The RutzIndia.com Kerala tour package for 5 days is a four-night loop from Cochin airport with one private car and one chauffeur throughout: Fort Kochi, two nights among the Munnar tea estates, then a houseboat or lakeside night at Alleppey. The car is billed per kilometre, on a minimum of 250 km for each day.
Who five days suits, and when to pick a longer loop
Five days is the shortest Kerala trip we would put our name to. It works for couples on a week's leave who lose a day at each end to flights, for families testing whether Kerala suits them before a longer return, and for anyone adding a few green days to a Bangalore or Chennai work trip. What it gives you is the essential contrast of the state in one clean circle: a colonial harbour, cool hill country at around 1,600 metres, and the flat, watery world of the Kuttanad backwaters.
What it leaves out is wildlife and the beach. If a morning boat on the Periyar lake matters to you, the 6-day Kerala package slots Thekkady in between Munnar and Alleppey for one extra night. If you want to end on sand rather than at the airport, the 7-day version carries on down the coast to Varkala or Kovalam and flies you out of Trivandrum. And if you would rather design the route yourself, the open-ended Kerala tour by car page explains how that works.
How the car fare is calculated, and why you have spare kilometres
The fare table on this page is arithmetic, not a brochure number. Every package car is billed on the greater of two figures: the kilometres the trip actually covers, or 250 km for each calendar day. This loop drives roughly 495 km in total, airport runs and the Munnar sightseeing day included, but five days at 250 km comes to 1,250 km, so the day minimum is what sets the price. That figure is multiplied by the per-km rate of your car class: Rs 72/km for a Dzire-class sedan, Rs 84/km for an Ertiga, Rs 114/km for an Innova Crysta and Rs 156/km for a Tempo Traveller.
On top come the chauffeur's night allowance of Rs 3,000 per night, tolls and parking at actual cost (both light on this route) and 5% GST. Hotels, the houseboat, park tickets and meals are outside the car fare; the travel desk quotes those separately, in writing, if you want everything on one invoice.
The useful side effect of the minimum is headroom. Because you are already paying for around 750 km more than the plan uses, detours inside that margin cost nothing extra. Favourites are Athirappilly falls on the way up to Munnar (it adds a couple of hours), a Kumarakom bird sanctuary morning from Alleppey, or a stop at Marari beach before the flight. Tell the chauffeur the evening before so he can plan fuel and timing.
The four drives, honestly described
Airport to Fort Kochi. Cochin International is at Nedumbassery, well north of the city, and the run south through Aluva and Edappally to the old port takes anything from an hour to ninety minutes. Late-evening arrivals move fastest.
Kochi to Munnar. This is the drive people remember. The first stretch through Perumbavoor and Kothamangalam is ordinary town traffic; after Neriamangalam the road climbs in earnest through forest and cardamom, with waterfalls at Cheeyappara and Valara right beside the tarmac. The hairpins above Adimali are well surfaced but narrow, and buses take them wide. If you are prone to motion sickness, sit in front and eat lightly. Chauffeurs prefer to finish this ghat in daylight, and in heavy rain they will wait out a landslip warning rather than push on.
Munnar to Alleppey. The longest day at about 170 km, nearly all of it downhill or on the plain. The route drops back to Adimali, cuts across the midlands and then the backwater country flattens everything out. There are clean restaurant stops on the way and the chauffeur knows which ones are open.
Alleppey to Kochi and the airport. Short and flat along NH 66. Leave generous time at the Kochi end, because the Edappally and Kalamassery junctions slow right down in the late afternoon.
Where to stay on a five-day Kerala loop
In Kochi, choose the base by mood. Fort Kochi and Mattancherry have heritage bungalows, restored warehouses and family-run homestays within walking distance of the nets and the spice lanes; Ernakulam across the water has the business hotels, nearer the airport and better before a very early flight.
Munnar is spread out. Hotels in and just around the town are handy for the Eravikulam gate and for restaurants; estate and valley resorts at Chithirapuram, Pallivasal or Anachal are quieter and have the views, but some sit 30 to 45 minutes along narrow lanes. Mention your preference when you book so the sightseeing day can be planned around it.
At Alleppey the choice is houseboat or shore. Houseboats come in several grades and sizes, from one bedroom up to group boats; most board around midday, cruise through the afternoon and moor for the night by sunset under local rules, and on many boats the air-conditioning runs only in the sleeping hours. Lakeside resorts around Punnamada, or across the lake at Kumarakom, suit people who want a proper bathroom and a pool. You can leave the big cases locked in the car boot overnight and take a small bag on board. The travel desk books any of these through BookingWorldwide.net and puts them on the same written quote.
Kerala through the year
- October to February: the classic window. Hills clear, backwaters calm, the coast warm rather than punishing. The week from Christmas to New Year is the most expensive and most heavily booked time for houseboats and Munnar resorts.
- February and March: still dry and pleasant, but Eravikulam National Park usually closes to visitors for the Nilgiri tahr calving season, so the Munnar sightseeing day shifts to Top Station and the estates.
- April and May: hot and humid on the coast, still comfortable in Munnar. Vishu in mid-April is a family festival rather than a crowd event.
- June to September: the south-west monsoon. Green, dramatic and cheaper, and the season many Kerala resorts reserve for Ayurveda treatments. Ghat roads can shut for hours after landslips, so allow slack. The Nehru Trophy snake-boat race on Punnamada lake in August and Onam in August or September both fill Alleppey completely.
Kerala Tourism's Munnar page is a good official reference for the hill station itself.
Choosing the car
For two people a sedan is comfortable and the cheapest way to do this loop; the boot takes two large cases. Three or four adults with airline luggage will be happier in an Ertiga or, better still on the ghats, an Innova Crysta, whose seats and suspension make the Munnar climb far kinder. Families and groups of seven to twelve should look at a Tempo Traveller from Kochi; larger parties can take a Force Urbania. All cars are within four model years, and the full line-up is on the fleet page.
Booking, payment and changes
Book the car and chauffeur directly in the online booker: pick the car class, the dates and your arrival flight, then pay by card or UPI. Corporate travellers get a GST invoice. The chauffeur tracks your flight and waits at the Cochin arrivals exit with a name board; 30 minutes of waiting is free after a domestic landing and 60 minutes after an international one.
Plans change, so the cancellation terms are simple: free if you cancel more than 72 hours before pickup, 10% within 72 hours, 50% within 48 hours, and 100% within 24 hours or for a no-show. The full wording is on the cancellation policy page. For a single all-inclusive figure with hotels, the houseboat and park entries, send your dates to the travel desk and the quote comes back in writing.
