Experience the best of Trivandrum

Trivandrum, or Thiruvananthapuram, is the capital of Kerala and sits on a series of low hills near the southern tip of mainland India. At its heart stands the Padmanabhaswamy Temple, a Vishnu temple in the Dravidian style with a tall gopuram, and the old fort quarter around it was once the seat of the Travancore kings. The Napier Museum is a red-and-white building in the Indo-Saracenic style, set in a park with a zoo.

Kuthiramalika Palace, with its carved wooden horses, recalls the Travancore royal family. Kovalam, with its crescent beaches and a lighthouse, lies south of the city, and Varkala, with high laterite cliffs above the sea, lies to the north. Neyyar Dam and the Ponmudi hills lie inland to the east, and Kanyakumari, the southern tip of the mainland, is farther south.

A sadya, a feast of rice and many vegetable dishes served on a banana leaf, is the festive meal, while puttu with kadala curry is a common breakfast and fish curry is soured with kudampuli, a local tamarind. Banana chips are fried in coconut oil. The cooler months run from November to February, and the monsoon brings heavy rain from June.