Quilon or Kollam is the fantastic destination for your Kerala backwater trip. After leaving Alleppey and its surrounding villages the Cruise on the backwaters enters into a lake that has 8 arms or channels, named as Astomudi. The city, Quilon is situated in one of the arms of the lake and the lake is under the Kollam district of Southern Kerala. Quilon is a city, where you can find sea beach in one side and the gateway of the famous Kerala Backwaters on another side. Quilon is actually the Dutch name of Kollam.
How to go to Quilon?
By Boat Trip:
We visited this place in our Kerala backwaters trip. We started from Alappuzha or Alleppey by hiring a Shikara for a day trip on the backwaters. After crossing, the villages of Alleppey , the boat entered into the Astamudi lake. It was a huge lake and water level was very high that time (Monsoon). Quilon is situated on the bank of the lake.
By Road Trip:
- Many busses are available for Kollam or Quilon from the main cities, like, Trivandrum, Kochi, Kozhikode.
- Kollam is well connected with the major cities of the state and the station is Kollam Junction.
- Nearest Airports – Trivandrum (51 Km) and Kochi (129 Km)
How to explore?
Astamudi Lake:
The main attraction of Quilon is the Astamudi lake and the the backwaters. The journey from Quilon to Alleppey and Vice-versa is the most amazing backwater trip in Kerala. The backwaters and the life on the backwaters, houseboats and other water transports, islands, birds, all are the subject of enjoying backwaters. Above all, the awesome scenic beauty of backwater landscape in the combination of Blue sky, Lush green vegetation with Coconut trees and water body is unforgettable experience in life.
The boat cruise from this place to Munroe Islands is a wonderful experience. The popular cruises one can avail at this place are Kayal Pradakshina Cruise and Sayanthanam Sunset Cruise.
Paddy fields:
You can also find scenic wetlands in Quilon. This place is also famous for Rice. The Kollam rice is very popular in all over South India. You ‘ll find beautiful , lush green paddy field in Kollam.
Sea beach:
Another part of the city is blessed with an amazing sea beach. There is a lighthouse of 144 Ft height on the sea beach of Quilon. This is the second height and most visited lighthouse of Kerala.
In our backwater trip, we came Kollam for lunch and we had a great lunch with the traditional Malayali-Thali. The time we spend to visit Kollam was a great time for us. If you want to visit Quilon, you can make a backwater trip from Alleppey to visit this place. Otherwise you can stay at Quilon and arrange the cruise trip in the surrounding Islands.
This post is written in response to the Letter Q for the #AtoZchallenge of 2018 organized by Blogging from A to Z Challenge(2018) and #BlogchatterA2Z challenge organized by The Blogchatter
My theme for this Challenge is The OFFBEAT DESTINATIONS OF INDIA.
P.P.S: Please don’t forget to share your blog URL while commenting on this post from the social media site. It’s difficult to find your blog from the social media.
Had visited kollam when we had been on a holiday to Ashthamudi! A nice place!
Hoiday to Asthamudi means, where did you stay, Radhika and how long your holoday was? plz don’t mind…just asked for curiosity.
Had gone a few years back. Stayed at the club Mahindra resort.
OK. I saw the resort. Hope You had a nice stay in that resort.
Yes, we did!!
The calm waterways of Ashtamudi Lake, fringed with coconut palms, cashew plantations and traditional villages – I feel Quilon is aa great place to get a feel for the backwaters without the crowds.
Yes, it’s a better option than Alleppey, to feel the backwaters. Actually the commercialism about the cruise trip is increasing day by day.So, many people chose Kollam instead of Alleppey. Thank you.
wow its on my list now, nice pics
Thank you so much Pragun.
Club Mahindra at Ashtmudi was were I had seen this beautiful and serene place. Thanks for refreshing the memories
So nice. Thanks, Ruchi for sharing your memory about Asthamudi.
Delightful description of Gods’ Own Country accompanied by some very vivid and beautiful pictures! You are doing amazing at travelogue writing Sayanti… I thoroughly enjoyed your post and as I have been to Kollam a few times, I could relate to it vividly. Kudos for putting up an attractive post on Kerala !
Thank you so much, Sayan. Glad you liked it.
I am planning to visit Kerala later half of this year and I still don’t know much about the places to visit and don’t have an itinerary as such. I am marking this to not miss this for surely. It’s picturesque. You have captured the pictures beautifully.