Overview
For two thousand years, the world came to Kerala for its spices.
Arab traders, Chinese merchants, Portuguese sailors, Dutch colonists - they all found their way to this narrow strip of coast because of what grew here. Cardamom in the hills of Thekkady. Black pepper climbing wild up every forest tree. Cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger - spices that changed the direction of world trade and built the wealth of empires. Kerala fed the world long before the world knew where Kerala was.
This tour is not a history lesson. It is an invitation to eat your way through that story - from the spice warehouses of Fort Kochi where the smell of trade still hangs in the air, to a cooking class where a Kerala chef shows you what those spices actually do when they meet a fish curry or a pot of avial. A houseboat on the Alleppey backwaters where lunch arrives freshly cooked from a boat kitchen surrounded by palms. A spice plantation lunch where everything on the table grew within fifty metres of where you are sitting. Tea in Munnar tasted at the estate where it was picked that morning.
Kerala does not just feed you. It shows you, through food, exactly who it is.
Six days. The spice coast of India, eaten slowly and completely.
Duration
6 Days, 5 Nights
Language
English
Price
US$111Tour Price From US$ 100 per person per day · Based on 2 persons ·Accommodation, breakfast, cooking classes, transport & activities included
Duration 6 Days / 5 Nights
Route Kochi → Alleppey → Thekkady → Munnar → Kochi
Transport Private AC car throughout + deluxe houseboat (Day 3)
Included Meals Daily breakfast + all meals on Alleppey houseboat + Farm-to-table lunch at spice plantation + tea tasting in Munnar
Activity Level Easy to moderate - market walks, cooking class, plantation and tea estate walks
Group Type Private - your group only
Starts Kochi — pickup from airport or hotel
Ends Kochi airport — drop for departure flight
|
Group Size |
Per Person Per Day |
Per Person Total (6 Days) |
|
2 Persons |
US$ 100 |
US$ 600 |
|
4 Persons |
US$ 68 |
US$ 468 |
|
6+ Persons |
US$ 64 |
US$ 384 |
The larger your group, the better the value - bring family or friends and everyone travels for less.
Includes accommodation, daily breakfast, private AC vehicle, all meals as per itinerary, cooking class charges and market visit fees. International flights not included. Single supplement available on request.
Day 1: Arrive Kochi · Fort Kochi Food Walk
Day 2: Kochi - Spice Market & Cooking Class
Day 3: Alleppey Backwaters · Houseboat
Day 4: Thekkady · Spice Plantation · Cultural Evening
Day 5: Munnar Tea Estates
Day 6: Munnar – Kochi Departure
- Food lovers who want to understand Kerala through what it grows and how it cooks — not just what it looks like.
- Couples and families who want a private, unhurried journey through one of India's most distinctive culinary regions.
- Travellers who have done Kerala's temples and backwaters before and want a different angle.
- Anyone who has ever cooked with Kerala spices at home and wants to stand in the place where they came from.
BEST - OCTOBER TO MID APRIL
Post-monsoon Kerala is green, fresh and at its most beautiful. The backwaters are full, the spice plantations are lush and the weather is comfortable. Peak season for good reason.
WORTH KNOWING - AFTER MID APRIL TO MAY
Hot and humid on the coast, but Munnar and Thekkady stay pleasant. A good time if you want quieter backwaters and better houseboat availability.
MONSOON - JUNE TO SEPTEMBER
Kerala's monsoon is dramatic and beautiful — the spice plantations are at their greenest. Houseboat availability is limited and some roads in the hills are affected. TTI advises case by case.
FESTIVAL - ONAM, AUGUST–SEPTEMBER
Kerala's harvest festival — the one time of year when the full range of Kerala cuisine is on display everywhere. If food culture is your priority, Onam season is worth considering.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Explore Kochi’s spice markets & heritage food streets
- Hands-on Kerala cooking class with expert chefs
- Houseboat stay & traditional backwater cuisine in Alleppey
- Spice plantation tour in Thekkady with farm-to-table lunch
- Tea estate visit & tasting sessions in Munnar
- Cultural evenings with Kathakali or Kalaripayattu shows
- Fort Kochi street food evening — banana fritters, masala dosa, spiced chai from local stalls
Travel Itinerary
Arrival and check-in → Fort Kochi Evening exploration → Spice streets → Street food
Arrive in Kochi and check in. By evening, walk the streets of Fort Kochi - the old spice trading quarter where Portuguese, Dutch and British merchants once haggled over pepper and cardamom. The warehouses still smell of trade. Stop at local stalls for banana fritters, masala dosa and spiced chai. Your first Kerala meal is not in a restaurant - it is on the street, exactly as it should be.
TTI Insider: Fort Kochi's best street food is not on the main tourist road - it is one lane behind it, where locals eat. Your TTI guide knows exactly where. The difference in quality and price between the two lanes is significant. Follow the guide, not the signboards.
