Spice Forest Plantation Homestay, Thekkady

The view from our private balcony was the best. The room was spacious, the bed comfortable.

It is not a homestay but a hotel. The owner is somewhere else, the manager showed up once and there’s only Rajiv who cooks and serves and washes up. (Cleaning ladies come in once a day.) We went for some walks through the cardamom plantation, which were nice but there’s really nothing else out there. The road leading up to it was so bad that the taxi that dropped us wouldn’t come back to pick us up. Booking.com says it’s close to the national park but it’s actually 28 km to the entrance. We never did get the information about how to get there etc so ended up not going.

The room is large, clean and comfortable with a large balcony. The views from the balcony are amazing!

A Homestay should be someone's house, where guests are welcomed by the family. This is definitely NOT a homestay but more like a motel which seems to be run by one member of staff, Rajeev, who unfortunately doesn't speak much English. However, he was very keen to please once we managed to make ourselves understood. He did the check-in, cooked all the food and served it and was generally the only member of staff around.There is an English speaking manager, who only appeared for about 5 minutes during our 3 night stay. Not sure what his function is......! There is no information about the area or excursions to the Periyar Wildlife park, so we ended up not going! Apart from a couple of short walks around the plantation, there is absolutely nothing to do apart from sitting on the balcony and enjoying the view. There is nowhere to sit apart from the bedroom's balcony and bench seating in the dining area. (No views)There is actually no indoor communal space at all! The food is average. The hotel advertised itself as being 2.6 km from Periyar Wildlife Reserve, not mentioning that the actual ticket office is over 1 hours drive away! The access road is very long, uphill and full of potholes and our taxi driver refused to come back to pick us up, fearing his car would be damaged. Not to be attempted in the rainy season! The hotel got us a tuktuk and our driver met us at the bottom. A 2 night stay is plenty if you just want to sit and admire the views, which are spectacular. A swimming pool would be a great addition!

We stayed for three nights and had an amazing time. Rajeev was so welcoming and helpful. The food was amazing and he explained the different dishes to us. The room was immaculate and the views are incredible. It is such a relaxing and beautiful place to spend a few days.

- Smart tv - The vieuw - clean room and big bed - good staff - plantation hike

- nothing near the hotel - The road to the hotel was rough (we managed with our Suzuki wagon) but I would imagine it’s not for everybody. - first night not a lot of warm water (because it was cloudy?)

This was a place to remember. It felt so special, up in the trees watching the world go by and the amazing sunsets and birds. The staff was fantastic and food was great too. Highly recommend.