Alleppey - Venice of the East

 alleppey backwaters Located in Kerala, in God’s own country lies Alleppey, a quaint town in the Alappuzha district. The pristine backwaters flanked by palm trees have earned it the name “Venice of the East”.

It provides you with a true insight into the backwaters of Kerala with a glimpse into the life of the country folk.

Alleppey derives its support from the large network of canals.

Considered to be the oldest planned town in this region, Alleppey is one of the most important tourist centers in the state. The sun-kissed beaches, the timeless coves, the bustling shores and canals will bowl you over and leave you wanting more.

backwaters

beach

backwaters at night

It the past, it was one of the busiest centers of trade with one of the best known ports along the Malabar coast. Even today, it is famous as the centre for Coir carpet industries and prawn farming.

 alleppey backwaters 2

An event not worth missing is the fabulous snake-boat races which are held on the second Saturday of august every year.  Known as the Nehru Trophy Snake Boat Race, it is named after India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who inaugurated it in 1952.  It is a sight to behold as each snake-boat manned by over a hundred oarsmen zoom through the water, competing for the cup.

nehru boat race

The Ambalapuzha temple festival is also worth a visit. The Krishna idol is carried over quite a distance by 5 elephants. The temple is 14 kilometers away from Alappuzha and is renowned for its rose palpayasam.

temple

Complete your stay by staying on one of the many different varieties of houseboats on offer.  As they come with drivers and a cook, you can gorge on delicious fish and prawns while observing the life of the village people and relax on the lake.

houseboat

interior of houseboat

92 comments to Alleppey – Venice of the East

  • Aambrose Pereira

    Having left Kerala in mid forties, and travelled all over the world and now, living in Toronto, Canada for the last 25 years, I do not mince words when I categorically state that KERALAdoubtless is a tourist paradise. As recently as 2007, we visited Alapuzha for a couple of days boat drive, and enjoyed every moment.

  • V Raghavan

    It is amazing that such peaceful-looking backwaters lie so close to the bustling town. But will it match the beauty of Vembanad lake?

  • Sadiqtamanna

    Excellent photography.

  • poongodi ganesan

    our honeymoon place.

  • sarfraz

    nice too much i like this

  • Arun Tolani

    What is a good time of the year to visit alleppey?
    The house boats look lovely and very comfortable I am sure, but certainly there would be parts of the year like the summer or monsoon where it might not be a good time to visit. Please advise!

  • nagesh

    BEST PLACE FOR HONEYMOON.

  • Pradip

    I regular visit you web site it’s amazing and very informative take visitors to all over countrey and world showing them amazing and breutiful part of world. Pl keep it up.

  • dhanaraj

    A good place to visit with your family. You will enjoy it.

  • shruti

    peace of mind and what a beauty to enjoy,superb

  • Francis

    One have to visit & enjoy such wonderful creation of God, being an Indian if we miss to see such awesome places, life ends incomplete.

    But, at the same time I am unlucky as I we cannot afford to visit such graceful places due to my financial reasons.

    Francis

  • vijay mehta

    nice place,,, i like kerala,, god own country,, pl visit once

  • venkata chary

    Hi, we all the friends earlier planned to visit such place, its ausome,

  • Raja

    I always like Such Beautiful places in Kerala. Really Beautiful spot to Visit.

  • Ramkrishna Hardikar

    Hi Priya
    Very lovely place.I am tempted to visit it as early as possible.

    Ramkrishna Hardikar

  • Ishita

    Alleppy is truly a paradise!
    The houseboats are fun and extremely comfortable!
    I visited Alleppy in January 2012 & the weather there was great then!

  • narasayya p.a

    After seeing the article we got the memories of our visit.myself and my wife stayed for a day in the house boat in 2011 .The beauty of the place is very good and we could roam in the house boat for a day upto dawn.
    One can experience rather than describe. …A very lovely place in the lake..

  • k p subramanian

    house boats so good, unable to believe it is Kerala – correctly termed as Venice of East. Very good photographs.

