In the last leg of this amazing Kerala blog series, we will be stepping into the captivating city of Thiruvananthapuram, which is renowned for the coexistence of traditional culture with a pinch of Western influence. If you have been following our Kerala Blog Series, you might have read about some of the fascinating places in India, especially the backwater experience, which was something to cherish for a lifetime. It was time for us to move to the capital of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram.
Let’s take you all on a virtual trip to the capital of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram.
If you don’t know who we are…….
We call ourselves travel freaks…… MITKAU…..
Returning to our story, we reached Kollam on a memorable backwater ride the previous day. It was a beautiful experience that is difficult to express until you experience on your own. The next day, we had to catch a train in the morning. Now, hearing this word, you might be keen to know……..
Table of Contents
1. What is the best possible way to reach Thiruvananthapuram?
There are many ways to reach Thiruvananthapuram. The best and the most comfortable way is to take the Train. It takes about 1.5-2 hours to reach Thiruvananthapuram Central from Kollam. You will find many train options.
If you want comfort and privacy, you might get a private cab, negotiate and then travel to Thiruvananthapuram.
Budget travellers can use Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) buses. Check their site for bus times. Apart from the state buses, you can also opt for private booking portals such as RedBus or MakeMyTrip, to name a few.
Most importantly, Thiruvananthapuram is well-connected by railways and flights across India. You can plan anytime and reach by any convenient mode. Now that you got an idea of how to reach the Capital of Kerala, let’s come back to our story.
We had our train, Vanchinad Express, at 8:30 AM from Kollam. It was around 10:10 AM when our train reached Thiruvananthapuram Central Railway Station.
There were autos waiting eagerly outside the station complex waiting for the passengers to get into. We randomly chose, negotiated and reached our stay.
The next obvious question……
2. Where to stay at Thiruvananthapuram?
You can understand that as it is the capital of Kerala, there is no dearth of stay options when you are in Thiruvananthapuram. There are very good stay options near the railway station complex. It helps the budget travellers with affordable stays with easy access to transportation hubs.
For us, we stayed at close proximity to the most famous Kovalam Beach. It took around 45 minutes for us to reach the railway station complex. However, be aware that the stay options will about 12-15 km away from the city center.
For those who are looking to stay at the city center, better to look for accommodation near the MG Road area. We have even seen travellers opting to stay near the Vellayani Lake.
Returning to our story, we had reached our accommodation by noon. It was a humid afternoon in the middle of February. Our group was excited to spot the sea from our hotel. If you want to know more about our accommodation do reach out to us.
After a quick refreshment, we took an auto and went to the city center to explore the local market and buy some souvenirs as we only had the next day before ending our Kerala trip.
When we were taking a stroll in the market place, someone just uttered Chalai Market. Being curious in nature, we enquired from one of the shopkeepers about Chalai Market. They gave a smile and replied that the other name of Thiruvananthapuram market was Chalai Market. “Chalai” in Malayalam translates to “bazaar”. It had all the necessary items ranging from clothing, electronics and traditional handicrafts of Kerala.
Till late evening, we explored the market place before we returned to the accommodation for a late evening cool breeze by the Kovalam Beach. It was so soothing to sit and hear the waves hitting the shore, a heavenly feeling. On a high note, we ended our day with a barbeque dinner in our hotel.
Now that you got an idea about the best possible location to stay, let’s move on to the next last and final day of our trip. Before we could start our day trip in Thiruvananthapuram, we started early with the of course the most famous……
3. Kovalam Beach
Even though it was quite close to our accommodation, we loved the early morning vibes. We even spotted, travellers trying their luck with surfing. It was really fun to watch their skills.
The beach is quite famous among the European travellers visiting India. We thought it was better to return late evening and instead explore the rest of the places in and around Thiruvananthapuram.
The next on the list was…….
4. Suchindram Temple
This temple is not exactly close to the Thiruvananthapuram city, instead the temple is close to Kanyakumari. It took us about two hours to reach the temple.
It was close to 10 AM in the morning and devotees were there in queue to catch a glimpse of the trinity, Lord Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh. An important thing to note for the male visitors is that you need to keep your body bare while entering the temple complex. Female visitors are requested to wear Saree while visiting the temple complex.
As usual, most of the southern temples are built in the Dravidian Style. this was no different. It took almost an hour for us to exit the temple complex.
We continued our day trip with another famous temple…….
5. Padmanabhaswamy Temple
This temple was quite close to the Kovalam Beach in Thiruvananthapuram, less than 20 km. Another 1.5 hour ride and we reached the Padmanabhaswamy Temple. We had to wear dhoti and then could enter the temple complex. Please keep a note that female devotees had to wear saree in most of the temple complex in South India.
This temple was dedicated to Lord Vishnu. There was a huge rush when we tried to enter the temple complex. It took over one hour to exit the temple premises. When we looked at our watch, it was already 2 PM. We stopped at a local restaurant, had our lunch and then continued our journey to…….
6. Napier Museum
The museum was hardly 10 minutes drive from the temple. There was a nominal entry fee of 20 INR per person.
It took us almost an hour to explore the complex. It had a vast collection of historical artifacts, archaeological items, bronze idols, ancient coins, and traditional Kerala art and artifacts. I mean in short, it will take you to the pre-Independence era and how Kerala evolved over time.
An amazing time in Trivandrum slowly coming to an end. The next on our list was another famous beach……
7. Varkala Beach
This was a two hour ride and by the time we reached, it was close to dusk. There were many beachside cafes and we sat by one of them.
A sip of tea with a view of the setting sun was heaven for us. By the time we departed from Varkala it was already 6 o clock. We reached our accommodation by close to 8 PM. A last minute packing and then had our last dinner in Kerala.
A long Kerala trip finally came to an end. We had an early morning train to catch from the Thiruvananthapuram Central Railway Station.
Now that we explored Thiruvananthapuram, apart from the ones mentioned, you can also plan to visit the following places:
- Kuthiramalika Palace
- Shanghumukham Beach
- Vizhinjam Lighthouse
- Vizhinjam Rock Cut Cave Temple
This was all about some of the must visit places if you coming to Thiruvananthapuram. However, we are just a click away for any help.
Now that we are done with this blog, let’s not forget our last favourite question…..
8. What kind of help are we going to provide?
Let us inform you that we prepare itineraries not only for anywhere in India but also for Asia. We have been travelling since we were toddlers. So here in our blogs and stories, we will give you a glimpse of our journey and help you plan your trip.
Read about our Uzbekistan blogs.
Read about our Kazakhstan blogs.
Read about our Singapore blogs.
Read about our Vietnam blogs.
Read about our Cambodia blogs.
Read about our Bali blogs.
Read about our Kuala Lumpur blog series.
Read about our Sri Lanka blogs.
Read about our Nepal blogs.
Read about our Char Dham blogs.
Read about our Ladakh blogs.
Read about our day trip to Hyderabad.
Read about our Madhya Pradesh blogs.
Do follow our Instagram handle @mindfulllofvacations and watch for the next destination story of Kerala. For any query related to any trip, drop a mail at @mitkau007@gmail.com.
by mitkau