KTDC Lake Palace — Hotel in Kerala

The Lake Palace is a charming resort, located as it is in the Western Ghats and near to the centre of the manmade lake that was created by the flooding of the valley surrounding the Periyar river when constructing the nearby Mullaperiar Dam. Built in 1927 it really was a small summer palace, originally for the King of Travancore and later given over for the use of the British Governors of the area. |An unusual feature of this lake being the trunks of teak trees, which were left along the banks of the old river and now protrude from the water, making ideal perches for resting birds such as egrets and kingfishers that feed off the lake. |Set in the heart of a very large wildlife reserve that is home to tigers, leopards, elephants, bison deer and monkeys. Plus a host of other species that I will not name here.|While sitting peacefully in the garden of the Lake Palace is quite normal to see families of various animals grazing on the land between jungle and water and also sometimes see, as we did, a family of elephants swim across from one bank to the opposite side, before going on their way. We also saw deer make a similar journey, but in a different part of the landscape. One item that I do recommend that you bring with you to this place, is a good pair of binoculars.|Tigers are of course rather elusive but it is not uncommon to hear one roar and elephants trumpet at night. There were reports of an early morning kill of a bison by a tiger that had happened recently within sight of the hotel, also there are the remains of a bison skeleton, the skull with horns being plainly visible that was killed and eaten within the past year or so.|If you are adventurous there are jungle walks that can be arrange as well as complementary daily boat rides where there is another chance of seeing more wildlife. ||As to the hotel itself, well, access is only by boat from the sister KTDC Aranya Nivas hotel which is located at the last point in the wildlife sanctuary that can be reached by road. Aranya Nivas is also a useful pit stop that can be returned to at times during your stay because, firstly there is no wi-fi at the Lake Palace and also because you would need to be taken either there or to the park gates to take part in any of the guided walks or have an ayurvenda massage.|The hotel only has six rooms and although is rating is 3* the old traditional style of them is charming and the rooms are large and comfortable, with spacious outdoor terraces that have 4 easy chairs and 2 tables that you can relax on at your leisure.. The restaurant too is a joy, the food is plentiful and varied and the management do their best to cater to every guest’s tastes. The service is both very good and very friendly. |We really enjoyed our calm and relaxed stay at this quite...

Hey folks! Well to say about this resort... It was during my vacation I visited Thekkady with my family. We planned of staying 2 days here and we reached this resort by afternoon. We parked our car outside and we were taken to the resort in a boat as the resort can be approached only by a boat as it's on an island.

Once we reached, we were greeted with grape juice and then taken to our room. We had booked the room facing the river and the view from our room is simply breathtaking.The aroma of the resort with the lake beside was great. We could see wild boar's walking on the uphills when we look out of the window from our room. The room had all facilities and was comfortable. We had our lunch sometime later, the thing which I disliked is that usually we expect food which has hotel taste ie; tastes something different from what we have at home but here it tasted exactly like what we have at home and it should have been lil more yummier. I didn't find it up to the level.😌 That day we didn't go for boating n stuff as we were tired and yeah boating is only available morning as of what I remember. So the rest of the day we knocked around the resort.

Evening they served us coffee and cutlets. The lighting at night is yellowish which creates an exciting atmosphere. After having had our dinner(I don't remember what we ate🤭😂)we were advised to keep our doors and windows closed as there were previous histories of elephants and monkeys coming and you know!....

Next day morning we went for boating. We all clambered in the boat. There weren't much people, as of what I remember only us and 1 other family were on the boat. The scenery was breath-takingly beautiful. We could see dears grazing and on the top of the hills we could see boars. The tall trees silhouetted against the sky made beautiful scenes. In total the boating was wonderful. We enjoyed every single minute we spent and if you're a shutterbug you would get to click many magnificent pictures.

We spotted a deer struggling to cross the fence as it had come to our compound by mistake and it was few metres apart from our room. It was frightened to death when it saw us and yeah we wanted to help but you know it was kinda jumping here and there so we dared not go near it. It saved itself after some time.🙂🙂

Overall the experience was fantabulous. If your lucky enough then you get to see a peacock in the morning🦚. The staff and services are good💯. The only think which I disliked here is the food, it wasn't that great🙁. I would recommend you to choose this place if you'r visiting Thekkady, the resort itself gives you an...

Kudos to the team KTDC Lake Palace, Thekkady!

Lake palace is nature's lap for you, set up by Kerala Tourism Development Corporation, right at the middle of the Periyar Tiger Reserve forest - an un-parallel tourism experience one may ever come across. It was a summer palace of the King Marthandavarma, set up in 1920s and later handed over to KTDC, the official host of God's own country.

The way KTDC has maintained the heritage features of the palace and wildness of surrounding "Periyar forest" is remarkable. The 6 palace-kind rooms with independent balconies having Thekkady lake views from three sides give the guest 'mesmerized in a jungle island' feel.

Dining area with delicious and authentic Kerala menu that's flexible to guest's taste also offer nature-lake serenity while tasting sumptuous meal.

The efforts of KTDC management and staff here truly deserve great applause for maintaining a customized guest experience. They treat in a very polite-interactive manner to understand the requirements and cater each room in the way the guests want it to be. In terms of hospitality, food, cleanliness and feel of heritage & nature, I would give it a 5 star rating.

Special mention Mr.Binoy (GM) who is enthusiastic in ensuring every guest goes through the best 'nature experience' ; service team headed by Mr Kanakaraj who ensures guest comfort round the clock and The cheff, Renjith, who is committed to customize the menu based on guest recommendations, keen in serving the best variety of food and taking direct feedbacks.

A loads of thanks to the team for making my family very comfortable inside the deep forest!

Value for money and must try wild -...