Is a houseboat safe for children and elders
Life jackets, railings, stairs and the night on the water: the questions families ask most.
A day in Alappuzha before you board
The beach, the canals and a cup of tea in town: how to spend the morning of your cruise.
Many of our guests arrive in Alappuzha by the night train or the early bus and have a few hours before boarding at noon. The town is small and easy to walk, and a morning here is a good start to the trip.
Alappuzha beach is about ten minutes from the station by auto. Go before nine, when the sand is cool and the fishermen are bringing in their boats. The old pier has stood in the sea since the nineteenth century, and the lighthouse nearby opens to visitors in the morning.
The town was built around canals, and two of them, Vadai and Commercial, still run through its centre with old warehouses along the banks. Walk along them towards the boat jetty and you will see the ferry boats that people here use like buses.
For breakfast, look for any small restaurant near the station serving puttu and kadala, or appam and egg roast. It will cost under ₹150 for two. An auto from town to our Punnamada jetty is about 4 km and costs around ₹100. Leave your heavy luggage in the cloak room at the station if you are coming back the same way; you only need an overnight bag on the boat.
