A red cliff dropping straight into the Arabian Sea, cafés strung along its edge, and - unusually for Kerala - a beach you don't have to leave the clifftop to see.
Varkala is arguably the single most photographed spot in the state, and the odd thing is the photos undersell it. The laterite cliff runs for almost two kilometres, cafés and shops built right along the edge, Papanasam Beach directly below reachable by a short path or a lift. It's also one of the few beach towns in India where a sacred bathing ghat and a surf break share the same stretch of sand without either one feeling out of place.
This chapter runs it properly - a stop at Kovalam's lighthouse on the way down, 72 hours on and around the cliff, and a route back through the quieter backwaters north of it that most day-trippers never see.
