Kerala - India

Snake bites, sickness, sun stroke - you'd have to be mad to take a family to India, wouldn't you? Not if you go to Kerala, says Jon Stock.

Anyone would think we had just returned from a war zone. How did you survive? Are the children okay? Actually, we are all fine, I replied. Nobody died, no one was ill. In fact, we've never felt better.

Telling friends that we had been to India for a family holiday reminded me why we had seen so few other British children on our travels. India is not generally seen as a family destination, particularly if you have young children. If they are not laid low by "Delhi belly", they are sure to catch malaria or be bitten by a cobra. That's if they haven't been run over by a rickshaw or suffocated in the traffic fumes.

I've lived happily in India, first in Kerala and then in Delhi, so I am a little biased, but it is a shame that so few British families take their holidays on the subcontinent. The general environment is, of course, more challenging than ours, but if you know where to go, there are some fantastic - and safe - family holidays to be enjoyed.

The south of the country is a much less stressful destination than the north, and few places can match Kerala for comfort, climate or, crucially, childcare.


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