Thekkady: Gateway to Periyar Tiger Reserve

Thekkady is the working name for the area around Kumily town, on the edge of the Periyar Tiger Reserve in Kerala's spice hills. It is the wildlife-and-plantations stop on a Kerala route — a change of pace from the tea country at Munnar and the flat water of the backwaters — and it sits on the classic run between the two, which is why Experience My India's own route through the state includes it as a one-to-two-night stop with an elephant on the map icon.

One to two nights is the usual stay — enough for a Periyar Lake boat safari and a spice-plantation walk without over-extending a stop that most itineraries treat as a link between Munnar and the backwaters or the coast.

October to March is the most comfortable season in the hills, as it is across Kerala's highlands. Thekkady is reached by road, typically as a stop between Munnar and Alleppey or Kumarakom on a north-to-south route; there is no airport in the town itself.

Kumily has a mix of plantation-set resorts on the hillsides above town and simpler guesthouses closer to the reserve's entrance, in keeping with Thekkady's character as a nature-and-plantations stop rather than a resort destination.