For centuries the hub of India’s spice and tea trade, Fort Cochin occupies the northern tip of a peninsula dividing the mouth of the Vembanad Lake from the Arabia Sea. Its low-rise, red-tiled skyline bears the imprint of its former colonial residents: Lusitanian chapels, Jewish synagogues, Dutch burghers’ houses, Armenian mansions, and British bungalows and godowns (warehouses) all survive in the Fort’s grid of narrow lanes – the largest collection of early colonial buildings in Asia.

Tucked away in the narrow streets of Fort Cochin are a number of delightful art galleries, cafés and interesting clothes boutiques, as well as centuries-old houses. You can visit the residence where Vasco da Gama stayed when he was here in the early 16th century, and have a look around India’s oldest church, as well as one of one of the region’s few surviving synagogues down in Jew Town, near Mantancherry, site of a Keralan palace with superb traditional murals. Around sunset time, watch local fishing boats chug past the famous Chinese fishing nets before embarking on a tour of the harbour by launch.

Plantations of neatly manicured bushes cloak the slopes soaring above this ramshackle town, overshadowed by South India’s highest peaks. Visits to tea gardens are popular day trips, and the more energetic may trek to the high, grassy ridges overlooking the valley for a glimpse of a Nilgiri tahr, a rare mountain goat endemic to this area.

The mountain slopes around Munnar hold some of the highest tea plantations in the world. The climate is perfect for growing this valuable crop, which is why so much of the landscape is carpeted in tea gardens. Only the dark-brown peaks and highest ridges have been left wild, and these are the domain of elephants and Nilgiri tahr, who still roam free in healthy numbers – an amazing fact given the density of population on the surrounding plains of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

The mountains of inland Kerala are one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots. Although tea, coffee and spice plantations dominate many areas, abundant forest also survives, and the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary encompasses one of the most easily accessible of these. Centred on a flooded valley system, the park is among the largest in India, famous first and foremost for its herds of wild elephant, which can routinely be spotted from the water. A fleet of boats set out on safaris at dawn, but visitors can increase their chances of sightings by opting for less intrusive rafting trips, or treks on foot through the forest.

On the low-lying coastal strip of central Kerala stretches a vast, shimmering saltwater lagoon known as Vembanad Lake. As well as being a prime fishing ground for inhabitants of the surrounding backwaters, the 200-sq-km body of water is also an important nesting site for migratory wetland birds, for whom a sanctuary has been set aside at Kumarakom. Species such as darter, white-breasted water hen and snake birds are commonly sighted between November and March, when the glassy surface of the lake is speckled with dozens of stately houseboats cruising between the resorts located in the area.

Up until the 1980s, large barges made of oiled jackwood and canopies of plaited palm leaves were used throughout the backwaters of Kerala to transport rice and other produce through the backwaters. Now, trucks do the haulage work, but the boats – known as kettu vallam in Malayali – have been put to more lucrative uses, taking visitors on cruises around the canals, rivers and lagoons of this fascinating region. Floating duck farms a common sight, as are locals fishing by torchlight for crab, karimeen and the other backwater delicacies that make Kuttinadi cuisine one of the most varied and succulent in India.