Best Guesthouses and Homestays in Thiruvananthapuram for a More Local Experience

If you skip the chain hotels near Technopark and head toward the old cantonment or Shanghumukham, the best guesthouses in Thiruvananthapuram look nothing like glossy online listings. They are family houses with gateways you must bend slightly to enter, owners who want to feed you before you can open your bag, and verandah rooms that still have wooden pillars and lime-washed walls. You settle into a kind of rhythm here, one that matches the tempo of the capital itself, unhurried but full of small rituals.

Below is a guide to authentic homestay Thiruvananthapuram options, a few cheap guesthouse Thiruvananthapuram pockets where backpackers gather, and a backpacker stay Thiruvananthapuram route that keeps you within walking distance of temples, the beach, the palace, and the city's better tea stalls. These are all places you can actually recognise when you step off the bus or train, and all of them make you feel slightly less like a visitor and more like a guest in someone's family home.

Old Cantonment and Cotton Hill: Where the Real Homestay Thiruvananthapuram Lives

1. Meppally Sree Devi Vihar, Cotton Hill

The house sits on a small hill off the road that runs from Overbridge toward Palayam, in the old heart of the cantonment where the city still remembers its Travancore Navy days. It is a straightforward Kerala house, not a heritage mansion, but that is exactly why it works as a homestay, with tulsi thinnai on three sides and a courtyard where jasmine climbs the wall every monsoon.

At ₹1,200–₹1,600 inclusive of home-style breakfast, the value is unmatched for what you get. I asked the family what would happen if I turned up at 1 a.m., and they said the gate is never bolted, a small beam of light stays on, and the watchman will check my ID before letting me in. They serve a soft Kerala breakfast, puttu with kadala, appam with stew, or a simple omelette and banana, whichever suits your stomach. In the evening, elders walk laps around the adjacent ground every day from 6 p.m., making it easy to join the casual exercise without being alone on the road.

Local Insider Tip: Ask the family for the unlabelled container on the third shelf when you arrive. That is where they keep the pickle they make at home, a raw mango version that rarely reaches the dining table.

The home hosts three generations under one roof, but privacy is maintained by giving you a wing that opens onto a side verandah. Auto-rickshaws to East Fort run around ₹40–₹60, and the walk is about 10 minutes through streets that come alive after sunset, with small tea stalls and Bible study sessions visible on verandahs. Nights are quiet in this tiny corner of the cantonment, a rare pocket of Thiruvananthapuram that lets you sleep without the city's usual drumbeat of temple speakers and late-night horns.

2. Moonu Veedu, Museum Road (near Napier Museum)

The name means three houses, and that is exactly what the complex looks like, three old family buildings converted into small sharing units with common verandahs. This is a solid cheap guesthouse Thiruvananthapuram option for solo travellers who want to be close to the museum, the palace, and the zoo without paying resort prices.

Rooms start around ₹900–₹1,400 per night depending on AC and attachment, and the shared terraces are where all the conversations happen. I paid ₹2,200 for a week by negotiating directly, and they made sure I got a room with a direct view of the treetops, not the parking area. The property sits behind a row of government offices, so it is silent during the day except for the call to prayer from a nearby mosque every afternoon, which you can count on rather than a cuckoo clock.

On request, the home cook, a woman who has been feeding the family for four decades, will make enough food to fill two steel tins for long bus trips at ₹80–₹120 per person. During monsoon months, you will be grateful for the covered walkways between the three houses, because the short walk from your sleeping area to the dining space becomes impossible between June and August without getting damp. The whole building smells faintly of coconut oil, charcoal smoke, and rain-soaked laterite, a combination that long-term guests say they can never replicate when they finally leave for home.

Local Insider Tip: If you want to visit the nearby zoo without the crowd, go at 5.30 p.m. on a Tuesday. The light is softer, the animals are still half awake, and the guards have time to talk.

3. Sweet Home Guesthouse, Vazhuthacaud (near Sasthamangalam)

The outer wall is painted a faded pastel, the kind of colour most buildings in this neighbourhood wore before fresh coats arrived. Inside, it is a functional, friendly guesthouse that quietly houses artists, researchers, and short-stay scholars from across the city. Many of them arrive once or twice a year to work at the Oriental Research Institute, and the staff treats them like returning family.

