Thrissur · Kerala
Athirappilly and the Pooram
The state's loudest festival, and its best-known waterfall.
When to come
The falls are best from September to December. The Pooram is April or May, and the town is full.
How long
A day from Kochi, or a night if you are going to the falls properly.
Getting there
Athirappilly is two hours from Cochin airport; Thrissur town an hour and a half.
Thrissur calls itself the cultural capital and has the festival to argue it. The Pooram, in April or May, is two temples competing with elephants, parasols and a percussion ensemble two hundred strong — it runs for thirty-six hours, ends in fireworks before dawn, and is not a thing to wander into unprepared.
Athirappilly is the waterfall everyone has seen without knowing where it is: eighty feet high and three hundred across, on the Chalakudy river at the edge of the Sholayar forest, at its most absurd in the weeks after the rains.
Guruvayur, north of the town, is one of the most visited temples in India and closed to non-Hindus, which is worth knowing before a driver takes you there.
Thrissur, in photographs
Worth your time, or not?
Tell us how many days you have and who is coming, and we will tell you whether Thrissur belongs in them — and what to leave out to make room for it.