Can a place be over-hyped and under-rated at the same time? That’s the question we found ourselves asking on our first visit to Fort Kochi (Cochin), India.
Lori and I got a lot wrong about this place—and yet it remains one of our favorite cities in all of India (of the roughly two dozen we’ve visited).
We’ve found that visitors tend to fixate on the well-preserved Portuguese Old Town—liberally using words like “charming” and “evocative”. No doubt, it’s a wonderful place to flee the relative chaos and intensity of many of India’s most popular tourist destinations.
But stop there and you risk missing on so much that makes Fort Kochi worth a visit.
Here, we’ve attempted the impossible task of boiling Fort Kochi down to the essentials, including our favorite places to visit in Fort Kochi, unique experiences, top recommendations on where to stay, and some of our favorite places to eat.
One to three days is never enough to really sink your teeth into a place. But if you know where to look, it’s plenty of time for most travelers to get a taste of Fort Kochi’s fascinating and complicated story—and maybe even entice you to return for more.
See Fort Kochi’s sights the easy way…
We think the very best way to experience historic Fort Kochi is by taking a top-rated tour or day trip. Here are our personal recommendations:
✪ On Foot Fort Kochi & Mattancherry 3-hour Walking Tour
✪ Tuk-Tuk Private Tuk-Tuk City Tour with Hotel Pickup
✪ Day Trip Kerala Backwater Eco Boat Cruise with Lunch
These are the top-rated tours in their class and offer free cancellation.
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Best Places to Visit in Fort Kochi
① Chinese Fishing Nets at Sunset
While there is no shortage of historical and cultural attractions on the island of Kochi, one of the most unique and worthwhile places to visit in Fort Kochi might just be the Chinese Fishing Nets.
Still widely in use and fully functioning today, local fishermen work together to employ these huge wooden monstrosities to round up the daily catch.
Each net works with a cantilever system that uses ropes, pulleys, and heavy stones as counterweights. The fishing technique is believed to have been introduced centuries ago through Chinese traders who visited the Kerala coast (hence the name of the nets).
The system is simple but effective. Best of all, they don’t even have to leave the shore to collect their catch!
✪ Hot Tip The fishing nets are located between Vasco da Gama Square and the ferry jetties and are best viewed in the late afternoon and sunset. Even if the catch is small, we think the scene itself makes it worth the stop.
② Vasco da Gama Square / Fort Kochi Beach
Join the locals in late afternoon and sunset and head down to Vasco da Gama Square and the adjacent Fort Kochi Beach.
The wide promenade runs along the Arabian Sea and offers up some of the best ocean views in town, with fishing boats, cargo ships, and the famous nets nearby.
This isn’t a swimming beach, per se, but it is most certainly a pleasant place to stroll and take in the town vibe outside the heat of the day.
This is also ground zero for soaking up Fort Kochi’s long maritime history, which reflects a crazy mix of Indian, Portuguese, Dutch, and British influences.
In the evening, local families, vendors, and travelers all gather along the shoreline. Street stalls sell snacks, fresh seafood, coconut water, and local treats.
✪ Hot Tip We recommend not missing sunset. The sky often turns a deep orange and pink that is pretty unforgettable.
③ Heritage Streets (Princess Street)
We think one of the best ways to experience Fort Kochi is by simply by walking through its old streets. This area was developed during multiple colonial periods, and glimpses of each can still be seen in the architecture and layout of the town.
Princess Street is one of the oldest and most recognizable roads in Fort Kochi. Bisecting Fort Kochi from River Road and the waterfront down to Bastian Street, Princess Street is lined with colorful colonial buildings that now house cafés, small hotels, bakeries, and shops.
Nearby you will find Bastion Bungalow, a historic Dutch building dating back to the 17th century. Many buildings have been preserved or restored while still being used for modern purposes. And in fact, this is where you’ll find most of the town’s best hotels and restaurants.
✪ Hot Tip If you want to get the most out of a short visit to Fort Kochi, we recommend going with a top-rated tour. These are some of our favorites:
④ Kathakali Dance Theater
Kathakali is one of the most famous traditional art forms of Kerala. Dating from the 17th century, it combines dance and theatrics, live music, and dramatic makeup and costume to retell ancient Hindu epics such as the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.
Lori and I were blown away by the level of precision employed in everything from the carefully choreographed moves to the careful application of makeup.
Performers spend hours preparing before the show, applying detailed facial designs and wearing elaborate costumes representing different character types, such as heroes, villains, and divine figures.
The Kerala Kathakali Centre in Fort Kochi where we caught this performance is one of the most famous and respected Kathakali studios in the world, and certainly one of the top places to visit in Fort Kochi for a traditional dance show.
If you’re going to see a Kathakali dance show anywhere, it’s hard to beat this revered venue in the birthplace of the art form.
✪ Hot Tip We recommend arriving early because you can watch the makeup preparation process. It’s fun to see how the performers transform before the show and feels a little like getting a backstage pass to something special.
⑤ Fort Kochi’s Famous Fish Market
Along with the teeter-totter fishing nets and Kathakali dance theater, Fort Kochi is famous for its fish market!
You can’t visit Fort Kochi’s fish stalls without chatting up the local fishmongers, perusing each stall’s surprisingly unique selection, and picking out something tasty for lunch.
I told the gentleman, above, I wanted something fairly meaty (not too boney), but not too expensive—oh, and with a nice, fresh taste. Enough to feed two, please.
He showed us this beauty and within minutes it was transformed into one of the best seafood meals we’ve had in India.
How does the Fort Kochi fish market work?
After purchasing the fish from the waterfront fresh fish stalls, simply take your new flippery friend to one of a handful of nearby cooking stalls that will then grill it up for a nominal fee.
Most places will include the choice of a couple of sides like fries and rice, along with a couple of sodas.
