Kerala has three airports, two are located in respectively Cochin and Trivandrum and has both international and domestic arrivals and departures; the third is located in Calicut and only has national connections. The international destinations are served by Gulf Air, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, Air Lanka, Air Maldives and Air India. Trivandrum International Airport has direct international connections to Colombo, Singapore, Maldives, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Kuwait, Bahrain and Jeddah, while the Cochin International Airport has connections to Vienna, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Sharjah and Dhahran.
Domestic flights are made primarily by Indian Airlines, Jet Air and Kingfisher. Cochin has domestic flights to Agatti, Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Trichy, Trivandrum and Calicut, while Trivandrum has domestic flights to Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Kochi, Kozhikode and Bangalore, and Calicut only has a few national destinations. Many domestic flights, especially from Trivandrum have a stop on the way, especially if you are going to and from Delhi. One should therefore be prepared for that journey times can be somewhat longer than one might imagine.
The majorities of international tourists travel to Kerala through the major international airports in Delhi and Mumbai, and then flies on with a national aircraft. This also allows you to spend a few days in either Delhi or Mumbai on the way to or from Kerala. Some international visitors prefer to fly via one of the Arab countries, such as Dubai, Kuwait or Bahrain and then fly directly to either Cochin or Trivandrum. If you arrive from the east, Singapore can be a good stopover.
Kerala is well connected with the rest of India via rail. An alternative to fly would be to take the train, this obviously takes longer, but you get the opportunity to get an impression of the landscape, towns and the Indian way of life when you drive past. If you reserve space in a luxury class it can also be reasonably comfortable, but if you travel on the cheap classes you must anticipate that there are many people, much noise and little comfort. To be sure of getting space in the luxury class, you must book well in advance. In Kerala itself, there is an extensive railway network; one of the advantages of traveling by train is therefore that one can travel directly to the final destination in Kerala.
Kerala is also well connected with the rest of India by roads, and therefore it would also be possible to get to Kerala by bus or car. Especially the latter must be discouraged, it takes a long time and it is definitely inadvisable to drive yourself. You can rent a car with driver, but again this is not especially advisable if you have to drive long distances. However, within Kerala a car with driver is a good and relatively comfortable way of getting around. Travelling by bus is not very pleasant, and is primarily attractive to travelers who have a very small budget or are particularly adventurous.
