Excellent boat trip & amazing Kathakali - Pick up late so not off to the best start but our driver ,Chandaran, made the rest of the day very pleasant. He was helpful and took us to the events inc boat trip and Kathakali dance which were all fantastic - Brilliant day, highly recommended

Convenient way to see Thekkady in one day - This was a good combination of activities to explore what Thekkady has to offer in one day. There were different people involved in each section throughout the day, not just one guide but everyone was friendly and it was good to not have to organise all the tickets and transport for everything ourselves. We were picked up at 7am in the jeep and taken on the jeep safari for about 2.5hrs. We didn't see a lot of wildlife but I think this is common. It was more about the bumpy (very bumpy) adventure than anything else. We had fun but I would advise against it if you have a bad back or neck. He then drove us to the spice farm where we were given a tour by a very knowledgeable man and learnt a lot about all the different spice plants. This ended in the shop where we purchased some spices from the family. These were reasonably expensive but you wouldn't have to buy if you didn't want to. From here, the jeep driver took us back to our hotel where we were able to rest for a couple of hours and get our own lunch. We were then picked up in a tuktuk at 2.30 and taken to the Periyar reserve for our boat trip. They had this well organised meaning we were taken straight to the bus and didn't have to wait in any of the long queues at either the bus park or the boat. The bus to us 3km into the park to the lake where we were met and given our tickets. The guide chatted to us while we waited and told us a little about the reserve. The boat ride was 1.5hrs. There are many people on the boat but everyone has to be seated and wear life jackets. We had assigned seats. Again, we didn't see a huge amount of wildlife but it was a relaxing ride and nice experience. Once finished, we took the bus back to the carpark and were picked up by the tuktuk and taken to the cultural centre. We had accidentally been to see a Kathakali performance in Kochi, forgetting that this was part of this tour we booked. We asked on the morning if it was possible to see the martial arts instead and they happily changed this for us so we could see the martial arts. This was a great performance and we could highly recommend it! Our evening finished at 7pm. We could have been picked up and taken back to our accommodation but decided to walk into town to have dinner before heading back. Overall, a great package to make life easier for you. The only reason we didn't give it a 5 was that, while they were very accommodating, we didn't always know exactly what was happening with not having one set guide throughout the day.