A red laterite cliff standing straight out of the Arabian Sea, with a temple town and a pilgrimage beach at the bottom of it.
Where you actually are
Varkala is the only place on the Kerala coast where a cliff meets the sea, and that single geological fact is the reason it looks like nowhere else in the state. The cliff is laterite, the deep red weathered rock of the coastal plain, and it runs for a couple of kilometres with a path along the top and beaches at the bottom reached by steps and ramps.
It is two things at once, and confusing them is the usual mistake. At the southern end is Papanasam beach, below the Janardanaswamy temple, a pilgrimage site where ashes are scattered and rites are performed, with the Sivagiri Mutt inland where the reformer Sree Narayana Guru is buried. North of it along the cliff is the visitor strip: cafes, yoga shalas, shops and small hotels with the sea two hundred metres below the tables.
Springs emerge from the base of the cliff, which is where the name Papanasam, meaning the washing away of sins, comes from. That combination of pilgrimage, geology and a view has made Varkala the most distinctive coastal destination in Kerala, and it means the etiquette at the southern end is different from the etiquette on the cliff.
Three reasons to stay rather than pass through
- Papanasam beach below the cliff is a pilgrimage site as well as a swimming beach: dress accordingly.
- The cliff path is a walk with the sea two hundred metres below you the whole way.
- Trains from Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam stop in town, so no car is needed.
The cliff path, and the erosion under it
The cliff path is the destination. It runs along the top edge with an unbroken sea horizon, and walking it at either end of the day is the thing people remember about Varkala. The northern stretch is quieter than the central section, and the walk continues beyond the developed part towards the north cliff and the beaches below it.
The cliff is also actively eroding. Sections of the path have been closed and reinforced at various times, retaining and protection work is an ongoing programme, and there have been collapses. The practical instruction is to stay behind the barriers, avoid the undercut edge entirely, and expect that a stretch of the path may be fenced off when you arrive.
The wet months are when this matters most. Heavy rain loosens laterite, closures are more likely, and the drop is not one to take a risk over for a photograph.
A pilgrimage beach, and how to behave on it
Papanasam is a religious site that happens to have swimmers on it. Families come to perform rites for the dead, the temple sits directly above it, and the springs at the cliff base are part of why. Visitors are not unwelcome, but the register is different from a resort beach: cover up between the water and the path, do not photograph rites or the people performing them, and give ceremonies room.
The Janardanaswamy temple itself is old and active, with the usual restrictions on entry, dress and photography, and the Sivagiri Mutt inland is a major pilgrimage destination in its own right, particularly around the annual Sivagiri pilgrimage days in the last week of December and the first days of January, when the town fills.
None of this is a reason to avoid the southern end. It is the most interesting part of Varkala, and the reason the place is not simply a cliff with cafes on it.
Swimming, surf and the honest risk
The beaches below the cliff are steep shelved with strong currents in places, and there are seasons when the sea is not safe. Lifeguards are posted in season on the main beaches and there is a flag system. Every year the Kerala coast records drownings, and the cliff beaches have a share of them.
The southwest monsoon between June and September takes swimming off the table: heavy surf, erosion and closed stretches. The comfortable and safe window is roughly November to March, and even then the flags rather than the weather are the authority.
Varkala has become one of the better places on this coast for beginner surfing in the shoulder months, with schools operating along the beaches, which is a more sensible way to be in the water here than swimming out unsupervised.
Cliff or town: the real choice
Staying on the cliff puts the path, the cafes and the view outside the door, with the trade offs of a strip: music, variable quality and a walk down steps to the sea. Staying in Varkala town, inland around the railway station and the temple, is cheaper in relative terms, much quieter, and a short auto ride from the cliff.
The north cliff is the compromise most repeat visitors settle on: the same path and view, fewer places, and a walk into the busy section when you want it. Helipad and the stretch above it hold most of the newer accommodation.
Because the town has a station on the main coastal line, Varkala is one of the few beach destinations in Kerala that genuinely works without a car, which is worth weighing against Kovalam.
Where inside it to stay
The year, in bands
Getting here
Getting around
What there is to do, and why
What the kitchen does here
November to March. Cliff erosion work closes stretches of the path in the wet months.
What it is not
The case against, in the same voice as the case for. Every destination on this site carries one, because a page that only recommends is not much use for deciding.
Two resorts, two hotels, four and five star
Each property below opens its own booking page on IMPT, not a page of search results. That is the whole journey, destination to property to booked.