By road
~45 km from Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum)
South India · Kerala
Varkala, Kerala
Cliff-top cafés above a long red-sand beach · ~45 km from Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum)
Getting there
By rail
Varkala Sivagiri, ~2-3 km from the beach
By air
Trivandrum International Airport, ~45-55 km
Best time to visit
November to March — dry season, best swimming
Don't miss
Varkala Cliff
Janardanaswamy Temple
Anjengo Fort and lighthouse
Things to do
Cliff-side yoga
Paragliding in season
Sunset drum circles
Where to eat
Sources: open-meteo, wikimedia, Photo: Kondephy · CC BY-SA 4.0
What to pack
Swimwear, reef-safe sunscreen, yoga mat if you practice
A quieter corner
Kappil Beach, where the backwaters meet the sea a few km north
About Varkala
- Coastal
Where it is
Varkala is a coastal town in the Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala, north of the state capital, where tall red cliffs rise straight from the Arabian Sea above a long beach.
History
Varkala grew as a pilgrimage town around the ancient Janardanaswamy Temple and Papanasam beach, where Hindus come to perform rites for their ancestors. In 1904 the social reformer Sree Narayana Guru founded the Sivagiri Mutt on a hill here, and his samadhi has made the town a centre of pilgrimage for his followers.
People
Malayalam is the language of Varkala, where fishing families still work the shore below the cliffs. At the turn of each year the Sivagiri pilgrimage draws followers of Sree Narayana Guru, many dressed in yellow, and yoga and Ayurveda centres line the clifftop.
Known for
- The red cliffs above Papanasam Beach
- The Janardanaswamy Temple
- Sivagiri Mutt and its annual pilgrimage
- Clifftop cafés, yoga and Ayurveda
Did you know?
The Varkala cliffs, a rare sight on Kerala's mostly low and sandy coast, have been declared a National Geological Monument by the Geological Survey of India.
We haven't written a guide for this place yet — you can still plan a trip here.