Fly from the UK to Hyderabad

Depart the UK on an overnight flight to Hyderabad.

 

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Sunday, 21 June 2026

Arrive in Hyderabad

Arrive in Hyderabad where you will be met by our local guide and transferred to your chosen hotel for a 2-night including breakfast. You guide will give you a short orientation tour of your local surroundings. Rest of the day is at leisure. 

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Monday, 22 June 2026

Guided tour of Hyderabad

Today enjoy a guided tour of the 'Pearl City', visiting “Charminar” in the old city, an example for Indo-Islamic architecture combined with several Persian elements. We visit the historic Mecca Masjid mosque, the 13th century Golconda fort located on a hill 120 metres high while huge crenelated ramparts surround this structure. We also visit the Salarjung Museum housing an interesting collection of antiques and artefacts.

Tuesday, 23 June 2026

Fly to Vidyanagar for Hampi

After breakfast, check-out from the hotel and transfer to airport to board your flight to Vidyanagar. Arrive Vidyanagar and drive to Hampi. On arrival in Hampi, check into your hotel for a 2 night stay on a bed and breakfast basis.

A village in northern Karnataka in India, Hampi. Stunningly beautiful, this idyllic place sprawls on the sides of River Tungabhadra and is one of the sites to house ruins of the Vijayanagar Empire. UNESCO has credited Hampi ruins as a World Heritage Site and rightly so, for visiting these ruins is more like a lesson in history and lost kingdoms.

The foundation of the Vijayanagara Empire was laid in Hampi in 1336 A.D, making it the capital of the largest empire in post-mogul India. It later became famous for its support towards renovation/reconstruction of temples re-establishment of Indian culture, its support for music, art and literature throughout India. Today the ruins silently narrate the story of grandeur and fabulous wealth, palaces and gateways of the broken city tells a tale of men of infinite talent and power of creativity together with his capacity for senseless destruction.

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Wednesday, 24 June 2026

Full day tour of Hampi

This morning, explore Hampi. The discovery of stone artefacts, pottery shards and rock paintings indicate that Hampi has been inhabited since pre-historic times. Hampi has challenged time, survived the centuries and lived to tell the tale.

Vittala Temple Complex - The most splendid monument of Hampi is undoubtedly the Vittala Temple Complex with its 56 musical pillars. Here see the famous Stone Chariot with stone wheels that revolve. In front of the shrine stands the great mantapa. Resting on a richly sculpted basement, its roof is supported by huge pillars of granite, each consisting of a central pillar surrounded by detached shafts, all cut from one single block of stone.

The Virupaksha Temple rises majestically at the western end of the famous Hampi Bazaar. The temple has a 120 feet tall tower on its eastern entrance. The temple contains the shrines of Shiva, Pampa and Bhuvaneswari. Parts of this temple are older than the Vijayanagar kingdom itself. The work of this style dates back to the 11th or 12th century.

Hazara Ramaswami temple is believed to have been the private place of worship of the royal family. The chief attraction of the temple is the series of scenes from the Ramayana carved on two of the inside walls of the mantapa. Later we visit the Achyutaraya Temple and walk through the bazaars of Hampi.

Thursday, 25 June 2026

Fly to Kochi (Cochin)

Transfer to the airport and fly to Kochi (Cochin) via Bangalore. On arrival, transfer to your chosen hotel for a 2-night stay including breakfast. The rest of the day is at leisure.

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Friday, 26 June 2026

Guided tour of Kochi

We have a tour of Mattancherry, the bustling part of Old Fort Cochin and the epicenter of the spice trade for centuries. It remains a densely populated place housing people from different ethnic groups and faiths in very close quarters. Mattancherry is home to a small Jewish community whose origin dates back nearly 2000 years, during the period of King Solomon, when large scale trade took place between the Middle East and the Malabar Coast. Our touring today reveals Kochi’s multi-layered past, a rich brew of Arab, Portuguese, British, and Dutch influences.

