Kochi travel guide: 3 nights for Fort Kochi, Jew Town and Kathakali

Where to sleep: Bolgatty Island, Fort Kochi or Ernakulam

Kochi spreads over the mainland and a group of islands, so choose your side of the water first. Bolgatty Island lies just off Marine Drive in Ernakulam, and KTDC, the state tourism corporation, runs its old palace as a hotel: Bolgatty Palace and Island Resort, built by Dutch traders in 1744 and, KTDC says, the oldest of its kind outside Holland, with four palace rooms, lake-view cottages and a 9-hole golf course laid out in 1925 around it. Its tariff for 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027 lists a Golf view double room at INR 4,500 a night and a Lake Front Cottage at INR 5,500, both with breakfast and with GST extra; since 22 September 2025, rooms priced at INR 7,500 or less a night carry 5% GST. Check-in is at 13:00 and check-out at 11:00. This is the room priced in this guide's budget.

From the island, Ernakulam Junction, the main railway station, is about 6 km away. The Kochi Water Metro's route planner lists Bolgatty to High Court as a 2-minute crossing at INR 20; when no boat is waiting, take a taxi or an auto-rickshaw from the High Court jetty over the Goshree bridge, the road link to the island. KTDC says the drive from the High Court jetty takes 5 minutes but gives no distance or fare, so agree the fare with the driver before you set off.

Fort Kochi is the place to sleep if you want the old town on foot: its streets of Portuguese, Dutch and British buildings have cafes and shops between them, and many of the old properties are now hotels and homestays. Ernakulam, the commercial city around Marine Drive, suits an early train. The where-to-stay guide for India explains how foreign guests are registered at check-in.

Fort Kochi: the fishing nets, St Francis Church and Santa Cruz

The Chinese fishing nets (cheenavala in Malayalam) are the picture of Kochi. Kerala Tourism says they were introduced by the Chinese explorer Zheng He and took hold on this shore between 1350 and 1450. Each is a cantilever of teak and bamboo about 10 m high, fixed on the beach, with a net spread over about 20 m and stones about 30 cm across hung on ropes as counterweights; a team of more than four fishermen works each one, and the weight of a man walking along the main plank is enough to tip the net into the sea. They fish mostly in the morning and early evening, lowering the net for a short time and raising it slowly by the ropes. Watch from Vasco da Gama Square, the narrow walkway along the Fort Kochi beach, and come back at sunset, when the nets stand in silhouette.

St Francis Church, which Kerala Tourism calls India's oldest European church, was first built of timber and later rebuilt in stone. The Protestant Dutch restored it in 1779; it became an Anglican church under the British in 1795 and now belongs to the Church of South India. Vasco da Gama was buried here in 1524 before his remains were taken to Lisbon, and his tombstone is still inside. Look for the old cloth fan that still works, and the tombstones set into the walls, Portuguese on the north side and Dutch on the south. It is open from 09:00 to 17:00 from Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 13:00 on Saturday and 13:00 to 17:00 on Sunday.

Santa Cruz Basilica stands a few streets south. Kerala Tourism traces it to 1505, when the first Portuguese viceroy, Dom Francisco de Almeida, was allowed to build a church here; the Dutch spared it as an armoury, the British destroyed it in 1795, and one granite pillar of the old church is kept as a relic. The present building was begun under Bishop Dom Joao Gomes Ferreira, who reached Kochi in 1887, consecrated in 1905 and made a basilica by Pope John Paul II in 1984. Two bright, lofty spires rise over a pastel interior with stained glass, ceiling frescoes on the life of Christ and paintings by the Italian Brother Antonio Moscheni, among them a version of the Last Supper.

In the grounds of the Bishop's House, the Indo-Portuguese Museum shows what the Portuguese left in the churches of the Kochi area, in five sections called Altar, Treasure, Procession, Civil Life and Cathedral: a piece of a 16th-century teak altar, a 17th-century processional cross of silver and wood, a 19th-century chasuble and a finely worked monstrance. The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation of Lisbon helped choose the pieces and plan the rooms. The museum is open from 09:00 to 18:00 and closed on Mondays; entry costs INR 40 for adults and INR 25 for children.

