If Kerala has a heart, it is the backwaters. A vast, calm network of canals, rivers, and lakes near the coast, where the land sits so low that life happens on and beside the water. Children paddle to school. Women wash pots at the water’s edge. Fishermen drift out at dawn. Nothing here rewards hurry.
And yet most visitors experience the backwaters at exactly the wrong speed. They book one night on a big houseboat, motor around a busy stretch, take some photos, and leave. It is pleasant, but it barely touches the place. This guide is about doing it the other way, slowly, and it is the parent guide that the individual place guides will grow from. Start, if you like, with what slow travel really means.
What the backwaters actually are
The backwaters are a chain of brackish lagoons and lakes, fed by rivers and linked by hundreds of kilometres of natural and man-made canals, running roughly parallel to the Arabian Sea coast. At their centre is Vembanad, the long lake that touches Alappuzha, Kottayam, and Kumarakom. Around it lie rice fields that sit below sea level, kept dry by low bunds, an extraordinary piece of everyday engineering.
This is a living, working landscape, not a theme park. That is exactly why the slow approach suits it. When you match your pace to the water’s, you stop being a sightseer and start being a guest.
The four ways to see the backwaters
There are really four ways to get onto the water, and they are very different. Most guides push the first. I would push the last three.
1. The private houseboat (the famous one)
The big kettuvallam houseboats, converted from old rice barges, are what sell the backwaters on posters. You get a private boat with a bedroom, a deck, and a crew who cook for you, usually for an overnight cruise.
The truth: it is comfortable and can be lovely, but it is the most expensive thing most visitors do in Kerala, often more than a nice hotel room per night. The popular stretches near Alleppey can get crowded with other houseboats. And the bigger diesel boats are not kind to the water. If you do one, do it once, choose a smaller operator, and treat it as a splurge, not the whole experience.
2. The shikara (the small boat)
A shikara is a small motorised or paddled boat you hire by the hour, usually for two to six people. This is my favourite way for most travellers. For a fraction of a houseboat’s cost, a shikara takes you into the narrow canals that the big boats cannot enter, where the real village life is: the little bridges, the toddy shops, the ducks, the front yards. Two or three hours at dawn or in the late afternoon is magic. You can arrange one at almost any jetty or through your homestay.
3. The public ferry (the local’s way)
This is the slow traveller’s secret. State Water Transport ferries run scheduled routes across the backwaters as everyday public transport, for a handful of rupees. The famous one is the Alleppey to Kottayam ferry, about two and a half hours across Vembanad and through the canals (checked June 2026). You ride with locals, glide past villages, and see far more real life than a private cruise. There is more on using ferries in getting around Kerala without a driver.
4. Staying on the water (the deepest way)
The slowest and, to me, richest option is not a boat at all. It is to stay in a backwater village or on an island, in a homestay, for several nights. You wake to the water, take a canoe out before breakfast, eat what the family grows and catches, and let whole days drift. Munroe Island (below) is the classic choice for this.
| Way onto the water | Rough cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Private houseboat | High (a splurge) | One memorable overnight, if budget allows |
| Shikara by the hour | Low to moderate | Getting into the narrow, real canals |
| Public ferry | A few rupees | Seeing local life; slow travel at its best |
| Staying on an island | Cost of a homestay | The deepest, slowest experience |
From the field
The first time I took visitors on the public ferry instead of booking a houseboat, they were nervous; it felt too simple, too cheap. Two hours later they were quiet in the good way, watching a boy paddle a cow across a canal, a woman hanging washing on a jetty, the light going gold on the water. They told me it was the best thing they did in Kerala. It cost less than a coffee back home.
Where to base yourself: three places compared
The backwaters are big, and where you stay shapes the whole experience. Here are the three main bases, honestly compared.
Alleppey (Alappuzha): busy, central, full of life
Alleppey is the backwater capital and the easiest place to arrive, with a train station on the main line. It has the most services, the most houseboats, and the most life. The trade-off is that the popular stretches are busy and touristy. But it is a great base if you want convenience: stay a little out of the centre, use shikaras and the public ferry to escape the crowds, and enjoy the town’s beach and canals. It is also home to the big snake boat races around Onam.
