Wildlife Safari in Periyar

Home to some of the exotic and endangered wildlife species, this national park is amongst the most stunning parks in the country. On a wildlife safari in this park, you can easily spot the majestic animals like Bengal tigers, Indian elephants and several others.

The Jeep Safari was intended to be a major attraction of a Kerala trip for our children. We had to pay 2,200INR per each adult and also for one son aged over 5 years. Recognizing later that we only got 2 entrance tickets into the sanctuary. The trip started 5:30 with pick-up from hotel. After one hour we entered the park in a convoy of vehicles. The driver made it as interesting as possible, but he is not allowed to leave the tarred roads. The roads are connecting villages, there is bus and rickshaw traffic. You can hardly see more animals then in Thekkady. We could see some langurs and bisons in a distance of 3km. At 7:30 we reached a picknick spot and were told to wait for breakfast till 8:30. When asking the driver and the locally available manager how to see some animals, I was told the "Safari" was over. Some hiking activities and some canoeing were available for children above 10 years! So we were left with the option to stay at the not very attractive picknick spot, as our children are below 10 years.

We had to break off our "Safari" through the park and went back to Thekkady. At least some elephant ride, tea and spice plantations can be visited there. When we wanted to claim back some amount of money spent for almost no value we learned from the vendor (homestay Claus Garden) that there would be no way to return money after having started the trip. The homestay would have to pay the total amount to the tour organizer and the sanctuary.

Seeing the advertisement one imagines an interesting wildlife experience. Unfortunately the trip has nothing in common with a safari. The organization is horrible and there is no structure installed to only hear your feed