Every account of how to see Ashtamudi offers you the same two things: a private houseboat, or a small canoe in the Munroe Island canals. Both are worth doing. Neither is the cheapest, longest or most useful way onto this water, and the thing that is has been running seven days a week since March 2023.
The reason nobody writes about it is a broken link.
The 403
The Kerala State Water Transport Department publishes the Kollam timetable on its own website. The address that search engines hand you ends in .php and begins with www, and it returns HTTP 403 — forbidden — to an ordinary visit. Travel writers hit the wall and move on.
The address that works has neither. It is swtd.kerala.gov.in/pages-en-IN/bsfromkollam. Everything below is transcribed from that page and from the department’s own "See Ashtamudi" page, both last modified 11 June 2026 and read on 14 August 2026. This is the state government’s primary record of its own service, not a listing site’s summary of it.
Five hours for ₹400
The department describes the service in its own words: "See Ashtamudi is a Tourist Boat Service which was inaugurated by our Honourable Finance Minister on 10.03.2023 at Kollam District… A pleasure trip along the waves of lake Ashtamudi viz. Sambranikkodi, Koyivila, Manro Thuruth, Kannankaatt Kadav Bridge and back to Sambranikkodi via Peringalam, Peruman Bridge, Kaakkathuruth. The Tourists can spare around an hour in the Sambranikkodi Island. Keralam style Traditional food will be served by the Kudumbasree Unit in the Boat counters. The duration of ferry will be 5 hours with a ticket rate of Rs.400/- for Lower deck and Rs.500/- for Upper deck."
So: five hours, seven days a week, an 11.30 departure from Kollam with a 16.30 return, ₹400 on the lower deck and ₹500 on the upper, food from a Kudumbashree unit on board, and one telephone number for enquiries and booking — 9400050390.
One honest caveat about that text. The department writes "used to kick start at 11.30 A.M", which in Indian official English almost certainly means "starts", but the page has not been reworded since 2023 and we are not going to pretend the phrasing is unambiguous. Ring the number and confirm the departure before you build a day around it.
What makes the ticket remarkable is the circuit. Every stop on it is a named place on the map: Sambranikodi, the island in the lake that can only be reached by boat; Koivila and Perungalam on the northern arm; Munroe Thuruthu, the island the canal trips run on; the Peruman bridge, where the road and two railway bridges cross the open water; and Kakkathuruthu, mapped in English as the Island of Crows. That single ₹400 ticket visits more of this lake’s named outlooks than any road itinerary can — and a private houseboat, at many times the price, sees a good deal less of it.
Eighty-five sailings a day
The sightseeing boat is the headline. The timetable underneath it is the real find, because it shows a lake that is still a road.
Three rosters work out of Kollam. The first is a Kavanad-based shuttle running forty-eight sailings a day, first boat at 05.00 and last at 21.30, criss-crossing between Kavanad, Sambranikodi and Vallakadavu at intervals of twenty minutes to half an hour through the whole working day. The second runs twenty-two sailings, alternating between the Sambranikodi run and a Plavarakkadav shuttle that carries on until 21.30. The third is the Munroe Island roster, and it is the one that matters most to a visitor.
Add them up and you get something in the region of eighty-five departures a day. The boats do not go home at night: one overnights at Sambranikodi and restarts at 05.00, another stays at Kollam, a third ties up at a landing the timetable calls Ashtamudi Bus Stand and begins again at 06.00.
These are commuter ferries at commuter fares. The department does not publish a fare per route on this page, so we will not invent one — expect a few rupees, bought on board. Separately, OpenStreetMap records the Perumon–Munroe Island crossing (node 4567381729) as running 06.30 to 20.30, seven days a week; that is a local crossing rather than an SWTD roster, but it is another way onto the water.
Arrive at 12.30, leave at 09.00
The Munroe roster reads, in the department’s own sequence: 12.30 Kollam to Pezhamthuruth; 15.30 out to Koivila and 16.00 back; 16.30 across to the Ashtamudi Temple landing and 18.30 back; 20.15 to Koivila again and 21.00 back; 21.30 to the Ashtamudi Bus Stand, where the boat stays the night; then 06.00, 06.30, 07.30, 08.00 and 08.30 legs the next morning, and finally 09.00 Pezhamthuruth to Kollam.
