How to Spend 48 Hours in Fort Kochi, India

Welcome to Fort Kochi in Kerala, where Portuguese-Dutch architecture, great seafood, and surprising cafes come together to create one vibrant travel destination. Here’s how to get the most out of your visit.

This pocket of Kerala is laid back, if a tad gritty, with Portuguese-Dutch colonial architecture, friendly locals, great seafood, boutique hotels and a dash of hip cafés.

Like India, Fort Kochi is a crazy mix. Waving palms and historic fishing nets are often interrupted by the passing swollen bodies of container ships.

Here’s how to get the best out of it …

Eat

Super budget

If you’re after authenticity, and like to eat like a local – or a local tourist (and Indians love to visit Fort Kochi) – head towards the fishing nets.

Choose your fish from a fishmonger, take it to a nearby stall and have it cooked (for around $2). Follow with a fresh coconut juice – a stall owner will lop the top and drop in a straw for about 25 cents – or perhaps a sweet chai from a street stall for around 10 cents.

There are plenty of rustic seafood restaurants, just follow the pungent, spicy fried-fish fragrance.

Budget

David Hall Gallery & Café, 1/264 Princes Street

Behind a Dutch colonial façade, lies a serious art gallery (India’s first Biennale was held here at the end of 2012) and in the tranquil garden lies a simple but casual café with French-style pastries, good coffee, and a wood-fired oven for pizza on par with anything outside (or even in) Italy… really.

David Hall Gallery & Café, Burgher Street

This is a small contemporary art gallery with a cool-vibe courtyard café (where you’ll hear Sinatra crooning in the background). Top-notch chocolate cake, soup and healthy fruit and veg salads are on the menu. A great spot to chill-out.

Ginger House Restaurant, Jew Town Road, Mattancherry

After your foray into the antique and faux-antique warehouses of the area, stop in for a feed at this open-air restaurant looking across to Willingdon Island; it catches a breeze and serves tasty simple curries, sandwiches and zingy fresh lime and ginger soda.

High end

Malabar Junction, Malabar House, 1/268 Parade Road

Junction is right: ocean-fresh seafood meets Southern Indian meets sophisticated fusion cuisine. Seriously delicious with stylish surroundings and thoughtful service. Mains around $12 but wine is expensive, of course. There’s a bar too – Divine (that’s what it’s called).

1788 Restaurant, Old Harbour Hotel, 1/328 Tower Road

This restaurant offers a nightly seafood barbecue, subtle south Indian vegetarian curries, majestic trees and twinkling lights glinting off the pool. Service was a smidgen offhand, though. Mains around $10, lavish seafood platters are more.

Brunton Boatyard, 1/498 Calvetty Road

It can be a little noisy here with ferries chugging in and out – but hey, this is a working port after all. The building is colonial-style and the bar has water views, with a lovely breeze off the river.

Shades of the British Raj are evident if you choose the First Class Railway Mutton Curry, but there is more sophisticated fare, vegetarian curries (naturally) and a swag of seafood dishes. The wood-panelled History & Terrace Grill is the main restaurant. Mains around $10.

Wooden boat cruise in backwaters of Kerala.

Things to do

Chinese fishing nets

The famed Chinese fishing nets are weatherworn teak and bamboo-framed nets that hang like spidery predators over the water’s edge.

Tough, wiry fishermen, usually clad in traditional check waistcloths or mundi, hoist the rope pulleys, weighted with (literally) a tonne of stones to lower the net into the water.

Fishermen walk precariously along the poles adjusting the net. After a while, they hoist the net and scoop out the fish.

A definite photo opportunity – but make sure you tip… in fact, their tips are probably more lucrative than the catch.

Fish Market

Early each morning, you’ll see seer fish, barracuda, prawns, crabs, small sharks and the occasional stingray piled high on ice in baskets and on wonky tables in the open air.

Stray cats choosing the occasional tasty morsel don’t seem to worry the locals.

