Top things to do in Thekkady
Thekkady is one of the most loved destinations to many who visit Kerala. For most of them it is just a one night stay during which they visit the Periyar National Park and do the common boat ride through the park reservoir, lot of them go for the Elephant ride and Spice plantation tours, and some of them visit the local theatres to witness Kalaripayattu and Kathakali art performances. Here is a brief idea about the top things to do in Thekkady.
Like most people have a misconception the Periyar National Park is not about just a boat ride of 1.5 hours along with 70 others, where the most luckiest would get to see a small herd of Elephant and never a tiger 😉 Tigers don’t come to the banks for photo sessions, instead they stay back deep inside for the forests. More than the boat ride the National Park offers a lot of interesting forest related activities like Nature walks, Green walks, bamboo rafting half day and full day, Tiger trails and much more. But for all these, you would need to stay back at Thekkady at least for 2 nights. To see the unseen you need to go deep into the forests and that is what all these programs offer, you will be taken into the forests along with poachers turned protectors of the forest – The forest guards. To know more information about the activities at Periyar National Park – visit http://www.periyarfoundation.org/
The present job of the tamed elephants of Thekkady is to take people around their back for some time through the spice plantations, there would be a mahout instructing him aloud to turn, walk and to life legs for people to get down. All these elephants are relatively older and might not be that fit to work hard, so taking people around is pretty much easies for them. There is an Elephant Junction in Thekkady where you have some real interesting Elephant ride or say Elephant walks through cardamom plantations.
Spice and spice plantations are some thing unique to Thekkady, Kerala and most of them do not miss this interesting activity. Spice like cardamom require a very moderate cool climate which only Thekkady offers and that is how Thekkady and surrounding places are full of Cardamom plantations. Most spice plantation tours are limited to a Spice Garden and not a plantation. At Beaumont we offer a very unique program called as Spices from Farm to Market, where we take guests through different facets of cardamom production, harvesting and finally auctioning from where it reaches you through traders, dealers and shopkeepers.
Jeeps are very popular in the high ranges of Kerala and there are a lot of Jeeps available in Thekkady. There are small Jeep safaris being organized to forest like areas and border belts of Thekkady. The main excitement is the Jeep ride on top of it you get to see a lot of other things native to Thekkady. The Gavi Jeep ride is a scenic drive through dense forest of the Western Ghats is a day excursion from Thekkady and needs prior booking.
There are small theatres in Thekkady where you get to see the Kathakali and Kalaripayattu dance forms. These dance forms have got nothing to do with Thekkady, their existence in Thekkady is just because of the tourist inflow.
Along with these activities, you woud definitely need to have a great stay. Beaumont Plantation Retreat is located 13 kilometres from Thekkady, say 20 minutes. We are located at a cliff which has got very wide panoramic views of the Cumbam Valley of Tamil Nadu, also the Chellarkovil waterfalls could also be seen from the view point close to us. There are bicycles with which you could visit the chellarkovil waterfalls and go across the border belt.. Please do have a look at the activities we offer in Thekkady to have a better idea about what we offer.
