One-Week India Family Tour: Nature, Culture, and Cities

Relaxing beach flanked by palm trees and boulders at sunset in Varkala, Kerala, India.

What to expect on this itinerary

Make lasting memories among the tropical landscape of Kerala during your 7-day family highlights tour of India. This tour focuses on uncovering unique beauty, dramatic history, and preserved culture. Discover tranquil canals, colorful temples, wonderful wildlife, and crashing waves at India’s southernmost point. Specialist guides and excellent accommodations help make this family India tour an experience that brims with hidden treasures and memories.

Countries Visited

India

Places Visited

Kochi (India), Kovalam, Alleppey, Periyar, Varkala

Suggested Duration

7 Days

Customizable Itinerary

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Day 1

Kochi – Introductory City Tour

Kochi embodies the unique point at which India connects to the surrounding world. Your flight will land at Cochin International Airport, where your private transfer will greet you upon your arrival. You will make your way to your accommodation at the heart of the city. After settling into the comforts of your accommodation, you can explore the marvelous city. The Paradesi Synagogue is located in the Mattancherry district and dates back to the 16th century.

What's Included:

Transfer
Accommodation
Day 2

Alleppey – Enjoy the Famous Canals

Day 3

Periyar – Wildlife of the National Park

Day 4

Varkala – Exploring Charming Varkala

Day 5

Kovalam – Discover a Historic Temple

Day 6

Kovalam – Kovalam and Kanyakumari

Day 7

Kovalam – Departure

Trip Highlights

  • Discover the remarkable history of Kochi during a private tour that reveals the mixture of Indian, Chinese, British, Dutch, and Portuguese cultures
  • Visit the tip of India at Cape Comorin to view the unique point at which three seas converge
  • Search for wildlife, including the elusive Bengal tiger, during safaris at Periyar National Park
  • Explore the stunning canals of Alleppey and view the unique town and collection of villages that line the waterways
  • Traverse ancient temple grounds across the Kerala region, including Shri Padmanabhaswamy Temple
  • Witness traditional Kerala architecture when on a private tour of one of Asia’s largest wooden palatial complexes
  • Visit colorful lighthouses for a 360-degree view that encompasses the landscape and shoreline

Starting Price

$2,300 per person (excluding international flights)

Your Zicasso trip is fully customizable, and this sample itinerary is a starting place for your travel plans. Actual costs are dynamic, and your selection of accommodations and activities, your season of travel, and other such variables will bring this budget guideline up or down. Throughout your planning experience with your Zicasso specialist, your itinerary is designed around your budget. You can book your trip when you are satisfied with every detail. Planning your trip with a Zicasso travel specialist is a free service.

What's Included

  • Accommodations
  • In-country transportation
  • Some or all activities and tours
  • Expert trip planning
  • 24x7 support during your trip

Your final trip cost will vary based on your selected accommodations, activities, meals, and other trip elements that you opt to include.

4.9

Verified Traveler Reviews

Based on 439 reviews

India Trip Review: Delhi, Varanasi, 5 Days

We had to end our 23-day trip on day five since my wife fell and fractured her hip. The first five days of the trip were wonderful. We had great drivers and tour guides, and our hotel in Delhi was great.

Zicasso’s travel specialist and the tour team gave us outstanding support and made arrangements to help us get back to New York for my wife's hip replacement. This tour company is one of the best tour companies I have dealt with. You do not know how good a tour company is until you have a major problem. To our travel specialist, thank you for arranging a great tour and helping us.

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India Vacation Review: Agra, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Taj Mahal, Amber Fort, 1 Week

Zicasso’s travel specialist and the tour company were terrific! They made the process very easy and in every city we were welcomed by a representative from the company.

The overall trip was fantastic! Our driver was excellent. His driving skills were masterful and made our journey very comfortable. The overall traffic in India was overwhelming and while we've heard stories about it, it is something you need to experience for yourself. Our driver did a great job of navigating the traffic in an efficient manner and we always felt very safe.

Agra was amazing. Getting up before sunrise to see the Taj made the experience even more memorable. Thank you for arranging that. Compared to some of our friends who have gone, the lack of significant crowds at that time made a big difference to the overall experience. I was not as impressed with our hotel in Agra. It felt more like a large chain hotel and lacked the five-star luxury that I would have expected. The visits to the marble factory and tapestry collective were excellent. We really enjoyed the visits and ended up with amazing souvenirs. We loved our guide in Agra. He was by far the best one we had on the trip. He took the time to learn all of our names and was very engaging during our day together. We asked him a lot of questions about the culture and lifestyle in India, and he was great.