Take a tuk-tuk

Tuk-tuk is the most popular way to travel in Kerala.

Some of India’s shiniest tuk-tuks navigate the narrow streets and drivers often have a fine line in patter – “book my Ferrari, all air-con," they say.

And that’s true, but only because there are no windows! Bargain with them, or politely say no.

However, for around $2 you can be dropped at most key tourist spots for a few hours and the driver will wait. (Be warned – if drivers insist you go to certain shops and you buy from there, you’ll be paying a commission.)

Mattancherry and the synagogue

Kochi’s bounty of spices and goods such as ginger, mace, nutmeg, betel nut and rice were stored in Mattancherry’s warehouses before being shipped.

Most warehouses are now shops but you can sometimes still glimpse huge bundles of chilli or sacks of rice awaiting shipping.

Mattancherry Palace (built in 1557) has some extraordinary Ramayana paintings (open daily except Friday).

Kochi Synagogue was built in 1568 and has an eclectic mix of timber, crystal lamps and blue-and-white Cantonese tiles. It’s also the oldest still in use in India. (Open Sunday to Thursday)

Kathakali show

The best of the highly stylised Kathakali artists who perform this dance-drama are mesmerising. Kerala Kathakali Centre has nightly shows.

St Francis Church

Possibly India’s oldest Christian church St Francis began c.1516. Vasco da Gama was buried here but his body later returned to Portugal. (Open daily)

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Ayurvedic heaven

Kerala is home to Ayurveda – an ancient system using herbs, oils and massage for balance and harmony. A body massage or sirodhara (oil pouring on the third eye) is a must-do while here. Indulge at one of the boutique hotel spas.

Shopping

Jew Town

The streets of Jew Town near the synagogue are busy with tourist shops selling cotton kurtas, silver and gemstone jewellery, Kashmiri scarves, spices, Ayurvedic herbs and ‘antique’ shops such as Crafters. Conveniently, most shops can ship.

Boutique shopping

Sleek gallery-like spaces and an understated international ambience at Cinnamon is the setting for up-market Indian designer fashion, jewellery and homewares, including some clever up-cycling.

Nearby, the tiny Fabindia (part of an Indian chain) has bolts of interesting fabric stacked high and a select range of clothing. Idiom bookshop, in Princess Street, has an amazing selection of books to browse.

Stay

Budget

There’s a booming business in homestays, from very basic to quite smart. Don’t necessarily expect a room with a view and, if you don’t fancy the heat, check if they have fans and air-con.

Remember, the lower the tariff, usually the dodgier the air-con. From $35 twin room. See fortcochinhomestays.com

Boutique

Malabar House, 1/269 Parade Road

This is an elegant, arty, boutique hotel in a handsome heritage building opposite the Parade ground, with the Relais & Chateaux stamp of approval.

The white walls feature pops of brilliant colour and folk art, but it’s not too precious.

Ask about the first-floor garden suites and try out the great restaurant and spa.

From $340 including tax for a deluxe double, high season.

The Old Harbour Hotel, 1/328 Tower Road

Featuring Portuguese/Dutch colonial architecture, shuttered windows and sweeping red-tiled roofs, with crisp white interior walls, a cool foyer, dark timbers and carved-teak furniture – the Old Harbour Hotel is the perfect retreat from the town’s steamy heat.

Not to mention the swimming pool, lovely breakfasts and, on a balmy evening, the leafy garden makes a nice spot for an icy Kingfisher beer.
From $200 including tax for a garden view, high season.

You should know

Visas are needed for India and must be applied for before you arrive.

Allow at least an hour to/from Cochin international airport if going by taxi (or up to two hours by bus). You can book a pre-paid taxi at the airport on arrival for around $16.

Words by Margaret Barca

If you like the look of a Fort Kochi getaway, make sure you check out our India travel guide, so you can ensure you read up on the very best the country has to offer!