  • Olickara Shaji

    KERALA IS A WONDERFUL PLACE AND THOSE WHO LIKE TO VISIT August- December will be the good time

  • radhakrishnan

    Excelent photo
    Thanking you
    By
    Radhakrishnan
    Mettur dam

  • Rajesh

    very nice i like this pict.

  • Vijay

    Really a wonderful place. We had been there about 4 years – these photographs have cherished our memories once again – simply good photography.

    People don’t have to go abroad to see places when there are so many beautiful places in our country itself. If people wish to go abroad they should first see all the important sight seeing places in India.

    We would like to go to this place once again but really do not know when becoz it is quite expensive also.

  • kaushik mehta

    Its really nice and beautiful.South indian temples are marvellous.I planned to visit allepee.

  • Govind Pant

    Its really b,ful.

  • rajeev

    The article is very nice and photos are beautiful actually alapuzha and kerala is more beautiful than the photos posted with the article!.Photo of the temple posted was not ambalapuzha temple.Right now this is the time for festivals in Kerala. Pooram festivals in Kerala is very faimous. Most important pooram festival is THRISSUR POORAM ; one of the most colourfull and truly spectacular festivals in the entire world!. this years thrissur pooram is on 1 of may(1:5:2012). An article of Thrissur pooram requested.

  • Gopal

    Can you give the name and email id and phone number of house boat shown above its too good

  • kalpana

    many many thanks to sent me beutiful photograph

  • rajesh

    i love kerala beutiful photograph

  • jeevan

    you can no we can enjoy the god’s own country

  • PRADEEP KUMAR MOHANTY

    Please continue adding & emailing such type of places!

  • shivaprasad s patil

    Wish to visit with my beloveds & spend few days in peace

    shivaprasad s Patil

  • elastay

    Once Alleppey was the Venice of the South. I live here and find garbage and rotting waste added with the stinking smell of urine!

  • P.KUMAR

    Kerala is realy a proud of India, Fabulous.

  • Nisha

    Indeed it is the best place we had visited last year.. How can i describe in words.. The best time to visit is July to October..

  • riya

    Allepy i had visited in december last year,trust me!it was very very hot..40degrees.Back water is stinking,fully polluted.And the house boats owners are all indulged in money making nothing apart from it.Coming to the night stay in house boat,it stinks the whole night,with mosquitoes all around.And there are no other intresting places beside apart from house boat.we Wasted around 12k for this.So Kind attention to others not to waste money to visit such a stinking,horribly hot and polluted place

  • abimanyu

    NICE PHOTOGRAPHY……………………..AND NICE LOCATIONS…….

  • menon

    UNDOUBTEDLY A PARADISE

  • sudhina ansad

    oh. . ………… la……la ……………. ..this i expect

  • Victor

    My last visit was in 1975 for two weeks and enjoyed.
    Would love to visit again with my Grand Kids.Its Undobtedly
    Paradise on earth. Living in San Farncisco almost similar
    locations, for the last 25yrs,we still miss it. BEAUTIFUL

  • Sangita Roy Safai

    Really Kerala is God’s own country.This southest part of our country is proud of INDIA.Every Indian must visit this place and feel thr essence of Kerala.

  • Sangita Roy Safai

    Really Kerala is God’s own country.This southest part of our country is proud of INDIA.Every Indian must visit this place and feel the essence of Kerala and its people.

  • kaushik mehta

    Last month we were in kerala for 3 weeks, stayed in a small town Kayamkulam, if you want to really enjoy Kerala stay for 3-4 weeks in a small town, you will not believe how nice is Kerala…they say its God`s own country….its a fact. I have never seen peace like Kayamkulam and all other places.

  • rajesh

    ! kerala is the one of the best place in india…..

  • VASANTHA

    Kerala is a tourist paradise.

  • saroj jha

    soper fantastic pic.

  • Gopal

    We went this Jan, place is goog provided u get good house boat, We took from 4 bedroom RAINBOW for two nights n three days. On the first few hours we found that we wre cheated, house boat was in very bad condition, a/c not working, toilets were not in working conditin, seeing food you will not like to eat, crew were so bad , we wantend to leave the house boat, they didnot brought to shore, we contated the ower/agent but no action taken, OUR REQUEST TO OTHERS NOT TO USE RAINBOW HOUSEBOAT AND SEE THE BOAT BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE SHORE, otherwise you will be in big problm n your money will be waist

  • Hari

    Been there and enjoyed a lot.

