Excellent afternoon on the backwaters of Kerala, followed by an amazing meal prepared right in front of us. Sanu was the perfect host and went above and beyond to make our visit special. Thoroughly recommended.

Sunrise kayak was a wonderful combination of exercise, nature viewing, culture to start the day. Cup of tea in the village as a little break was great opportunity to learn more about life along the water. Sanu was terrific host pointing out birds and talking about daily life. Highly recommend it

What an amazing experience! Sanu connected us with the local culture and showed us the true beauty of the backwaters. The morning sunrise tour was very calm and we witnessed local people going about daily life. Sanu demonstrated his love for the area and showed great care. He gave us the best experience ever … even ensuring we had safe passage to and from our home stay. The Indian snacks at the end were a wonderful way to finish the experience - one which will stay with us a long time. Thanks Sanu!

Truly unique experience. I’m from Kerala and booked this tour for my European friends who were visiting Kerala for the first time. We did the 6am - 9am tour and this honestly reminded me of my grandmothers village. So serene and beautiful to observe the locals starting their day. Our guide Suni was so great! He was very conversational and such great company. Highly recommend it!

We had an amazing day with Sanu and Jess at Canoe Kerala. We booked the sunrise to sunset tour, which included three separate boat trips (on three different boats), two superb home cooked meals plus two visits to the local community. The day was perfectly paced with plenty of time for relaxing on the boats too. We never felt rushed and it was so special to see how they work so well alongside the local community. We will return home with many happy memories and would certainly recommend.

One of my favourite experiences in my two months of travelling through India. I booked the sunrise cruise with local village life, followed by a cooking class. We paddled out in the canoe for sunrise, catching the quiet hours on the backwaters lit up in soft, golden sunlight. We slowly made our way through the pond of pink water lilies to reach a small local village nearby. Jes made sure to point out all the different birds flying around us and explained in detail about the local village life happening here. Our walk through the village painted a beautiful picture of how the life of locals looks like in Kumarakom. On our return to the cottage a delicious breakfast was prepared, which we all throughly enjoyed. The following cooking class was so fun and left me with a lot of Kerala style recipes to take home with me. I ended up spending all day at their beautiful cottage on the backwaters (a perfect spot to relax and enjoy a slow paced day) and was lucky enough to catch a spot on the sunset cruise that evening. Left with a full heart and special memories of my time in Kumarakom. 100% recommend any of their tours as the whole team really goes above and beyond to create a unique experience for you. Big thank you to everyone I got to enjoy this day with!

Booked the midday backwater tour and were picked up with complimentary tuk tuk from local hotel. It was just us on the tour and Vimal was an excellent guide and boatman. His English is good and we enjoyed his company. Shown Toddy man collecting the fluid from the coconut flower and had a glass. Also demonstrated throw net fishing. Peaceful cruise along the back canals. Vimal explained how the levees are maintained. Returned to the quay and sat down to an authentic meal on banana tree leaves suitably milder as requested. The chef was running a cookery class at the same time but found time to explain the dishes and history of the food. Lovely food and experience. Thoroughly recommend.

This experience of the backwaters and the team at Canoe Kerala are simply outstanding. This trip delivers what the large houseboats cannot: as well as being able to visit the larger lakes, the small traditional boats and canoes used by Canoe Kerala are able to navigate the smallest rivers and canals which, after all, are the real backwaters. This allows a much more immersive experience both in the natural beauty of Kerala and in the lives of the people who live and work here. I booked the Full day Cruise with Village Life, local food & Overnight Stay and it exceeded my expectations. The boat trips were beautiful; the dedication of the boatmen (Vimal and Shateesh) was wonderful; and the stops to experience Toddy tapping, have tea, and see village life up close was truly unique. And then there was the food! The dishes prepared by Jess (Jeswanth) are incredible. The kitchen is incredibly stylish, ultra clean, and Jess cooks for you with a passion and skill that will remain in your memories always. Highly recommeded and I will definitely return.

I did the sunset cruise at the end of my trip to Kerela and it was the highlight of my trip. Vimal was a wonderful guide - he talked me through all the birds we saw along the route, showed me around the village and explained about village life on the backwaters. As we were on a very comfortable smaller boat we were able to pass further up the river under the low bridges to see the stunning scenery running alongside the rice terraces. I highly recommend this experience and will definitely be back another time.

We did the Sunset Cruise and it was the best thing we have done in our three weeks in India. As backpackers we did think twice about doing this as it wasn’t exactly cheap but after doing it we can say without question it was worth it. Highly recommend that anyone in the area do this with Canoe Kerala. We decided to do this instead of the house boats and found that we likely got to see a better sunset as the canoe was able to stay out longer than the house boats.