Travel Information · Kerala
How to travel in a way that leaves something good behind. Our perspective as a Kerala-based operator.
Being a responsible traveller is one of the most meaningful things you can do when you visit a place. Not because it is required of you, or because someone is watching, but because the places we travel to are real places where real people live, and our choices as visitors have consequences that outlast our stay.
At Green Earth Trails, responsible tourism is not a marketing position. It is the reason we stay small, work with local suppliers, choose our partners carefully and decline programs that do not sit right with us. This page explains what responsible travel looks like in Kerala specifically, and what we ask of the guests who travel with us.
Being a responsible traveller is one of the most meaningful things you can do when you visit a place. Not because it is required of you, or because someone is watching, but because the places we travel to are real places where real people live, and our choices as visitors have consequences that outlast our stay.
At Green Earth Trails, responsible tourism is not a marketing position. It is the reason we stay small, work with local suppliers, choose our partners carefully and decline programs that do not sit right with us. This page explains what responsible travel looks like in Kerala specifically, and what we ask of the guests who travel with us.
Kerala has a functioning plastic collection and waste management system across hotels, restaurants and commercial establishments. It is not perfect but it is among the better-organised systems in India. The single most useful thing you can do is use it. Put your waste in the bins provided. Do not leave litter on trails, beaches or in forest areas.
Single-use plastics are a genuine problem across India including Kerala. Carry a refillable water bottle and use it. Most hotels and restaurants will refill it from their own filtered water supply. This reduces both plastic waste and the cost of buying individual bottles throughout your trip.
When you are in nature areas, forests, wildlife sanctuaries and highland trails, carry your waste out with you. Leave these places as you found them.
Kerala’s wildlife exists in its natural habitat. It is not there for the benefit of tourism and interactions that disturb or stress animals are not acceptable regardless of whether they are packaged as a tourism product.
Elephant rides are not something Green Earth Trails recommends or includes in our programs. Captive elephants in tourism contexts in India frequently experience conditions that do not meet basic welfare standards. The experience of riding an elephant looks different from the ground than it does from the saddle.
In wildlife sanctuaries and forest areas, follow the guidelines of the sanctuary. Stay in your vehicle unless permitted to walk. Do not feed animals. Do not make noise that disturbs wildlife. Do not approach animals for a closer photograph.
The best wildlife experiences in Kerala are ones where you observe animals behaving naturally in their environment. Periyar, Wayanad and the forests around Thekkady offer exactly this when visited with good guides who understand that the animal’s welfare comes before the guest’s photograph.
Tourism should benefit the communities it passes through. This sounds obvious and it is not always how it works in practice.
At Green Earth Trails, we make deliberate choices about where our money goes. Our drivers are employed on payroll, not contracted at the lowest possible rate. We work with homestays and small properties owned by local families rather than always defaulting to large chain hotels. We use local guides who know their destinations and whose knowledge comes from living there. We buy from local markets and recommend local restaurants to our guests.
When you travel with us, your money moves through the local economy in ways that matter. Your driver’s income supports his family. The homestay owner who cooked your breakfast invested in her property because guests like you make it viable. The local spice vendor at the market has a livelihood because tourists stop and buy.
This is what responsible tourism looks like at the ground level. Not a certificate on the wall but a chain of choices that puts money in the right hands.
As a guest, you can extend this yourself. Tip your driver generously. Eat at local restaurants rather than only at hotel restaurants. Buy directly from artisans and producers rather than from large souvenir chains. These choices are small individually and significant in aggregate.
Kerala is a state with deep cultural roots, strong religious traditions and a distinctive way of life that predates tourism by centuries. Treat it with the respect you would want someone to show your own home.
Dress modestly, particularly in smaller towns, villages and places of worship. Light cotton clothing that covers the shoulders and knees is both culturally appropriate and practically comfortable in Kerala’s climate. You will attract less unwanted attention and you will be welcomed more warmly into local spaces.
Photography is generally fine in Kerala. People are accustomed to visitors and most do not mind being photographed. Ask before photographing individuals in close-up, particularly in rural and tribal communities. Use photographs for positive purposes. A photograph of a Kerala family that you share respectfully is a small act of goodwill. The same photograph used carelessly or exploitatively is the opposite.
Inside temples, mosques and churches, follow the specific guidelines of that place. Some do not permit photography at all. Some require you to cover your head. Some have separate areas for non-worshippers. Observe and follow what you see others doing.
We do not give our guests a long list of rules. We ask two things.
First, treat Kerala the way you would want someone to treat your home if they came to visit. With curiosity, with care and with the understanding that it belongs to the people who live there.
Second, remember that behind every interaction on your Kerala journey, there is a person whose livelihood depends on tourism being a good thing for their community. Your driver, your guide, your homestay host, the woman selling spices at the market. Make choices that put money in their hands and treat them with the dignity that every working person deserves.
If you travel that way, you will have a better trip. And Kerala will be a little better for your having been there.
