Cultural Tour To Vaikom Village

This is absolutely the best tour in Kerala! If you want to see the backwaters up close, you have to get in a small canoe. This is where Viator's Eco-tour to Vaikom really excels. From the beginning of our booking online, the communication was quick and easy. They picked us up promptly at our hotel in Ft Kochi and brought us to the dock in Viakom. We were met by Shiva, our wonderful guide for the day. We and about 20 other tourists boarded a medium-sized canoe that was covered with a cane roof and pole-powered by 2 men. There were comfortable chairs in this boat and they also had a bathroom on board. We set off into the tiny backwaters as Shiva gave us interesting commentary on what we were seeing. Shiva was very knowledgeable about flora, fauna and village life, we really appreciated having him on the tour. We saw many beautiful birds too. We landed on a small island where the company has arranged with a local family to provide a few demonstrations. The lady of the house demonstrated the traditional way to make coir rope from coconut shells while Shiva explained what she was doing. This demo was really cool! She also demonstrated how she could make palm leaf shingles for her roof. She did this quickly with her fingers and toes and amazed us all. After the demo on the island, we got back on the boat and were taken to a private home in Vaikom for a traditional Kerala lunch on a banana leaf. It was superb and not too spicy for us gringos. After lunch we boarded small canoes that held only about 6 people each and were again powered by pole drivers. We were treated to a beautiful, quiet glide down tiny canals, right past all sorts of homes, both rich and poor, children swimming in the river, and sunlight dappling through the thick forest leaves all around us. It was magical! Finally, we landed again and were taken back to our various hotels. This tour was so well thought out and so well executed. There wasn't anything that could've been done any better. We really came away with a sense of Kerala cultural heritage, we helped the local village by bringing our tourist dollars out of the city, and we learned so much thanks to Shiva, our excellent guide. If you are limited on time and have to choose between houseboat and Vaikom Eco-tour, skip the houseboat and take this tour. Most tourists who come to Ft Kochi do the houseboat tours because they are so heavily promoted. We did that too and while that was certainly nice and relaxing, be advised that the houseboats are too big for the small backwaters, they can only go on the big canals, and they are powered by diesel fuel, which ultimately pollutes the river because there are hundreds and hundreds of houseboats. In a houseboat, you are literally sitting on the boat all day watching the sidelines float by from a fair distance. This Vaikom Ecc-tour gets you up close and personal and gives you a sense of what it's really like in the backwaters. Best of all, you get to meet some of the wonderful people of Kerala.

Kumbalangi village is surrounded by backwaters and the village is particularly famous for its eco-tourism activities such as Coir Making, Crab Farming, Fishing, Chinese Nets and many more. This village is blessed with many natural wonders and the people who visits are treated very well by the locals , there are few home stay options too in the village.

We were thinking about to visit a heritage and then decide to travel Kochin. When reached at the port, we were welcomed by the representative of the Globe Travel. After the with the help of their guide we visited Vaikom village and I can say Mahadev Temple was just an art of beauty and faith. Materials made by villagers was also one of a kind of beauty, the ropes made of dried coconut was so good. Also we got a chance to interact with local villagers and they invited us inside to their house and we have a lunch with them. Vaikom village was full of diversity and traditions.