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Thekkady Tourism, Kerala

Explore the best of this little slice of paradise as recommended by our travelers

Tourism in Thekkady

Rated 4.20/5 ( based on 16646 reviews )

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Quick Information

Best time to visit
Nov - Feb
Ideal Duration
2 - 3 Days
Visa
N/A
Starting from
Rs. 2,500
  • Honeymoon
  • Road Trip
  • Ideal for families

About Thekkady Tourism Guide

Let us help you plan a hassle free holiday to Thekkady through this detailed travel guide

A breathtakingly beautiful little district in God’s own country, Thekkady is home to the largest tiger reserve in the country. Hence, Thekkady tourism offers an amazing opportunity to get on a jungle vacation and enjoy a rendezvous with wildlife. So, gear up for an exhilarating experience filled with bounty of sightseeing options that take tourists to little streams winding through dense forest over all kinds of terrain, from hills and valleys to the neat, orderly plantations that dot the landscape of Kerala.

With a pleasant climate in Thekkady throughout the year, this tour let tourists enjoy boating, bamboo rafting, trekking and much more, and all that amidst wilderness. Spice markets and elephant safaris are all a part of the charm of this little slice of paradise. Along with the many beautiful sights to see, tourism in Thekkady has a number of unique activities that can only be experienced here.

Thekkady Wildlife Sanctuary

On a tour of Thekkady, one of the biggest attractions is the nearby Periyar Tiger Reserve. This sanctuary is one of the best places to observe wildlife and perhaps even catch a glimpse of the magnificent tigers. People who love flora and fauna, lush vegetation and bird watching, here is a great experience awaiting for them. And that’s not all! Various activities like elephant rides and jeep safaris are available for tourists to have some fun in this reserve. Apart from the tigers, the reserve is home to a large number of elephants and quite a few rare and endangered species as well. The funny thing about Thekkady tourism is that this fact is not publicized as much as the presence of the tigers. Some of these other species of animals that can be observed in the reserve include the Gaur, the Nilgiri Tahir and the Lion Tailed Macaque among others.

Tourist Attractions in Thekkady

Besides the famous Periyar Tiger Reserve, there are many more attractions that offer amazing travel experiences. The other places that can be visited while enjoying the sightseeing tour include the Mangla Devi temple, various plantations around Murukkady, Odamade and Vellaramkunnu, and the sleepy little village of Chellarkovil.

Have a wonderful experience while enjoying a guided tour through the Periyar tiger trail. What’s more? Jeep and elephant safaris through the tiger reserve can also be enjoyed. There is also an option to go for bamboo rafting and take nature walks among other things.

Romantic Places in Thekkady

To make the most of their honeymoon in Thekkady, couple can always visit Periyar Lake located within the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary. And, grab a chance to add some beautiful moments to their romantic sojourn while cherishing the enthralling views of the wilderness along. Murukkady is another famous attraction where couples can savour natural beauty and panoramic views of coffee, pepper and cardamom plantations. While, to cherish the true gift of nature, one must visit to Parunthumpara where one stroll on a carpet of lush greenery. Blessed with glorious views, as one hop on to this hill, the charm of the place will leave them spellbound.

Apart from sightseeing experiences, Thekkady tour can be a great experience as the place offers everything from basic homestays to fairly luxurious resorts in terms of accommodation. Thekkady tourism is quite well developed as it sees a number of tourists from all over the world visiting around the year and the Kerala government helps out a fair amount as well.

So, if it is a complete experience of Kerala that tourists are searching for, then Thekkady is an absolute must visit. The opportunity to see the majestic tigers, going rafting through the backwaters, riding on the back of an elephant all in the same day is a tantalizing thought for any traveller planning a trip. Any visit to Kerala is incomplete without a few days spent exploring this little pocket of serenity. A taste of tourism in Thekkady will leave travellers wanting more.

