South India Tour Packages

South India Tour Packages: Backwaters, Temples, and Hill Country

South India moves at a different rhythm than the north. Instead of forts and deserts, you get palm-fringed backwaters, Dravidian temple towers carved over centuries, misty coffee and tea hill stations, and a coastline that runs from Kerala's houseboats to Tamil Nadu's temple towns. Driver India Private Tours has been running private, chauffeur-driven South India tours since 2013. That means a dedicated air-conditioned car, a driver who knows the back roads as well as the highways, and an itinerary built around how you actually want to travel rather than a fixed bus-tour schedule.

South India rewards slow travel. The distances between Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka are real. Kochi to Madurai is a full day's drive, not a quick hop. So our itineraries are paced to avoid back-to-back long drives, with overnight stops chosen for what's actually worth seeing nearby, not just whatever's convenient halfway.

Kerala: Backwaters, Hills, and Beaches

Known as "God's Own Country," Kerala is usually the heart of a South India itinerary, and for good reason. It packs hill country, coastline, and backwaters into a relatively compact, easy-to-drive state.

Munnar sits at over 1,600 metres in the Western Ghats, surrounded by tea estates that carpet the hillsides in tight green rows. Mornings here are cool enough for a jacket even in summer. Beyond the tea factories (several offer short tours explaining how leaf becomes the cup you drink), Munnar works well as a base for short treks, a visit to Eravikulam National Park (home to the endangered Nilgiri tahr), or simply driving the estate roads at a pace no bus tour allows.

Alleppey (Alappuzha) and the surrounding backwaters are where most travelers spend a night aboard a traditional houseboat, a converted rice barge with bedrooms, a kitchen, and a shaded deck, drifting through narrow palm-lined canals and wider lake stretches. Meals are typically cooked fresh onboard by the crew. This is the single most-requested experience in our Kerala itineraries, and you can see it featured in our Exotic Kerala Tour. We recommend at least one overnight stay rather than just a day cruise, so you actually get to see the backwaters at sunset and again at sunrise.

Periyar National Park, near Thekkady, offers wildlife safaris and boat rides on Periyar Lake, with a reasonable chance of spotting elephants, sambar deer, and occasionally tigers from a safe distance. It also sits in one of Kerala's spice-growing regions, so cardamom, pepper, and cinnamon plantations are easy to combine with a wildlife stop.

For coastal time, Kovalam and Varkala offer beaches backed by cliffs (Varkala) or palm groves (Kovalam). Both work well for a relaxed final day or two before flying out of Trivandrum.

Many of our Kerala packages also include an Ayurvedic spa session or short treatment program. Kerala is considered the home of traditional Ayurveda in India, and several resorts offer genuine, doctor-supervised treatments rather than generic spa add-ons.

Tamil Nadu: Temples and Dravidian Architecture

Tamil Nadu's temples look unlike anything in North India: towering gopurams (gateway towers) covered in thousands of carved, painted figures, built up over dynasties rather than constructed in one go.

Mahabalipuram (Mamallapuram), just south of Chennai, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site known for rock-cut shore temples and relief carvings dating to the 7th-8th century Pallava dynasty. It's an easy first or last stop around a Chennai arrival or departure.

Madurai's Meenakshi Amman Temple is the centerpiece of the state's temple circuit, a sprawling complex with 14 gopurams (the tallest over 50 metres) covered in an estimated 33,000 carved sculptures. If you can, time your visit around the evening "closing ceremony" ritual, when priests carry the temple deity in procession. Our South India Temples Tour covers this and several other major temple sites in one itinerary.

Thanjavur's Brihadeeswara Temple, another UNESCO site, was built by the Chola dynasty over a thousand years ago and remains structurally remarkable. Part of its 13-storey tower was built without any binding agent holding the stonework together.

For a change of pace, Pondicherry (Puducherry) offers a former French colonial quarter with pastel buildings, café culture, and a noticeably different architectural feel from the rest of Tamil Nadu. Ooty, a hill station in the Nilgiris, adds tea plantations and a cooler climate similar to Munnar, plus its own distinct colonial-era character, including a narrow-gauge mountain railway that's a UNESCO World Heritage Site in its own right.

Karnataka: Heritage and Coffee Country

Mysore is best known for the Mysore Palace, a former royal residence that's especially striking when illuminated in the evening (typically Sundays and public holidays), along with its bustling Devaraja Market.

Hampi, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the ruined capital of the Vijayanagara Empire: a landscape of boulder-strewn hills scattered with temple ruins, market streets, and royal structures dating to the 14th-16th centuries. It rewards a full day, ideally split between sunrise and sunset light on the ruins. Hampi also features in our South India with Goa itinerary, for travelers who want to combine the heritage trail with a beach finish.

Coorg (Kodagu), Karnataka's coffee-growing region, offers a cooler, greener counterpart to Hampi's dry ruins, with plantation stays, waterfalls, and some of the best home-style Coorgi food in South India.

Getting Around: Private Car, Driver, or Both

Every Driver India Private Tours itinerary on this page comes with a dedicated, air-conditioned car rental and an experienced private driver for the full trip, not just airport transfers. If you'd rather build a custom route instead of choosing a fixed package, our team can quote a private car and driver for just the days and cities you need.

Planning Your South India Trip

Typical itinerary lengths: Our South India packages generally run 7 to 15 days depending on how many states you combine. A Kerala-only trip (Munnar, Alleppey, Periyar, plus a beach stop) comfortably fits 6 to 8 days. Adding Tamil Nadu's temple circuit or Karnataka's heritage trail extends this to 12 to 15 days. We also build fully bespoke itineraries for travelers who want a different combination or pace.

What's typically included:

• A private, air-conditioned vehicle and driver for the full itinerary
• Airport or railway station pickup and drop-off
• Hotel booking assistance, where requested
• The houseboat stay in Kerala, where included in your chosen package

What's typically excluded:

• Accommodation, unless you ask us to arrange it
• Monument and national park entry tickets
• Meals outside the houseboat stay
• Optional activities such as Ayurvedic treatments or wildlife safari boat tickets

These items vary too much by traveler preference to bundle into a flat price, but we'll quote them clearly upfront.

Best Time to Visit South India

South India's climate is more forgiving than the north's extremes, but timing still matters. October to March is the most comfortable window across Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka, with warm days, cooler evenings, and minimal rain. April to June gets hot and humid at lower elevations, especially around Chennai and the Tamil Nadu plains, though hill stations like Munnar, Ooty, and Coorg stay pleasant year-round. The monsoon (June to September) brings heavy rain to Kerala in particular. It's a beautiful time to see the backwaters and hills at their greenest, but expect disrupted outdoor plans and humidity.

Tell us your travel dates, which states you'd like to combine, and your group size. Driver India Private Tours will turn that into a personalised itinerary and quote within 24 hours. Contact us here today.