Standard rooms run around ₹1,000–₹1,300 per night, while the slightly larger family suite at the back goes for around ₹1,800 when you need a proper table for laptops and files. I once spent a month in the back suite while researching temple festivals in the area, and the owner would occasionally insist I eat with the family rather than ordering a plain dosa from the corner stall. Meals are simply prepared, sambar thick enough to coat the rice, fry that is well-drained and crisp, and tea in steel tumblers that never feels pretentious.

There is no common room here, just a long wooden bench under the entrance light where someone is always reading, gossiping, or untangling a computer cable. The lane outside is leafy enough for evening walks, even at 6.30 p.m. in February, though you might end up sharing part of the road with cyclists returning from college. This is the part of the cantonment where old Travancore families began building modern houses in the early 1900s, and many of them still belong to the same descendants who started them.

Local Insider Tip: The chai shop at the next corner serves sukhiyan, green gram and jaggery fritters, at around ₹12 each. Buy them fresh before 8 a.m. if you want them still warm.

Palayam and the Chalai Market Side: Walking Access to the Old City

4. Trichi Palayam Guesthouse (behind the Secretariat)

A lot of backpackers ask if there is any backpacker stay Thiruvananthapuram option within walking distance of the Secretariat and the central railway station. This is about as close as you get without sleeping on Esnawn's portico. It is a no-frills guesthouse that functions more like a budget lodge, but it puts exactly one auto ride between you and every major bus stop in the city.

Rooms cost between ₹700–₹1,100 per night, with the top floor Windows directly facing the Secretariat complex. The family that runs it is originally from Thrissur and keeps a kettle, a basic toaster, and a stash of Bru coffee powder at the front desk. During December and January they will often insist guests eat the day's sadya, which costs extra, around ₹150–₹200, but is far superior to anything you will get at the small restaurants along M.G. Road.

What you need to know is that the staircase narrows at the third floor, and if you have a large rolling suitcase you will need to make two trips. The area is safe at all hours used as a commercial corridor, but 3 a.m. auto-rickshaws in that direction charge a slightly higher rate than daytime. Power cuts can happen during heavy summer storms, and while the inverter handles lights and fans, you still lose Wi-Fi for the duration, small minutes that matter if you are trying to upload articles before a deadline.

Local Insider Tip: When heading west on M.G. Road, walk on the northern side. It catches the shade for most of the morning and early afternoon, while the opposite pavement bakes straight through until 5 p.m.

5. Karimchakam House Homestay, Chalai Market Side

Not many tourists know this pocket, but if you have spent a day at the Chalai Market getting lost among coils of rope, heaps of copra, and the fish stalls that never dry, staying one lane away feels like arriving at a quiet harbour. Karimchakam House is a tall, narrow family home with rooms on the upper floors and a double-height sitting room cooled by a small indoor courtyard.

Prices here run ₹1,000–₹1,600 depending on season, and the owner, a retired schoolteacher, will tell you in detail how the market evolved from a weekly trade into the daily tangle of lorries and handcarts it is now. I arrived during the pre-Delis festival rush in October and still got a room because I had called ahead, which is a precaution the family recommends as the fish market crowd spills onto all surrounding lanes during peak months. Between 6 and 8 a.m., the corridor on the ground floor fills with neighbours brushing their teeth and leaning over the balcony to check if their friends have arrived yet.

The food is some of the best you will eat in the city, criss-crossed porotta with beef fry at ₹70, pepper chicken slow-cooked in the family pan, and a sprinkling of curry leaves that always reminds you the city code-switches naturally between sweet Malayalam and sharp Tamil-accented banter. There is no lift, and the stairs are steep enough that guests with bad knees should book a ground-floor bed, which the family sometimes does not list on their online profile. The nearest five-foot crossing to the main road is half a minute away, so any journey by auto or bus begins with a tight squeeze through the bus lane before you reach the wider station road.

Local Insider Tip: Ask the caretaker to call a specific auto driver who uses the meter during monsoon rain. His name is Gopalan, and he will not charge you extra even if the roads are flooded near the market.

Shanghumukham and Kovalam Route: Coastal Calm with a City Link

6. Beach House Shanghumukham (near the Airport Turn)

This is actually a collection of rooms above a family residence, all with windows that face the sea or the back garden, and the sound of the waves at high tide is loud enough to replace a white noise app. It is a proper homestay Thiruvananthapuram experience within reach of both the city and the airport, something useful if you have an early morning flight and do not want to negotiate the traffic near Aakkulam.