  • RAJAMONY ANEDATHU

    THE NAME IS STILL RETAINED,,BUT ALL OF US KNOW THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE BACKWATERS IN ALAPPUZHA..NO ADEQUATE STEPS ARE BEING TAKEN BY THE AUTHORITIES TO RETAIN THE BEAUTY OF THE CANALS AND THE BACKWATERS IN ALAPPUZHA..THE WATERS ARE BEING POLLUTED DUE TO THE FREQUENT PLIGHT OF THE HOUSE BOATS AND DUMPING OF WASTE ETC IN THE BACK WATERS..IF STILL THERE IS ANY DELAY IN CHECKING THE CONTAMINATION OF THE BACK WATERS..EVEN THE NAME ” VENICE OF THE EAST” WILL BE IN OBLIVION….!!!

  • m.Devandara

    It looks great and hope some day I would love to visit.

    Thanks Pria

  • Janeshwar Tyagi

    really very beautiful places

  • prakash Khatiwala

    First thing one utters on landing in Kerala-“this is truly GOD’s own land.”

  • Sayed Nabi

    Thanks a lot for sending me this nice abd beuatiful pis i,d like it

  • umeshchandra vaidya

    Hi ,
    we had tour to kerala in Feb.2012 with Kesri Tours & Travels co.,Mumbai.
    Really , we had enjoyed a lot.Excellent places & specially Allepy back water boating was great memorable for us.
    I hope that I will stay in a boat for 5 days in future.

  • SHARADA

    Mind blowing pictures.Not only Alleppey every part of KERALA is beautiful and full of greenery.Mother Nature has lavishly gifted Kerala. NO WONDER IT IS CALLED ‘GODS OWN COUNTRY’

  • Christine

    I proudly say here that i live in Alleppey…It is the most best place on earth..The Nature Goddess has been really kind on this beautiful place…. The beautiful backwaters,the variety of traditions,awesome art forms…OMG!!!!…Its actually a paradise…Never ever would even dream to go out of this place…I LOVE MY ALAPPUZHA!!!

  • Ramkrishna Hardikar

    Hi priya,

    The photography is superb & the place is Lovely & worth visiting.

  • anita

    nice photo………..

  • SHARADA

    Mind blowing pictures. Truly kerala is a paradise on earth. NO WONDER IT IS CALLED GODS OWN COUNTRY.

  • Gomathi vinayagam

    It’s very superb………….

  • V.S.S.Nair

    The picture of Ambalapuzha Temple is wrong..it is some other temple probably in Tamilnadu.It is not ‘rose ‘Palpayasam too .It is just palpayasam !!

  • ABHILASH

    A very enchanting atmosphere and very ideal for honeymoon trips.

  • sushil

    tremendous kerala

  • Linn Htut

    Thanks for nice scenic photos, IndiaOuting.com. Thanks for info,Riya.

  • Dhansukh Vaghella

    We haver visit to your area in my life peace my retired I must visit and stay your home house boat may soon retired after 2 year if I want to visit and a contact ?? Reply soon

  • Jagdish Jariwala

    Kerala is like paradise next to Kashmir.Kerala is full of Greenery which not found in any part of India.

  • Ramkrishna Hardikar

    Very beautiful & scenic place.It is worth visiting.

  • M.S.Menon

    I would like to know which is the best season to visit this place. Thanks

  • Indus

    I have traveled in different Cities of in India and abroad. Kerala has excellent climate and beautiful places.If the beautiful places are maintained as done in U S, Kerala will the wonderful GODS OWN COUNTRY. If the people in Kerala would have been more careful about public interests in addition to his own ‘personal interests’ the beautification of Kerala would have been easily possible.Let GOD bless the people for changing their attitude.

