This cliffy beach looked so picturesque that it had long been in my wishlist. Varkala beach is around 700 kms from Bangalore. Just about crosses the threshhold of distance that you would want to drive and go. While looking for other options, I found a train, Kanyakumari express, which overnight takes you there. Perfect!

We landed there on a Saturday morning. The train reaches Varkala (Varkala-Sivagiri Station) at around 11am.

From there beach is around 4-5 kms depending on where you have booked your stay. We had booked at Maadathil cottages. We took an auto to the place. The last stretch of road, had no road. More of a narrow stretch of undulating earth road, which in an auto seemed quite an adventure, and made you pray to God.

The resort was very good. Nothing fancy. But clean spacious rooms, and good amount of open space in the front to hang around. The room were on the beachfront, and the sea was just a stone’s throw away.

Lunch at Maadathil was very satisfying. They had made a pomfret curry with coconut milk which was extremely tasty.

Post lunch we rested for some time. The sun was quite hot in the afternoon.

Around sunset, we started walking by the beach towards the north cliff. North cliff was where the action was.

While going there, my daughter fell and cut her knees. They started bleeding and she started crying her hearts out. Whereas we wanted to walk till north cliff which was around 1 and half km away, we could only make it till the Varkala Aquarium and then came back.

Varkala aquarium is a nice place to visit. Saw jellyfish for the first time here. They had some very interesting sea life – huge lobsters, crabs, small sharks, and other interesting fish. The building also a park beside it, where kids can spend some time.

After the aquarium, just around sunset, we stepped into the black sand beach (which is just beside the aquarium). Our kiddo found some other kids to play with. They got engaged in their own world, while we enjoyed the sunset.

It became dark by the time we started back. We stopped a cliff side resort called Bluewater beach resort. One thing we learnt about Varkala here (and the same learning was validated over the next couple of days also). Any food takes tremendously long to get prepared. When asked they say that only when they get the order, they start preparing from scratch. They even start cutting veggies after they get the order.

Anyways, we had just ordered Fish Finger to begin with. This took around 45 mins to come. (We were the only people in the eating area). So we dared not order anything more. We called our resort and asked them to prepare dinner for us.

We had dinner at Maadathil.

Next day I wanted to go to Jatayu Earth center. What I had seen online about the place was very interesting. But Maadathil was so comfortable, and tranquil, no one wanted to go out much. we spent the morning at the beach.

Around lunch, all I could do was push them out till North Cliff for lunch. We took an auto to North Cliff. They charge you around 200bucks. The four and half of us could fit into one auto comfortably. They would drop you at the Varkala Helipad. The North Cliff kind of starts from there.

We reached God’s own country kitchen, at around 12. We ordered a sea food platter. The food came at around 2pm. Thankfully we had ordered some plain rice and tawa fish for my daughter, which came a bit earlier and it kept us busy for some time.

The food was by the way, totally worth the wait. In the platter there was lobsters, banana steamed pomfret, crab. Other than this, there was good amount of rice and bread basket shared (roti, paratha, etc.). It was quite a feast!

After lunch we took an auto back to Maadathil.

We had to catch a sleep after that lunch.

Around sunset, we again headed to North cliff. Took an auto again.

Just around sunset we reached Darjeeling Cafe. Again a great place with awesome ambience and good food. Spent some time there munching some delicacies.

We did some shopping in the shops around. There are a plenty of shops there in North cliff for the shopping enthusiasts.

After spending some time shopping, we again took an auto back to Maadathil.

The next day, Monday, we had our train back in the afternoon. So post breakfast, we just hung around at the beach near the cottages, took a walk around the cliffs, etc.

We took the train in the afternoon and next day early morning, we were back in Bangalore.

Overall, it was an awesome relaxing weekend. The train journey was super comfortable.

If you are like me, and you love peace and tranquility then you can do like we did. Stay near Odayam beach or south cliff and head to North cliff for food and shopping when need arises. You get autos pretty easily. And autos are not bandits like in Bangalore. So you do not mind taking them to go here and there. If you want to stay around the buzz, then you should stay in North Cliff. Here is a map for better understanding of the area.

Overall, it was a place which I look forward to go again.