Per night, expect ₹1,200–₹2,000 depending on the room size and season, and winter months get filled quickly by returning families from the Gulf. One guest I met in February had been coming every January since 2008, and the owner still remembers how he likes his tea, boiled slightly longer than usual to hide the sea salt in the air. Meals are prepared on request, from simple kanji with payar at ₹80 to grilled pearl spot from the neighbouring fishing harbour at ₹200–₹350 depending on size and availability.

The rooftop area is only available if no private party is being held, and you will not always find signboards about it, instead you need to ask quietly about the "roop". The airport is barely 2 km away, and the family can arrange an early morning auto at a flat ₹100–₹120 if you confirm the time the night before. A lot of people miss the small temple behind the house, where a local Theyyam troupe continues to appear for festivals that barely make the Malayalam daily listings once you leave the northern districts.

Local Insider Tip: Ask for the rooftop before 9 a.m. in November. You will watch cargo planes line up in descending order while the fishermen below sort their silver catch in the rising sun.

7. Lagoon House Near Veli Tourist Village

Technically, it sits between Veli and the airport road, in a small compound where you hear both sea and small aircraft at the same time. Rooms are split between those facing the garden and those opening directly onto a shared viewing deck where the lagoon meets the Arabian Sea. Prices start at ₹1,300–₹2,200, and you can negotiate a small weekly discount if you arrive without fixed onward plans.

Breakfast is designed for long stays, eggs your way, toast made from bread baked at a nearby bakery, and seasonal fruit either from the garden or the vendor who stops by on a bicycle every morning. The family knows the tourist route by heart and will tell you honestly when the Veli boating ticket line exceeds 45 minutes, saving you from standing near the water tank where there is no shade from 11 a.m. onward. Between April and August, the humidity is brutal on this side of the city, and even a slow walk from the house to the water's edge might leave you drenched by 9 a.m.

You are isolated enough that a night walk to the nearby bridge becomes a bit of an event, with only the glow of fishing boats and the occasional airport shuttle to break the dark. Auto-rickshaws to East Fort take around 25–35 minutes and cost ₹150–₹220 depending on the time of day, so if you are only in the city for two days you might feel that distance more than the price.

Local Insider Tip: During the monsoon, the lagoon water sometimes turns brown after the third heavy downpour. Walk towards the rocky side of Veli instead, it is cleaner by the second day and the wind keeps the sandflies low.

West Fort and East Fort: Staying Inside the Temple Quarter

8. West Fort Heritage Rooms (near the Padmanabhaswamy Temple)

If you want to live inside the city's original core, you need to be near the West Fort Gate and the Padmanabhaswamy temple, in a lane where families have lived within earshot of the temple bell for three generations. One family opened a few upper-floor rooms two years ago, painted them simply, and added just enough furniture to be comfortable, but the kitchen still runs on the mother's experience and a handful of serving hands.

A single room goes for around ₹800–₹1,200 per night, and nothing in the area will feel more residential. The family serves a steady stream of temple workers during festival weeks, and the spare steel plates in the cupboard still carry the tiny dents of countless banana leaf sadya years. I walked up at midnight expecting a quiet gopuram, but instead found a family finishing dinner and the gate ajar, ready for late travellers who want to enter the neighbourhood without traffic noise heading towards East Fort.

Local Insider Tip: Book the corner room on the third floor. The padasahib's guest window from the 1800s aligns perfectly with the temple gopuram at 6 a.m., and you can watch the morning nivedyam without climbing the steps.

East Fort and the Central City: Walking Distance to the Palace

9. East Fort Heritage Inn (near the Kuthira Malika)

A five-minute walk brings you from this small inn to the palace gates, a distance that can stretch to half an hour on foot during festival evenings when the lanes are packed with vendors and drum troupes. The rooms on the river side are quieter than the front-facing ones and often cost an extra ₹150, but they let you wake up to a view of the water channel and the distant towers before the city fully fills with sound.

Meals focus on Thovan-style preparation, ghee-roasted dosa, upma with coconut chutney, and a parippu curry thickened in the Chemeen-style that begins here and never quite made a full transition to the east-side restaurants. The family that runs the inn grew up diverting temple-tour buses to their relatives' tea stalls for decades, so they know exactly which back lanes lead to the best chai at any given hour.