After youth-led protests in 2025, this year Nepal elected a 35-year-old former rapper as Prime Minister. In a country where tourism is its biggest industry, what’s next for travellers?

In 1986, Nepal changed its clock. It had used India Standard Time since 1920 so, to differentiate, it wound its clock 15 minutes ahead of, not behind, its big-brother neighbour. Boss move. “Nepal is strongly opposed to the idea that our identity is connected to India,” says Community Homestay Network (CHN) guide Bikal Khanal.

Tharu dance is traditionally set to hand drums. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

Today, Nepal is the only independent country with a 45-minute deviation to universal time; an oddity that’s become a symbol of national pride. The quirk is nearly as endearing as Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan airport where carved varnished wood and shiny red bricks rule. One sign points to a ‘Travelator’ and another to a ‘Grievance Handling Desk’ while visas are noisily stamped at customs for US dollars, cash only. When am I?

Spot the endemic Nepal gray langur. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The 15 or 45 minute anomaly sees me tap out completely on timezone calculations. Why bend my brain calculating if it’s quarter to or quarter past elsewhere when I’m in the honking here and now of Kathmandu where the air is high-altitude crisp, the prayer flags flutter and the street dogs howl?

How tourism is changing in Nepal

Bardiya National Park is rich with wildlife. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

India is not the only association many Nepalis would like to shake. With eight of the world’s 10 tallest mountains, including Mount Everest and Annapurna, Nepal has long attracted mountaineers and trekkers, and expedition numbers are continuing to rise.

Tourism is one of the country’s biggest sources of foreign currency, so this growth is not negative, per se. But according to Ang Tshering Lama, who co-founded Phaplu Mountain Bike Club, being reduced to a mere trekking destination is limiting.

“Trekking is just one layer of our identity,” says Ang. “When it becomes the dominant narrative, it limits how we’re seen and how we see ourselves.” Nepal’s recent success, however, in diverting trekkers to less-trafficked areas such as Manaslu mofuntain, where visitor numbers rose by 117 per cent last year, offers hope that tourism can diversify even more radically.

Local men in Bhada village. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The founder of CHN, Shiva Dhakal, wants that change. “The whole idea of the Community Homestay Network is to promote experiences outside of trekking,” he says. “Community tourism changes lives and helps kids stay home instead of coming to the city or migrating to the Middle East.”

Ang grew up seeing people leave, “not because they wanted to but because there weren’t enough opportunities to stay”, he states. Yet from remote villages to living traditions; food, art, music and emerging subcultures, “there’s so much that’s not being seen.”

CHN is opening some of those doors. It doesn’t own, or fund, any homes. Rather, it promotes homestays to travellers on a single, slick platform, while fostering entrepreneurship in places where women, marginalised castes, Indigenous people and the youth stand to benefit the most.

A new generation demanding more

Dalla Town Hall, where volunteers discuss anti-poaching tactics. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The future prospects of next-gen Nepalis can no longer be ignored. On a Kathmandu tour with 33-year-old guide Monica K.C, we pass buildings torched in the September 2025 ‘Gen Z protests’, including the Supreme Court and Parliament House. Seventy-two people died. “They were anti-corruption protests,” says Monica. “Politicians’ children are living a lavish life but the airports are crowded with youngsters leaving to find work.”

We stop in ‘little Tibet’ at the wondrous sixth-century Boudha Stupa. “The wheel of life is Buddhism in a nutshell,” says Monica. “Things such as hate, ignorance and anger keep you rotating around the wheel, so you must follow the principles of Buddhism to detach. If you can’t, there’s no nirvana for you.”

