Weekend at the beach - Cochin or Mangalore?
 

I am in Bangalore with work for 2 weeks, and the thought of staying in the room for 2 days over the weekend does not appeal me, so I am considering to go to the beach somewhere close. Good travel options in terms of timing, price and physical presence of a beach are Cochin (Kochi) and Mangalore.

Can anybody please advise about any of these places:
- how is transport from airport to city?
- how is the beach? Can one spend all-day at the beach, or is it just a place people come to watch the waterfront and eat?

I tend to lean towards Cochin because it has some history and people say it has great beach, but don't know how to compare that with other beaches (e.g. Greece, Turkey, Romania, Russia).

Any thoughts will be highly appreciated.

Kochi - the beaches (rather, houseboats) etc are all in Kumarakom which is like 5 or 6 hours from Kochi airport.

Mangalore has a nice beach called Malpe around 60..70 kilometers away from it.

These are not the sort of beaches you can laze in swimsuits on .. you want Goa for that, which is again about an hour from bangalore.

See video.google.com or images.google.com for pics of each of those, then decide.

I ended up to spend 2 fabulous days in Kochi:
Saturday
07:00 - arrival in COK
08:30 - arrival in Fort Cochi at the homestay I booked online. I guess average, but had good breakfast.
10:00 - left for Cherai beach on Wypin island.
11:20 - arrival on beach after 15 min walk + 10 min ferry + 45 min local bus + 10 min tuk-tuk. The beach might not be comparable with Thailand, but it was GREAT! Fine sandy beach >10 meter wide, warm water, good security. Highlight of the day was seeing dolphins while having a beer on a local terrace. It was exactly the day I wanted.
17:30 - back to Fort Cochi
18:00 - fresh fish from seashore market cooked at one of the local restarants - absolutely divine!
20:30 - early sleep

Sunday I went on a backwater tour by boat, a very nice way to spend a quiet day among locals. I was not keen on returnng to the beach, so was a really nice day.

Monday morning - flight back to BLR, and now back to work :)

^^