Morning market walk → Spice warehouses → Hands-on cooking class → Dinner from your own hands
Morning at a busy local market with your TTI guide - vegetables, seafood, spices, the whole vocabulary of Kerala cooking laid out in front of you.
Then to the cooking class with an expert local chef - learn to make avial, fish curry, proper Kerala rice. The dishes you cook are your dinner. There is no better way to understand a cuisine than to make it yourself and then eat it.
TTI Insider: In the cooking class, pay attention when the chef tempers the mustard seeds in coconut oil - that single moment, the seeds crackling in hot oil before anything else goes in, is the foundation of almost every Kerala dish. Get that right and you can cook Kerala food at home. Most people watch it happen and forget to ask why.
Drive to Alleppey → Board deluxe houseboat → Backwater lunch and dinner → Sleep on the water
Drive to Alleppey and board your deluxe houseboat — your home for the night, moving slowly through canals lined with palms and rice paddies. All meals are included on the boat — lunch arrives freshly cooked from the boat kitchen, karimeen fry and coconut curries made while you watch the backwaters pass.
In the evening, step ashore briefly for Alleppey's toddy shop snacks, then sleep on the water.
TTI Insider: Karimeen pearl spot fish - is endemic to the Kerala backwaters and cannot be found this fresh anywhere else in India. The houseboat cook prepares it simply, with a green masala crust. If you eat fish, this is the dish that defines the Alleppey experience. Ask the cook to show you the fish before it is prepared - the difference between fresh-caught and market-bought is visible immediately.
Drive to Thekkady → Spice plantation walk → Farm-to-table lunch → Kathakali or Kalaripayattu
Drive into the Western Ghats to Thekkady. Walk through a spice plantation where cardamom, black pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg grow around you - a local guide explains how each spice is cultivated, harvested and used. Farm-to-table lunch using produce from the plantation itself.
Evening - Kathakali dance or Kalaripayattu martial arts performance, both included. Two of Kerala's oldest art forms, both worth staying awake for.
TTI Insider: At the spice plantation, crush a fresh cardamom pod between your fingers and smell it. Then smell the dried cardamom you buy in any supermarket back home. The difference is significant enough that several of our clients have shipped plantation-bought cardamom home. The plantation shop sells direct - prices are fair and quality is guaranteed.
Drive to Munnar → Tea estate walk → Processing unit → Tea tasting session → Evening at leisure
Drive up to Munnar - the hills covered in tea as far as you can see. Visit a working tea estate, walk the picking rows, watch the processing from leaf to finished tea.
Then the tasting - multiple varieties, side by side, with someone who knows what to look for in each cup.
The evening is yours in Munnar, with the temperature a full 10 degrees cooler than the coast. Overnight in Munnar.
TTI Insider: Most visitors taste tea at Munnar and buy whatever the estate shop recommends. Ask instead for the single-estate orthodox tea - not the CTC (crush-tear-curl) that fills most commercial packets. Orthodox tea from Munnar is whole-leaf, slower to brew, and completely different in character. It is what serious tea drinkers come to Munnar specifically for.
Morning at leisure → Drive to Kochi ·→ Final street food stop → Airport drop
A final morning in Munnar before the drive back to Kochi - about 4 hours. If time allows before your flight, one last stop for Kerala street food - banana fritters, masala chai, the flavours you have been tasting all week, one final time.
Then drop at Kochi airport. You leave Kerala knowing exactly why the whole world once came here, and what it found.
TTI Insider: Kochi airport has a small but good selection of Kerala spice shops in the departure terminal - cardamom, pepper, curry leaf powder, banana chips. These are well-priced and convenient. But if you want the best quality, buy at the Thekkady plantation on Day 4 - the airport shops cannot match freshness or origin guarantee.
For two thousand years, the world came to Kerala for its spices. You came for six days and learned what all those traders already knew - that Kerala does not just feed you.
It shows you, through food, exactly who it is.
TTI Tours
Every tour is private. Every group is yours alone. We know which Kochi lane has the best street food, which plantation sells the freshest cardamom, and which Munnar estate makes the tea worth tasting. That knowledge is what you are booking.
