Hills & Water
Munnar's tea slopes, a morning boat on the Periyar lake at Thekkady, then a private houseboat drifting out of Alleppey before sunset.
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Private journeys · Aluva, Kerala
We are a small travel house in Aluva, minutes from Cochin airport. We plan private journeys through the hills, backwaters and coast, drive them in our own vehicles, and stay reachable from your first call to the last drop.
The house
VN Travels began with one car and a simple promise: quote honestly, arrive on time, and know the road better than the guest does. That promise still runs the business. Today VN Holidays arranges complete Kerala holidays — stays, sightseeing, houseboats and transport — alongside the taxi and tempo traveller work we started with.
Nothing here is sold from a catalogue. We ask how you like to travel, how early you are willing to wake, and who is coming with you. Then we build the days around that, and adjust them while you are on the road if the weather or the mood changes.
Our storyWhat we arrange
Book the whole holiday or just the vehicle. Either way you deal with the same people, one number, and a single written quote with no line items appearing later.
Hill stations, spice country, backwaters and coast, sequenced so you are not driving all day. We book the stays we would send our own family to, hold the houseboat and sightseeing, and hand you a day-wise plan before you pay anything.
We are fifteen minutes from Cochin International Airport, so early arrivals and red-eye departures are our normal working hours. Flight numbers are tracked, and the driver waits with your name at the gate.
Sedans for couples, Innova Crysta for families, 12 and 17 seat tempo travellers for groups, weddings and pilgrimage runs. Clean vehicles, drivers who have run these ghat roads for years, and rates agreed per kilometre before you set off.
Quieter properties, later starts and a private houseboat night for couples. For families, shorter drives, rooms that actually connect, and a driver who is patient with children and grandparents alike.
Signature routes
Starting points, not packages. Every route below is lengthened, shortened or rearranged once we know your dates. Full day-wise itineraries sit on the journeys page.
Munnar's tea slopes, a morning boat on the Periyar lake at Thekkady, then a private houseboat drifting out of Alleppey before sunset.
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Two unhurried nights in the high range, a candle-lit dinner on deck, and no fixed departure time on any morning of the trip.
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The full length of the state: Fort Kochi, the high range, spice country, backwaters and finally the cliffs and coast of the south.
View itineraryWhere we go
Kerala is small and unreasonably varied. Tea at 1,600 metres before breakfast, water buffalo in a paddy field by lunch, and the Arabian Sea at sunset.
The fleet
Hill roads in Kerala are narrow, wet for half the year, and busy with everything from lorries to elephants. Our drivers have worked these routes for years, speak English, Malayalam, Hindi and Tamil between them, and know where to stop for the view rather than the commission.
Please note the kilometre reading when you get into the car. Running beyond the agreed package is charged at standard per-kilometre rates, shown on your quote.
Swift Dzire · Etios · 4 seater
Innova Crysta · Ertiga · 7 seater
Force Traveller · 12 and 17 seater
Traveller 26 · 21 to 26 seater
Why guests stay with us
Most of our work comes from guests who travelled with us once and sent their family next. That only happens if the basics are right, every single trip.
One written quote covering stays, transport, permits and tolls. What is not included is listed just as clearly as what is.
Serviced on schedule, cleaned before every trip, air-conditioning that works in Alleppey humidity.
Local, licensed, unhurried on the ghats, and briefed on your plan before you land.
Rain over Munnar, a slow morning, a child who needs a nap — the plan moves with you, not against you.
One number that a person answers, through the trip and after hours. Not a call centre queue.
Where the falls run strongest this month, which houseboat jetty avoids the crowd, when the temple opens.
In our own words
“A good trip in Kerala is mostly about timing. Leave twenty minutes earlier and the same road becomes a different morning.”
Guest voices
“Booked a five day trip for my parents and grandmother. Someone from VN called us the night before every drive to confirm the timing. Small thing, but it meant we never once had to chase anybody.”
“We changed our mind twice on the road — skipped a viewpoint, added a spice plantation. Neither change cost us an argument or an extra invoice.”
“Seventeen of us, four days, one tempo traveller and a driver who stayed cheerful through all of it. The quote we agreed in March was the amount we paid in June.”
Start here
Share how many days you have and how you like to travel. You will get a day-wise itinerary and a single all-in quote, usually the same evening.