Tourist destinations Near Kovalam

Image Credits : Keyan20, Creative Commons Attribution Licence

Kovalam is famous for its beaches, among the most pristine in India. Kovalam is extremely popular among westerners due to shallow waters and low tidal waves. It is also one of the oldest tourist enclave in India, which known among tourist circuit right in 1930s. Kovalam shot into limelight in the early seventies with arrivals of the masses of hippies. That started the transformation of a casual fishing village of Kerala into one of the most important tourist destinations in all India- the Kovalam beach.

Kovalam has three crescent shaped beaches separated by rocky outcroppings. The larger of the beaches is called Lighthouse Beach known for its 35 metre high lighthouse which towers over it atop Kurumkal hillock. Most of the foreigner’s stay on Lighthouse Beach, which is more developed. It takes less than five minutes to walk from Lighthouse Beach to the second largest beach, Hawah Beach. This beach is named thus for the topless European women who used to throng there. It was the first topless beach in India. However topless bathing is banned now. The northern part of the beach is known as Samudra Beach. A large promontory separates this part from the southern side.

Although India has 4,700 miles of coastline, the country’s fledgling surf culture is only now finding its legs. Kovalam Surf Club, India’s first organized surfing group headquartered in the coastal region of Kerala, was founded in 2005 by an NGO as a way to entice poor children to stay in school. The club’s success, along with the construction of an artificial reef 150 meters off of Lighthouse Beach, has made this city India’s surf central.

Town:: Thiruvananthapuram bus stand at a distance of 12 kms
Airport:: Thiruvananthapuram International Airport at a distance of 14 kms
Railway Station:: Thiruvananthapuram railway station at a distance of 13 kms
District:: Thiruvananthapuram
Longitude:: 8.385508
Latitude:: 76.978522