Field Notes from Kerala
Practical guides, local insights and travel stories from Kerala and South India. Written by Benjamin John of Green Earth Trails, organising journeys here since 2008.
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Valparai
All photographs in this post were taken by Benjamin John and the Green Earth Trails team on actual trips through the Valparai…
Travel Planning
Kerala is one of the more naturally suited destinations in India for elderly travellers. The distances between major destinations are manageable, the…
Travel Planning
The southwest monsoon hits Kerala in June. It arrives here first, before Karnataka, before Goa, before the Konkan coastline running north to…
Travel Planning
India is not a country in the way most countries are countries. It is closer in scale and internal diversity to a…
Munnar
Eravikulam National Park sits in the high range above Munnar town, a stretch of rolling grasslands and sholas at around 2,000 metres…
Thekkady
Thekkady rewards travellers who slow down. It is one of the few places in Kerala where two full days feels right and…
Kerala - Places to visit
There is a version of Kerala that you find in every travel guide. Munnar, Alleppey, Kochi, Thekkady, and Kovalam. Five names that…
Kerala Tourism
When you start researching a Kerala holiday, you quickly notice something odd: there are hundreds of tour operators offering what looks like…
Tourism Industry Insights
I have been organising tours in Kerala since 2008. For most of the first decade of that work, the seasons were predictable.…
Spices & Plantations
There is a particular moment on the drive up to Munnar from Kochi when the road begins to climb in earnest, the…
Houseboats of Kerala Backwaters
A Kerala houseboat is one of the most photographed travel experiences in India and one of the most poorly understood. Almost every…
Thekkady
In the dim low light of a cardamom plantation in the hills above Thekkady, the air is heavy with a smell that…
Founder, Green Earth Trails. Kerala travel specialist since 2008.
Field notes from a small Kochi-based operator running private and small-group journeys across Kerala and South India. Honest about what is worth doing and what is not.
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