India — where to go and when
2 destinations covered
Two coastal strips stand for India on this site, both on the south-western shore and both monsoon country, which is the honest scope of what follows — nothing here describes the Himalaya or the northern plains. Goa is a ribbon of sand almost without interruption, rivers crossing rice fields and coconut groves behind it, and centuries of Portuguese rule left whitewashed churches, a Latin street grid in the old capital and a kitchen that exists nowhere else in the country. Kerala is the seaward flank of the Western Ghats: a wall of mountain on one side, the Arabian Sea on the other, and between them a lattice of lagoons and canals where villages face the water instead of the road, with tea and spice terraces stacked above. Costs sit three-quarters under French levels, which changes what a month can contain rather than merely making a fortnight cheaper. Both places reward slowness and punish itineraries built on distance; and it is the rain, not the heat, that has to be planned around.
When to go
Neither place clears our comfort filter in a single month, which reflects a trade-off rather than a verdict. The monsoon is the whole story: Goa takes 1,040.2 mm in July across 30 rainy days, and Kerala counts 260 rainy days a year, the wettest figure on this site. The dry window runs December to March — Goa records 0.2 mm in February — and it is also the hot one, Kerala reaching 34.6 °C in March. October and November are the compromise weeks: green, warm, and rain that arrives in bursts rather than in days.
No single month clears our comfort threshold everywhere in the country at once. The table below gives each place its own favourable months instead.
The places we cover, side by side
| Place | Favourable months | Warmest month, avg. high (°C) | Coldest month, avg. high (°C) | Rainy days a year (≥ 1 mm) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goa | none | 33.5 | 27.9 | 153 |
| Kerala | none | 34.6 | 29.7 | 260 |
Figures measured at the weather station nearest each place, then averaged over the warmest and the coldest months of the year — not over a fixed calendar season. Each destination page carries its own month-by-month table, its station and its sample size.
Getting around
A railway down the length of the coast is what connects the two at all, and the journey between them is an overnight one, booked well ahead. Inside Goa, distances are short and a rented two-wheeler is what most people use, with app cars and local taxis covering the rest. In Kerala, buses are frequent and slow, the backwaters are crossed by public ferries as well as by converted rice barges, and hill roads take far longer than a map suggests. The airports sit 23 km and 16 km out.
Budget
Country price level compared with France : −75 %
Price index for restaurants and hotels, France = 1000, from European purchasing power parities. It is a country average: it says nothing about one hotel in particular.
Destinations in India
GoaGoa is a narrow strip of the Arabian Sea coast where rivers cut through paddy fields and palm groves before reaching a near-continuous line of sand. Centuries of…
KeralaKerala occupies the seaward slope of the Western Ghats, between a mountain wall and the Arabian Sea. Between the two lies a lattice of lagoons, canals and river…Frequently asked questions
Does the monsoon make a summer trip pointless?
It makes it a different trip, not a cancelled one. June to September is warm, intensely green and much cheaper, and the rain tends to come in heavy bursts rather than all day. What you lose is the beach as an activity and the reliability of boat trips, and what you gain is a landscape at its best and almost no other visitors. Coastal roads flood, so keep the plan loose.
Can the two be combined in ten days?
Yes, but only as two halves rather than a tour. Four nights in one, four in the other, with the overnight train or a short flight between them, leaves a little slack. Trying to add the backwaters, the tea hills and the beaches to a Goa week turns the holiday into transport. If it is a first trip, pick one and go deeper.
Updated on 21 September 2026