Best Tourist Places in South India to visit in 2020

Best Tourist Places in South India

It’s not possible to see everything South India has to offer in one trip, and we don’t suggest you try. What follows is a selective taste of the region’s highlights: outstanding temples, the best beaches, spectacular festivals and unforgettable journeys.

Best Tourist Places in South India to Visit in 2020

1. Varkala

Varkala - South India Best Tourist Place

This pleasantly low-key Keralan resort boasts sheer red cliffs, amazing sea views and a legion of Ayurvedic masseurs.

Varkala

Devout Hindus have for hundreds, and possibly thousands, of years travelled to Varkala, 54 km north up the coast from Thiruvananthapuram, to scatter ashes of recently deceased relatives on Papanasam beach. The beach, 4 km from Varkala town itself, is dramatically set against a backdrop of superb, burnt clay-coloured cliffs, which, coupled with comparatively low-key development, makes this a more appealing place to spend a beach holiday than Kovalam.

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Tightly crammed along the rim of crumbling North Cliff, its row of restaurants and small hotels stare out across a vast sweep of ocean – a view that can seem almost transcendental after sunset, when a myriad tiny fishing boats light up their lanterns.

Papanasam beach

Known in Malayalam as Papa Nashini (“sin destroyer”), Varkala’s beautiful white-sand Papanasam beach (also known just as Varkala beach) has long been associated with ancestor worship. Devotees come here after praying at the ancient Janardhana Swamy Temple on the hill to the south, then perform mortuary rituals on the beach, directed by specialist pujaris (priests). The best time to watch the rites is in the early morning, just after sunrise – though out of respect, it’s best to keep your camera in your bag.

Western sun-worshippers keep to the northern end of the bay, where whistle happy lifeguards ensure the safety of swimmers by enforcing the no-swim zones beyond the flags: the undercurrent is often strong, claiming lives every year. Dolphins are often seen swimming quite close to the coast, and, if you’re lucky, you may be able to swim with them by arranging a ride with a fishing boat. Sea otters can also occasionally be spotted playing on the cliffs by the sea.

North Cliff

Few of Varkala’s Hindu pilgrims make it as far as the North Cliff area, the focus of a well-established tourist scene where bamboo and palm-thatch cafés, restaurants and souvenir shops jostle for space close to the edge of the mighty escarpment that plunges vertically to the beach below. Several steep flights of steps cut into the rock provide shortcuts from the sand, or you can also get here via the gentler path that starts from the beachfront.

South Cliff

Dotted with mid-range hotels and guesthouses, the clifftop area running south of the main beachfront – known locally as South Cliff – is a much quieter neighbourhood of leafy lanes and large residential houses – a legacy of the lingering presence of numerous clean-living brahmin families. The beach below the cliff, reached via rock-cut steps from several of the hotels, largely disappears at low tide, but offers a blissfully secluded spot to swim when the water recedes, though you should watch out for the sharp laterite boulders lurking in the surf.

Janardhana Swamy Temple

Varkala’s ancient Janardhana Swamy Temple is reached by heading up the lane that climbs steeply south from the beachfront area. Non-Hindus are not permitted to enter the inner sanctum of the shrine, but you can peep over the perimeter walls from the encircling path – a pleasant stroll in the morning, when the temple elephant is led around the lanes on her exercise walk.

Enshrining a form of Vishnu, the temple is adorned with brightly painted images of Hanuman, Rama’s monkey general. Among its treasures is a bell salvaged from a Dutch ship that was wrecked on the beach in the eighteenth century – the ship’s captain donated it in a gesture of thanksgiving after his entire crew escaped with their lives.

North of Varkala

Just north of Varkala the shoreline grows a lot less densely populated, though the large, gaudily painted houses dotted around its hinterland of leafy lanes bear witness to the considerable affluence flooding in with remittance cheques from the Gulf states. You can comfortably walk the kilometre or so from the north end of Varkala cliff as it descends to Odayam, a mixed Hindu and Muslim village where a cluster of resorts and modest guesthouses has sprung up around the small black-sand beach.