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Places To Visit In Thekkady

Let the experts guide you to the best of this mesmerizing destination

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Anakkara In Thekkady

Anakkara is a small village in the Idukki district of Kerala. Anakkara lies in the Western Ghats at a height of 4000 feet above the sea level. Anakkara is famous for its spice plantations and is situated at a distance of about 13 km from Thekkady and 120 km from Kottayam. It has comfortable climate throughout the year with ...

  • Spice plantations
  • Wildlife
  • Sightseeing
  • Nature
  • Adventure
  • Family Trip
Read More

Periyar Lake In Thekkady

The Periyar lake in Thekkady is part of the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary in Kerala. The Periyar Lake was formed during the construction of the dam across the Mullaperiyar river in the year 1895. Periyar Lake offers one of its kind of animal watching, where the tourists can watch the animals very closely, sitting comfortably ...

  • Lake
  • Nature
  • Boating
  • Tea plantations
  • Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary
  • Cardamom Plantation
  • Family Trip
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Mangladevi Temple In Thekkady

Mangaladevi Temple in Thekkady is a 1000 years old temple which is located in the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary. This temple is located at a distance of 15 kilometers from Thekkady. Mangaladevi Temple is situated at an altitude of about 1300 metres above the sea level.

There is a very interesting phenomenon behind the Manga...

  • Temple
  • Wildlife
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Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary In Thekkady

Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary in Thekkady is located in Kerala. This national park and wildlife sanctuary is a protected area for elephants and tigers. It is located in the Pandalam Hills of the Western Ghats. The total protected area of this wildlife sanctuary covers an area of about 900 sq km. A vast variety of plants and an...

  • Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary
  • Jeep Safari
  • Tea plantations
  • Cardamom Plantation
  • Family Trip
  • Honeymoon
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Things To Do In Thekkady

Your list of the best things to do, compiled on the basis of actual traveler experiences

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Bamboo Rafting In Thekkady

Thekkady or Periyar, as it is sometimes known, is famous for its backwaters. And bamboo rafting in Thekkady is one activity that lets you witness the beauty of backwaters at its best!

This activity is organized in the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary, on the Periyar Lake, and is a part of a nature walk. On a tour to excursion ba...

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  • Ideal for friends
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Jeep Safari In Thekkady

Jeep safari in Thekkady through the rocky terrains is a thrilling experience. It is a must do for those in love with adrenaline rush. It is a very popular activity in Thekkady, and tourists and nature lovers always opt for this. The safari covers the dense and lush forests, waterfalls, spice plantations, and the rich green ...

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Periyar Tiger Trail In Thekkady

The Periyar Tiger Reserve in Thekkady is one of the biggest and most well maintained wildlife reserves in India. The Reserve is full of picturesque scenery. You are not required to pay any entry fee here. The Periyar Tiger Trail is an exciting project started by the forest department. It gives all the thrill-seeking individ...

  • Periyar Tiger Reserve
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Elephant Ride In Thekkady

Elephant ride in Thekkady is one of the most popular activity for tourists in the city. A Thekkady elephant ride offers a chance to enjoy a breathtaking view of the tea and cardamom plantations to tourists. While on an elephant, you can access the otherwise inaccessible areas of the Periyar National Park, due to the rough t...

  • Elephant rides
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How To Reach Thekkady

Read about the best & quickest routes to save time & money, as suggested by our travelers

By Air

The nearest domestic airport to Thekkady is Madurai airport, which is about 136 km away. There are flights connecting Madurai to various important Indian cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata. From Madurai airport, travellers can take cabs to reach Thekkady and Periyar.

The closest international airport to Thekkady is the Cochin International Airport. With flights coming from various Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian cities and countries, the airport is accessible to a number of international travellers. There are flights to and from Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Singapore and Bangkok among other cities from the Cochin International Airport. There also cabs available to take visitors from the airport to Thekkady.  

