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| state: Kerala |
location: appr 20 km south of Trivandrum |
| info date: Mar 2002 |
size: town |
| season: Nov - Feb |
transport: bus, taxi |
| hotels: far too many |
good for: all travellers |
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|  The
shanti India of the guidebooks and brochures this ain't. If
your idea of a great holiday is the concrete drenched beaches
of a down market Spanish resort, you'll feel right at home
in Kovalam's Concrete Hell. The beach front is a motley and
extremely unattractive mess of large hotels, shops and wall
to wall identikit restaurants, which is a shame, because Lighthouse
beach must once have been a rather beautiful cove before the
builders moved in. Unless you like being constantly harangued,
you will soon develop a Pavlovian loathing of running the
gauntlet of crack Kashmiri carpet peddlers, limpet like trinket
sellers and the restaurant owners with clip on plastic grins
who try to lure you in with displays of once beautiful fish
that have spent their day outside, going off in the hot sun
- and smell like it. The beach itself, while larger than Varkala,
is relatively small and usually pretty crowded during the
season, especially around the peak of Christmas and New Year
when Kovalam is a big destination for package tourists.
Beware of the surf, which though spectacular, can easily
injure the unwary and reputedly has strong currents which
can cause problems for weak swimmers. We saw a 3 or 4 of people
leave the water with bloody noses and grazes after being pushed
underwater along the gravelly sand.
If Kovalam has a redeeming feature, it is probably a walk
through the maze of lush, palm shaded lanes behind the beach
- although the novelty will wear off rapidly. For backpackers
it's easy enough to jump back on the bike or take a train
and Kovalam becomes no more than a slightly irritating blip
on the radar. But had I spent a tidy sum on a two week package
tour, I think I would feel a more intimate understanding of
"mis-sold".
In the end, the only really compelling reason to come to
Kovalam is if you are on a motorcycle tour and it happens
to be in your way. On the other hand, Tamil Nadu is just down
an hour down the road. |
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guest house
/ hotel: |
The high tout factor in Kovalam makes
finding a hotel both tedious and expensive - beware anyone
waving a grubby, dog-eared business card under your nose whose
"brother owns a hotel"; in any case the touts are
easy enough to spot as they mainly hunt in packs. Most budget
travellers will find Kovalam pricey for the generally low
standard of rooms offered; in the half season times, generally
expect to pay 2- 300 Rs for rather manky rooms away from the
beach, and 700+ for anything that could remotely be described
as pleasant.
The one miraculous - and entirely honourable - exception to
this (and quite possibly Kovalam's solitary saving grace) was
the place we finally found at the point we were considering
skipping Kovalam altogether, having checked out about 20 hotels.
At the very top of the hill near the main road is Gayathri
guest house (named for the owners daughter), a quiet
2 room place with a small verandah, set in a peaceful garden
under palm trees and a minor miracle given the overpriced kennels
most of Kovalam offers. The friendly owner Mr Kumar has spent
a good chunk of money making the rooms and attached bathrooms
attractive and comfortable, yet amazingly charges only 150Rs
per night. By Kovalam standards it literally would be a bargain
at 3 times the price. |
restaurant
/ dhaba: |
While eating fish is what you want
to do in a coastal resort, actually doing it here feels a
little like playing a culinary version of Russian roulette
with 5 chambers loaded, owing to the fish displayed outside
the beach front cafes spending its day basking in the hot
sun. One meal that we ate in a beach front place was literally
inedible - "off" is an inadequate description of
the fish it contained - and the owners total disinterest just
about sums Kovalam up.
The beach front restaurants are all much the same in price
and quality, those we tried serving relatively uninspired
food considering the potential ingredients, and the general
ambience seems more Margate Pier than Malabar Coast.
Away from the beach on the road up the hill are smaller,
more "local style" restaurants with cheaper menus
and decent Indian food. |
local interest: |
lots of souvenir shops, comparatively
unappealing beaches, maze of concrete tourist accommodation.
The lighthouse is one of the more pleasant features |
| transport: |
train to Trivandrum, then bus or taxi
the 20 KM to Kovalam. |
| related: |
South
West Coast gallery |
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