Close by are the Dutch Cemetery and the Mahatma Gandhi beach, the place for an evening walk. The old town's streets of colourful houses also hold art galleries, cafes and spice shops, and Incredible India calls Fort Kochi a hub for art and culture; it names no gallery or street, so ask your hotel which exhibitions are on. In December, Fort Kochi holds the Cochin Carnival, which Incredible India describes as a ten-day festival of music and dance.

Mattancherry and Jew Town: the palace and the synagogue

Mattancherry Palace, also called the Dutch Palace, was built by the Portuguese in the mid-16th century as a gift to the Kochi king Veera Kerala Varma, and takes its second name from the Dutch, who renovated it later. It is a two-storey naalukettu, the traditional Kerala house of four wings around a courtyard, where the royal deity Pazhayannur Bhagavathi has her temple and the kings held their coronations. The ceilings are carved with floral designs, an inverted lotus among them, and the black floor, which looks like marble, was made of lime, plant juices, burnt coconut shells and egg whites. The coronation hall keeps life-size portraits of the kings who ruled from 1864, with royal palanquins, silk and brass parasols, the ceremonial sword and Dutch maps of old Kochi.

The murals are the reason to come. In the royal bed chamber, about 100 square metres of wall paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries tell the whole Ramayana; more panels show Hindu gods on the staircase walls and scenes from Kalidasa's Kumarasambhavam in the ladies' room. The palace is a museum of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), which sells its tickets through its online booking app. It is open from 10:00 to 17:00 on all days except Fridays.

Jew Town, the street between Mattancherry Palace and the Paradesi Synagogue, grew on land beside the palace that the king of Kochi is said to have granted to the Jews in 1524. It is still known for the spice trade, and the only international pepper stock exchange in the world still works here. Its antique shops sell jewellery, wooden carvings, oil lamps, spice boxes, old photographs, Chinese urns and door frames; look for the vaarpu, a bronze vessel about 3 m across. About 150 m south of the Paradesi Synagogue stands the synagogue of the Malabari Jews, once called the Kadavumbhagam Mattancherry Synagogue.

The Paradesi Synagogue was built in 1568 on land beside the palace given by the king of Cochin; Kerala Tourism calls it the oldest synagogue in the Commonwealth. The Portuguese destroyed it in 1662 and the Dutch rebuilt it two years later. Inside, the floor is paved with hand-painted blue willow tiles that the merchant Ezekiel Rahabi brought from Canton in the 18th century, no two alike, under Belgian glass chandeliers of the 19th century; there is a brass-railed pulpit in the centre, a gallery for women and a carved teak ark with Torah scrolls in silver and gold, beside two gold crowns given by the kings of Kochi and Travancore.

The synagogue is open from 10:00 to 12:00 and from 15:00 to 17:00, and closed on Fridays, Saturdays and Jewish holidays, whose dates change each year, so with the palace keep this half of the old town for a Sunday to Thursday. Visitors enter barefoot.

Kathakali: an evening of Kerala's dance-drama

Kathakali, literally a story play, is the classical dance-drama of Kerala, telling episodes from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Puranas through gesture, music and painted faces. Kerala Tourism describes four kinds of make-up and costume: pacha, green, for gods and heroes; kathi, the knife, for the villainous; tadi, the beard, for superhuman characters; and minukku, plain and shining, for women and sages. Headdresses are set with red and green stones, wide white skirts give the actors their size on stage, and two drums, the maddalam and the chenda, a gong and cymbals carry the music.

In Fort Kochi, both Kerala Tourism and Incredible India send visitors to the Kerala Kathakali Centre for a performance, but neither page gives a show time, price or booking step, so ask the centre or your hotel before you go. The Cochin Cultural Centre, which runs Kathakali theatres in Ernakulam and Fort Kochi, gives a daily show at 18:30 on its site, with the make-up from 16:30 and the performance an hour long, in three parts: a prayer, a demonstration with English narration, and the play. A show at that hour ends well before the last Water Metro boat from Fort Kochi to High Court, at 20:55; from High Court, take an auto-rickshaw or taxi to Bolgatty if no boat is waiting. Kerala Tourism's and Incredible India's Kochi pages name no Kalaripayattu school or show, so ask your hotel if you want to see the martial art.