Room rates are on the high side, but it can be well worth paying for the extra seclusion when Varaka’s clifftop area is firing on all cylinders. Around 7 km north is Kappil Beach, a scenic spot where the sea meets the backwaters. A narrow road separates the pretty stretch of sand from Edava- Nadayara Lake, where Priyadarshini Boat Club has rowing boats and pedalos to rent.

2. Golconda Fort, Hyderabad

Golconda Fort, Hyderabad 

One of the most impressive forts in India – a winding series of battlements with a vividly decorated Hindu temple on top.

Golconda Fort

Hyderabad, was the capital of the seven Qutb Shahi kings from 1518 until the end of the sixteenth century, when the court moved to Hyderabad itself. Well preserved and set in thick green scrubland, it is one of India’s most impressive forts, boasting 87 semicircular bastions and eight mighty gates, complete with gruesome elephant-proof spikes. Set aside a day to explore the fort, which covers an area of around four square kilometres.

Entering the fort by the Bala Hisar Gate, you come into the Grand Portico, where guards clap their hands to show off the fort’s acoustics. To the right is the mortuary bath, where the bodies of deceased nobles were ritually bathed prior to burial. If you follow the arrowed anticlockwise route, you pass the two-storey residence of ministers Akkanna and Madanna before starting the stairway ascent to the Durbar Hall. Halfway along the steps, you arrive at a small, dark cell named after the court cashier Ramdas, who while incarcerated here produced the clumsy carvings and paintings that litter the gloomy room.

Nearing the top, you come across the small, pretty mosque of Ibrahim Qutb Shah; beyond here is an even tinier temple to Durga. The steps are crowned by the three-storey Durbar Hall of the Qutb Shahis, on platforms outside which the monarchs would sit and survey their domains. The ruins of the queen’s palace, once elaborately decorated with multiple domes, stand in a courtyard centred on an original copper fountain that used to be filled with rosewater. You can still see traces of a “necklace” design on one of the arches, at the top of which a lotus bud sits below an opening flower with a cavity at its centre that once contained a diamond.

At the entrance to the palace itself, four chambers provided protection from intruders. Passing through two rooms, the second of which is overgrown, you come to the Shahi Mahal, the royal bedroom. Originally it had a domed roof and niches on the walls that once sheltered candles or oil lamps. Golconda has a nightly sound-and-light show.

3. Hampi

Hampi - South India Tourist Places

The capital of a great Hindu empire, sacked five centuries ago to leave a site strewn with ruins and medieval sculptures. 

Hampi (Vijayanagar)

Among a surreal landscape of golden-brown boulders and leafy banana fields, the ruined “City of Victory,” Vijayanagar, better known as Hampi (the name of the main local village), spills from the south bank of the River Tungabhadra. This once dazzling Hindu capital was devastated by a six-month Muslim siege in the second half of the sixteenth century.

Only stone, brick and stucco structures survived the ensuing sack – monolithic deities, crumbling houses and abandoned temples dominated by towering gopuras – as well as the irrigation system that channelled water to huge tanks and temples, some of which are still in use today.

Thus, Hampi’s monuments appear a lot older than their four or five hundred years. With its wooden superstructure burnt and past buried in ruins, excavations by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) can only piece together the fragmented history of this sophisticated city.

Grappling with years of encroachment and the constant tussle between preservation and modernization, the Hampi World Heritage Area Management Authority (HWHAMA) has controversially pressed ahead with plans to revamp Hampi Bazaar and the adjoining “heritage zone”. Yet, at least for the time being, the serene riverside setting and air of magic that still lingers over the site, sacred for centuries before a city was founded here, make it one of India’s most extraordinary locations.

