Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum) Getting there & around

Getting there & away

Land

Bus

There’s also a daily 8.45am bus to Thekkady (Rs 141, eight hours) for Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary.

For Tamil Nadu, State Express Transport Corporation (SETC) buses leave from the eastern end of the KSRTC bus stand for Chennai (Rs 306, 17 hours, eight daily) and Madurai (Rs 135, seven hours, nine daily). There’s one daily bus at 3.45pm for Udhagamandalam (known as Ooty; Rs 258, 14 hours) and one at 2pm for Puducherry (Pondicherry, Rs 265, 16 hours).

Buses leave for Kovalam Beach (Rs 8, every 15 minutes) between 5.40am and 10pm from the southern end of the East Fort bus stand on MG Rd.

Train

Trains are often heavily booked, so it’s worth visiting the reservation office (8am-8pm Mon-Sat, to 2pm Sun).

A bunch of trains run up the coast via Kollam and Ernakulam to Thrissur. Beyond Thrissur, many others branch off east via Palakkad (Palghat) to Tamil Nadu. You can travel to Coimbatore (sleeper/3AC/2AC Rs 194/514/728, 11 hours) for connections to Ooty.

Trains that travel up the coast as far as Mangalore in Karnataka include the daily Parasuram Express (2nd class/AC chair Rs 154/547, 16 hours, 6.35am) and Malabar Express (sleeper/3AC/2AC Rs 261/705/1000, 6.30pm).

There are frequent trains to Varkala (2nd class/AC chair Rs 24/142, around 45 minutes), Kollam (Rs 31/167, 1¼ hours) and Ernakulam (2nd class/3AC/2AC Rs 60/335/470, 4½ hours), with three passing through Alleppey (2nd class/AC chair Rs 47/180, three hours). There are daily services to Calicut (sleeper/3AC/2AC Rs 190/505/716, 11 hours) and Kanyakumari (Rs 131/213/291, two hours).

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Air

Both Indian Airlines (2314781; Museum Rd;10am-1pm & 1.45-5.35pm Mon-Sat) and Jet Airways (2728864; Sasthamangalam Junction;9am-5.30pm Mon-Sat) have offices in Trivandrum.

Jet Airways and Indian Airlines fly daily to Mumbai (Bombay, US$262). Air India (2500585; International Airport;9am-5.30pm Mon-Sat) flies to Kochi (US$115), while Indian Airlines flies to Bengaluru (Bangalore, US$162), Chennai (Madras, US$157) and Delhi (US$442).

There are regular flights from Trivandrum to Colombo and Male.

All airline bookings can be made at the efficient Airtravel Enterprises (2334202; fax 2331704; New Corporation Bldg, MG Rd; 9.30am-6pm Mon-Sat, 9.30am-5pm Sun).

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