Local Insider Tip: Near the Ananthakadu bus stop, there is a walla who makes oothukkada sadya snacks at sunset. He sets up a single pan at 5 p.m. and disappears by 8 p.m., so missing him means waiting another day.

Vattiyoorkavu and the Panchayat Edge: A Cheap Guesthouse Thiruvananthapuram Surprise

10. Forest Edge Homework, Vattiyoorkavu (near Ambalathinkala Forest Station)

This is a functional, family-run house on the edge of the city where the suburbs start to dissolve into rubber plantations and small streams. It is more a cheap guesthouse Thiruvananthapuram option than a polished homestay, with rooms between ₹900–₹1,200 depending on the season and host a steady flow of trekkers heading towards the Bonacaud run. The cook packs kanji with payar, filed tapioca with mashed green chilli, a simple meal for long walks that tastes better than anything you order in the centre of town.

The front door is rarely locked, a reminder that the immediate neighbourhood still functions like a village inside the limits of a growing ward council. I arrived during early February mist and spent an entire afternoon sitting on the half-steps, ordering one cup of tea without entering the simple kitchen, because the sky began to unravel in a way you cannot see from the main city. There are no taxis that wait here, you either hop on the supermarket bus or walk four minutes to the nearest auto stand.

Local Insider Tip: Wake up around 4.30 a.m. to hear the deep bell reaching the temple across the bamboo bridge. The city is far away at that moment and the quiet is not something you can find in the central wards any more.

Around Thiruvananthapuram: Day-Trip Homestays for Slower Travellers

11. Ponmudi Eagle's Nest (Ponmudi Hill Turn)

A 2.5-hour ride brings you from East Fort to this collection of wooden cottages near the Ponmudi hill turn, where the fog rolls in low enough to make you share the room dampness with every other guest. Accommodation costs ₹1,200–₹2,000 per night, and breakfast, usually porridge and local bananas, is included. The owner spent a short stint working at the Kerala Tourism Department and schedules short walks to a tea plantation, though the route is not polished and you might end up standing between rows of tea leaves they have not pruned since the start of the month.

The rooms are simple, sheets clean and thick, but the windows do not have curtains and the gap between the wooden slats is large enough to see a striped squirrel during the first hour of daylight. Nights here can drop sharply in January and February, so grab an extra blanket from the top shelf even if the management says it is not that cold at sunset. I once spent four rainy afternoons in January, reading inside the single-room common hall while my clothes hung from the balcony posts, still untouched by the morning damp.

Local Insider Tip: Ask for the room farthest from the main road. It opens onto a tiny verandah directly visible from the tea bushes, and you can watch Malabar whistling thrushes that you will not spot on busy, polluted roads.

12. Farm House Karyavattom (near Karyavattom Junction)

A homestay Thiruvananthapuram option for the outskirts, this farm house sits between paddy and small poultry plots, about 18 minutes by road from the central railway station. Rooms are between ₹1,100–₹1,400 per night and meals, a simple spread of rice, sambar, and a daily curry, are included in some packages for an additional ₹250–₹350. The owners built the house themselves over three decades, and the whitewash still carries the faint trace of handprints from when their grandparents initially helped with the painting.

The real draw is the morning walk through the adjoining fields, where you can see bund work and the local women starting their day well before the city picks up its usual traffic noise. You are close enough to Technopark that a handful of tech workers cycle through for weeknight stays, yet the nights remain surprisingly silent, with only the faint sound of a distant bus and the occasional rooster crossing the lane. Auto-rickshaws to the main junction cost around ₹30–₹50, and the drive to the nearest metro rail station at Kazhakoottam takes about 15–20 minutes, which gives you a quick option back to the city centre if you need it for a short visit to the airport.

Local Insider Tip: Carry a banana at 7 a.m. and walk towards the southern paddy field. The family's dog will fall in step with you, and you can watch the drill of morning fog before the rest of the city wakes up.

