Our 4 day tour of Kerala was pretty good. The tour is very prepackaged with the driver taking you to the sites he thinks you’ll want to see (the same ones everyone else is sent to see) so it doesn’t suit individuals looking to get off the beaten track. For example, we stopped at the same waterfalls as everyone else, went to the same tea museum and national park as everyone else and were scheduled to go to the same dam as everyone else (we opted out). There is no asking you what you want to do or getting to know your preferences; you are treated as just another uneducated tourist to fleece. Our driver was courteous but initially used his phone a lot while driving (videos, talking and texting) but stopped after I asked him to.
Our private Alleppey houseboat was clean and beautiful but the cruising part itself was disappointing. We were only underway for a total of 3 hours out of our 20+ hours on board, meaning we were docked for 15 hours, tied up to shore. You get dropped off at the boat, cruise for 30 minutes to a small shop downriver, get the hard sell on some prawns (2000 rupees a kilo), cruise for 30 more minutes, tie up at shore, eat lunch (very tasty), crew naps, after 1.5 hours stopped, you start to cruise onto the main body of the lake, cruise for 2 hours in what is ultimately a loop and return to the exact place you boarded the boat. You tie up and sit there until 9 am the next morning, despite our itinerary clearly saying we were to cruise from 8-9 am. The boat is cool but, again, you feel like you’re getting cheated out of the 5 hours of cruising you are promised. Also, when you see 50 other boats right next to you doing the exact same thing, it takes away from the experience. Being docked on shore for the vast majority of the trip, you wonder what’s the point of getting a houseboat? Hotels in the area are much cheaper and with a day cruise, you would get to see the same things we saw.
The company rep did not often respond to my messages during the trip, instead choosing to ignore rather than help solve issues. Overall, Travel unbounded isn’t bad but they aren’t great either; you leave with a lackluster vacation experience.
Mcgregornick booked a trip to Kerala for 4 days in a group of 3 adults on TravelTriangle website from Travel Unbounded and submitted a review on Nov 06, 2024