Places to visit in Keralam
156 places to visit in Keralam (Kerala), each with LOQAH's carefully crafted stamp of its own: Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary, Eravikulam National Park, Neyyar Wildlife Sanctuary and more. Stand at any of them with the app open and the stamp is yours, confirmed on site, in your Keralam volume.
8 UNESCO World Heritage sites · 7 National monuments · 4 State heritage sites · 51 Famous places to visit · 10 Offbeat places · 76 Hidden gems
UNESCO World Heritage sites in Keralam (8)
-
Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary
Thorn forest in the rain shadow of the Western Ghats, with the grizzled giant squirrel.
-
Eravikulam National Park
High rolling grassland above the tea, where the Nilgiri tahr is tame enough to walk past.
-
Neyyar Wildlife Sanctuary
Forest round the Neyyar dam with a lion safari and a crocodile farm, under Agastyakoodam.
-
Parambikulam Tiger Reserve
Teak forest between the Anamalais and Nelliampathy, with the oldest teak tree anybody has dated.
-
Peppara Wildlife Sanctuary
Forest around the Peppara reservoir in the Agasthyamalai, and where the capital's water starts.
-
Periyar National Park
A lake made by a dam in 1895, now the middle of a tiger reserve, worked by boat rather than by jeep.
-
Shendurney Wildlife Sanctuary
A hundred and seventy square kilometres of the Western Ghats in Kollam district, protected since 1984.
-
Silent Valley National Park
Undisturbed tropical rainforest saved from a dam in 1980 by one of India's first environmental campaigns.
National monuments in Keralam (7)
-
Anchuthengu Fort
The East India Company's first permanent post on the Malabar coast, granted to them in 1693.
-
Bekal Fort
Forty acres of laterite on a headland, its observation tower giving a view down the coast in both directions.
-
Mattancherry Palace
Built by the Portuguese for a raja in 1555, holding murals that cover the whole of the Ramayana.
-
Palakkad Fort
Hyder Ali's fort, square and complete.
-
St Angelo Fort
Portuguese, Dutch, then British, on a headland.
-
St Thomas Fort, Tangasseri
A Portuguese fort of 1518 taken by the Dutch, now a ruin by the Kollam lighthouse.
-
Thalassery Fort
Cricket, cake and circus all began around it.
State heritage sites in Keralam (4)
-
Edakkal Caves
Petroglyphs cut into a cleft in the rock, some of them six thousand years old, reached by a climb up the hill.
-
Kottukal Cave Temple
A rock-cut shrine hewn out of a single boulder near Kollam, eighth century.
-
Krishnapuram Palace
A Travancore palace with the largest mural in Kerala, Gajendra Moksham, on one wall.
-
Pallipuram Fort
The oldest European fort still standing in India, Portuguese, hexagonal, of 1503.
Famous places to visit in Keralam (51)
-
Aazhimala Shiva Temple
A Shiva temple on the Arabian Sea near Vizhinjam, with an eighteen metre Gangadhareshwara cut into the rock above it.
-
Ambalappuzha Sri Krishna Temple
A temple famous for its paal payasam, and for the chess and rice story about how it began.
-
Ananthapura Lake Temple
A temple in the middle of a lake, with a crocodile that is fed by the priests.
-
Aranmula Parthasarathy Temple
Krishna as Arjuna's charioteer, on the south bank of the Pamba at Aranmula.
-
Athirappilly Falls
Eighty metres of the Chalakudy river across a wide rock lip, in forest holding all four south Indian hornbills.
-
Attukal Temple
Bhadrakali at Attukal, identified here with Kannagi of the old Tamil epic.
-
Avanangattilkalari Vishnumaya Temple
The head temple of every Vishnumaya shrine in Kerala, at Peringottukara, where the god is also called Chathan.
-
Banasura Sagar Dam
The largest earth dam in India, at Padinjarathara, with the country's first floating solar plant out on its water.
