Discover Thiruvananthapuram

Discover Thiruvananthapuram through a wide range of holiday experiences: beaches and lakes, trekking, forest landscapes, wildlife, and culture. Families can weigh up days by the water, active excursions, and places with historical collections. So before looking for a holiday rental, it’s worth identifying your interests for the stay.

Beaches, lakes, and waterside excursions

At Neyyar Dam, the scenic lake at the foot of the Western Ghats is a popular picnic spot. Kovalam Beach offers opportunities for sunbathing, swimming, and catamaran rides. Restaurants and cafeterias in Kovalam serve Continental and South Indian dishes. Shankumugham Beach has snack kiosks and an open-air theatre—offering something different from the activities at Kovalam Beach.

At Veli Tourist Village, Veli Lake meets the Arabian Sea. The village has a separate children’s park and a floating café. At Akkulam Tourist Village, you can enjoy a relaxing boat ride on Akkulam Lake. Those interested in more active pursuits can find aerial cycling, a zipline, and tree surfing at Akkulam Adventure Park. The waterside experiences vary, from a boat ride on the lake to activities in the adventure park.

Trekking, forests, and wildlife

Ponmudi is a popular destination for backpacking and trekking. For those travelling by train, the distance to the nearest railway station is a useful point of reference: Thiruvananthapuram railway station is about 61 km from Ponmudi.

Peppara Wildlife Sanctuary encompasses tropical evergreen forests, moist mixed deciduous forests, and semi-evergreen forests. Asian elephants, Nilgiri langurs, Nilgiri tahrs, and lion-tailed macaques are commonly sighted there. Those especially interested in the landscape can explore the different forest types, while those most interested in wildlife can focus on the animals sighted there.

Other attractions offer different experiences: the elephant rehabilitation centre in Kottur covers 56 hectares. The Jumbo Trek in Kappukadu is a half-hour jungle safari. Thiruvananthapuram Zoological Park has conservation breeding programmes for lion-tailed macaques; orphaned wild animals are also raised there.

Coins and cultural history

Koyikkal Palace houses a numismatic museum. Its collection includes rare and ancient coins from the Chera, Chola, and Pandya dynasties, dating from the 5th century BC onwards. A visit to this museum offers a different focus from beach or nature excursions: here, the emphasis is on coins and the history of the dynasties.

When choosing a holiday rental, you can first decide which experiences you want to shape your stay: the beach and cuisine in Kovalam, trekking near Ponmudi, forest and wildlife observation, or culture at Koyikkal Palace. These interests can help guide you on which locations to consider more closely when looking for a suitable place to stay.

More places in the destination: Kazhakkoottam, Poovar, Vilinjam, Thiruvananthapuram, Attingal, Perumkulam, Varkala, Ponmudi, Kuttichal, Mangalapuram, Venganoor and Edava.

See the overview of the wider region: Kerala.