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Things to see and do

A spicy breeze blows the wealth of Malabar down the misty ghats. Rice boats carry the precious cargo along slender backwaters to ancient ports, visited over centuries by a hungering world. What else could such a land be, but God's own.

There's a saying in Malayalam that a man who sees Kochi soon forgets his wife. So seductive is Kochi (formerly called Cochin before it got abbreviated to a sneeze, thanks to some linguistic jingoism) that it has long served to tempt voyagers and travelers form all over the globe. The successive influences of the Portugese, the Dutch and the British have coated Kochi in a shroud of cultutal influences that add to the unique ambience, best exemplified by the fascinating samples of Indo-European architecture that dot the older parts of the city.

Bolt to Bolghatty Island

Bolghatty Island is the site of the Bolghatty Palace built by the Dutch in 1744 and later taken over by the British.

Explore Fort Kochi
This is the best part of Kochi, once an obscure little fishing village that became the first European township in India,and now home to some interesting history as well as the arresting sight of the sun setting into the Arabian Sea behind the mesh of Chinese nets.

Chinese fishing nets
These large cantilevered fishing nets made of teak and bamboo, with lights to attract fish as they are lowered into the water, owe their origin to travellers from the court of Kubla Khan who arrived on the Malabar coast between 1350 and 1450 AD.

Loaf on Princess Street
Princess Street was perhaps the earliest to be built in Fort Kochi and is lined with European-style buildings.

See India's oldest European church
Built by Portuguese Franciscan Friars in 1503,St.Francis Church on the corner of Cemetery Road and Fosse Road at Fort Kochi is said to be India's oldest European church.

Santa Cruz Basilica
Originally built by the Portuguese, the Santa Cruz Basilica near St.Francis Church was elevated to the status of a Cathedral in 1558 by Pope IV.

Visit the Dutch Palace
Also called the Mattancherry Palace,the Dutch Palace at Mattancherry in Fort Cochin was built by the Portuguese in 1555 as a gift for the Maharaja of Kochi,and renovated by the Dutch in1663.

Find peace in a synagogue
Inside Jew Town near Mattancherry is the Cochin Synagogue, built in 1568 and the oldest synagogue in the Commonwealth.

Spot dolphins at Cherai Beach
On Vypeen Island, accessible from Ernakulam by ferry, can be found long stretches of unexplored beaches.