India · State of Kerala
Where to Stay in Alappuzha, State of Kerala
Alappuzha is a city of Kerala in southern India, the heart of the backwaters, a town of canals and houseboats known as the Venice of the East.
Find your area →
Where to stay in Alappuzha
The right area depends on your trip — here's what each neighbourhood is best for.
Where you stay in Alappuzha turns on the town or the water. The streets around the canals keep the market, the churches, and the old pier within a walk, and staying in town suits anyone here for the backwaters. The canals run through the streets.
Houseboats moor by the banks. Out on the lagoons and the lake, the town gives way to the palm-fringed backwaters, the paddy villages, and the wide Vembanad lake. A room on the water trades the streets for a drifting houseboat, the still lagoons, and the green paddies of Kuttanad.
The backwaters run east for miles. Stay in town for the canals, or aboard for the lagoons. The lagoons begin at the town's edge.
About Alappuzha
Alappuzha is the backwater city of Kerala.
What is Alappuzha known for?
On the lagoons and canals of the Kerala coast in southern India, it grew as a port and coir town among the waterways, and it keeps the maze of palm-fringed backwaters and their houseboats, the coir works that spin coconut fibre, the great snake-boat race on the lake, and the long beach and old pier on the sea. The still canals thread the town. Palms lean over the water.
What are the main landmarks in Alappuzha?
The backwaters are the pride of Alappuzha. The web of palm-fringed lagoons and canals around the town, where houseboats drift among the paddies and villages, spreads inland to Vembanad lake, the emblem of the region, out of downtown. A great boat race fills the lake.
The long snake boats of the Nehru Trophy sweep down Punnamada each autumn, while the coir works, the town canals, and the sandy beach mark the country around Alappuzha.
What is the history of Alappuzha?
Alappuzha grew as a port of the backwaters. Two centuries ago a ruler cut canals through the marshes and built a port on the coast, and the town grew where the lagoons open to the sea, a hub of the spice and coir trade. Canals ran through the town.
The waterways carried the goods of Kerala, and Alappuzha became a busy trading port, its old pier reaching out into the Arabian Sea. The waterways made the town famous. Long the coir capital of the coast, Alappuzha spun coconut fibre into rope and mat and shipped it to the world, while its lakes filled each autumn with the great snake boats of the harvest race.
The boats became a draw for travelers. In our own age the old rice barges of the backwaters were rebuilt as houseboats, and travelers came to drift through the palm-lined canals, so Alappuzha grew into the tourist heart of the backwaters, keeping its canals, its coir, and its boats. The houseboats still glide through the lagoons.
Alappuzha keeps its backwaters on the Kerala coast.
Where is Alappuzha?
Alappuzha lies in the center of the Kerala coast, on the lagoons between the Arabian Sea and the great Vembanad lake. The city sits on a flat, watery land of canals, paddies, and palm-fringed islands, much of it below the level of the sea, with the backwaters spreading east to Kuttanad and the ocean beach to the west. The canals run slow and green.
Palms crowd the low shores.
What is the climate of Alappuzha?
Alappuzha sits deep in the tropics, hot and rain-heavy the year round. Warm humid weather holds all year on the coast, with two heavy monsoons off the Arabian Sea and warm damp air the year round. When the monsoon breaks, the fields around Alappuzha go under water.
Warm rain feeds the backwaters.
How do you get to Alappuzha?
Alappuzha lies on the coast of Kerala, on the road and rail between Kochi and Kollam. Trains and the highway run to it down the coast from Kochi, and boats and ferries cross the backwaters and the lake. Ferries ply the canals.
Kochi lies north up the coast.
Good for
More cities in State of Kerala
Updated August 2026