  • sanjeev nair

    NICE PLACE ON EARTH . VISIT KERALA ONCE . MY BIRTHPLACE IS PALAKKAD

  • John Mascarenhas

    I think il have to plan my honey moon…. very beautiful…

  • keerhti

    wonderful………… fabulous place to get a peace ful mind

  • umeshchandra vaidya

    We had visited , Allepy_Kerala in Feb.2012.
    It is really blessed by God.
    The excellent & beautiful place to enjoy the vacation with family…& friends.

  • surya prakasa rao

    Very nice place to visit in winter.

  • Indus

    Nice photos. But for enjoying the beauty the places shall be neat.The people and local authorities shall be sincere in maintaining the surroundings in neat and unpolluted manner. THE GOD’S OWN COUNTRY can be maintained as in the photos only with the sincere support of human beings.Let GOD BLESS the people for generating that attitude.

  • Indus

    yes. make necessaary moderation

  • Lion Arul

    fine place to visit

  • s k banerjee

    Stinking smell,mosquito infested,too much costly,all summer,food not so tasty,drinks not upto ur liking,greenery yes,but that’s not everything,presence of communism conspicuous,think twice before going there.thanks.

  • Daniel

    Beautiful place & photography

  • kannan

    Its pleasant to stay

  • Coach Jacobs

    Though it looks beautiful, get used to the regular mosquiti bites and stinky smell of the backwaters which is brakish and stagnant water. The days are hotter and sweatier than you think. Otherwise, its a good experiance

  • manoj

    I was in Alleppey for my honeymoon this February 2013,no doubt its a really nice place.We stayed for 5 days.To me alleppey is like my home the people are friendly and no cheating here.The food is awesome and u get a lot of varieties of South Indian foods to choose from.The best place here to have food is The Indian Coffee House,but the water here is not so good so u have to consume lots of mineral water.Backwater is really nice and u can also take a ride by Govt.boats at cheaper rates.U can also visit the beach in the evening hrs.Best time is Nov – Feb.Last but not the least to me KERELA IS TRULY GOD’S OWN COUNTRY.

  • Sethuraman

    Alleppey earned this precious title long back. May be more than 120 years since. Actually it was the crown of the Arabian sea,but lost its fame during the last few years. Now it started regaining it. Within a short period it will become one of the most attractive and sought after tourist region in the world.

  • Sethuraman

    Alleppey earned this precious title long back. May be more than 120 years since. Actually it was the crown of the Arabian sea,but lost its fame during the last few years. Now it started regaining it. Within a short period it will become one of the most attractive and sought after tourist regions in the world.

  • amar

    its very beautiful placeses..i like it..i want enjoy to see

  • Shah Madhusudan Chandulal

    I saw the photos,they are nice.I was tempted to visit Kerala.But when I read the comments of some visiters complaining about pollution,mosquitos,stinking waters,bad behaviour of boat people I changed my mind. Sameway if forigners get such experience,I don’t think they will come.

  • Nesh

    I went there on Feb 2013. Its a very nice and superb experience will on the boat. But the folks need to keep the cleanliness of the canal. But in overall its worth to be there.

  • Raghavendra KN

    I feel it is not correct to call Alleppy as Venice of the East. Alleppy is far more beautiful with natural surroundings, and the water is not dirty. Where as in Venice, it is buildings on either side and the water is dirty. So the comparison to Venice is injustice to Alleppy.

  • Dr.T.V.M.Murty, Surgeon, Hyderabad

    Itis surprising that some had very bitter experience.Most of the bad experiences were due to the bad experience in the houseboats.

    Probably one should stay outside for a day,look around and engage a houseboat instead of staight away engaging one from outside without choosing one by close and proper enquiry.

  • Halim- Malaysia

    Beautiful and mesmerizing place. A must visit place. My father is from Kerala, came to Malysia in the 60’s and settled down. Myself have not been to Kerala yet but plan to go in the near future.

  • kailash jain

    one must take care about a/c in house boats. i had a bad experience ,i was told your house boat is deluxe with a/c. but they run a/c for limited time only.I had very bad time.

  • radhakrishnan

    oh what a gods gift i have visted three time i never taken a photo like this EXCELENT
    RK STUDIO
    METTUR DAM

  • R.Bhaskara Rao

    very nice one of divine gift to India

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