KOCHI: It is Kerala yet again. After becoming the only place in the country to be named a must-visit destination in 2026 by both Lonely Planet and Booking.com, the state has now been chosen as one of the 26 best places in the world to travel this year by Rough Guides. Kerala is 16th in the list that has Marrakech, Crete, Bali, and Tokyo in the top four.
A British company headquartered in London, Rough Guides is known for publishing travel guidebooks and offering personalised travel trips. As per the travel book, the destinations were selected based on the analysis of over 30,000 tailor-made trip enquiries sent to the company’s local travel experts.
Welcoming the state’s inclusion in the list, Jose Pradeep, president of Kerala Travel Mart (KTM), said the reason why tourists are increasingly preferring to travel to thee state is because it offers a ‘whole package’.
“We have the ocean, beaches, rivers, lakes, hills, villages, traditions, culture and a vivid and diverse cuisine. In the past, the only places foreign tourists mostly knew about were Agra, Jaipur and Kashmir. Now, Kerala has become more visible.
This tourism season, we have been seeing a surge in foreign tourist arrivals compared to the years before,” he told TNIE. As per Rough Guides, Kerala has to be visited for its backwater serenity. The book asks the traveller to start the morning in Kerala on a slow-moving rice barge while it passes through the mist that lifts from the canals, and “end the day in the hills with a cup of chai in a quiet tea village.”
It says this easy shift from waterways to mountains is one reason travellers picked the state as one of the best places to travel in 2026, especially for slow, relaxed trips.
“Despite its size, Kerala packs a wide range of landscapes. A tourist can go from the coast to the mountains in a few hours, with stops along the way for wildlife reserves, spice plantations and ayurvedic retreats,” adds the book.
The guide also lists out the best things to do in Kerala. “Watch longboats during the Onam festival in Alappuzha, wake early for a guided hike in Parambikulam Tiger Reserve, sign up for a kalaripayattu lesson in Kozhikode, sleep in a treehouse in Thenmala’s forest and listen for hornbills overhead, stay up all night for a theyyam ritual in the north, walk the Fort Kochi shore at dusk, watch the fishing nets drop, and find a place nearby that will grill your fish while you wait,” says the book.