By Train

Thekkady also lacks a train station which means that directly reaching the city by train is out of the question. The nearest train station is in Kottayam which is roughly 110 kms away. Connected to other big junctions in the area, you can reach Kottayam from any Indian city including the ones that are fairly far like Delhi and Kolkata.

There are many trains to Kottayam from Ernakulam as well. From Kottayam, cabs are an option to take visitors onwards to Thekkady. State run buses are also available from Kottayam to reach Thekkady.

By Road

By road is the main and only approach that takes you directly to Thekkady. The two options when reaching by road are by bus and by car. There are Kerala State Department buses to Thekkady from a bunch of cities, including important travelling destinations such as Kochi, Kottayam and such. These buses are usually fairly comfortable and easy to travel in.

Thekkady can also be reached in cabs and self driven cars. With respect to cabs, they are also available from a number of places and cities in Kerala. However, they tend to be a little expensive. going by road to Thekkady is not a bad idea as the routes into this heavily forested area are scenic and worthy of travelling. By road, it’s a 4-5 hour journey from Kochi, around 160 kms. A drive from Bangalore is also possible as the route is roughly 9 hours long and some 510 kms long, coming through Karnataka and passing towns like Dharmapuri and Dindigul.

There are other routes available as well. However, they are both at least 50-60 kms longer. When driving to Thekkady, it is advisable to carry a certain amount of petrol/diesel with you as there are not that many fuel stops around. Also, inside Kerala, the roads can be tricky as they are in dense forest and rural areas. This is also something that needs to be noted when driving there.

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    Thekkady Packages Reviews

    Read on to find out why our customers love us!

    G

    Gauravkothariu

    Pune

    Gauravkothariu's 6 days trip to Thekkady

    Had awesome experience. Special thanks to Mr. Vineet who planned everything perfectly and ensured personal care throughout Had awesome experience. Special thanks to Mr. Vineet who planned everything perfectly and ensured personal care throughout
    HP

    Hardik Panchal

    Mumbai

    Hardik's 7 days trip to Thekkady

    Dear Trip Triangle, Greetings for the day! I have planned all my past trips on my own. This time due to other priorities I chose Trip triangle based on a friend's reference to get a proper and hustle free itinerary, best negotiated hotel prices, language friendly driver and a lot of memories throu
    ghout the trip. I would like to give my experience and feedback: Hotels were suggested by us, there was no price negotiation done from 7C's Destination. I was getting the same hotel tariff as the agents. The agent does not suggest the hotels as per our suggestion and our needs, they lack a list of hotels. The itinerary is so vaguely mentioned and the driver is unaware about all the sightseeing places we want to visit daily. Driver appointed to us acted sweet , humble but was cunning , always confused and always trying to fool us. Day 1: He did not take us to sight seeing as we reached late. 2 waterfalls mentioned on the itenary were not visited, the reason being no water, dark etc. Accepted all the reasons given by him. Day 2: He would not take us for sightseeing, instead take us to spice garden Ayur valley and force us to buy from there as we will not get good quality spices anywhere else. He dropped us at the hotel and when we asked about the sightseeing, he couldn't take us as the itinerary was not shared with him.I had to call the 7C's Destination agent Mr. Renjit to talk to him. Eravikulam National park was closed he should have mentioned earlier after reaching Munnar Mr. Renjit is saying you cannot visit due to breeding time. Day 3: We could not visit Periyar national park as it was fully booked 1 day prior. We spoke with other guests who had done online booking. On top of that Mr. Renjit is blaming us for not reaching prior 1 pm. To summarise the trip: Delhi Trip agent was not ethical, suggested we cancel the trip request at the trip triangle and they would give additional Rs 10,000 discount. 7 C's Destination were talking about ethics but lack to fulfill comments mentioned in the itinerary. Driver was taking commission at every place we visited Spicy shopping, Ayurvedic centers, Kerala chips and even for bookings which we did by ourselves. We received constant complaint calls from the surfing and kayaking schools stating the driver asked for commission. On declining the commission the driver posted negative feedback on the internet. Driver would not stay in our hotel or nearby hotels. He would be late by 20mins to 30 mins in the morning to pick us from the hotel due to which we missed all the major sightseeings in Munnar and Varkala. Other tour guests were getting the discount at Jatayu Earth center while we did not get any discount. We have spent Rs 1,06,340 but it was not worth it. It could have been much better. Thanks and regards, Hardik Panchal.
    VY

