An unplanned yet memorable trip in Kovalam, Poovar Varkala

I've seen there are so many informative posts for most of the places in Kerala. My purpose of writing this post is little different.
Its planned quite suddenly ( 3 days ago of starting) and I believe quite a few people in this forum is obliged to plan like me who doesn't have much choice to draw a structured and elaborate plan - sometimes it's sudden as the main urge to escape from the daily chorus :-p
Nevertheless lets come to the point.
Our plan was to reach Kovalam and spend 4D/3N in beach and got a relaxation. Another reason for this plan is that I've 10 month infant baby hence not dare to plan a stressful trip.
Booked a round trip ticket from Bangalore to Trivandrum and as it's quick plan didn't have much option left. I bought air India tickets for going and here is my first surprise. I didn't travel mostly by Air-India as got so much negative feedback from my friends/relative about timings ,hospitality etc. etc. - but my experience is much better compared to Indigo this time ( I came back thru Indigo - again didn't get much option while buying tickets due to this quick plan).
Please note my plan is not doing any defamation of some specific airlines but last 3/4 times where I need to buy Indigo and I'm not satisfied.
I booked de tour neelakanta
Pros:

• Excellent location probably the best as per my opinion in LightHouse beach in Kovalam.
• Good restaurant facility fish hoek i.e. their in house restaurant.
• Courteous behavior of most of the staffs.

Cons:

• Sometime sluggish service (to get a shampoo sachet even an off season we need to follow up for 2 days)
• Sometimes credit card machine might not work - so need to prepare with cash.
• Asking more money for cab service.

Still I would give better than average for this hotel and if someone wants to stay in Hawa/Light-House beach in Kovalam - I like to recommend hotel de tour neelakanta
Others if they want to stay other beaches can try Uday Samudra Resort , Turtle on the beach (really have a quick tug of war while choosing between this and de tour neelakanta) or Leela Kovalam (little costly)
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We'd reached Trivandrum airport around 8:40 AM in the first day of our trip. Found the Kerala state owned prepaid taxi is quite unreasonable costly. From airport to hotel de tour neelakanta is less than 15 KM but taxi (ac Indica) charged 500/- We took a rest and then in the evening went for a walk to the lighthouse as the plan was to went to the top of the lighthouse to get a great view. Unfortunately Light House is closed due to maintenance and hence we went to Samudra beach. The beach is near to Vivanta by Taj. Samudra beach us quite little beach and full of large stone but will give you salubrious feelings!
Second day, we started one day trip in Kanyakumari from Kovalam. I'd found the rate of Kovalam Taxi service is on higher side. For approximately 175 KM in a plane road, an AC indica will charge you 3000 - 4000 for covering Padmanabhan palace, Suchandran Temple and Vivekanda rock.
We included Poovar backwater (boat riding) and spend a whole day. The good thing is that our driver Ajith (8891335729) bargain the motor boat riding in Poovar for us that costed 500 per person (we're 3) for 1.5 hours trip. It'd be an enjoyable trip for you when you'll be traversing through the backwater and then Poovar sea beach. There is a luxurious resort "Poovar island Resort" - I think that's really a place to stay! Again in off season you can bargain really well to get a floating room in decent price 
From their we visited Padmanabhan palace, if you visit this after having a trip in Mysore or Nizam palace or after seeing the collection of Nizam at SalarJung Museum and try to judge in that scale you'll not be satisfied. But if you look at the environment where the palace is located and the subtle architecture , probably you'll enjoy it.
Next we went to Vivekanda rock temple and only thing I'd like to say it's MUST see if you travel to KanyaKumari.
From there in the same ferry service you'll be reached to Thiruvalluvar statue (tough for elderly people to move thru the staircase to reach at the top of the statue).
We went to sunset point to see the sunset but luck didn't assist us - the notorious cloud covered the climax.
Day 3:
We started little late as our baby was sleeping up to 10 AM towards Varkala beach which is about 61 KM from Kovalam. We reached around 1 PM due to some traffic jam near Technopark, Trivandrum. En-route we visited the ancient Vishnu temple in Varkala which according to the local is 2000+ years old. If you want you can stopover there around 15-20 minutes. After that we reached to Varkala beach at North Cliff. Beach is really beautiful but from the cliff you can't easily descend down to the beach and we didn't take any risk as we have had the baby. Another reason is that the narrow staircase thru which you can get down to the beach is extremely dirty.
There is a resort there named clafouti beach resort where we took the lunch. We ordered two dishes grilled fish (barracuda) with lemon/coriander and fish tandoor - both are decent enough. Moreover the ambiance and light western music add more charm in it
We spend couple of hours there and returned to Kovalam and spend the rest of the time by watching the sea at Hawa Beach!

Last Day of the tour

On Tuesday we simply relaxed and rejuvenate. A lazy stroll in the morning towards Groves Beach and then pack the bag and seeing the wave of sea from our room.
Before ending like to add few things.
Cab price is quite high in Kovalam - on the first day evening we wanted to go to Samudra beach which is 3 KM from the auto stand auto took 200 rupee - then we requested him to go to a spice shop and to buy some authentic Kerala cotton salwar suit material from a shop, altogether not more than 10KM , may be slight above than 10, charges 500. Eventually we bargained to 400.
The only reason to give the driver name is that if you directly call him and get better price than the even KTDC fixed rate.
Actually as we took same driver for trip in Kanyakumari and then Varkala in the next day we got little less and best thing is that he bargained for us in Poovar boat riding.
Another piece of information - from Trivandrum Intl. Airport to Hawa beach - 15 KM in google map , prepaid taxi charges 500 INR.
And when you return, the KTDC fixed rate for the tata Indica ac is 800!
So you need to be a good bargainer to get better price not like me who is not at all a great bargainer :-(

 Poovar Backwater

 Padmanavan Palace

 

Kanyakumari beach - Vivekanada Rock Temple and Thiruvalluvar Statue

 Sunset Point - Kanyakumari

 North Cliff Varkala

 Lighthouse Beach Kovalam