Kochi is also home to the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, the large contemporary art exhibition held in the city every two years. Its seventh edition is planned for 2027-2028; the Kochi Biennale Foundation announces the dates.

Ernakulam, the Hill Palace and Vypin

Ernakulam, the mainland city, is where you arrive by train and set off by road. Marine Drive is a promenade of about 3 km facing the backwaters, with the harbour in the distance, malls and eateries along it and the arched Rainbow Bridge lit up at night.

In the middle of the city, Durbar Hall, a hall about a hundred years old where the kings once held their conferences, is now the Durbar Hall Art Gallery. Behind its Dutch facade and deep verandah hang paintings by Raja Ravi Varma, Manu Parekh, Souza and Padmini, and the first floor is the Kerala Lalitha Kala Akademi's Gallery of Contemporary Art, opened in 1991, with changing exhibitions. Check its opening hours locally, and keep it as an extra rather than a fixed stop.

The Hill Palace Museum at Thripunithura, around 10 km from Kochi, was built in 1865 as the residence of the Kochi kings; Parikshith Thampuran, the last of them, ruled for a year before Cochin and Travancore merged in 1949. Its 49 buildings in the Kerala style stand on more than 52 acres of terraced land, and Kerala Tourism calls it the state's first heritage museum. Inside are the kings' crown, which weighs 1.75 kg and is set with emeralds, diamonds and rubies, portraits of the kings beside Tanjore paintings, works by Raja Ravi Varma, more than 150 pieces of Chinese and other porcelain, inscriptions on copper plates and palm leaves, old weapons and stone sculptures from the 10th century; outside are a deer park and a botanical garden. It is open from 09:00 to 12:30 and from 14:00 to 16:30, closed on Mondays, and entry costs INR 50 for adults and INR 10 for children aged 5 to 12.

Vypin, six minutes by Water Metro from Fort Kochi, is one of the largest of Kochi's islands, about 27 km long. The lighthouse at Puthuvype opens from 15:00 to 17:00 daily, and Pallipuram Fort, built by the Portuguese in the 16th century, stands at the island's northern end. Cherai Beach, about 26 km from the city in the north of Vypin, has calm water for swimming, palm-fringed backwaters on the way and dolphins often seen offshore; it is busy with visitors and vendors now, with hotels and restaurants near the sand.

Getting around and moving on: boats, the metro, the airport and the road east

The Kochi Water Metro's battery-powered electric boats link terminals including Fort Kochi, the High Court and Vypin on 15 routes.

The Water Metro's boat schedule lists 37 departures a day from High Court to Fort Kochi, from 08:00 to 20:30, taking 20 to 23 minutes, and 37 back from 08:25 to 20:55; the route planner gives the fare as INR 40. Boats from High Court to Mattancherry leave from 07:55 to 19:15 and take 28 minutes, also at INR 40, with the last boat back from Mattancherry at 19:30, and the crossing from Fort Kochi to Vypin takes 6 minutes for INR 20. Ordinary ferries also run from the Fort Kochi boat jetty to other parts of the city, Kerala Tourism says, but it publishes no fare or timetable for them, so ask at the jetty.

On the mainland, Kochi Metro Rail runs one line of 25 stations from Aluva in the north through Edapally, M.G. Road, Ernakulam South and Vyttila to Tripunithura, the town of the Hill Palace. Trains run from 06:00 to 23:00, every 5 to 7 minutes in the peak hours (07:00 to 10:00 and 17:00 to 20:00) and every 10 minutes at other times and on Sundays and holidays. Fares go by distance, from INR 10 for up to 2 km to INR 60 for more than 20 km; buy a ticket at a station counter or through WhatsApp and scan its QR code at the gate. The line does not reach Fort Kochi, Mattancherry or Bolgatty, so use the boats for the old town.