    Vipin Yadav

    Vipin's 5 days trip to Thekkady

    Nicely organised by the agent and hotels were really good.And a great experience. Thanks Travel unbounded for wonderful life long memories
    PM

    Pravakar Muduli

    Kochi

    Pravakar's 7 days trip to Thekkady

    It was a great Experience to explore Kerala.Our tour was most enjoyable.All hotels were very good beyond our imagination.Cab driver was well behaved and very punctual.He was our tour guide also.We enjoyed a lot in all sightseeing places. But our tour could be customised upto Ka
    nyakumari within this period of program.During journey from Alleppey to Kovalam both jatayu earth centre and Padmanav Swami temple could be covered.We could not customise it.The last date we felt bored in Trivandrum after darshan of Padmanav Swami temple. Anyhow the journey was memorable and we are very grateful to the travel unbounded for a good tour program .
    CS

    Chanakya Sampath

    Hyderabad

    Chanakya's 4 days trip to Thekkady

    I opted for 5 star rated stay. While the hotel stay was great, the boat house was pathetic. It does not even qualify for 3 star rating. Food served was below average.
    TS

    Tarun Sethi

    Bhubaneswar

    Tarun's 4 days trip to Thekkady

    Nice experience of the trip... The service was very good...
    DS

    DrGaurav Sharma

    Delhi

    Dr Gaurav's 6 days trip to Thekkady

    Mr. Alan (our travel agent) planned our Kerala trip so well,we are thankful to him for making such an amazing trip with good hotels and facilities. Once again thank you so much Alan.
    C

    Chiragjain

    Kerala

    Chiragjain's 5 days trip to Thekkady

    We had our first trip planned with Aapka Tripwala. The trip was meticulously planned by Prachita from their team and taken care by Chirag for the ground support. The cab and booked hotel were all in place as promised. They also helped with early check-in at our Udaipur hotel. It was a great experien
    ce booking with them. Looking forward to book another trip with them again in future.
    G

    Guptarashi

    Lucknow

    Guptarashi's 5 days trip to Thekkady

    The entire trip was well-planned, but the travel time between all three destinations was quite long. Complete trip was memorable.
    B

    Bala

    Chennai

    Bala's 3 days trip to Thekkady

    From booking to checkout everything was good. Perfectly tailor made tour. Thank you team driver was so cool and nice hotel.

    Property Types in Thekkady

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    FAQ's of Thekkady

    Read on to find out why our customers love us!

    Ideally, how long should someone stay in Thekkady?

     

    The ideal amount of time spent in Thekkady would depend on the traveller's reason for going there. While there are quite a few places around that are not to be missed to see the true beauty of the place, one can ideally see most of them in 3 or 4 days. However, as the biggest attraction is Periyar National Park, anyone visiting Thekkady to spend a few days observing the animals could do with staying a week and seeing some of the other nearby attractions as well.

    What should someone pack when going to Thekkady?

    In terms of clothes, muted colours like green, brown, grey are recommended as the national park is a main attraction. The clothes should ideally also be comfortable and easy to walk around in. Since the other attractions around Thekkady are nature oriented as well, it makes packing the essentials of mosquito repellent, flashlight and good shoes necessary as well.

    Is it better to visit Thekkady with friends or family?

    Thekkady is a place that you would visit to be close to nature and as such, it is a peaceful and luxurious experience. A visit with family is ideal and it is an excellent place to spend some down-time with the family and relax. Of course, if you have friends that share a common interest with you, for example, wildlife/nature photography, then it is a great place to visit with them as well.

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