Cherai, a small village present in the Ernakulam district of Kerala. The bordering towns of Cherai is Kodungallur and North Paravur.
Cherai Beach is a beach in the Cherai village of Ernakulam district of Kerala, south India. Cherai is a part of Vypin Island. Cherai Beach is just 30 km from Kochi, the business capital of Kerala and 30 km from Cochin International Airport. The nearby towns are North Paravur(6 km)and Kodungallur (10 km) and the nearest railway station is Aluva (20 km).
The 15 km of long golden beach is very clean, shallow, and attracts swimming and sunbathing. This is one of the few places where we can see the lagoon (kayal) and ocean separated only by a few hundreds of metres. One of the main events in this beach is the tourism fest during December. The best season to visit is all throughout the year barring the rainy season (June - October). Tourists can find beach resorts and cottages nearby the beach.
Most of Kerala’s main attractions — beach, backwaters, seafood, Ayurveda, ethnic-style cottages — are available here at reasonable rates. For a middle-class tourist, not able to afford Kerala’s expensive charms such as the swanky Kumarakom resorts but wanting to have a ‘Kerala vacation’, wanting to get a taste of the soothing Ayurveda treatment, as well as to have a good time with family or friends, Cherai is a really good option.
Many foreign visitors come to the beach resorts at Cherai for long-term treatments for diseases, especially diseases like psoriasis and back pains. These treatments require massages and also other therapies such as internal cleansing procedures like emesis or purgation, as and when required, Ayurvedic oral medication, and many more procedures. The therapists here are pleasant and skilled and they have been trained intensively at the Ayurvedic speciality hospitals in and around Ernakulam.
In an hour or so of sheer bliss, the entire procedure starts with a relaxation massage done with a powder application on the head for warding off colds, continues with a 10-min head massage, and moves on to the main business — a rhythmic soothing, strong massage of the whole body with an oil smelling of camphor. It is followed by a medicated steam and herbal hot water bath to make the traveler feel clean, detoxified, sleepy, and content for the rest of his life.