-
Chavakkad Beach
A beach on the Thrissur coast at Chavakkad.
-
Cheraman Juma Masjid
Said to be the oldest mosque in India, founded in the seventh century by a merchant from Arabia.
-
Chottanikkara Temple
A temple where the goddess is said to cure the possessed, and the evening rite draws them.
-
Ettumanoor Mahadevar Temple
One of the great Shiva temples of Kerala, at Ettumanoor in Kottayam.
-
Fort Kochi
Portuguese, Dutch and British in turn, with Chinese fishing nets on the shore that predate all three.
-
Gavi
A forest village inside the Periyar reserve, reached by one permit and one road, with a lake, a dam and no mobile signal.
-
Guruvayur Temple
One of the most visited temples in Kerala, where the elephants of the temple are kept in their own sanctuary nearby.
-
Idukki Dam
A thin arch of concrete wedged between two granite hills that the local story calls Kuravan and Kurathi.
-
Ilaveezha Poonchira
A valley where no leaf falls, by the story, and three grass hills where nothing grows tall enough to shed one.
-
Jatayu Earth Centre
The world's largest bird sculpture, on a rock.
-
Kanthalloor
A village of apple, orange and strawberry orchards on the dry side of the Ghats, where Kerala grows fruit it cannot grow anywhere else.
-
Kodungallur Bhagavathy Temple
Bhadrakali at Kodungallur, known across Kerala simply as Kodungallur Amma.
-
Kottiyoor Temple
A Shiva temple on the river at Kottiyoor, with a second shrine facing it from the far bank.
-
Kovalam Beach
Three crescent beaches under a lighthouse headland, the first stretch of Kerala coast that travellers found.
-
Kowdiar Palace
The Travancore family's official residence in Thiruvananthapuram, completed in 1934.
-
Kuttikkanam
A tea and cardamom station on the Kottayam road at 1,000 metres, with mist most mornings and a summer palace the Travancore raja built.
-
Malakkappara
A plantation settlement in the Thrissur hills, right on the Tamil Nadu border.
-
Malampuzha Dam
The largest dam in Kerala, near Palakkad, with the Western Ghats standing up behind it.
-
Mannarasala Temple
A serpent temple in a grove run by a priestess, with thirty thousand images under the trees.
-
Meesapulimala
The second highest peak in the Western Ghats at 2,640 metres, reached on foot through rhododendron and grassland from Munnar.
-
Mullaperiyar Dam
A masonry dam high in the Cardamom Hills, holding the Periyar at nearly 900 metres above the sea.
-
Munnar
Tea planted across the Kannan Devan hills from the 1880s, and the country the neelakurinji flowers over once in twelve years.
-
Munroe Island
Eight small islets where the Kallada river meets Ashtamudi lake, reached by road, rail or boat.
-
Nelliampathi
A hill station in the Western Ghats, sixty kilometres from Palakkad.
-
Padmanabhaswamy Temple
A temple whose vaults were opened in 2011 and found to hold one of the largest treasure hoards ever recorded.
-
Palakkad Gap
The thirty kilometre break in the Western Ghats that lets the rain, the trains and the wind through.
-
Panchalimedu
A high viewpoint in Idukki where Ayyappa devotees camp to watch for the Makaravilakku flame.
-
Paradesi Synagogue
Built in 1568, the oldest active synagogue in the Commonwealth, floored with hand painted Cantonese tiles no two alike.
-
Perumbalam Bridge
A bow string arch across Vembanad lake, opened in 2026, which finally gave Perumbalam island a road of its own.
-
Ponmudi
A ridge at a thousand metres an hour from Thiruvananthapuram, reached by twenty two hairpins through rubber and tea.
-
Rajarajeshwara Temple
A Shiva temple at Taliparamba, counted among the twelve great Shivalayas of old Kerala.
-
Ramakkalmedu
A grassy ridge on the Kerala border with the windiest spot in Asia, a wind farm to prove it, and the Tamil plains laid out below.
