Spice Village - A CGH Earth Experience

Rooms and decor

Picture walking into a working spice garden where every cottage is a low, thatched-roof building tucked under cardamom, pepper, clove and vanilla vines — that's the appeal of Spice Village, the CGH Earth eco-resort in Kumily / Thekkady. The architecture draws on tribal houses of the Kerala plateau, and the design is deliberate rather than cosmetic — these cottages were built to disappear into the garden, not to perform rusticity. The 52 cottages split between Deluxe Villas wrapped in private garden and a handful of Pool Villas where you step straight from the verandah into a plunge pool. Interiors are warm and simple — wood, local handloom fabric, cool tile floors, and the thatched roof keeps things naturally cool against the plateau air. A small porch faces dense greenery, and you wake to filtered light, a faint scent of spice and the sound of forest birds. If you like quiet, unfussy, properly-natural surroundings, the whole resort feels like a hamlet inside a real spice garden that's been looked after with care.

Food and amenities

The point of staying here is to be in the garden and slow down. The first highlight is the spice garden itself — the in-house naturalist runs walks that explain what cardamom, pepper, vanilla and coffee plants actually look like and how they're harvested. Reviewers consistently flag this as more interesting than they expected. The outdoor pool sits inside a ring of trees for a slow afternoon dip, and the open-pavilion Ayurvedic spa runs traditional Kerala treatments that many guests call the most relaxing part of the trip. Food is what CGH Earth is most proud of — the resort runs its own organic farm and uses spices grown around the cottages, so the Kerala and South Indian menu has real intensity. Meals often happen in garden-side dining areas, with forest sounds as the soundtrack. There are also dawn birding walks, cooking workshops built around spices, and a full menu of tours into the nearby Periyar Tiger Reserve — guided forest walks, bamboo rafting on the lake, and the elephant-bath programme that fits the resort's conservation ethos.

Location and getting there

Spice Village sits in Kumily / Thekkady on Kerala's eastern plateau, right against the Tamil Nadu border. The area is spice country and tea-and-coffee country, and the air is genuinely cool — a real shift from the muggy Kerala coast. The location's killer feature is how close it sits to the Periyar Tiger Reserve, one of South India's most famous protected forests and lake systems. The reserve gate is only a few kilometres away — a roughly 10-minute drive — so guided forest walks, bamboo rafts looking for wild elephant and gaur along the lake, and the elephant-bath programme are all easy day trips you take from your cottage. The lively Kumily spice market is walking distance for cardamom, pepper and tea to take home. For getting in and out, the nearest airports are Madurai (IXM) in Tamil Nadu and Cochin (COK) in Kerala — both are about a 4-hour drive on scenic but winding mountain roads. The resort runs a transfer service. This is a location for travellers who want forest, plateau air and wildlife, not city sights or beaches.

Things to know before booking

Straight talk to help you decide. First, the remote location and the mountain drive — both Madurai and Cochin airports are about a 4-hour transfer on winding ghat roads. Carsick travellers should bring pills and plan for the better part of a day in transit, because public transport is not a practical option — you'll lean on the resort car or a private driver. Second, the tropical-forest setting means mosquitoes and insects come with the deal, occasional macaques wander through, and the monsoon (roughly June-September) brings heavy rain, slippery paths and leeches on forest trails. Pack repellent and keep food sealed. Third, the eco-resort approach is deliberately simple rather than modern-luxury. Some cottages don't have air-conditioning (the plateau breeze usually does the job, but ask at booking if it matters), Wi-Fi and mobile signal are patchy in spots, and the add-ons — meals, drinks, spa treatments — sit at the upper end of the price range. Budget for those, and if you have specific room-type or air-con preferences, flag them clearly when you book.

Our take

From reading through real guest reviews, Spice Village sells one thing very well — "thatched cottages inside a real spice garden + the Periyar forest 10 minutes away + Ayurvedic spa + farm-to-table Kerala food" — and it does it with the CGH Earth conservation ethos. If your mental picture of this trip is waking up in a cardamom-and-pepper garden, doing a dawn forest walk or bamboo raft in Periyar, drifting back for an Ayurvedic treatment, then eating proper Kerala food in cool plateau evening light, this place is the right call and will stay with you. If you want modern luxury, ice-cold air-conditioning, nightlife, or you'd rather not spend 4 hours on a mountain road, the location and the eco-resort style won't be the easiest fit. Overall we'd give it 9.1/10 — best suited to nature people, wildlife travellers, and couples who actually want to disappear into the forest for a few days.