Destinations · India · Reference · Last reviewed 11 September 2026

Classical India and Kerala: the classic twelve-day route

This is a reference page for one of the most commonly sold India itineraries: the Golden Triangle of Delhi, Agra and Jaipur, followed by a flight south to Kerala for tea country, the Cardamom Hills and the backwaters. Many operators run a version of it, and the shape below is the one they broadly share.

It is set out here as information rather than as an offer. Nothing on this page is bookable and no operator is recommended; what it gives you is the sequence, the distances and the driving times, so you can judge whether the itinerary suits you before comparing the versions on sale.

Plate IThe route, day by day

Folding plate · Table I

The classic Delhi to Kerala circuit, with the distances and driving times that determine how the days actually feel.

Day	Stage	Distance	What it covers
1–2	Delhi	—	Arrival and two nights. A combined tour of Old and New Delhi covers the Red Fort approach, Jama Masjid and Chandni Chowk in the morning, and the imperial city, India Gate and Humayun's Tomb in the afternoon.
3	To Agra	200 km, about 4 hours	The drive to the Mughal capital. Most itineraries leave the afternoon free rather than stacking a sight onto a travel day.
4	Agra	—	The Taj Mahal, and the more easily missed Itmad-ud-Daulah, a smaller marble tomb often called the Baby Taj and frequently the better of the two for anyone who dislikes crowds.
5	To Jaipur	237 km, about 6 hours	Fatehpur Sikri, the abandoned Mughal capital, sits en route and is the reason this leg is long.
6	Jaipur	—	Amber Fort in the morning, with a photo stop at the Hawa Mahal, the five-storey screen wall built so palace women could watch the street unseen.
7	Jaipur to Cochin	Flights, about 2.5 hours total	The transition south. Usually flown via Mumbai, and it is the hinge of the whole trip: north India and Kerala have very little in common.
8	Cochin	—	Fort Cochin on foot: the Dutch Palace, the synagogue in Jew Town, St Francis Church and the Chinese fishing nets on the waterfront.
9	To Munnar	140 km, about 4 hours	Up into the Western Ghats to the tea country. The road itself is a large part of why this leg exists.
10	To Periyar	110 km, about 3 hours	Through the Cardamom Hills, usually with a spice plantation visit.
11	To Kumarakom	130 km, about 4 hours	An early boat trip on the Periyar reservoir before moving down to the backwaters.
12	Backwaters	—	The reason most people come. A houseboat or a smaller punted boat through the canal network around Vembanad Lake.
13	To Cochin	90 km, about 3 hours	Back to the airport for the onward flight.

A Kerala houseboat with a woven palm canopy on a narrow backwater canal — Plate IIThe backwaters, which are the reason the southern half of this route exists.

Plate IIWhat the itinerary is actually like

The two halves are genuinely different trips joined by a flight, and that is the itinerary's main strength rather than a compromise. The northern week is monuments, cities and long drives on busy roads. The southern week is green, slow and largely rural. People who find the first half relentless usually find the second half restorative, and the sequence is the right way round for that reason.

The driving is the part that surprises. Two hundred kilometres taking four hours is normal rather than pessimistic, and the Jaipur leg with Fatehpur Sikri built into it is a full day in the vehicle. Anyone shortening this itinerary below twelve days is usually cutting the Kerala half, which is the wrong economy.

Kerala's own draw is the backwaters, a network of canals, lagoons and lakes inland from the coast around Vembanad Lake. The National Geographic Traveller list of places worth seeing in a lifetime is the reason the region appears in so much brochure copy; what it is actually like is quieter and less photogenic than that suggests, and better for it. Circuits that finish on the sand rather than on the water are covered separately under beach tours.

Munnar, at altitude in the Western Ghats, holds some of the highest tea gardens in the world and is noticeably cooler than the coast. Periyar is a wildlife reserve built around a reservoir, and viewing is by boat rather than by vehicle, which sets expectations accordingly: it is not an African game drive.

A hillside tea estate with a colonial bungalow and cardamom plants — Plate IIIMunnar, at altitude and noticeably cooler than the coast.

Plate IIIWhen to go

October to March, and the constraint is the monsoon rather than the heat. Kerala takes the southwest monsoon from roughly June to September, which makes the backwaters half of this itinerary unpleasant rather than merely wet.

The northern half has its own limit at the other end of the year: Delhi, Agra and Jaipur get genuinely hot from April onward, and December and January bring fog to the north Indian plain that can disrupt internal flights and early-morning sightseeing.

The practical sweet spot for the combined route is therefore narrower than for either half alone, and sits around late October to early March.

For how this destination compares with the other long-haul options reachable from Irish airports, see exotic holiday destinations. For the flying, see flying from Ireland.