-
Sultan Bathery
The Wayanad town named for the Jain temple Tipu used as an ammunition store, and the base for Edakkal and Muthanga.
-
Thalassery
Where the East India Company first landed pepper, and where cricket, cake and circus were all first tried in India.
-
Thamarassery Churam
The pass that carries the road from Kozhikode up through the Western Ghats.
-
Vadakkunnathan Temple
The Pooram happens outside these walls.
-
Vagamon
Meadows, pine and a paragliding season.
-
Varkala Beach
A beach on the Arabian Sea at Varkala, north of Thiruvananthapuram.
-
Varkala Cliff
Red laterite cliffs standing directly over the Arabian Sea, with mineral springs coming out of the rock face.
-
Vattavada
A cold high valley past Munnar where garlic, cabbage and passion fruit grow in terraces, and the road ends at the Tamil Nadu line.
-
Vembanad
The longest lake in India, the backwaters people mean when they say backwaters.
-
Vypin
A barrier island at Kochi with the Arabian Sea on one side and the backwaters on the other.
-
Willingdon Island
The largest artificial island in India, dredged up out of Vembanad lake to give Kochi its harbour.
Offbeat places in Keralam (10)
-
Anamudi
The highest peak in India south of the Himalaya at two thousand six hundred and ninety five metres, inside Eravikulam.
-
Azheekal Beach
A beach at the north end of the Alappad strip, where the sea and the canal run side by side.
-
Calvarimount
A hillock in Idukki of about two hundred metres, climbed for the view and for the shrine on it.
-
Devikulam
A small hill station eight kilometres from Munnar, at eighteen hundred metres.
-
Fort Kochi beach
A beach on the Arabian Sea in the Fort Kochi quarter.
-
Pakshipathalam
Boulder caves at the top of Brahmagiri.
-
Pathiramanal
A small island in Vembanad whose name means midnight sand, and where the migrating birds come.
-
Perumbalam
An island village of some ten thousand people, out in Vembanad lake.
-
Thusharagiri Falls
Two streams meet here and fall in three stages, throwing up enough spray to give the place its name.
-
Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary
The second largest sanctuary in Kerala, in four ranges across the Wayanad plateau.
Hidden gems in Keralam (76)
-
Agastya Mala
A peak the Kani people hold sacred, climbed only with a permit and only in season.
-
Alappuzha Backwaters
Nine hundred kilometres of linked lagoon and canal behind the coast, worked by rice barges converted to houseboats.
-
Alappuzha Beach
A pier from 1862 running out into the sea, half fallen, and the town's evenings.
-
Aluva Mahadeva Temple
A Shiva temple on a sandbank in the Periyar, submerged half the year, with a festival when it is not.
-
Arakkal Museum
The durbar hall of the only Muslim royal family Kerala had, at Kannur.
-
Aranmula Kannadi
A metal mirror made from an alloy whose recipe stays inside a few families, reflecting without any glass.
-
Ashtamudi Lake
Eight arms of backwater, and the gateway to them.
-
Banasura Hill
A peak above the Banasura Sagar dam in Wayanad, named for Bana the asura king.
-
Bekal Fort Beach
A laterite sea fort of 1650 built straight onto the beach, with a keyhole observation tower over the water.
-
Beypore
Uru dhows still built by hand for the Gulf.
-
Bhoothathankettu
A natural rock barrier across the river near Kothamangalam, later built up into a dam.
-
Chandragiri Fort, Kasaragod
A seventeenth century fort above the Payaswini, with the river and the sea from the same wall.
-
Cheeyappara Falls
The Periyar coming down in seven steps beside the Kochi-Madurai road.
-
Chembra Peak
The heart shaped lake on the way up.
-
Chengannur Mahadeva Temple
An ancient temple to Shiva and Parvati in Alappuzha district, one of the great Kerala-style temples. It is known for the Thriputharattu, when the goddess is held to menstruate: her shrine closes for days and reopens with an Arattu procession to the Pampa river.