We begin with the Dutch Palace, actually built by the Portuguese as a gift for the Raja of Kochi in 1555.  The Dutch renovated and expanded it a century later, earning it its name. The palace also contains some of India’s finest mythological murals; the walls depict scenes from the great Hindu epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata (Dutch Palace remain closed on Fridays and Saturdays)

Then we see St. Francis, India’s first European church (ca. 1510), famed as the original burial site of Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama, who died in Kochi in 1524 while on his third visit to India.  Not immune to the turbulence of the colonial era, the originally Catholic St. Francis changed hands – and denominations – with each new power that took control of Kochi, becoming a Protestant Dutch Reformed church under the Dutch in 1663 then Anglican under the English in 1804. 

Next we pay a visit to the picturesque Chinese fishing nets unique to Kochi.  These iconic land-based nets combine elegance and ingenuity with their massive frames balanced by counterweights manipulated by teams of up to six men.  Long believed to have been introduced by the Chinese explorer Zheng He in the 14th century or possibly travellers from Kublai Khan’s court, these nets actually trace their origin to Portuguese settlers from Macau.

Saturday, 27 June 2026

Embark your traditional houseboat

After relaxed breakfast, check-out and drive to Alleppey to board a traditional Keralan houseboat for a 3-night cruise including all meals. Prior to their conversion to passenger boats with all the modern comforts, these traditional craft known as kettuvallom once plied these waters as rice barges. Coir (coconut fiber rope) and resin from cashew kernels, not nails, hold the kettuvallom together – a ship making practice passed down through the centuries.

 

On this comfortable floating home you may spend your day relaxing and unwinding. As you slowly cruise along the backwater canals of the Arabian Sea, you may choose to stop and explore some of the many small villages, farmlands, old temples and churches that you come across.

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Sunday, 28 June 2026

Local life in the Keralan backwaters

Today, we see Indian life up close as we slowly cruise along the palm-fringed backwater canals of the Arabian Sea, a distinctive region whose beauty and tranquility have earned it the sobriquet “God’s own country.” Along the way we go ashore to visit some of the local villages and farms, observing traditional livelihoods such as, boat building, fish farming, rice growing and toddy tapping – the extraction of palm sap for production of palm wine, or toddy. We also see churches in a land synonymous with the very beginnings of Christianity: Saint Thomas the Apostle was said to have made a missionary visit to Kerala in 52 AD; to this day Kerala has a significant Christian minority. 

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Monday, 29 June 2026

Exploring the backwaters

We will have another day to admire the beauty of this vast network of lagoons, lakes, and canals formed by the confluence of Kerala’s numerous rivers and the Arabian Sea, the Kerala backwaters run alongside the coast for more than 550 miles. These labyrinthine waterways have served as a thoroughfare for boats like ours from ancient times, and the daily existence in the communities here has changed little over the centuries.

Tuesday, 30 June 2026

Transfer to colonial Munnar

This morning we drive inland through rolling hills to Munnar, our base for exploring the famous tea plantations. Check into your chosen hotel for a 2-night stay including breakfast.

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Wednesday, 01 July 2026

Exploring the tea plantations

This morning visit a tea Museum showing classic bungalow furniture, typewriters, wooden bathtub, magneto phone, iron oven, manual calculators and a 1909 telephone system. Enjoy a demonstration and tea tasting and continue to a tea plantation for a walk where you will meet tea pickers plucking the tea with the warm smile in their face and welcoming you.

Thursday, 02 July 2026

Drive to Periyar

This morning we leave Munnar and drive to Periyar where we check-in at your chosen hotel for a 2-night stay including breakfast. Periyar is 1000 meters above sea level and rich in spice growing. 95% of India's pepper is produced here. Vasco de Gama was the first European to land at the Malabar Coast in 1498 A.D. in search of spices. Pepper in those days was a valuable export, so much so it was referred to in the beginning of 15th century is black gold.

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Friday, 03 July 2026

Periyar National Park & wildlife sanctuary

Today enjoy an early morning guided nature walk in Periyar National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary. The nature walk is an interpretive program offering excellent opportunity to observe birds, butterflies and other wildlife. The trails pass through evergreen and moist deciduous forests interspersed with marshy grasslands.

In the afternoon, we take a wildlife boat cruise on Periyar Lake, observing groups of elephant, wild boar, bison and sambar and many species of water birds.

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Saturday, 04 July 2026

Fly back to the UK

Transfer to Kochi airport for your daytime flight back to the UK, arriving in the evening.