City Highlights & Harbor Cruise

Cochin is a seaport built on a series of interconnected islands and peninsulas. The oldest European settlement in India, it is an unlikely blend of medieval Portugal, Holland and English country village grafted onto the tropical Malabar Coast. On your tour explore exotic Cochin, with its spice-filled markets, lush foliage and pastel houses.

You’ll drive to Mattancherry to visit the Dutch Palace built by the Portuguese in 1557 as a gift for the Maharaja of Cochin in exchange for trading rights. The Palace houses royal costumes, furniture and weapons and a series of murals painted on wooden walls. You’ll also stop in an ancient neighborhood, which was a thriving Jewish community in the late 1500s. The synagogue, built in 1568, is beautifully preserved.

You’ll make a stop at St. Francis Church, built in 1503 by Portuguese Franciscan friars. This is India's oldest European-built church, and the original burial site of Portuguese explorer, Vasco da Gama. Continue to the Chinese Fishing Nets, fishing nets exhibit a mechanical method of catching fish, introduced by Chinese traders from the court of Kublai Khan.

Board a motorized boat to observe the diverse activities of the busy harbor, including local fishing colonies and glimpses of locals going about their daily lives on the assorted islands. Cruise past Gundu, the smallest island in the harbor. See the long narrow peninsula of Bolghatty, famous for the palace built by the Dutch in 1744, and now a resort hotel.