Thekkady/Periyar Reviews

Overview of the destination
Hi All, Thekkady/Periyar is a gorgeous area.

Food, sight-seeing and shopping
Thekkady/Periyar is a gorgeous area. We visited following places at this destination: 1. Connemara Tea Garden/Tea Factory 2. Elephant Junction 3. Jungle Camping 4. Organic spice and ayurvedic herbs garden 5. Ayurvedic massage. Tea Garden/Tea Factory : I would give 2.5 stars out of 5. This is because I have visited tea gardens and tea factories at Coonoor/Ooty and they are much better. They provide a much more detailed tour and also have tasting centers where you can drink the tea made from the tea garden. Elephant Junction: I would give 4 stars out of 5. This was a beautiful experience. We did the following: - Say baby elephant being playful - Had an elephant ride - Bathed an elephant - Had an elephant shower us :-) Jungle Camping: This would be rated 3 stars out of 5. This could have had higher rating but we got rains and so could not see any wild animals. Overall food was great at this place. 4. Organic spice and herbs garden: I would rate this as 3 stars out of 5. Again lots of information about various spices and ayurvedic herbs. There are lot of these along the way to Connemera tea factory. Please pick one. 5. Ayurvedic massage: 1 star out of 5. We were taken to this place by Sajimon Salim of mynetperiyar. It was lousy. Too much oil. The showers place was dirty.

Activities & things to do
Elephant junction and Jungle camping count in this. Please see the above sight seeing description.

Travel tips, How to reach, travel warnings etc.
Please do not use the mynetperiyar.com travel agent. Overall rating is very negative.

Overview of the destination
Thekkady is a typical Kerala countryside, with rich vegetation, constant rains and damp weather (at least that's how it was when we went 2 weeks back !!).

Food, sight-seeing and shopping
Thekkady?s single biggest attraction is its huge lake. With 2-tier motorised boats one can go boating which takes about 2 hours per trip. On a lucky day, I?m told that many wild animals can be spotted along the lake?s shores. All that we spotted were a group of bisons (very far away), a couple of wild pigs and a herd of sambhar. We didn?t even see an elephant, for which Thekkady is so well known !! We were informed that during the rainy season, animals do not venture out since there will be enough water for them to drink inside.

Activities & things to do
The Forest Guides and those who manage the forest reserve were not very helpful. When I asked to go for a jungle trek, I was told that when it rains they do not encourage it because of the jungle leeches, millipedes and centipedes that would be swarming the jungle floor. In Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary apart from the Jungle Treks, there isn?t much else to do. The Tiger Trails etc., are all seasonal and are heavily weather dependent. During monsoon time, the place has almost noting to offer visitors except the 2-hour boat ride. Spice Tour though available, isn?t very exciting.

Travel tips, How to reach, travel warnings etc.
Thekkady is quite easily accessible from any of the major cities of Tamil Nadu or Kerala. The place is well-connected by road and train services. The net also provides visitors all the information that they will require. From Thekkady bus stop, Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary is just 15 minutes and Rs.30 away by auto rickshaw. Once within the sanctuary it is very tranquil and quiet with only the sounds of the jungle ? mostly the insects, some birds and the occasional wild animal. The place is very basic, modest and down-market in its offerings, facilities and the tourists who seem to visit !