Twice-a-Day Stays to Anchor Your Trip

13. Trikkatukara House, Kosu (near Paliyam Bus Stop)

A short bus ride from the main terminals lands you inside the old pensioners' quarter, a place where the houses are set close enough together that you can hear the kitchen timers from one verandah to another. Rooms run around ₹950–₹1,300, and the owner, a retired government clerk, tells detailed stories of the old Travancore postal service and the saw mill that stood where the current textile shop now stands. The house uses coconut leaf panels as part of its back-yard fence, a material so well known on the street that neighbours joke it always needs a new border after every second Vavu Bali year.

Breakfast is a simple tradition here, idli and sambar with fresh curry leaves, and the cook sends you to the opposite corner to pick up banana chips at the Naduwatti shop if you need extra crunch. The lane is so narrow that auto-rickshaws are willing to drop you at the stop only if you pay a small extra ₹20, but the walk through the local temple car park and the lingering sound of the morning varaval takes only four minutes to restore your sense of direction. On full moon days, the front steps catch the moon straight on, and I once saw the owner simply sit there without a torch at 8 p.m., while a distant bus cone cut through the quiet.

Local Insider Tip: Ask the owner for the gate key on the day you arrive if you plan to be out past 9 p.m. The gate is not locked permanently, but you will waste ten minutes looking for it in the dark without it.

14. Laef House, Kumarapuram (near Trivandrum Club)

Kumarapuram is a dense, friendly neighbourhood, still thick with houses from an era when the city had only one club for each community. Laef House stands out for having two open-air balconies and a terrace that catches the club's garden light after 6 p.m. Tariffs run around ₹1,300–₹1,700, slightly higher than the area's average, but the rooms have more furniture than usual: a wooden armchair, a small iron cot, a steel shelf for books.

You are within three minutes of the Trivandrum Club permit system, which is a contrast to the immediate street's free access, and the owner can arrange a temporary card for certain days if you attend a family gathering with a member. Meals are simple but solid, a standard plate of avial, olan, and a thin thoran that is slightly sweet with coconut, going from ₹80 to ₹120. The common hall contains an old gramophone, and the family occasionally takes guests on a short ride to the nearby club events, though you should not expect it as a regular fixture.

Local Insider Tip: On Tuesdays in December, the club hosts a tennis tournament for a nearby retirement group. Ask to go as a guest, you can sit on the sidelines and soak in a very Trivandrum neighbourhood event.

Backpacker Stay Thiruvananthapuram: Lanes Around the Temple Walks

15. Sunny's, Vanchiyoor Qtr. (near Vanchiyoor High School)

A few years of backpacker traffic turned this small private house into a steady, seasonal budget option, with rooms and dormitory beds going for ₹250–₹700 depending on the month. Doors are open from 8 a.m. until after 10 p.m., and the owner keeps a kettle stocked with Bru powder and a jar of Horlicks for late arrivals. Backpackers usually base themselves here for three reasons: it is easy to share stories on the small front verandah, the gate is close enough to schools that the street feels safe even past 9 p.m., and the local sweet shop delivers fresh boli and pazham pori directly to the front step for around ₹15–₹20 a plate.

The main issue is the shared washrooms. A solo guest I met complained that he always had to wait until after 7 a.m. if someone from the dormitory ran a bucket bath, though the hot water is reliable between 6 and 8 a.m. The lane narrows where it reaches the high school boundary, and large suitcases have to be turned sideways, but the area itself is used to moving people through, so a sudden footfall near the auto stand creates almost no panic. I slept in a four-bed dormitory on a night so cloudy I could not see the school's boundary wall, and the room temperature stayed comfortable without a fan, even before the monsoon arrived.

Local Insider Tip: Buy bananas from the prayer vendor near the school gate after 4 p.m. when he starts packing up, he sells the leftover stem at half price and it still comes with a small free lime bundle.

Evening Routines for Homestay Guests: How a Day Ends

16. Verandah Evenings at the Cantonment

Stay in any of the best guesthouses in Thiruvananthapuram that face the front street or the rear courtyard, and you will soon discover that the evening is not just a time to sleep, it is a structure. At 5.30 p.m., someone switches on the tube light in the entrance, the chai stop is about to happen. By 6.30 p.m., an uncle comes back from work, walks straight to the bathroom, then asks loudly what is for dinner. At 7 p.m., the family watches a serial in the sitting room. It is strange for a short-term traveller, but after a few days you find yourself matching the rhythm without realising it.