Boudha Stupa's prayer wheels — Boudha Stupa’s prayer wheels are used to recite Buddhist prayers. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

In a sun-drenched twist to the usual temple visit, we ascend the stupa’s sloping plinth and roam its whitewashed dome. Tendrils of diaphanous prayer flags stream from a steeple-like structure where the Buddha’s unblinking eyes stare out. No nirvana for you…

bouda stupa prayer flags — Tibetan-style prayer flags embellish the whitewashed dome of Bouda Stupa, a Buddhist temple. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

The dome is delightfully free of guard rails or chiding from security. There is, however, a stern ‘No TikTok’ sign, perhaps in response to the youth’s newly flexed power. The booted-out Prime Minister, K.P. Sharma Oli, was replaced in a resounding election victory in March by 35-year-old Balendra Shah of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) – a former rapper and mayor of Kathmandu. The RSP’s manifesto indicates tourism is a priority, and that Nepal’s cultural identity in areas such as gastronomy will be strengthened.

Boudha Stupa vendors — Vibrant souvenir shops and cafes around Boudha Stupa. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

A more confronting stop awaits at Pashupatinath Temple. Today is Bala Chaturdashi, a Hindu festival where thousands of devotees gather to honour their dead ancestors. Vendors hauling foam mattresses do a lucrative trade as people set up for a night of vigil. This includes burning the bodies of recently deceased relatives on bamboo pyres in the Bagmati River, which flows into the sacred Ganges.

A woman at annual Hindu festival Bala Chaturdashi, in Kathmandu. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Wrapped in a shroud, the bodies are positioned with their heads facing north to the Himalayas where Lord Shiva resides. They’re covered with flowers and straw and set alight by male family members.

Hours later, the ashes are swept into the river where devotees will take a holy dip the next day. As much as Monica assures us it’s not voyeuristic to watch, I struggle to do so. “Here you see the reality of life because everyone ends up there,” she says, gesturing to the river.

Life unfiltered in the Terai region

tharu woman — Tharu woman and master weaver Parbati Chaudhary in Bhada Village. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The reality of life needs processing time, which the western Terai region delivers in spades. The Terai is largely separated from India by the Karnali River and Bardiya National Park, where elephants, rhinos and the elusive Bengal tiger roam.

Once a nomadic tribe, the Indigenous Tharu people are now the largest ethnic group here. “They didn’t know their daily life was interesting for international travellers but they’re starting to understand now,” says CHN founder Shiva.

Take a Jeep safari through Bardiya National Park. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

We fly Buddha Air to Dhangadhi airport and drive five hours to stay in Tharu homes. The journey to Bhada village is a blur of roadside fruit stalls, traffic-stopping sacred cows and fields sown with wheat, rice, mustard, spinach, cauliflower and potatoes. Nepal’s agriculture feeds only Nepal.

Marigolds are an important part of Hindu rituals. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

“The only thing we export is young people,” says our guide Bikal. As the light dims and we plunge evermore rural, mysterious mounds of compacted hay – some house-sized – loom like the creatures from Where The Wild Things Are. Even our trusty driver gets flummoxed by a dirt road that abruptly ends and we find ourselves hurtling across a paddock.

On arrival, some are ferried to mud-walled cottages greened by gourd creepers, with thatched roofs and rustic-chic mosquito nets. Myself and two others are ushered to the home of corner store owner, mechanic and mushroom farmer Man Kumar Chilaruwa and his wife Rajkumari.

community homestay entrance — A warm welcome at a community homestay. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

They escort us to a bunker-esque back building with steel doors and a folding security gate, behind which is gleaming linoleum, dolphin-printed tiles and a shower cavity that must be gingerly stepped through to reach the toilet.

The ceiling lights emit a rainbow of colours (the bathroom light gets stuck in, frankly, a quite frightening red). We’re nevertheless touched that our hosts invested in all this bling when the average salary is around $275 a month.

In the coming days, we participate in Tharu traditions such as making moonshine, dancing, weaving straw handicrafts and gold-panning. We’re fed well with staples of rice, mustard greens, lentil pancakes, daal, curried chicken and tomato chutney served on antibacterial saal leaves.

food at community homestay — Dig in. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Sonara community homestay president Indradevi Tharu tells us river snails are often served, and the boiled and pickled flesh of rats hunted in the rice fields. “Perhaps next time?” we say and all have a laugh.

