The Periyar National Park spans across the Whestern Ghats and is hold one of the top bio hotspots in the world. The centerpiece of the park is the Periyar Lake, formed by the construction of the Mullaperiyar Dam across the Periyar River [this is actually inside the forest]. The lake not only adds to the scenic beauty but also provides a unique way to observe wildlife.
We offer the Thekkady boat ride ticket along with our Kerala tour packages, as this is the only activity that is unique to Thekkady and there are limited seats. Reaching Thekkady and getting to know that there are no tickets will be a but awful. No Private vehicle is allowed inside the Park, hence guests will have to park their vehicle at the large parking ground at Thekkady, and from there a shuttle bus service is organised, there is an additional 60 rupees per person for this shuttle bus service, the bus ride will be around 15 minutes.
The boat ride experience at Thekkady
Visitors can enjoy boat cruises on the lake which lasts for one and half hours, offering opportunities to spot animals like elephants, sambar deer, gaur (Indian bison), otters and various bird species along the water's edge. The vegetation is dense and in most cases if would be best to carry a binoculars to observe in detail, and a times you find them nestled within the dense vegetation of the forest. Binoculars are available on rent at the boat landing point counter.
At times you literally do not find anything, now this is something purely subject to luck. We have heard that people have rarely spotted a tiger across the lake, but that could have been a rarest of the rarest incident. Generally Elephants, Indian guar, otters, wild deer etc are the common sights.
The boat can occupy around 70 guests at a time and there would be three boats cruising the lake for each timing. Life jackets are provided and it is a must that it has to be worn. All of this has come place after a boat tragedy incident occurred in the year 2009 at Periyar National Park.
How to Book the boating at Thekkady
Things have become so easy after the forest department has started offering the boat ride tickets available to book online at their website - https://www.periyartigerreserve.org This is as simple as booking a flight ticket on some random website.
Another option is to use the Kerala tourism development corporation website - https://boating.ktdcbooking.com/ However we recommend the forest department site, the first one as the booking experience and confirmations are relatively easy, and the tickets are also cheaper.
Keep your Photo ID card ready with you while booking the tickets as you need to enter the exact information as in the photo ID card as it will be cross checked with the ticket and the ID card before boarding the boat.
Thekkady boating Price table is as below, the prices for foreigners and Indians are separate.
Nationality | Indian Citizen | Indian Child | Foreign Citizen | Foreign Child |
Boatride | INR 255 | INR 255 | INR 255 | INR 255 |
Park Entrance | INR 45 | INR 45 | INR 500 | INR 500 |
Shuttle bus | INR 60 | INR 60 | INR 60 | INR 60 |
Timing of Thekkady boating at Lake Periyar
There are four timings as below, of which what we have experienced is that, the more sighting are during morning and the evening boat rides, however people have got to see a lot of sightings during the mid day and noon boat timings. During summer lot of them come to the banks of the lake to drink water, that is when the sighting is more. Having said all this, you might sight the best at an odd time and sight nothing at the more preferred time, as this is not staged and every sighting is purely based on something called as luck!
Reach the parking area half an hour before the boating time.
Tme of the day | Thekkady boat ride timing |
Early morning | 0730 hours to 0900 hours |
Morning | 0930 hours to 1100 hours |
Mid day | 1115 hours to 1245 hours |
Afternoon | 1345 hours to 1515 hours |
Late afternoon | 1550 hours to 1700 hours |
The experience is more like a boat safari through the reservoir where you can get to explore the wildlife of these forest terrains in its own habitat at the safety of the boat. At Green Earth Trails, this Periyar lake boating comes along with the package if you have Thekkady included in the Kerala tour package, the reason is very simple, rest all the activities in Thekkady can be availed in Munnar, except for this boating. The boating is unique to Thekkady and is not available or possible elsewhere.
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