-
Cherai Beach
Backwater on one side, sea on the other.
-
Chimmini Wildlife Sanctuary
Forest round a reservoir in Thrissur, adjoining Peechi, with elephants.
-
Chinese Fishing Nets
Cantilevered shore nets said to have come with traders from the court of Kublai Khan, still worked by four men each.
-
En Ooru Tribal Heritage Village
Kerala's first tribal heritage village, opened in 2022 on a hillock at Pookode, with thatched huts, a market and a kitchen run by Wayanad's tribal communities.
-
Ezhimala
A headland with six hills on it, a naval academy, and medicinal plants Hanuman is said to have dropped.
-
Hill Palace Tripunithura
Forty nine buildings of the Cochin royal family on fifty two acres, now the largest museum in Kerala.
-
Hosdurg Fort
A Bednore fort at Kanhangad, round bastions, above the sea.
-
Kappad Beach
Where Vasco da Gama landed in May 1498, marked by a small stone that changed the economics of two continents.
-
Kappil Beach
A quiet beach north of Varkala where the Edava-Nadayara backwater meets the Arabian Sea, with only a strip of sand between lake and sea. Coconut palms on one side, surf on the other, and the Kappil bridge across the estuary.
-
Kaviyoor Mahadeva Temple
A hill temple in Pathanamthitta with murals, near the rock-cut cave of the same name.
-
Kilimanoor Palace
The house Raja Ravi Varma was born in, with his studio still in it.
-
Kollam Beach
A long beach with a lighthouse and a pier, at the mouth of the Ashtamudi.
-
Koodalmanikyam Temple
The only temple in India to Bharata, and the one temple in Kerala with no other deity in it.
-
Kozhikode Beach
The pier stumps, and where Vasco da Gama came ashore nearby.
-
Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary
Fourteen acres on Vembanad lake where Siberian storks and darters come between November and February.
-
Kumily Spice Market
Cardamom, pepper and clove sold at the Tamil Nadu border, where the plantations begin.
-
Madayi Kavu
A Bhagavathy temple in Kannur said to have been founded in the eleventh century, with a tank.
-
Madhur Temple
A gopuram temple on the Madhuvahini where a Ganesha is said to have grown on a wall.
-
Malampuzha
A garden, a dam and Kanayi Kunhiraman's Yakshi.
-
Malik Dinar Mosque
A mosque at Thalangara said to be founded by one of the Prophet's companions, rebuilt in Kerala timber.
-
Mampuram Mosque
The maqam of Sayyid Alavi at Tirurangadi, and the centre of the Mappila resistance.
-
Mangala Devi Temple, Idukki
A stone temple on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border opened one day a year, on Chithra Pournami.
-
Marari Beach
A fishing village that became a quiet resort coast.
-
Mathikettan Shola National Park
A small shola forest in Idukki whose name means the forest that confuses the mind.
-
Mattupetty Dam
A concrete dam in the Kannan Devan hills above Munnar, holding water for power.
-
Meenmutty Falls
Three drops, reached on foot through forest.
-
Mishkal Mosque
A four storeyed timber mosque at Kozhikode built by a Yemeni shipowner, burnt by the Portuguese and rebuilt.
-
Muchundi Mosque
A mosque at Kozhikode with a thirteenth century Malayalam inscription recording its endowment.
-
Muthappan Temple
Parassinikadavu, where the deity is a hunter, takes toddy, and appears nightly as theyyam.
-
Muzhappilangad Beach
The only drive in beach in India.
-
Napier Museum
Indo Saracenic, and cooled without a fan.
-
Odathil Palli
A mosque at Thalassery with a copper roof, built by a merchant on a tobacco warehouse plot.
-
Our Lady of Lourdes Cathedral, Thrissur
A Gothic cathedral with an underground shrine modelled on the grotto at Lourdes.
-
Paithalmala
The highest point in Kannur, on the Karnataka border, with a walk up through forest.