The power of community homestays

community homestay owners in Nepal — Barda community homestay owners Parbati Chaudhary and Ram Krishni Devi Chaudhary. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

Immersing Western visitors in foreign cultural practices is not new. But with the Tharu, I never get that uneasy sensation that I’m being performed for. Despite being the only tourists, there’s no ‘othering’; just warm, composed and ultra-dignified welcomes. Like we’ve always been here.

“I love to have travellers in my village so I can see the world,” says local woman Parbati Chaudhary. “Why would I travel the world when the world comes to me?”

The graceful acceptance the Tharu offer, as well as the slow pace, works miracles on my frazzled nervous system. One day I even take a nap on a vacant homestay bed.

Sonara community room — An authentic stay in the Sonara community. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Roosters strut and goats bray as we sit on the ground in al fresco kitchens, rolling rice flour into cylinders steamed to make dhikri (dumplings). When water is needed, we fetch it using a hand-operated pump as a family of ducks strolls by, side-eying us like curious neighbours.

Animal lovers will delight in Tharu villages. Kind and resourceful inventions are everywhere, such as snacking stations where two posts lean together, with leafy boughs dangling on rope for baby goats to forage from.

CHN’s CEO, Aayusha Prasain, nods knowingly when one in our group says she cried when she left her host, Shayam Chaudhary, in Bhada. Shayam’s 17-year-old son, Prashant, had translated, which deepened the connection.

“Community tourism turns travel into a relationship, not a transaction,” says Aayusha. “It places decision-making power in the hands of local communities, especially women and youth.” Since 2018, CHN has hosted more than 4000 travellers from 52 countries in 408 households, and estimates women’s participation has increased by 381 per cent.

In the Bardiya community, where vexing human-animal conflict has been a balancing act for decades due to elephants raiding crops, long-time homestay operator Salik Ram Chaudhary says young people keep the older ones on their toes.

“We can’t keep homestays stagnant,” he says. “We have to upgrade our service and redefine our product or young people won’t see it as an attractive business. If we can keep evolving with this travelling trend we’re confident the youths will stay and continue it.”

Back in Kathmandu, Monica explains that after the deaths of young protestors in September, a determination had spread to not let their sacrifice be in vain. “We want to keep holding the government accountable,” she says. “We don’t know what situation we’re facing, but we’re ready to face it.”

Interested in Nepal but prefer to experience it in total comfort? Read our guide to luxury travel in Nepal.

Welcome to Fort Kochi in Kerala, where Portuguese-Dutch architecture, great seafood, and surprising cafes come together to create one vibrant travel destination. Here’s how to get the most out of your visit.

Eat

Super budget

Budget

David Hall Gallery & Café, 1/264 Princes Street

David Hall Gallery & Café, Burgher Street

Ginger House Restaurant, Jew Town Road, Mattancherry

High end

Malabar Junction, Malabar House, 1/268 Parade Road

1788 Restaurant, Old Harbour Hotel, 1/328 Tower Road

Brunton Boatyard, 1/498 Calvetty Road

Things to do

Chinese fishing nets

Fish Market

Take a tuk-tuk

Mattancherry and the synagogue

Kathakali show

St Francis Church

Ayurvedic heaven

Shopping

Jew Town

Boutique shopping

Stay

Budget

Boutique

Malabar House, 1/269 Parade Road

The Old Harbour Hotel, 1/328 Tower Road

You should know

Words by Margaret Barca

If you like the look of a Fort Kochi getaway, make sure you check out our India travel guide, so you can ensure you read up on the very best the country has to offer!

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After youth-led protests in 2025, this year Nepal elected a 35-year-old former rapper as Prime Minister. In a country where tourism is its biggest industry, what’s next for travellers?

How tourism is changing in Nepal

A new generation demanding more

Life unfiltered in the Terai region

The power of community homestays