Heritage & Cultural Walk of Alleppey (geführter Rundgang)

We booked to go on this trip on the 6th of Feb, but due to illness had to reschedule for the 7th. The booking company, Yo Tours, assured us this was all good and confirmed the reschedule. The next day, we arrived at the starting point and waited for the guide. After calling the company, we eventually learned that “due to personal reasons” the guide was running late. Our 5pm tour eventually started at around 6pm. We came to know from our guide that he doesn’t in fact do these tours, he was just filling in for his friend who does run the tour. His friend was on a plane at the time; the company, Yo Tours, seemingly failed to contact him about our rescheduling. Our guide spoke so softly, it was very difficult to hear him over the traffic. This wasn’t so much a walking tour, but a walking chat with this guy. Now and then, he would point out this or that landmark as we walked by it, in between making small talk. He did get us a nice Gujarati sweet. Alleppey is a really beautiful area, but we didn’t learn much about it. It would’ve been a nice walk, if we did it ourselves without paying a bomb. Our guide seemed like a nice guy, but clearly was reluctantly guiding this tour. Our 2 hour tour started an hour late, and lasted only an hour. At the end he himself said the tour isn’t worth the money, saying Yo Tours charges double that his friend who actually runs the tour charges. So, to avoid this, we would recommend speaking to your hotel or host at your accommodation or speaking to locals. You’ll find better prices and better organisation than this 3rd Party Middleman company. We laughed about this funny situation, paying Rs2200 for a stroll and a chat, rather than a walking tour, especially after going on some excellent walking tours in Goa and Kochi. A waste of money, but at least we have a funny story to share.

Akhil was our tour guide and how lucky were we to have him . A university lecturer who knew so much about Allepey. He listened to what we needed from the tour and helped us get the best experience. We can only reccomend the tour as value for money with some unforgettable photos .

We had a great tour guide but we felt the trip was not well designed by the company. The first hour is spent at a museum that has a lot of things not related to Kerala. The second hour was supposed to be three churches and the beach at sunset but we were too tired to do all that. One church was enough for us. We had more fun stopping for local refreshments. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable about Kerala and we learned more from him than from seeing a bunch of churches. Our recommendation to the company- redesign this tour. The museum was good for showing the Kerala antiques but it's not worth spending an hour there. I didn't come to Kerala to see expensive crystal and china from around the world. I wanted to learn more about the history of Allepy and the coir industry which brought so much wealth to the region. What about mosques and temples? Those could have been included too. Is there an art or music scene in Allepy? That would be interesting too. After it was over, we felt it was not a good use of our time. Thankfully, our knowledgeable tour guide made up for what was lacking in the tour.