Ambalapuzha temple and Krishnapuram Palace
Alleppey · 7 hrs · Cab included · Pickup from your stay
From ₹3500 for the whole vehicle, up to 6 people. The price is per car, not per person.
Vehicles
- Swift Dzire: Sedan. Best for a couple or a small family. ₹3500 for the vehicle.
- Innova or Ertiga: The roomier one for a family day. ₹4500 for the vehicle.
The land day, for when you have done the water
Alleppey is sold entirely as water, which leaves two of the best things in the district almost empty on a weekday. Ambalapuzha's Krishna temple, fourteen kilometres south, is one of the oldest and most loved in Kerala and hands out a milk payasam with a legend attached about a chessboard and doubling grains of rice. Krishnapuram Palace, forty-odd kilometres further on near Kayamkulam, holds the Gajendra Moksha mural, one of the largest in the state, on a wall you can stand a metre from.
They are on the same road south and nothing else is. Public transport between them is a slow series of changes, and the palace shuts on Mondays and on public holidays, which is how a lot of people make this trip and see one thing.
This is the run done properly: the temple in the morning when the payasam is fresh and the tank is quiet, the coastal road through Punnapra and Haripad, the palace with enough time to actually look at the mural, and lunch on a leaf on the way back. The vehicle is booked for your group, so it is one price whether there are two of you or six. Entry tickets at the palace are the department's own and you pay them at the counter.
Why this needs a car
Sixty kilometres and two closing times
The temple's darshan hours and the palace's opening days do not naturally line up with the bus timetable. A day car makes the sequence trivial instead of the whole problem.
The road is half of it
The stretch south through Punnapra and Haripad is backwater on one side and coast on the other, with fishing villages the whole way. It is the drive people remember from Alleppey and nobody plans it.
Someone who knows the temple's rules
Ambalapuzha has a dress code and restrictions on who may enter the inner temple. Being told that before you arrive rather than at the gate is a small kindness that changes the morning.
Where you'll go
1. Ambalapuzha Sree Krishna Temple
Fourteen kilometres south of town, a classic Kerala temple with a tiled roof and a huge tank. Its palpayasam, milk payasam served as prasadam, comes with the chess-and-rice-grains legend attached, and it is genuinely as good as claimed.
Payasam and any offerings, at the temple counter
2. The Ottamthullal connection
This is where Kunchan Nambiar first performed Ottamthullal, the solo satirical dance he invented after being ridiculed for dozing during a mizhavu recital. It is still performed here.
3. The coastal road to Kayamkulam
South through Punnapra and Haripad, with backwater on one side and the sea somewhere off the other. Fishing villages, churches, and toddy shops with hand-painted signs.
4. Krishnapuram Palace
An eighteenth century palace in Kerala style, gabled, tiled and low, built around courtyards with a bathing pond. Rebuilt by Marthanda Varma of Travancore and now run by the state archaeology department.
Palace entry and camera ticket, at the counter
5. The Gajendra Moksha mural
One of the largest single murals in Kerala, covering a wall of the palace: Vishnu descending to rescue the elephant Gajendra from the crocodile. Painted in vegetable pigment, and worth standing in front of for longer than you expect.
6. Lunch on the way back
A Kerala meal on a leaf at a place your driver would eat at, somewhere between Kayamkulam and Alleppey. The choosing is ours, the bill is yours.
Your meal, paid at the restaurant
How you get there
About 110 km, south and back, all flat
Fourteen kilometres to Ambalapuzha, about fifty more to Krishnapuram, and the same back along the coast. It is easy driving on flat coastal road, and the value is in the vehicle waiting at each stop for as long as you want to be there.
- Pickup: Your stay in Alleppey, or Alappuzha railway station
- Vehicle: Swift Dzire up to 4 or Innova or Ertiga up to 6, with driver
- Drive: About 110 km round trip on flat coastal road
- Walking: Temple courtyards barefoot, and flat palace grounds
- Drop: Back at your stay by about 4:00 pm
The day
9:00 am: Pickup
South out of town on the coastal road.
9:30 am: Ambalapuzha
The temple, the tank and the payasam, with the morning still quiet. About an hour.
11:00 am: The road to Kayamkulam
Through Punnapra and Haripad, with stops where they are worth it.
12:00 pm: Krishnapuram Palace
The building, the pond and the Gajendra Moksha mural. About 90 minutes.
1:45 pm: Lunch
A Kerala meal on a leaf on the road back, billed to you.
4:00 pm: Drop
Back at your stay.
In your price
- Private vehicle with driver for the full day
- Pickup and drop at your stay or the station
- Waiting time at every stop
- Parking and toll charges
- GoExplorer support number for the day
Not included
- Palace entry and camera tickets
- Lunch
- Offerings at the temple
- Anything personal
What you pay on the day
- Krishnapuram Palace entry and camera ticket, at the counter
- Payasam and any offerings at Ambalapuzha
- Lunch on the way back
- Personal expenses
Who this suits
All ages. Both sites are flat and the walking is gentle, though temple courtyards are walked barefoot and the stone gets hot by noon. Ambalapuzha follows a traditional dress code and restricts entry to the inner temple, which we will explain plainly before you go. The car seats four or six depending on which you pick, at one price either way.
What to bring
Clothing that covers shoulders and knees for the temple, shoes that come off easily, sun protection, and cash for tickets and lunch.
An all-weather day
Both stops are largely under roof, so rain barely touches this one. If the palace is closed on your date for a holiday, we tell you before you travel and you can move the date or take a full refund.
Cancellation
- More than 24 hrs before: Full refund
- Within 24 hrs: 50% refund, or reschedule free once
- No show: No refund
Safety and the operator
Ambalapuzha is a working temple with its own rules on dress and on who may enter the inner shrine, and we ask you to follow them exactly. Photography is restricted inside the temple and the palace charges separately for a camera. Your driver stays with the vehicle at both stops.
Questions
Is the price per person?
No. It is the vehicle for the day, ₹3,500 for a Dzire or ₹4,500 for an Ertiga, however many of you ride in it.
Can everyone enter the temple?
The outer courtyards are open to all. The inner temple at Ambalapuzha follows the traditional rule on entry and a dress code for those who go in. We will tell you exactly what applies to your group before the day, not at the gate.
Is the palace open every day?
No. It closes on Mondays and on some public holidays. We do not run this day on a date the palace is shut without telling you first.
Can we add the beach to this?
Not comfortably in the same day, and it would mean rushing the mural. The beach and lighthouse is its own afternoon and the two fit neatly across a weekend.