The practical consequence is not stated in any guidebook we have read. You can ride a scheduled government boat out of Kollam town at 12.30, spend the afternoon and the night in the Munroe Island waters, and ride a scheduled government boat back at 09.00 the next morning, for a commuter fare in each direction. The 16.30 and 18.30 legs to the Ashtamudi Temple put you on open water straight through the golden hour, which is the thing this entire page exists to recommend.
The famous trip that is not on the timetable
And then there is the one everybody has heard of: the long backwater ferry between Kollam and Alappuzha, sold for years as India’s cheapest great boat journey.
The department’s two station timetables, published on the same site with the same last-modified date, do not agree about it. The Alappuzha page carries it at row seventeen of fifty-four, verbatim: "10.30 | Alappuzha | Kolllam (Tourist - Upper Deck)" — the third l is the department’s own typo. The Kollam page has no such row. The word Alappuzha does not appear on it at all.
What is reasonably established elsewhere, and we flag that the detail comes from traveller accounts rather than from the department: the service is seasonal and alternate-day, running roughly December to March; it was suspended when the canal was blocked in 2023 and resumed on 5 December 2025; it takes about eight hours; the fare is about ₹600 from the Alappuzha end, cash only, bought at the water transport office or from the conductor on board.
We have to correct ourselves here as well. Our own library article on this ferry describes it as a District Tourism Promotion Council boat leaving Kollam and Alappuzha at the same time each morning. The state’s own timetables list it from the Alappuzha end only, and the ticketing that travellers actually report is the water transport office, not a DTPC counter. If you turn up at Kollam jetty in June expecting to board it, you will find nothing.
What to do with this
If you want one boat trip on Ashtamudi and you want it to be reliable, take the ₹400 seat. If you want the lake as the people who live on it have it, take a commuter ferry and get off at a landing whose name you have never seen in print — Kavanad, Plavarakkadav, Pezhamthuruth, Koivila, Sambranikodi. That is the real geography of this water, and none of it is in a guidebook.
If you want the long Alappuzha crossing, ask before you plan. It is real, it is wonderful, and it is not a service you can assume.
Frequently asked questions
What is the "See Ashtamudi" boat and what does it cost?
A tourist boat run by the Kerala State Water Transport Department, inaugurated on 10 March 2023. It is advertised at 11.30 daily, runs about five hours with a 16.30 return, and costs ₹400 on the lower deck and ₹500 on the upper, with food from a Kudumbashree unit on board. Enquiries and booking on 9400050390.
Where does it go?
The department’s own circuit is Sambranikkodi, Koyivila, Munroe Thuruthu and the Kannankaatt Kadav bridge, then back to Sambranikkodi via Peringalam, the Peruman bridge and Kakkathuruthu, with about an hour ashore on Sambranikkodi island.
Why is the department’s timetable so hard to find?
Because the URL search engines return — the one ending in .php, with www — answers HTTP 403. The working address drops both: swtd.kerala.gov.in/pages-en-IN/bsfromkollam. That single broken link is most of the reason this service is missing from travel writing about Kollam.
Can I use the ordinary local ferries?
Yes, and they are the cheapest way onto this water — roughly eighty-five sailings a day across three rosters, first boat about 05.00 and last about 21.30, at commuter fares paid on board. The department does not publish a fare per route, so treat it as a few rupees rather than a quoted figure.
Can I get to Munroe Island and back by public boat?
Yes. One roster reaches Pezhamthuruth from Kollam at about 12.30 and returns to Kollam at about 09.00 the next morning, with legs to Koivila and the Ashtamudi Temple landing in between — including two that cross the open water at sunset. It is an overnight arrangement rather than a day trip.
Is the Kollam–Alappuzha ferry running?
Only in season, and you must check. It is a seasonal, alternate-day tourist service, roughly December to March; it was suspended when the canal was blocked in 2023 and resumed on 5 December 2025. It appears on the department’s Alappuzha timetable and not on its Kollam one. The reliable year-round option from Kollam is the ₹400 "See Ashtamudi" service.