The Mountain Courtyard Thekkady

The resort is up a hill with a dedicated road, a few kilometers from Kamily and Thekkady. I booked a Tamarind room but was upgraded to a Banyan room, a much-appreciated gesture. The rooms are spacious with tiled floor. There are many wooden tables and a wooden writing desk and a small cupboard. The walls have some wooden finish, there is a narrow partition extending all the way to the high slanting ceiling and separating the sleeping area from the sitting area. Because of the dark wood finishing, the room seem to need more lighting. The bathroom is big with a walk-in shower, there is a good supply of toiletries. There are many room types, but the Banyan Cottages seem to be a good choice. Some rooms are located in a 4-storey building, while the higher-grade Banyan Cottages are located in five small buildings, each with four rooms, two a few steps up and two down. The buildings are in one row going down the garden. The hotel ground is big with many benches for relaxing with service from a garden bar. There is a good-sized swimming poll a short walk down. There is a sufficient supply of bottled water, tea and coffee. The reception is medium size with good seating area. The staff are friendly and helpful. It is a sort of a medium size forest resort highly recommended for relaxing, and the price is reasonable.

It’s a beautiful resort located amongst nature, embracing nature a part of the nature instead of modifying it. Rooms were large, surrounded by so many trees and greenery that we felt like living in a forest itself, woke up to sounds of birds. 5/5 to resort, rooms, and ambience. It’s also located closer to main attractions. However, kids play area was a major disappointment, located in the basement it looked shady, loud, and lacked anything for kids to spend more than 10 mins. Breakfast too a little disappointing for a 5 star resort, spread was limited in terms of options as well as lacked taste. Check in was okay, they were not able to find our booking as done through an aggregator and mentioned we don’t have one. Spent 15 mins to sort this out and realised another family was facing the same issue. We found staff behaviour different from the hospitality we received over Kerala. There were no smile, no greeting, and no thankyou. They were not impolite but were neither welcoming as well which we found very weird. Only person who was proactively helpful was the parking security guard. I believe resort has extreme potential given location and nature however it needs an overhaul to utilize it fully.

Nestled in the forest, a relatively tiny place. The services are excellent. The drive to this place was a windy dirt road from Tekkady junction. But within a few minutes in this place, you forget the aches and pains of the drive. We were greeted by the young and cheerful staff who gave us a tour of the ammenities and showed us to our cozy room on the third floor, with a 180 degree view of the forest. The rooms have a simple decor and are clean . The evening entertainment with tea time, cooking demonstrations, a south Indian dance , followed by a bonfire and Bollywood music. The Restaurant service was very good. The chef’s were very accommodating to serve us a simple Dal Khichidi and some butter milk (comfort food)which was not in the menu. Overall we rate the experience 5 stars

A Lot to comment in positive and negative. Negative points to be improved easily with good management decisions. Note: we are foreigner family speaking 4 languages but not Malayalam nor Hindi…this is very important to mention here (some communication issues). First thing first: we spent 5 nights in the premise, which is enough to elaborate an equilibrated review, and we rent during this occasion 2 rooms. 1) Reaching the hotel, a picture conform to our expectation with a location nested into the forest (cloudy mornings filled with birds songs and silhouette rain forest trees ..lovely). 2) Access : road is narrow and prudence is required if you come with your own vehicle of unexperienced taxi. Given the slope rate and some sleepy sections, avoid to come with Tuktuk after your excursion if you are family with kids ..reception proposed us for excursion start toward city a tuktuk..does not make sense for family of 4..very heavy for tuktuk and unsafe. 3) Checking in is smooth and personal helped with luggages. A very quick introduction is delivered and a sheet of papers summarizing some trips for the near protected park managed by government rangers. 4) Excursions (TRIPS): we were told for booking go to the city and get to the ranger government location..we did or we tried …but as foreigner some tuktuk never understood what we asked for and had to go back to the hotel: To avoid this conversation “ where is the government entity ?” response “In the city”, where ? “in the city”, where in the city ? “Thekadi” , Q: “where Tekadi ??” ..no response..since there is no address on the sheet of paper.. after insisting..”ah it s at the junction..” Q “which junction which street ???”… finally they called a car driver and explained him we wanted to get to the ranger office. We noticed that 95% of guests were from India, some come with their own vehicle, for them all easy since there is no language barrier, we can feel this proportion as the staff sometime forget that we do not have local phone number or data plan… luckily some ladies at front desk do their best to help such as miss Jody. Among hotel activity you can enjoy cooking demo…interesting as we are foodies but..the cook is a bit too silent and just add ingredients without explanation..that was an occasion to laugh and share with other local guests. Traditional dancing: nice but a bit sad since there was a single dancer in murky underground. Kids toy area: outdated stuff mostly broken ..can feel aging things Tea/coffee time 4-5 very pleasant in the park, as well as fire at night. 5) Rooms are large and in good shape. However for a “resort” fridge totally empty no snack no drinks.. If you fancy a fresh beer like I do that’s not the place..no license in this establishment. WIFI totally lagging and several power outages experienced 6) Food : Dinner We love Indian food, but the dinner was terrible the first day, low quality not well cooked and soggy poppas, chapati etc..all the buffet was the same. Breakf

I have not stayed at this property; however, my first impression is that the staff is extremely rude. I interacted with an employee named Shankar, and I was taken aback by the audacity of him disconnecting the call. I attempted to communicate with him to better understand the hotel’s offerings, but he clearly does not grasp the meanings of "courtesy" and "hospitality." When I requested to connect with the Front Office Manager, he provided the number but then abruptly disconnected the call. It’s shocking that he had the audacity to raise his voice while speaking to a customer. I wanted to reserve a guestroom in the month of February'25 for a family. As a seasoned traveler, I find this behavior unacceptable and outrageous. Thank you Shankar and Team.

What a place can’t recommend enough. Fantastic rooms with a forest view. Peaceful in addition great food. The staff were exceptional friendly and helpful. Loved this place and very close to the town centre. Tip would be to have a first floor room , I stayed in 5004 right at the bottom. Rooms in the 1000 block would be closer to reception.