Welcome aboard Desire Cruises. Houseboat Holidays designed to enchant you as you traverse deep into the heart of the backwaters on the graceful decks of our kettuvalloms. These huge yet graceful boats are the quintessential rice barges of yesteryears, which have been converted into luxurious floating homes, complete with bedrooms, modern toilets, well stocked kitchens and outboard engines. Built entirely without the use of nails, these boats are made of planks of jackwood, which are securely tied together with sturdy coir ropes.
House Boats
Kettuvalloms or Houseboats (Riceboats) are country boats that were used in the early days for the transport of goods from the isolated interior villages to the towns. With the advent of roads, bridges and ferry services, gradually the kettuvalloms went off the scene. Now these kettuvalloms are back again as a major tourist attraction. A house boat is about 67 to 95 feet feet in length and has a width of around 13 feet to in the middle. The materials that go into the making are all local and Eco friendly bamboo poles, coconut fiber ropes, bamboo mats, coir carpets etc. The main wood used is "Anjili".