Kottayam, India Hotels, Vacations, Tourism

The busy commercial centre of KOTTAYAM is strategically located between the backwaters to the west and the spice, tea and rubber plantations, forests, and the mountains of the Western Ghats to the east, 76km southeast of Kochi and 37km northwest of Alappuzha. Most visitors come here on the way somewhere else – foreigners take short backwater trips to Alappuzha or set off to Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary, while Ayappa devotees pass through en route to the forest temple at Sabarimala. Kottayam's long history of Syrian Christian settlement is reflected by the presence of two thirteenth-century churches … more »