Many find it difficult to leave and spend weeks chilling out in cafés, wandering to whitewashed hilltop temples and gazing at the spectacular sunsets. Although spread over 26 square kilometres, the ruins of Vijayanagar are mostly concentrated in two distinct groups: the designated Sacred Centre around Hampi Bazaar and the nearby riverside area, encompassing an enclave of temples and ghats; and the Royal Enclosure – 3 km south of the river, just northwest of Kamalapura village – which holds the remains of palaces, pavilions, elephant stables, guardhouses and temples. Between the two stretches is a long boulder-choked hill and scores of banana plantations, fed by ancient irrigation canals.

4. Fort Cochin

Fort Cochin - Chinese Fishing Nets

This atmospheric harbourside is strung with elegant Chinese fishing nets, now emblematic of Kerala.

Fort Cochin, the grid of old streets at the northwest tip of the peninsula, is where the Portuguese erected their first walled citadel, Fort Immanuel, which the Dutch East India Company later consolidated with a circle of well-fortified ramparts. Only a few fragments of the former battlements remain (the outline of the old walls is traced by the district’s giant rain trees, some of which are more than two centuries old), but dozens of other evocative European-era monuments survive.

A good way to get to grips with Fort Cochin’s many-layered history is to pick up the free walking-tour maps produced by Kerala Tourism and the privately run Tourist Desk. They lead you around some of the district’s more significant landmarks, including the early eighteenth-century Dutch Cemetery, Vasco da Gama’s supposed house and several traders’ residences.

Walking around the old quarter you’ll come across several small exhibition spaces and galleries – evidence of Fort Cochin’s newfound status as one of India’s contemporary art hubs. The scene takes centre stage between mid-December and March when the Kochi Muziris Biennale draws artists and collectors from across the country with its mix of film, art, performance art and new media hosted by half a dozen different venues.

Chinese Fishing Nets

Timing: Daily 6.30am to 11am & 5pm to 7pm

Probably the single most familiar photographic image of Kerala, the huge, elegant Chinese fishing nets lining the northern shore of Fort Cochin add grace to the waterfront view. Traders from the court of Kublai Khan are said to have introduced them to the Malabar region. Known in Malayalam as cheena vala, they can also be seen throughout the backwaters further south. The nets, which are suspended from poles and operated by levers and weights, require at least four men to control them. If you linger, the fishermen will beckon you over to help (for a small tip).

Church of St Francis

South of the Chinese fishing nets on Church Road (the continuation of River Road) is the large, typically English Parade Ground. Overlooking it, the Church of St Francis was the first built by Europeans in India. Its exact age is not known, though the stone structure is thought to date back to the early sixteenth century. The facade, meanwhile, became the model for most Christian churches in India. Vasco da Gama was buried here in 1524, but his body was later removed to Portugal. Under the Dutch, the church was renovated and became Protestant in 1663, then Anglican with the advent of the British in 1795. Inside, the earliest of various tombstone inscriptions placed in the walls dates from 1562.

Mattancherry

Mattancherry, the old district of red-tiled riverfront wharves and houses occupying the northeastern tip of the headland, was once the colonial capital’s main market area – the epicentre of the Malabar’s spice trade, and home to its wealthiest Jewish and Jain merchants. Like Fort Cochin, its once grand buildings have lapsed into advanced states of disrepair, with most of their original owners working overseas. When Mattancherry’s Jews emigrated en masse to Israel in the 1940s, their furniture and other unportable heirlooms ended up in the antique shops for which the area is now renowned – though these days genuine pieces are few and far between.

Mattancherry Palace

The sight at the top of most itineraries is Mattancherry Palace, on the roadside a short walk from the Mattancherry Jetty, 1km or so southeast of Fort Cochin. Known locally as the Dutch Palace, the two-storey building was actually erected by the Portuguese, as a gift to the raja of Cochin, Vira Keralavarma (1537–61) – though the Dutch did add to the complex. While its squat exterior is not particularly striking, the interior is captivating, with some of the finest examples of Kerala’s underrated school of mural painting, along with Dutch maps of old Cochin, coronation robes belonging to past maharajas, royal palanquins, weapons and furniture.

