If you want to help yourself to a little luxury and can afford it, there's no better place to stay in Kochi than the Taj Malabar. We stayed for one night in the new wing where we had a room with two large windows overlooking Fort Kochi and the harbour bay. The "welcome ceremony" was almost a bit over the top, with our 10-year old son receiving a teddy bear and some strangely coloured plastic umbrella. The rest of the hotel service was fine. Arriving in the evening means that you will also need to take your dinner at the hotel as there is nothing around it. The cheapest option is the Thai but as we wanted to escape air-conditioned rooms, we went outside to the garden restaurant that proposed a buffet formula. Make sure you put some repellent as there are mosquitos in the garden. For a price of around 30€, we stuffed ourselves with oysters, prawns, tiger prawns and fish curry, leaving aside an excellent selection of meats. The only negative point was that nobody in the restaurant had the slightest clue about the wine list that contained a selection of clearly overpriced wines. After having asked for a dry white wine and rejecting two bottles that tasted terribly sweet, we stayed with a Chilean wine that was not dry either.

We stayed here for a 5 days in August 2011. The stay was excellent and the staff very friendly. The stay was PERFECT. To be honest, we are quite critical of the quality of hotels that we stay in but this holiday was just perfect. The differentiating factor between Taj and other hotels is the quality of staff. In my case, my wife was pregnant and she wanted to get a massage - which was declined by the spa. However, they went t the extent of doing research and came back with an offer of geting a facial done with ordinary fruit and vegetables. My wife loved it.
Also commendable is the motorboat trip from the hotel to the main city - its a 10 min ride [chargeable] but excellent and cuts the cab travel by about an hour - we used it every day.
Would certainly recommend this hotel for the discerning traveller.

This was a nice location & had a very refreshing hotel. I will rate this 5star category . The staff is young , helpful and full of enthusiasm. This is a nice hotel and good for relaxing trips . The restaurants are excellent , specially breakfast was great. We had nice boat rides & the sea facing rooms were great. The rooms were good & the usual Vivanta standards. Visiting the SPA during the visit & a dip at teh infinity pool is a must.

Excellent experience guys, the mantainance of the property, staff, the food etc is truly amazing. Till date it has been the best experience of my lifetime. It being so beautifully approachable is truly a bliss. The Sea food served at the hotel is the best of its kind which made it truly a remarkable experience.