Village Life Experience

Sample the taste of the rural life of Kerala as local guides take you through their village and introduce you to their unique culture and lifestyle. You can catch the sight of villages buzzing with activity, so different from the daily din of the city, and artisans involved in activities like coconut palm frond weaving, screw pine making, broom making, shell mining.

You can also try your hand at angling as you help the locals catch fish. Kumarakom is one of the few places in India where the concept of Responsible Tourism was first successfully implemented. The Village Life Experience (VLE) initiative of the Local Tourism Council is aimed at introducing tourists with the daily lives of the local communities and providing an alternate source of income to the locals who participate in the programme. The initiative is a part of the award-winning Kumarakom Responsible Tourism project and makes for an unforgettable experience that one will cherish forever.

Village Life Experience

Shopping

A shopper’s delight, Kumarakom bowls you over with its vibrant and bustling bazaars that have a fine selection of handicrafts on display. Some of the best buys include antique items, attractive traditional jewellery, ethnic hand-woven textiles, bronze lamps, household utensils, old telephones, coins and readymade garments. Kumarakom is also famous for its metal-ware, coconut shell articles, bamboo and cane products, wood carvings, embroidered screw-pine mats, camel-bone carvings and a wide range of other handicrafts. Tourists can also buy fresh and aromatic spices that are a speciality of Kumarakom.

Head to the Kumarakom Market, which is a wholesale market and deals in various items of brass, coir and other handicraft items. The streets of the town are lined with stores selling hand-woven textile items, intricate handmade jewelry and brass sculptures that make for great memorabilia. Gorgeous Kerala silk sarees and classic Kathakali masks are some of the best offerings of the markets of Kumarakom and tourists can splurge on these.

Shopping

Angling

One of the best angling sites in the area is the Vembanad Lake as its shallow waters are viable to provide a good catch. Sit by the banks of the pristine lake and enjoy the meditative experience of waiting for an ambitious catch. Tourists can employ either rods or nets. Angling is a traditional village activity that needs a lot of patience and a fair knowledge of the technique. Earthworms are usually used as bait to attract fish to the hook.

Angling

Ayurveda Therapy

Spas as well as healthcare centres offering ayurvedic therapy are a part of most tourist resorts in the state of Kerala. Kumarakom is home to numerous ayurveda treatment centres that offer therapy rooms and steam bath facilities to visitors. The city also has special yoga and meditation centres that are well equipped with a talented staff of ayurvedic doctors and masseurs. Taking a medicinal massage after a tiring day of travel is highly recommended for tourists visiting Kumarakom.

The expert masseurs use specially prepared herbal oils to relieve you of physical and emotional strains. The monsoon season is probably the best time to take a rejuvenation therapy session in Kumarakom. Ayurvedic treatments are known for loosening tense muscles, cleansing the system of toxins and rejuvenating the entire body.

Ayurveda Therapy

Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary

Spread over 14 hectare, the Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary is located on the banks of Lake Vembanad in Kottayam. It is a popular destination for birdwatching as migratory birds flock here in large numbers from Siberia and the Himalayas. The best season to visit the sanctuary is between June and August as it is the breeding season of wetland birds like white ibis, herons, egrets, Indian darters and kingfishers. Some other not-to-be-missed avian breeds one can spot are wood beetles, larks, flycatchers, parrots, teals, Siberian cranes, owls, water duck and waterfowls. An intriguing way to visit the sanctuary is on a boat trip that gives a closer look of the birds flocking around the water body. For a more comprehensive experience, tourists can stay in independent cottages on stilts at the backwater resort of Kerala Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC).

Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary