Kerala

Kerala, on India’s south-western coast, is best known for its backwaters, a network of lagoons and canals best explored aboard a converted rice barge, or houseboat, drifting past palm-fringed villages at an unhurried pace. Tea plantations climb the hills around Munnar further inland, while the coastline offers a quieter, greener alternative to Goa’s beaches. Kerala’s Ayurvedic tradition runs deep here too, and a few days of treatments are a genuine part of the experience for many visitors, not an add-on.