📱 WhatsApp: +91 93100 54485
✉️ Email: info@tti.tours
🌐 www.travelindiatourindia.com
GST invoice provided for all bookings · CF-530, 5th Floor, U:Fairia Mall Sector-16B, Greater Noida Pin 201318
- Kerala & Tamil Nadu Tour By Train - 13 Days - coastal charms, temple heritage and scenic landscapes across South India
- Mumbai–Goa–Karnataka–Kerala–Tamil Nadu Tour By Train - 25 Days — a beautifully paced exploration of India's western and southern coastline
- New Delhi–Agra–Rajasthan–Goa–Karnataka–Kerala Tour By Train - 26 Days — the full North-to-South rail adventure
INCLUDED
- 5 nights accommodation - boutique hotels and one night deluxe houseboat [Hotel Upgrades Available]
- Daily breakfast throughout
- All meals on Alleppey houseboat (lunch and dinner)
- Farm-to-table lunch at Thekkady spice plantation
- Tea tasting session at Munnar estate
- Private AC car for all road transfers
- Guided spice market walk, Kochi
- Hands-on cooking class with local chef
- Spice plantation and tea estate entry fees
- Kathakali or Kalaripayattu performance, Thekkady
- TTI tour manager assistance throughout
- All tolls, parking and driver allowances
- Price calculated at US$ 600 per person for 6 days based on a group of 2 travelling together. Price per person reduces further as group size increases. Contact TTI for a customised quote.
EXCLUDED
- Airfare or train tickets to/from Kochi
- Lunches & dinners not mentioned in inclusions
- Any Monument Fees
- Personal expenses (tips, beverages, shopping)
- Optional activities or extensions
- Travel insurance
- Anything not listed under Inclusions
Frequently Asked Questions
None at all. The class is designed for complete beginners as much as experienced home cooks. The chef guides every step. The point is not culinary training — it is understanding how Kerala food is built, from spice to finished dish. Clients who have never cooked in their lives come away making avial correctly.
Yes — the deluxe houseboat has proper bedrooms, attached bathrooms, a sit-out deck and a fully equipped kitchen. The backwaters are calm, not open sea. Children find the boat fascinating. Elderly travellers find it one of the most restful nights of any India trip. If your group needs a premium houseboat with extra amenities, TTI can arrange an upgrade.
TTI selects performances by trained practitioners — not staged tourist versions. Kathakali is a classical art form that takes years to master; even a 45-minute demonstration by a trained performer is a genuine experience. Kalaripayattu is one of the world's oldest martial arts and its demonstrations are physically extraordinary. Both are worth attending without reservation.
This is hands-on. You’ll shop for ingredients, cook under guidance, and enjoy your own creations.
We go beyond regular restaurants to find authentic food. We focus on regional kitchens, family-run eateries, spice farms, and local chefs.
Pack light, comfortable clothing suitable for a tropical climate. We recommend breathable fabrics like cotton or linen. A light jacket or shawl is useful for the cooler evenings in Munnar. Don't forget comfortable walking shoes for market and plantation tours.
Yes — Kerala has one of the richest vegetarian food traditions in India. The cooking class can be entirely vegetarian. The houseboat kitchen prepares excellent vegetarian Kerala meals. The spice plantation lunch is largely vegetarian by default. Tell TTI at booking and every meal is planned accordingly.
WhatsApp +91 93100 54485 or email info@tti.tours. Share your travel dates and group size. We send a detailed quote within 24 hours. GST invoice provided for all bookings.
HAVE A QUESTION IN MIND
Looking for more info? Send a question to the tour agent to find out more.
RECOMMENDED HOTELS
Hotel Four Elements
Varanasi does not do ordinary — and neither does Hotel Four Elements. Two minutes from Banaras Railway Station, in the city where the Ganges has been receiving pilgrims for three...
Varanasi does not do ordinary — and neither does Hotel Four Elements. Two minutes from Banaras Railway Station, in the city where the Ganges has been receiving pilgrims for three thousand years — boutique interiors, THE AQUA restaurant and hospitality that feels genuinely rooted in this place rather than performed for it.
Overnight Train Journeys
TTI books all train journeys in 2nd AC class — four-berth compartments with curtains, air conditioning and clean bedding provided. Train timings and services are subject to Indian Railways availability...
TTI books all train journeys in 2nd AC class — four-berth compartments with curtains, air conditioning and clean bedding provided. Train timings and services are subject to Indian Railways availability at time of reservation. TTI confirms your berths and books the best available service for your travel dates. In the rare event of a schedule change, an equivalent AC alternative is arranged at no additional cost.
Air Conditioned Chair Class Train
TTI books all day train journeys in air conditioned chair class — comfortable reclining seats with air conditioning and large windows offering views of the passing landscape. Train timings and...
TTI books all day train journeys in air conditioned chair class — comfortable reclining seats with air conditioning and large windows offering views of the passing landscape. Train timings and services are subject to Indian Railways availability at time of reservation. TTI confirms your seats and books the best available service for your travel dates. In the rare event of a schedule change, an equivalent AC alternative is arranged at no additional cost.
Rajasthan Food Adventure Tour 8 Days
India Food Tours
Click For More Reviews On
North India Food Adventure Tour 10 Days
India Food Tours
Click For More Reviews On
Click For More Reviews On
Click For More Reviews On
Click For More Reviews On