Periyar River Lodge

This place is quite incredible, if yoi want to be in nature, have beautiful walks and river experiences this is THE place. I loved every minute of our two day stay. Made even better by the most fantastic staff. Thomas you andvyour team really made our holiday !! Thank you so much. Charles

This was the most stunning and peaceful resort we have ever stayed. Service and food was great. You can not beat these views! Amazing!!

Just spent one night here, was a superb experience on the banks of kuttampuzha river. Its evident that the owners have maintained the originality of their native home. Great staff, Rahul the manager and his team, nice small pool to cool yourself. Relaxing boat ride. And of course, a super bird watching trek in nearby Thattekad sanctuary. This is quintessential Kerala, with nature and man living harmoniously. Time taking its own course. Only minus point is weather as its tropical hot and cools down a bit only when it rains.

We travelled here as two couple with two children, which is the most this villa can accommodate in its two rooms. The house is simply stunning and has a long frontage on the river. Huge green lawns slope directly towards the water, there is a gate leading directly to the path by the river, and there is lovely little swimming pool overlooking the river view as well. Rooms are comfortable, food is great. The manager, Mr Biju took great care of us, given that the place is located quite far from the nearest market. ||In terms of activities, we took a one-hour boat ride down the river and went birdwatching on a couple of mornings. Take a guide, of course, and consider skipping the sanctuary in favour of a popular birding hotspot just outside the sanctuary. ||All in all, I highly recommend this beautiful spot.

This beautiful, two bedroom lodge is adjacent to the Periyar river. The gardens are beautiful and the view from the outdoor pool is stunning. The rooms are luxurious and the bathrooms are delightful. The food is outstanding and the service is fantastic. A fantastic place to relax and immerse yourself in nature. Very highly recommended!!

Wow! Travelled to Kerala and wanted to stay close to nature and away from crowded places. And this place was absolutely what we were looking for. ||Place/location gets 5/5 but the staff gets 10/5. Property manager Biju and his team provided us with extraordinary hospitality experience. It would be hard to beat this experience. ||Freshly cooked food, lovely people around and magnificent views, couldn't really ask for more!||We will definitely be back and stay again with these lovely people at the beautiful place it is.

We stopped here on the way back from Munnar and were completely amazed at how beautiful this location and lodge is. The service, from booking, arrival to lunch and afternoon tea have been wonderful so far. Bijju whom we booked with has been very helpful and welcoming.|There is a beautiful outdoor/indoor lounge and kitchen dinning area, a private pool, a swing, sunbeds, lots of seating along the veranda, 2 modern double bedrooms with a lovely outdoor shower and bathroom area each. |I highly recommend this lodge it's very modern, clean and idyllic.

My wife and I spent 3 nights at Periyar River Lodge and had a wonderful stay. As described by previous reviewers, the property is beautiful with lush landscaping. The house is set directly on and slightly above the peaceful river. There are no other properties within eyesight, and the forest on the other side of the river is protected habitat. ||Guests have the whole 2-bedroom villa to themselves. There are two identical king bedrooms on each side of the house. Both have views of the river and attached bathrooms with open-air showers. The villa was purchased by the current owners in 2020 and renovated. The bedrooms have AC and ceiling fans, which kept the bedroom wonderfully cool, even though it was 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius). The living room and dining area have ceiling fans, and the veranda had upright stand fans as well.||The pool overlooking the river was a godsend in the heat. It was a perfect temperature for lounging in the pool and cooling off. There are 4 chaise lounges, a couple tables with chairs, and an outdoor shower by the pool area. The pool is surrounded by vegetation and trees, which made for good birdwatching as well. We saw flocks of egrets and cormorants flying along the river each evening. We also saw terns, sunbirds, bulbuls, wood swallows, hornbills, bee eaters, and others. ||The staff at Periyar River Lodge are fantastic. They greeted us with smiles as we pulled into the property. Vivek, who is the general manager for all 3 One Earth properties, was there during our stay. He and his team took great care of us. Vivek made sure we happy and satisfied at all times. The rest of the team, including the new manager of the property, were all so kind, polite, respectful, and accommodating. They truly could not have been nicer.||The tariff includes breakfast, but we also had lunch and dinner there every day. The meals are reasonably priced and the food is abundant and very good. We had different Indian dishes at breakfast, along with fresh fruit and juice, toast with butter/jam, and an option to have eggs cooked to order as well. We communicated with Vivek before our arrival about food preferences. We had chicken biryani (by our request) each day for lunch, which we enjoyed. For dinner we had prawns one night, then chicken stew and Periyar chicken the following nights. All were served with rice, a vegetable dish, and Kerala Porotta, which we love. For dessert we had ice cream, rice pudding, or caramel custard. We had more than we could eat!||Since it was very hot while we were there, we did an early morning activity each day. Then we spent the rest of our days swimming and lounging by the pool or relaxing on the veranda. ||We enjoy birdwatching, so Vivek arranged for us to go birdwatching with an amazing local guide (Gireesh) two mornings. We were joined by a couple from Mumbai one morning and that same couple and a lovely woman from Hyderabad the next morning. Gireesh took us birdwatching in a local area one day and then into the Thattekad bird sanctuary the next day. We saw a wide variety of birds that we would have never spotted on our own. ||The last morning Vivek arranged for us to do a 1-hour early morning boat ride on the river in a traditional boat, with one man paddling in the front and another poling in the back. It was a lovely, quiet morning on the river with no one else out and about. We saw some nice birds, a Malabar giant squirrel, and macaques, but the boat ride was more about the serenity and beauty of the river at that time of day. ||We would highly recommend Periyar River Lodge to birdwatchers, but also to anyone who enjoys nature, privacy, good food, and pampering!||We also stayed 4 nights at one of the sister properties, Elakai, which we loved as well. Both properties are excellent luxury home stays for one or two couples.