Thanks very much, segacs. Yes, I'm fairly early in the research phase. I'd been under the impression that India was introducing visa-on-arrival, but that was based on some casual checking a year or more ago. Perhaps I got it confused with the electronic visas.
FWIW, our nationality is USA and we'll be there the second half of February.
Kerala was indeed the nicest place I visited while backpacking through India and neighboring countries back in 1980(!). I imagine a lot has changed, though.
