An experience at Poovar Island, Kerala
Here are some of my everlasting memories at Poovar resort. Check out this travel blog before you choose your destination in Gods Own Country.
Gods own country - Kerala with its ever green landscape & tranquilizing beauty has always been premier destination for all the nature lovers and travel junket alike. As for me, Kerala has got a very special place in my heart, as my roots lie here.
In Kerala, you are spoilt for choices in terms of deciding a destination for your vacation, but when you have a child travelling with you, your alternatives curtail down, based on their interest & needs. After a lot of research, we finally decided on 'Poovar Island Resort'. My 7 year old as of now, is an avid nature lover and hopefully she won't change in this aspect with time & age. So, when we revealed the location & things of her interest there, she jumped with excitement!
'Poovar Island Resort – Out of this world' this is how they advertise themselves. It is really an 'out of the world' experience for every traveler who reaches this spot. Far off from the mainland, in the serene backwaters of Kerala, surrounded by the river, sea, lake & an estuary, it's a charming destination to relax your mind and body. As we were travelling in the motor boat to the island, I was just enjoying & capturing as many pictures as possible in my mind & through my camera, in order to reflect upon them later.
We got down at Trivandrum airport and it was a 45 mins drive through the beautiful towns and landscape to the Jetty, where they receive the visitors to this resort. As we were enjoying the pleasant drive, we never imagined that a much fascinating journey awaits us.
From here you are taken by a motor boat to the Poovar island resort. It's a 15 min boat ride through the bewitching Neyyar river. It's a very beautiful experience, both the sides of the river covered with hundreds of coconut trees, pale blue water, the lovely sky above & there's nothing else as far as you can see. It feels like a scene plucked out of your dream.
As we were cruising past, afar we saw some houses floating in water, gushing waves from the sea as if they are about to touch the sky and little piece of land between the sea and the river!
This was an extraordinary experience waiting to be unraveled. By now, we were almost reaching the Poovar Island resort.
Once you reach the destination, you alight at 'one of its kinds' floating jetty. After the dreamy boat ride & the picturesque view we were are already in seventh heaven, however what was in store for us after we got down was beyond our imagination.
On our right was the mesmerizing resort with its fresh, green and natural surroundings and on our left was Neyyar river floating by, backwaters with many motor boats ferrying tourist ,a beach, an estuary, lots of birds flying in varied formation and the gigantic Arabian sea….. The beauty of this place is breathtaking.
Twittering birds, a cuckoo singing away to glory, rustling coconut leaves and the whistling wind, smell of fresh flowers, squirrels jumping here & there, welcomed us to this peaceful & exotic location. We could see that the entire place was built in very typical Kerala architectural style.
The hospitality at the reception was impeccable; we just got carried away at the reception itself.
At this resort, they have 86 cottages offering different kind of accommodation like land cottages, floating cottages, premium deluxe cottages and ayurveda village cottages.
Yes! They have an ayurveda village too, where people come from different parts of the world for various kinds of ayurvedic treatments and rejuvenation.Floating cottages at oovar Island resort
We opted for the floating cottages. These cottages are afloat on the backwaters, literally floating (of course, it is fastened to the ground) and you feel as if you are rowing with the boats passing by. From these cottages you get a spectacular view of the beach and the ocean…..the waves throwing up water with every tide coming up.
(You need to sign an undertaking for kids below 10 years, if you opt for floating cottages)
Sitting in the balcony, it is a pleasure watching different varieties of birds flying past from dawn to dusk, suddenly you see a snakebird taking a plunge into the water and flying away with its fresh catch or a seagull hovering high up in the sky!
Watching the starlight night or the moon playing between the clouds or a sudden electric streak of thunder falling down in the sea, took me back to those childhood memories when I used to star gaze hours together with my friend, wondering how beautiful the creator's creation was !
The resort arranges for a boat ride through the Neyyar river into the canals of Poovar, with very thick and lush green mangroves, varied kinds of shrubs and other trees. Some places were like dark caves which were made out of interlocking braches .The scene looked like an African safari in the Nile river. It was sometime scary indeed!
We sighted many verities of birds here, some of them for the first time like Krishna Parunthu aka Brahminy Kite, Sea Egret, Indian Cormorant eagle and many more. It's absolutely untouched and unpolluted by people around the village.
A boat ride from the resort takes you to the golden sand beach. Due to many visitors coming here from the fishermen village & lots of fishing activities by them, it's not clean always, though it's worth a stroll.Other amenities & activities in the resort:
Food was good; a good balance of north Indian and south Indian cuisine was available in the buffet. You can order al-carte too.
Apart from the main restaurant, they have a floating restaurant here and an ayurvedic restaurant too. Ayurvedic restaurant is especially for guests who visit for the treatments of the ayurveda centre. It serves vegetarian food.Shopping
How to reach Poovar Island Resort
By Air:
Trivandrum airport is 30 km from Poovar island resort. There are flights from all major cities to Trivandrum. The resorts arranges for pick up and drop to the airport.
By train:
Trivandrum railway station is 29 km away from Poovar. If travelling by train, one can get down here & take a cab or an auto.
Poovar can be visited during any month of the year. People who love exploring places during monsoon, this would be an ideal spot. The entire landscape would look like freshly painted house. Summers are a little humid but on the other hand with the cool breeze from the sea and river continuously flowing in, the effect of summer wouldn't be felt much.
However the best season would be winter, wherein the weather would be very pleasant.
With bag full of pleasant memories, a relaxed mind and renewed energy we left this place……. Hoping to be back again to explore the unexplored!
With lots of memories, I leave my foot prints on the golden sand beach of Poovar……..
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Floating cottages!!! sounds interesting. Will have to put in my list of places to travel 'post covid'. :-)