Kumarakom: quiet, green, comfortable
Across Vembanad from Alleppey, Kumarakom is calmer and greener, known for its bird sanctuary and its cluster of comfortable resorts and homestays. It suits travellers who want peace and a touch more comfort, and it is lovely for slow mornings and birdwatching. It is a little less connected than Alleppey, so you lean more on road or boat to get in and out.
Munroe Island: the slowest, most local
Munroe Island (Mundrothuruthu) is a cluster of small islands where canals lace between homes, further south near Kollam. There are few big hotels; you stay in homestays, take canoe rides through impossibly narrow channels, and watch coir rope being made by hand. It is the quietest, most local, and slowest of the three, and my top pick for anyone who truly wants to stay on the water. A gentle note: the island faces real challenges from sinking land and changing tides, so tread especially lightly here.
How to book a houseboat directly, without an agent
If you do decide on a houseboat night, you can absolutely arrange it yourself and skip the agent’s markup. Here is how I would do it:
1. Go to the source. Book through your homestay or a local operator in Alleppey or Kumarakom rather than a distant online agent. Your host often knows the small, good boat owners personally. 2. Choose small. Ask for a smaller boat, one or two bedrooms, ideally a more traditional or lower-impact one. Smaller boats reach quieter water and tread more lightly. 3. See it first if you can. If you are already in town, walk the jetties and look at a few boats before you commit. 4. Agree everything up front. Confirm the route, the meals, the start and end times, and the total price in writing or by message before you pay. 5. Ask about the quiet routes. Tell the operator you want to avoid the houseboat traffic jams and see real village canals. Many will happily plan a calmer route.
Booking direct is cheaper, keeps more money local, and often gets you a better boat than a package would.
A slow backwater day
Here is what an unhurried backwater day can look like, to show you the pace:
- Dawn. A canoe or shikara out before breakfast, when the mist is on the water and the birds are loud.
- Late morning. Breakfast at the homestay, then nothing much. Watch the canal. Read. Talk to your host.
- Midday. A simple lunch, often fish and rice and coconut, then the heat of the day spent in the shade.
- Afternoon. The public ferry to a nearby town and back, just for the ride, or a walk along the bunds between the rice fields.
- Evening. Sunset from a jetty, dinner with the family, and the sound of the water at night.
Do that for three or four days and the backwaters stop being a sight you saw and become a place you knew. Pair it with time in the hills for cool green contrast, and eat your way through it with eating in Kerala.
The water has been moving at this speed for centuries. The kindest, richest thing you can do is move at its speed too.
Treading lightly on the backwaters
The backwaters are as fragile as they are beautiful. They are a living system that feeds fish, waters rice fields, and supports whole communities, and careless tourism can hurt them fast. As a slow traveller you can be part of the solution rather than the problem:
- Choose smaller, cleaner boats. A shikara or a public ferry treads far more lightly than a big diesel houseboat. If you take a houseboat, pick a small or lower-impact one.
- Keep plastic out of the water. Carry a refillable bottle, refuse single-use plastic where you can, and never let anything go over the side.
- Respect that this is home. People live, wash, fish, and worship on these banks. Photograph people only with a smile and their consent, and keep noise down, especially early and late.
- Spend locally. Homestays, village shops, and family-run boats keep your money in the community that looks after the water.
Tread lightly, and you leave the backwaters as lovely as you found them, which is the whole point.
What to pack for backwater days
The backwaters are hot, humid, sunny, and buggy, so a few small things make the slow days comfortable:
- Sun protection. A hat, sunscreen, and light long sleeves; the sun off the water is fierce, especially on open ferries and boats.
- Insect repellent. Mornings and evenings by the water bring mosquitoes; repellent and a long layer help, and many homestays provide nets.
- Light, modest, quick-drying clothes. You are in villages, not a resort bubble, so cover shoulders and knees, and pick fabrics that shrug off the humidity.
- Small cash. Ferries, tea shops, and village stalls are cash-first, and small notes are gold.
How the backwaters connect to the rest of your trip
The backwaters sit conveniently in the middle of the state, which makes them easy to slot into a slow route. Alleppey is on the main railway line, about an hour and a half south of Kochi, so you can arrive by train after a few days on the coast and then continue south or swing east and up into the hills afterwards. This coast, then water, then hills sequence is the classic slow triangle described in how to plan a slow Kerala trip yourself, and the backwaters are its restful heart. Getting between it all without a driver is covered in getting around Kerala without a driver.