Paradesi Synagogue

The neighbourhood immediately behind and to the south of Mattancherry Palace is known as Jew Town, home of a vestigial Jewish community whose place of worship is the Pardesi (White Jew) Synagogue. Founded in 1568 and rebuilt in 1664, the building is best known for its interior, an incongruous hotchpotch paved with hand-painted eighteenth-century blue-and-white tiles from Canton.

An elaborately carved Ark houses four scrolls of the Torah, on which sit gold crowns presented by the maharajas of Travancore and Cochin, testifying to good relations with the Jewish community. The synagogue’s oldest artefact is a fourth-century copperplate inscription from the raja of Cochin.

Kathakali in Kochi - Travel Map Fly Bytes

Kochi is the only city in Kerala where you are guaranteed the chance to see live kathakali, the state’s unique form of ritualized theatre. Whether in its authentic setting, in temple festivals held in winter, or at the shorter tourist oriented shows that take place year-round, these mesmerizing dance dramas – depicting the struggles of gods and demons – are an unmissable feature of Kochi’s cultural life.

Four venues in the city currently hold daily shows, each preceded by an introductory talk at around 6.30pm. You can watch the dancers being made up if you arrive an hour or so beforehand; keen photographers should turn up well before the start to ensure a front-row seat. Tickets (usually around ₹250) can be bought at the door. Most visitors only attend one performance, but you’ll gain a much better sense of what kathakali is all about if you take in at least a couple. The next step is an all-night recital at a temple festival. Greenix Village Opposite Fort House.

You’ve a choice between a short kathakali recital (₹350) or longer “kaleidoscope” culture show (₹650) combining excerpts from kathakali plays with displays of mohiniyattam dance, kalaripayattu martial art and, on Sun, theyyam, set against a combination of live and prerecorded music. Performances aren’t of the highest standard, but costumes and acts change in quick succession and the make-up is particularly stunning. Note that it costs ₹50 extra to take photos.

Kerala Folklore Museum

Theyvara, near Kundannoor Bridge, southeastern edge of Ernakulam.

The most atmospheric venue – an a/c theatre decorated with wonderful Keralan murals and traditional wooden architecture – though it’s a long trek across town if you’re staying in Fort Cochin and sadly you have to book the entire theatre for an exclusive (and eye-wateringly expensive) show. Most visitors tour the museum downstairs and just take a peek at the theatre.

Kerala Kathakali Centre

Bernard Master Lane, near Santa Cruz Basilica, just off KB Jacob Rd, Fort Cochin.

Popular performances in a dedicated a/c theatre from a company of graduates of the renowned Kalamandalam academy. You usually get to see three characters, and the music is live. Shows (₹300) 6–7.30pm (make-up 5pm), plus classical music recitals at 8pm every night except Sat (₹250) and kalaripayattu martial art daily at 4pm (₹250).

5. Gokarna 

Gokarna - South India Tourist Places

A less commercialized slice of beachside bliss, just a couple of hours or so south of Goa’s crowded resorts.

Gokarna

Among India’s most scenically situated sacred sites, Gokarna lies between a broad white-sand beach and the verdant foothills of the Western Ghats, 230 km north of Mangalore. Yet this compact little coastal town – a Shaivite centre for more than two millennia – remained largely “undiscovered” by Western tourists until the early 1990s, when it began to attract dreadlocked and didgeridoo-toting neo-hippies fleeing the commercialization of Goa, just over 60 km north.

Now it’s firmly on the tourist map, although the town retains a charming local character, as the Hindu pilgrims pouring through still far outnumber the foreigners who flock here in winter. A hotchpotch of wood-fronted houses and red terracotta roofs, Gokarna is clustered around a long L-shaped bazaar. Its broad main road – known as Car Street – runs west to the town beach, which is a sacred site in its own right.