Jaipur was great. The Amber Fort and elephant ride were definitely the highlights in that city. The large cannon we could have done without. It didn't really add anything. We enjoyed the City Palace and the astronomic gardens as well. The hotel was fabulous and truly a five-star experience. Our rooms were very spacious and the food was great. We had an outside dinner planned at a restaurant in Jaipur (one of your recommendations) and our driver was so helpful in getting us to and from the restaurant. Our guide was good, but less friendly and more transactional. One of our group felt like he was more of a professor lecturing to us. Nonetheless, the information was very good.

Jodhpur was probably the other major highlight for us. We loved the city. The stay in the old city and our hotel in Jodhpur was excellent. The restaurant on site had amazing food and the rooms were again very spacious, with amazing views of the fort. Another five-star luxury experience. We were amazed by the beauty of the fort and impressed with the way it was built on top of the mountain. Amazing! We also enjoyed the City Palace and, in the future, would suggest arranging a dinner or lunch at the hotel there so we could have gone to see what the rest of the palace looked like by visiting the hotel.

The drive from Jaipur to Jodhpur was very long. Not much to do about that. It was obviously very convenient to have all of our luggage with us in the van between cities and doing flights may have taken the same amount of time. We also really enjoyed our guide here. He took us on tours of the local areas in the old city, including the stepwells, market, and blue city. While it was very enjoyable, it was also a little overwhelming for some of our group. Probably one of them would have chosen to stay at the hotel rather than walk around the blue city, but everyone else had a great time on that tour.

Udaipur was lovely and we really enjoyed the City Palace tour and the boat ride on the lake. I would have suggested staying at one of the hotels on the lake there as an option. Had we not been at the wedding, I would have loved the experience of staying at one of the hotels on the lake. Our hotel in Udaipur was nice, but far from everything. Obviously, we had no choice, as that's where the wedding took place.

Overall, an amazing trip. Once in a lifetime. I would love to go back to India and focus on other parts of the country.

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India Travel Review: Ramathra Fort, 17-Day Trip

It was an excellent trip. Zicasso's agency was highly responsive and helpful.

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India Trip Review: Bandhavgarh, Kanha, Tadoba, Kaziranga National Park, Thekkady, Periyar, Eravikulam, Wildlife, Culture, 1 Month

We were very happy with the trip and Zicasso’s travel company. It was well organized and everything went smoothly. The selection of all the hotels was excellent, but outstanding for their service were our lodges in Bandhavgarh, Kanha, and Tadoba, as well as our hotels in Thekkady and Periyar, both of which offered nature walks, cooking demonstrations, and fascinating dance performances. A big compliment also to all of our drivers for their exceptional driving skills!

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India Vacation Review: Rajasthan, Agra, Kerala, Farm Visit, 20-Day Trip

Zicasso’s travel agent put together an incredible trip for us. We started in the north, Rajasthan, then went to the south, Kerala, for three weeks. Every detail was thought through—the greeters at the airport, the excellent guides, and the most memorable hotels. In fact, thanks to the travel agent, we visited a village in Agra and a farm in Kerala, neither of which we would have done on our own and which were very special.

I cannot recommend this travel company highly enough—a first-class operation, first-class service, and a first-class trip.

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India Tour Review: National Parks, Safari, Ganges River, Boat Ride, Wildlife, Culture, 3 Weeks

Zicasso’s travel specialist was masterful in planning our itinerary for our trip to India. His recommendations for the national parks and our accommodations were spot-on.

The reason we came to India was for the wildlife, and that was spectacular, but the varied itinerary the travel specialist provided added richness and wonderful cultural experiences to our stay in India.

Everything was well planned and executed by the travel company. The WhatsApp connection kept us in contact with their team and it was an added convenience that they attached our boarding passes for the internal flights. I think the travel specialist did an amazing job and it has been an absolute pleasure working with him and his team.

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Customizable Itinerary

This is a sample itinerary to inspire a personalized trip designed with your travel specialist.

30,000+ Verified Traveler Reviews