Kovalam Travel Guide

Kovalam 16 kms from Thiruvananthapuram.This internationally renowned beach resort has been a favorite haunt of tourists since the 1930s. Kovalam consists of three adjacent crescent   beaches. There are four main stretches of beach each about 400 mts. long with a rocky promontory. The southern beaches are much more populated; Lighthouse Beach is a long line of shops. Kovalam offers accommodation options to suit all budgets. Although it is the busiest and quiet by some European holiday beach standards.

Thirty years ago Kovalam was a hippie cliché: a tropical beach with a village offering seafood fruit and toddy (coconut beer). Today this tiny beach is the focus of a multi-million dollar business drawing thousands of tourists for a sanitized Indian ‘experience’. The results are predictable. Ones just a series of sandy bays separated by rocky promontories deserted except for the scattered fishing villages under the coconut palms Kovalam is becoming one of the government’s major tourist centres.For 20 years it catered largely for the western backpacker but now its superb beaches are the focus of package tours from Europe and visitors from all over India