Hindu mythology identifies it as the place where Shiva was reborn from the underworld after a period of penance through the ear of a cow, or gokarna, thus giving the town its name. Gokarna is also the home of one of India’s most powerful shiva lingas – the atmalinga, which took root here having being carried off by Ravana, the evil king of Lanka, from Shiva’s home on Mount Kailash. It is said Ravana’s brute force distorted the shivalingam to resemble the shape of a cow’s ear – another theory behind the town’s name.

The temples

The atmalinga (or pranalinga) is enshrined in the medieval Shri Mahabaleshwar temple, at the far west end of the bazaar. It is regarded as so auspicious that a mere glimpse of it will absolve a hundred sins, even the murder of a brahmin. Pilgrims shave their heads, fast and take a ritual dip in the sea before darshan. For this reason, the tour of Gokarna traditionally begins at the beach, followed by a puja at the Shri Mahaganpati temple, a stone’s throw east of the Mahabaleshwar shrine, to propitiate the elephant-headed god Ganesh.

Foreign tourists are not allowed into the inner sancta of the main two temples but the parts you can visit are still extremely atmospheric. One interesting holy place you can get right into is Bhandikeri Math, a short way east of the bathing tank. This three-hundred-year-old temple and learning centre has shrines to the deities Bhavani Shankar, Uma Maheshwari and Maruthi.

The beaches

While Gokarna’s numerous temples, shrines and tanks are the big draw for Indian pilgrims, most Western tourists head for the beautiful beaches to the south of the more crowded town beach. Beyond the lumpy, reddish coloured headland that overlooks the town, lie a series of sandy strips connected by short seaside walks and motley shacks offering varied cuisine.

To pick up the trail, take a left off Car Street beside the Shri Mahaganpati temple and follow the cemented path for twenty minutes uphill and across a rocky plateau to Kudle Beach. This wonderful 1km-long sweep of golden-white sand sheltered by a pair of steep-sided promontories is now punctuated by dozens of restaurant-cum-hut ventures. This is the longest and broadest of Gokarna’s beaches, with decent surf too, though the water can be dangerous.

It takes around twenty minutes more to hike over the headland from Kudle to exquisite Om Beach, so named because its distinctive twin crescent-shaped bays resemble the auspicious Om symbol. Apart from the luxury resort set well back from the beach, largely flimsy huts and the odd hammock still populate the palm groves, usually belonging to restaurants. Large groups of male travellers tend to descend on the beach at weekends – female sunbathers may prefer to press on further south.

Gokarna’s two most remote beaches lie another thirty-minute walk over the rocky hills. Half Moon and Paradise beaches are mainly for intrepid sun-lovers happy to pack in their own supplies. If you’re looking for near-total isolation – a sense of Goa perhaps thirty years ago – these are your best bet.

6. Puducherry

Pondicherry - South India

India with a distinctly French accent, whether in its architecture or delicious food.

Puducherry

First impressions of Puducherry (Pondicherry, also often referred to simply as Pondy), the former capital of French India, can be unpromising. Instead of the leafy boulevards and pétanque pitches you might expect, its messy outer suburbs and bus stand are as cluttered and chaotic as any typical Tamil town. Closer to the seafront, however, the atmosphere grows tangibly more Gallic, as the bazaars give way to rows of houses whose shuttered windows and colour washed facades wouldn’t look out of place in Montpellier.

For anyone familiar with the British colonial imprint, the town can induce culture shock with its richly ornamented Catholic churches, French road names and policemen in De Gaulle-style képis, and boules played in the dusty squares. Many of the seafront buildings were damaged by the 2004 tsunami, but Puducherry’s tourist infrastructure remained intact.

Conclusion

Hope you understand this guide for the Best Tourist Places in South India to visit in 2020. Incase of any doubt please comment below. Subscribe our website to get every new post update to your email. Please follow our website @TravelMapFly for future updates. Thank you for visiting our website.

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