-
Palaruvi Falls
A single fall in thick forest near the Tamil Nadu border, the name meaning stream of milk.
-
Palayam Juma Masjid
The mosque in Thiruvananthapuram that stands with a temple and a church on the same road.
-
Pampadum Shola National Park
The smallest national park in Kerala, high shola forest above Munnar.
-
Panachikkadu Temple
The Dakshina Mookambika, a Saraswati temple in Kottayam where the idol stands in seeping water.
-
Paramekkavu
One of the two temples whose rivalry is the Thrissur Pooram.
-
Payyambalam Beach
Where north Kerala goes in the evening.
-
Peechi Dam
A dam twenty two kilometres out of Thrissur, watering the villages and the city both.
-
Perunthenaruvi Falls
A fall on the Pamba in Pathanamthitta, broad and shallow over black rock.
-
Ponnani Juma Masjid
A five hundred year old timber mosque at Ponnani, called the Mecca of Malabar.
-
Pookode Lake
A small natural lake in Wayanad shaped like the map of India, with a rainforest round it.
-
Poovar Island
Where a river, a lake and the sea meet.
-
Puttingal Temple
A Bhadrakali temple at Paravur, and where the firework disaster of 2016 happened.
-
Ranipuram
A hill on the Karnataka border with grassland and shola, once called Madathumala.
-
Sabarimala
Forty one days of vows, and eighteen steps.
-
Sasthamcotta Lake
The largest freshwater lake in Kerala, and where Kollam gets its water.
-
Shankumugham Beach
The beach beside Thiruvananthapuram airport, with a sleeping mermaid in concrete.
-
Snehatheeram Beach
The beach of love at Thalikulam, with a sculpture garden and no rocks.
-
Soochipara Falls
A three tiered fall in Wayanad with a rock face climbers use.
-
Sreevallabha Temple
A temple at Thiruvalla where kathakali is performed every night as an offering.
-
St Andrew's Basilica, Arthunkal
A Portuguese foundation of 1581 on the Alappuzha coast, with a January feast walked to from far off.
-
Thazhathangady Juma Masjid
One of the oldest mosques in India, on the Meenachil, with carved wood and no minaret.
-
Thirunelli Temple
In forest under Brahmagiri, where a stream called Papanashini is used for the rites for the dead.
-
Thrissur Zoo
One of the oldest zoos in India, open at Chembukkavu in the middle of Thrissur since 1885.
-
Vaikom Mahadeva Temple
The temple whose road was the Vaikom Satyagraha, where Gandhi came in 1925.
-
Vazhachal Falls
The Chalakudy going over a wide ledge at the edge of the Sholayar forest.
-
Vazhappally Maha Siva Temple
One of the oldest temples in Kerala, named in a copper plate of the ninth century.
-
Vellayani Lake
The largest freshwater lake in south Kerala, and where Thiruvananthapuram takes its water.
Collecting in Keralam
What are the best places to visit in Keralam?
LOQAH lists 156 places in Keralam. The best known include Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary, Eravikulam National Park, Neyyar Wildlife Sanctuary, Parambikulam Tiger Reserve and Peppara Wildlife Sanctuary. Each has a stamp of its own to collect when you are there.
How many LOQAH stamps are there in Keralam?
156, and more are added over time. Each place has LOQAH's carefully crafted stamp of its own.
How do I collect a stamp in Keralam?
Open LOQAH at the place and get its stamp. LOQAH checks where you are once, at that moment; at the place itself the stamp is confirmed on site, with a gold badge.
I have been to places in Keralam before. Can I add them?
Yes. In Earlier trips, choose Keralam and swipe through its stamps, or import your Google Timeline. Each one goes into your volume with the date, if you know it.
More in India
Collect your first stamp.
LOQAH is free on iPhone and Android, in India and 20 more countries, with more countries on the way. Stand at a place, collect its stamp, and keep every trip in a passport that grows.