Cochin International Airport (COK) is one of the e-Visa airports and the gateway for Kochi, the backwaters and Munnar. It was the first airport in the world to run entirely on solar energy. Kerala Tourism and KTDC put it about 40 km from Mattancherry and from Bolgatty, so keep the arrival day free of fixed times. App-based taxis such as Uber and Ola are available in all airport terminal buildings, the UK Foreign Office says, and prepaid taxis and hotel transfers are offered too; the Kochi Metro line does not reach the airport. The app shows its fare before you book. The India entry guide explains the e-Visa and the arrival card.

By rail, Kochi's station is Ernakulam Junction, on Kerala's main line; the Ernakulam-Bengaluru Vande Bharat Express, launched in November 2025, covers its run in 8 hours 40 minutes. The transport guide explains how foreign visitors book on IRCTC under the foreign tourist quota.

On to the backwaters and the hills. Alappuzha, the backwater town, lies 62 km south of Kochi, about an hour on NH 66 by the district administration's figure, which puts Cochin International Airport 82.8 km from Alappuzha, 2 hours by NH 66. Indian Railways publishes Ernakulam-Alappuzha departure times and fares only in its journey search, so check IRCTC for your date. The Kerala backwaters guide covers houseboats and ferries. Munnar is reached by road: Kerala Tourism gives about 119 km from Cochin International Airport and about 120 km from Ernakulam Junction, the nearest railhead, suggests Ernakulam town as the starting point, and says public buses run to Munnar from almost all major bus stations in the state. Our Munnar guide covers the tea estates.

A three-night plan

This plan puts Fort Kochi on the first full day and Mattancherry on the second, and stops at the Hill Palace on the way out. The South India itinerary continues the trip to the backwaters and Munnar.

• Day 1: arrive at Cochin airport and check in on Bolgatty Island. If you land early, see the Durbar Hall Art Gallery; in the evening take the boat to High Court and walk Marine Drive along the backwater.
• Day 2: Water Metro from High Court to Fort Kochi in the morning, when the fishing nets are working; St Francis Church, Santa Cruz Basilica, the Indo-Portuguese Museum (closed on Mondays) and the Dutch Cemetery, then lunch near the beach. Back to the nets at Vasco da Gama Square for sunset, and Kathakali in the evening, before the last boat at 20:55.
• Day 3: an early Water Metro from High Court to Mattancherry; the palace and its Ramayana murals from 10:00, the Paradesi Synagogue before its midday break at 12:00, and the spice and antique shops of Jew Town in the afternoon. Walk north to Fort Kochi for the boat back to High Court.
• Day 4: check out and take a taxi with your bags to the Hill Palace Museum at Thripunithura, open from 09:00 except on Mondays, then go on to Ernakulam Junction for the train to Alappuzha, or east by road to Munnar.

A priced three-night stay for two

This model follows the plan above for two adults sharing a room, with prices checked on 17 October 2026.

• Room, Bolgatty Palace and Island Resort, Golf view double room with breakfast, 3 nights at INR 4,500 (INR 13,500), plus 5% GST (INR 675): INR 14,175.
• Water Metro, for two, on days 2 and 3: each day Bolgatty to High Court (INR 20), High Court to Fort Kochi or Mattancherry (INR 40), Fort Kochi to High Court (INR 40) and High Court to Bolgatty (INR 20), INR 120 a person a day: INR 480.
• Boat on day 1, Bolgatty to High Court and back for Marine Drive, for two (INR 20 each way): INR 80.
• Museums, for two: the Indo-Portuguese Museum (INR 40 each) and the Hill Palace Museum (INR 50 each): INR 180.
• Total: about INR 14,915 for two.
• Not included: lunches and dinners; the tickets for Mattancherry Palace and the synagogue and the Kathakali seats, none of which publishes a price, so carry small notes; the airport taxi, the taxi on day 4 and the train or road onward.