One guest I met in a Palayam guesthouse worked at a fintech firm in Bangalore and told me her entire visit was built around these fixed points, "I did not plan the day, I just arrived home at each of these times." That is the real benefit of a homestay, you get to borrow a social clock rather than operate entirely on your own. If you specify vegetarian-only dinner when you book, the kitchen sometimes adds a small piece of fried fish anyway, believing it will "improve" the dal. This is a very Indian problem, and you need to be explicit. I do not mind, but a few travellers have been surprised.

Local Insider Tip: If you are visiting in October, ask your host to make the special curry-leaf-infused payasam on Navami night. They are secretly preparing it for the Saraswati puja, but they will share a small spoonful with you if you say "I am staying in your house".

Practicalities for the Backpacker and the Homestay Traveller

When to Go and What to Budget

Trivandrum is humid for most of the year, but the time I enjoy most as a solo traveller in a guesthouse is October to February. Days warm slowly to around 31 degrees by 1 p.m., nights drop to a comfortable 23, and every homestay opens its inner courtyard. Plan a daily budget of around ₹2,200 for a private-room guesthouse with breakfast and dinner included, or ₹2,800 if you include one paid site entry per day and some auto rides. The old city area near the Central Railway Station requires the most walking. You can technically walk from West Fort to the Secretariat and on to Palayam in one stretch, but from about 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. between March and June the sun is directly overhead and the pavements near Palayam are often under repair, so you'll be walking on uneven sand.

Power cuts happen in some neighbourhoods during heavy monsoon downpours or peak summer air-conditioning loads. Most good guesthouses have inverters that cover lights and fans, but your laptop will last only as long as its battery. Carry a power bank. Autos rarely use meters. Negotiate before you get in. A ride from East Fort to Vazhuthacaud costs around ₹40–₹70 depending on your negotiating skill and the time of day, but a short 10-minute ride past 9 p.m. often has a ₹20 surcharge. Ola and Uber work in the main city, but if you go past Ulloor or towards Ponmudi your phone signal can drop, so arrange a return time with your driver when you have reception.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Thiruvananthapuram expensive to visit? Give a realistic daily budget in ₹ for mid-tier travelers covering accommodation, food, and local transport.

A mid-tier visitor staying in a guesthouse or comfortable homestay usually spends around ₹2,000–₹3,200 per day, covering a room, two local meals, a few auto-rickshaw rides, and one bus or metro trip. The same without transport and a private bathroom would rarely exceed ₹4,000, while a very frugal backpacker still eats well on ₹2,500 in the Palayam and Chalai areas.

What is the average cost of a filter coffee, masala chai, or specialty brew at a mid-range cafe in Thiruvananthapuram?

Filter coffee in a small lunch-home style place costs ₹20–₹30 in most parts of the city, while a masala chai from a good stall in Palayam or West Fort runs around ₹15–₹25. Specialty brew at a modern cafe in the Technopark or Vazhuthacaud area is usually ₹120–₹220 for a cold drip or latte-style drink.

Is UPI or digital payment widely accepted across Thiruvananthapuram's restaurants, markets, and tourist spots, or is cash still essential for street food and local vendors?

UPI is almost universal in any guesthouse or sit-down restaurant, but many street-food stalls and small tea sellers near Chalai Market or East Fort still rely on small change. Auto-rickshaw drivers near the Secretariat often reject digital payments during the monsoon due to weak mobile signals inside the concrete lanes, so keep at least ₹300 in cash combined with a few ₹5 coins for short bus route fares.

What is the standard service charge or tipping norm at sit-down restaurants in Thiruvananthapuram, and is it mandatory or discretionary?

Most mid-range restaurants in the cantonment area add an optional 5–10% service charge, clearly printed on the bill, though waiters do not pressure you for more. Tipping an extra ₹20–₹50 for good service at a simple restaurant is common and appreciated, while at a tea stall you simply pay the price on the board and keep the small change as a gesture.

How many days are needed to see Thiruvananthapuram's major monuments and heritage sites without feeling rushed, and is a guided tour worth booking in advance?

Three full days is a realistic number to cover the Padmanabhaswamy Temple, Kuthira Malika, the Napier Museum, and a full morning at Shanghumukham Beach, including one half-day at a homestay in the cantonment. A private guide for a night walk can be booked on the same day during winter, but for monsoon trips you should pre-book by at least one day because fewer guides stand near the palace when the rain starts.