All told, our delicious lunch cost US$8 including the price of the fish, grilling the fish, rice and fries, and two sodas.
⑥ Restaurants Serving Kerala Cuisine
While we’re on the subject of food, make sure you dive even deeper into the local South Indian cuisine.
Fort Kochi is chock full of mouthwatering local eateries waiting to be discovered by you and your appetite!
Tasty Thali
Don’t leave Fort Kochi without grabbing a Thali around lunchtime at any number of excellent places in and around the historic area (see photo, above).
Cheap, fast and DELICIOUS, a thali is a variety of small dishes served on a single metal tray with rice and flatbread (naan, roti, chapati).
As with much of the cuisine in these parts, most thalis here are vegetarian or pure veg, though you may very well encounter thalis with meat served at more touristic establishments.
Our Top Picks for Places to Eat in Fort Kochi
- Sri Krishna Cafe If you’re looking for one of the very best places in town to experience authentic Keralan and South Indian, this is it! Pure veg thalis, dosas, biryanis and much more. A bit outside of the historic center near Mattancherry Palace, but worth the journey!
- Solar Cafe Another great authentic Keralan eatery near the Ernakulam ferry, serving thalis and other South Indian dishes, as well as continental choices.
- Warehouse Cafe & Restaurant One of the best upmarket Keralan restaurants in the heart of Fort Kochi. Excellent service, delicious dishes, and a good value for the location and what they offer.
⑦ Mattancherry + Jew Town
Next up on our list of best places to visit in Fort Kochi is the historic neighborhoods of Mattancherry and Jew Town, which technically lie just outside of Fort Kochi on the east side of the island.
Mattancherry was once a major center of the spice trade, attracting merchants from Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. We felt like we could still get a sense of this history while strolling the narrow streets, old warehouses, and spice shops.
One of the main attractions here is the appropriately named 500-year-old Mattancherry Palace, also known as the Dutch Palace. Despite the name, the building was actually constructed by the Portuguese (but later renovated by the Dutch). Inside you’ll find a series of impressive murals with scenes from the Ramayana and other Hindu epics.
Nearby is the Paradesi Synagogue, built in 1568, and is worth a quick stop. It is one of the oldest active synagogues in the entire Commonwealth and is a reflection of the long history of Jewish communities in Kerala.
The surrounding street known as Jew Town is a good place to peruse antiques, soak up the aroma of spice shops, or duck into a small funky cafe.
Even if you’re not in the market to buy anything, Jew Town is worth a stroll for its artsy and eclectic vibe that can feel downright quirky.
⑧ Kerala Backwaters
True, the Kerala Backwaters aren’t located in Fort Kochi. But it’s hard to imagine a visit to Kochi without at least contemplating a Kerala Backwaters boat ride!
The network of tranquil lagoons, canals, lakes, and rivers stretches across much of the state. The waterways pass through small villages, rice paddies, coconut groves, and wetlands. It was a very welcome change of pace from city life for us.
Houseboats, known locally as kettuvallams, were originally used to transport rice and goods through the waterways. Today many have been converted into comfortable cruise boats with shaded decks and dining areas.
A typical day trip includes several hours of slow cruising along narrow canals while passing fishermen, farmers, and small village homes along the water’s edge.
We saw people washing clothes at the water’s edge, children paddling small boats to school, and farmers working in fields that sit just above the waterline. The scenery is also one of the main draws here, with coconut palms lining nearly every stretch of water.
✪ Hot Tip Half-day and full-day tours depart daily right from the heart of Fort Kochi. We think this top-rated Kerala Backwater Eco Boat Cruise with Lunch might just be your best bet:
⑨ Historic Portuguese Churches
One of the most fascinating aspects of Kochi’s past is the legacy of its historic churches. Kochi is home to one of the largest concentrations of Christian churches in the entire country, largely owing to the city’s historical role at the center of old Portuguese India.
These beautiful structures, some dating back centuries, are not only architectural marvels but also serve as a testament to the city’s diverse religious heritage.
From the imposing St. Francis Church to the serene Santa Cruz Basilica, each of these churches has a unique story to tell.
We’ve picked three of our favorites to highlight in this guide, but you’ll undoubtedly stumble upon many more in the course of your Fort Kochi wanderings.
Santa Cruz Basilica (pictured above) might just be the largest and most ornate of all of the colonial churches in Kochi. With prominent Gothic elements and Hindu-temple-inspired spires, the basilica is both striking and surreal.
St. Francis Church, above, has the distinction of being the oldest European church in all of India, dating to 1503.
A common story that you might hear is that Vasco Da Gama, himself, is buried here. But that is technically no longer the case. He was buried here, but his body was exhumed and moved to Lisbon 14 years after his death.
Located just outside of Fort Kochi in Jew Town, Jeevamatha Catholic Latin Church is one of the best maintained historic churches in Kochi and popular with local Catholics.
Final Thoughts
After backpacking around Northern India for just over a month, Lori and I were ready for a change of pace.
Luckily for us, Kochi was our next stop, offering a refreshingly offbeat range of things to do and experiences that stood in stark contrast to the Hindu temples, desert forts, and seas of humanity we had grown accustomed to in India so far.
Arriving from Mumbai, the change in culture from north to south was palpable and immediate.
Suddenly, breathing room between people and things was reintroduced into our lives, locals seemed more interested in their own goings-on rather than soliciting to us, and the pace of life seemed to slow to a crawl.
It was also hard to ignore the fact that we now found ourselves on an island, set apart culturally, historically, and economically from mainland Cochin.
Arriving on a boat from Ernakulum certainly heightened the feeling of crossing into something new and exotic.
Experiencing these intriguing places to visit in Fort Kochi was a highlight of our travels in India. We think it might be one of yours as well!
