South India tours

If you're eager for the exotic, a tropical South India tour is the answer. South India has beaches, backwaters, tea estates, temples, spice plantations, palaces, wildlife and plenty of sunshine. The food is as hot as the weather, with local dishes including incredible seafood curries and fish tandoori. If you're looking for a few days at a relaxed pace during your South India tour, you can head to the emerald backwaters of Kerala to be float by on your very own romantic houseboat. Tamil Nadu, a region scattered with temples, is perfect for the culture-keen, or if you want to get away from it all on your South India tour, try a cycling trip through the Keralan spice hills, a Wildlife Park where wild elephants roam or a quiet Ayurvedic Keralan beach resort.

Finally, if you're tempted by the idea of a picture-perfect beach, why not head for the Maldives? Only a short flight away from Southern India, the Maldives will give you the very essence of an island escape.

South India tour: Bangalore Easy Going Bangalore

Duration:	3 days / 2 nights
Price:	£93 per person - based on 2 people sharing
Departure:	Daily from Bangalore

Enjoy a relaxed start to your South India tour in the leafy city of Bangalore. On arrival after your international flight we’ll arrange a private transfer to your accommodation of choice - a friendly family guesthouse in the centre or a stylish colonial villa in a quiet residential area of the city. Bangalore is famed primarily for its booming computer industry, and it is surprisingly pleasant and relaxed. The leafy parks and shady tree-lined streets have gained the city its well-earned nickname of ‘The Garden City of India’. Still, it can be very busy and hectic, so enjoy the peaceful tranquility of your guesthouse garden as you think about the India adventure that lies ahead.

Click here for more about our Bangalore tour.

South India tour: Hampi Magical Hampi

Duration:	4 days, 3 nights
Price:	From £353 per person - based on 2 people sharing
Departure:	Daily from Goa
Route:	Goa - Hampi - Goa

It is 110% worth dragging yourself away from the beaches in Goa for a trip to the spellbinding village of Hampi. Driving inland from the coast on your South India tour, you'll pass through thick jungle and vivid banana plantations before reaching magical Hampi. Magical Hampi is sure to give you a truly exceptional Indian experience during your South India tour. This otherworldly riverside village is surrounded by ruins and strewn with huge round boulders - a strange world filled with crumbling temples. Here, you can soak up the mystical atmosphere and wander wide-eyed through the ruins at your own gentle pace.

Click here for more about our Hampi tour.

South India tour: Bangalore to Cochin Kerala silk tour

Duration:	5 days, 4 nights
Price:	From £362 per person - based on 2 people sharing
Departure:	Daily from Bangalore
Route:	Bangalore - Mysore - Mudumalai - Cochin

Follow in the footsteps of ancient textile traders on your South India tour as you take this trip through some of the most stunning parts of Southern India. In the states of Karnataka and Kerala, you can find wonderful silks of top notch quality, so prepare for some serious retail therapy and some good haggling! But shopping is not the only interesting pass-time of this South India tour, which will take you to a few of the classic highlights of these southern states. You'll visit the beautiful palaces of elegant Mysore and come face to face with wild elephants in Mudumalai National Park, where you'll spend a night to enjoy the natural surroundings, wildlife and tranquillity. Throughout this South India tour, you'll stay in authentic, comfortable, and most of all welcoming, accommodation.

Click here for more about our Karnataka and Kerala tour itinerary.

South India tours: Western Ghats Cycling in the spice hills

Duration:	4 days, 3 nights
Price:	£332 per person - based on 2 people sharing
Departure:	Daily from Munnar
Route:	Munnar - Vandanmedu - Thekkady

Fancy exploring the natural beauty of Kerala in an active way during your South India tour? If so, this 4-day cycle tour through the Keralan spice hills, or Western Ghats, should be right up your street. During this South India tour, you'll cycle through tea plantations, forests, spice gardens, and you'll also get a chance to spot elephants in one of India's most exciting National Parks. After all the exercise, you can rest and relax in your comfortable cottages, enjoying the mountain sunshine and tasting some local dishes made with the spices growing all around you.

Click here for more about our Kerala cycling tour.

South India tour: Cochin to Periyar National Park Backwaters and wildlife

Duration:	4 days, 3 nights
Price:	From £242 per person - based on 2 people sharing
Departure:	Daily from Cochin
Route:	Cochin - Alleppey - Periyar

Green, lush and tropical, Kerala is perhpaps the most exotic region of India. During this South India tour you'll glide through the palm-fringed backwaters in your traditional houseboat, you can lie back and watch the world go by. Amongst all the tropical greenery you can observe the slow-paced daily activity of the locals - children waving as you float by and women in brightly-coloured saris washing clothes by the water's edge. After your taste of life in the Kerala backwaters you'll head into the hills to the jungle of Periyar National Park in search of a different lanscape where wild elephants live. During this South India tour, you'll stay on a traditional houseboat and in a friendly guesthouse.

Click here for more about our Kerala backwaters tour.

South India tours - Kerala backwaters tour

South India tour: Madurai to Mamallapuram Living temples of the south

Duration:	6 days, 5 nights
Price:	from £298 per person - based on 2 people sharing
Departure:	Daily from Madurai
Route:	Madurai - Trichy - Tanjore - Pondicherry - Mamallapuram

Tamil Nadu is mystical and extraordinary. The people are even friendlier here, and the food is even spicier. You'll find a huge diversity of magnificent temples in Tamil Nadu, all adorned with colourful figures, and you'll see hundreds of pilgrims kneeling before altars in the temple halls filled with swirling incense and garlands of temple flowers. This South India tour begins in Madurai and will take you to the classic treasures of Tamil Nadu before ending in the peaceful coastal town of Mamallapuram.

Click here for more about our Tamil Nadu tour.

South India tour: Nellikunnu/Chowara beach Ayurveda on the beach

Duration:	3 days / 2 nights
Price:	From £189 per person - based on 2 people sharing
Departure:	Daily from Periyar or Alleppey (backwaters)

Kovalam, on the southern tip of India, is a lovely place to relax and catch your breath at the end of your South India tour without having to take an extra domestic flight. Here, you'll find tropical resort gardens shaded by tall palm trees, romantic wooden bungalows, golden beaches and vibrant green rice paddies stretching all the way inland. Kerala is famous for its traditional Ayurvedic treatments and this is certainly the perfect setting for a relaxing massage. Kovalam beach is very popular and a little chaotic, so we've picked some of the quieter more secluded beaches in the area. During this South India tour, you'll stay in a resort right on the beach with stylishly decorated teak bungalows.

Click here for more about our Kerala beaches tour.

South India tours- Independent Maldives travel

South India tours: Maldives Hidden coral islands of the Maldives

Duration:	5 days, 4 nights
Price:	From £428 per person - based on 2 people sharing (seasonal rates vary).
Departure:	Daily from Malé
Route:	From Malé to a tropical island paradise

Imagine that you have travelled across India on one of our South India tours, and experienced some amazing sights along the way and perhaps a little 'culture-shock' too. Now you need somewhere to let it all sink in - somewhere peaceful and beautiful. Well.... how about an atoll somewhere in the Indian Ocean, with bright turquoise waters and stunning marine life? We have selected a couple of undiscovered gems from the hundreds of islands that make up the the Maldives. These tiny paradises have a small-scale and intimate island feeling, charming accommodation and superb diving spots. You can fly by seaplane or cruise by speedboat from Malé, capital of the island group, to your tropical island. The flight from Trivandrum to Malé will be organized separately, and takes only a couple of hours. A blissful way to end an eye-opening trip packed with culture.

Click here for more about our independent Maldives travel tours.

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