After Kovalam and many trips to Kochi, the toss up was between going to the north (of Kerala) or discovering a bit more of the south. We chose the latter and specifically Varkala for now, but need to get moving in the other direction soon! “Keral Pradesh ke Varkal mein vacay” was how my Insta reel went. But yes, playing tourists in our homeland is now an annual practice.
Stay
There are options from 4 star to homestays and Airbnbs, and we finally went with Nidra by Sarwaa, and this is what we got!
See/Do
To begin with, go down these winding steps from Cafe Sarwaa… (good cardio when you climb back!)
…and you get
This is the South Cliff beach. Secluded, and mostly foreigners.
You could also walk around to see other kinds of water bodies, and budding fishermen!
The central portion – what is generally called Varkala Beach (Papanasham) is an obvious spot. We walked along the beach till we got here. Just about 10-15 mins.
The sunset is pretty!
The cliff above the beach gets all lit up after sunset, and has a bunch of eateries. And shopping options, in case you’re in the mood for that. If you want to get here directly, ask to be dropped at the Helipad.
You could also take a long walk (or auto) to Odayam Beach, which in the morning was quite secluded.
…and then slowly walk across to the Black Sand beach
From there, you can walk up to the cliff (10-15 mins)
This is one end of the path that will take you to the Helipad, and a little ahead, the Varkala Beach.
Eat
I have to admit, we really didn’t find a lot of good options. There is Sarwaa of course, where we had breakfast. The place is pretty and the breakfast is decent.
The lunch was average, it is unpardonable when someone messes up the beef in Kerala! The foreigners were lapping up smoothie bowls though.
The absence of alcohol meant that I was forced to drink these kind of things. Oh!
The only good news was that they don’t make it syrupy sweet.
There’s ABBA Restaurant & Everest German Bakery, which looked great on paper, but which had the snooty, white-skin loving staff that I get immensely pissed off by.
One good lunch happened in the form of cafe trip is life, which has a fantastic ambiance.
…and brilliant lunch options
Our original plan for dinner was a place named Green Pepper, but it looked vastly different from what is on Google. We got lazy and went back to cafe trip is life.
The ambiance was even better at night.
The food, only so so.
We heard a lot of good things about this tiny place, but it’s open only for breakfast.
Our trip was over an extended weekend, but you could plan a couple of days more if you’re interested in exploring nearby areas. If you want your own space, South Cliff. If you want a crowd, North. Just make sure you do a bunch of research if food is an important part of your travel.
Overall, Varkala, while being touristy, has reserved some spaces for itself which are secluded, giving us ways to discover the place and the self.