Kerala Road Trip March 2022 Updates

I had a 4 day road trip to Kerala recently. Spent 2 days at The Woods Resort Wayanad and another two days driving towards Kannur and back to Mangalore exploring places of interest on the way. After almost a year I was heading outside of Karnataka state (except Goa on foot incident).

The 2022 Kerala road trip Experiences

1. No covid checks: Absolutely no covid checks anywhere now. Not from the Karnataka side, not from the Kerala side.  As I drove late at night, there was one check post in Sampaje, another as I entered Kerala.  Kerala check post only checked if I am carrying alcohol while Sampaje check post just noted my details and let me through.

2. NH66 is still 2 lanes. Highways are narrow in Kerala. NH 66 has been widened in Karnataka but is still 2 lanes in Kerala. Widening work is going on but it will be another year or two before they are completed and opened to the public. This means you have to factor more time to commute. 150 kms between Mangalore and Kannur takes 4 hours, whereas it takes only 3 hours to reach Murudeshwara from Mangalore (156 kms). However one advantage of this is there are no toll roads in Kerala (after entering Karnataka we need to pay 40 Rs toll for 10 kms). (Between Mangalore and Murudeshwara a car owner pays 55+40+45+85 = 225 INR in toll for 150 kms one way) If you have time to spare and wish to save a 3-4 Rs per km in toll fee you can go and explore Kerala now before toll roads are commissioned. On the other hand if you wish to save time and comfortable paying toll every 30-40 kms, then wait for a few years.

3. Still old style railway crossings. Because the railway line runs parallel to NH66, there are hundreds of railway crossings. However most of them are old style manual gates. No underpass or overbridge is built, even in and around big cities like Kannur. So you may have to factor 20-30 mins more to reach your destination as you may get held up in couple of railway crossings on the way

4. Pure veg restaurants are almost impossible to find. Finding a pure vegetarian restaurant is still very difficult in Kerala.  There was one Annapoorna mess in Kannur which was closed. If you are OK with places providing veg food while also serving non-veg then you will have some options

5. Too many bakeries: As we were hunting for a restaurant for breakfast on a Sunday morning in Kannur, all we could find were bakeries. There were hundreds of bakeries but just  a few restaurants.

6. Entry fees are reasonable: Entry fees in Kerala remain reasonable. 30 Rs for Dam, 25 Rs for St Angelo’s Fort, 40 INR for drive into the beach etc. Karnataka has increased entry fees to 100s of rupees per person and upto 1000 INR for cameras.  [Details here , here and here]

7. Houseboats in multiple cities: You don’t have to go only to Alleppey for a houseboat. They are available at various other places too. Try at Kavvya island between Kannur and Kasaragod. There are houseboats near Bekal too.

My previous visits to Kerala were different- had two Blr-Wayanad car trips (2008 , 2014 ) , one bike trip (2017) , one-Coimbatore-Silent valley trip (2017), Munnar , a few flights to Cochin and local explorations (2018 Vagamon & Alleppy ), numerous train journeys passing via Kerala and a few road trips till Bekal fort. This time it was about a 700 kms road trip entering Kerala from the Madikeri side and returning to Karnataka from the Mangalore side.

2007 & 2011 bekal fort visit and Chandragiri