Thekkady Tourism, Kerala

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

Quick Information

See Map
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

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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How To Reach Thekkady

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The nearest domestic airport to Thekkady is Madurai airport, which is about 136 km away. There are flights connecting Madurai to variou

s 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.  

Thekkady also lacks a train station which means that directly reaching the city by train is out of the question. The nearest train stat

ion 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 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!

Dhammaragde's 7 days trip to Thekkady

Happy to travel with TravelTriangle, Thank you Team

Dhammaragde Aurangabad

Meaakashu's 5 days trip to Thekkady

My parents went on a trip to kerela which couldn't have been planned better by them. Perfect customary itenary, and Mahima did everything to make this trip safe and memorable for them. Took care of minute details, like stays, perfect driver (who was more of a tour guide and made sure the family enjoyed each of the places). The stay in Allepey (Kondalip) instead of staying in the usual boathouse was the highlight and wise decision suggested by Mahima. The stay in Munnar was sumptuous!

Meaakashu Bangalore

Mmalam's 4 days trip to Thekkady

A Memorable and Perfectly Planned Kerala Trip – Thank You Comfort Destination & Ms. Kiran! We recently completed a wonderful and unforgettable family trip to Kerala, all thanks to Comfort Destination and the amazing coordination by Ms. Kiran. From the very beginning, Kiran ma'am took personal care in understanding our preferences and curated a perfect itinerary that balanced comfort, sightseeing, and relaxation. Her selection of beautiful resorts and scenic spots truly made our journey special. A big shoutout to Mr. Hashim, our cab driver, who was not only professional and punctual but also warm, friendly, and knowledgeable. He made our travel smooth and enjoyable throughout the trip. We sincerely thank the entire Comfort Destination team for their dedication and support. Special appreciation goes again to Ms. Kiran, whose planning and efforts made our Kerala experience memorable and successful. We’re short of words to express how satisfied and happy we are. If you are planning a Kerala trip, we highly recommend going through Comfort Destination — and do request for your trip to be arranged by Ms. Kiran. She is truly exceptional and will make your journey unforgettable!

Mmalam Patna

Pranavkanagaraj's 3 days trip to Thekkady

Good and satisfied with driver and travel agent. Not much satisfied with the hotel booked.

Pranavkanagaraj Odc Bengaluru

Rimmie's 6 days trip to Thekkady

Well, No doubt they presented a very good deal. We had opted only for a car to take us to various places in Kerala. The communication was good and swift and clear. Just that the car that arrived did not have a carrier and was not spacious enough for 5 people. Our mood was all spoiled right at the start of the trip, as carrier and space for 5 was very clearly communicated to the agent several times. As a redressal, they said that they will provide a new car but on the next day and that we need to adjust in this car only for that particular day. Now why should we manage ? How difficult was it to arrange a separate small car for going from Kochi airport to Fort Kochi. This whole case wasted our 3 hours, and thank god we had a stay nearby where we could rest, else we would have been stranded on the airport. I cannot comment on how their services would be for accommodations and all, but a car was all they had to arrange, and they flawed. After a lot of heated discussions, they finally arranged the expected car, and the driver was really good, and we had a very nice time thereafter. So if you can ignore this incident, go ahead with them, as the prices and the itinerary were great.

Rimmie Ruh Jaipur

Sai's 4 days trip to Thekkady

Experience was great. But the view munnar rooms were not hygiene. Cockroaches in the bathroom. Except for that everything else was great. Thank you helping us.

Sai Kiran Hyderabad

Vrgup's 5 days trip to Thekkady

Driver was well informative about the places to visit very cooperative and also very humble. Hotels were nice good service provided by them .

Vrgup Bengaluru

Rajesh's 5 days trip to Thekkady

Overall the experience was good and we enjoyed the locations and stay planned by travel partner Felix Feria by mutual agreement. Driver was good and well familiar with all the routes and places in advance.

Rajesh Gupta New delhi

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

Gauravkothariu Pune

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 throughout 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.

Hardik Panchal Mumbai

Property Types in Thekkady

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FAQ's of Thekkady

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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.

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.

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.

Tourism in Thekkady

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