Spice Village was our second destination after Coconut Lagoon. The experience of getting to the beautiful cool hills ,preceded by the fantastic stay in Coconut Lagoon, had already raised our expectations about the place.

Once there, it took very little time to get charmed by Spice Village. Nestled between the forests, and a botanical marvel,the place gives you no reason to step into the actual forests. The staff were very considerate in arranging our trips, treks. Remember the treks can be quite scary and tough ,so avoid taking kids along and specify if you want an easy or hard trek. Our trek to the forest was intense, bitten by leeches and all. The prize was to spy on a mother and calf elephant feeding in dense Bamboo thickets.

The periyar lake tour is a lottery. We could only see distant bison, deer and wild boar. Ask the hotel for a pair of binoculars.

Our pre-teen daughters were kept fully engaged with the hotels eco contest that requires a detailed trek around the great botanical garden that is Spice Village. Theres lots to see and do there , all related to Environment, Recycling and saving the planet.. And the pool is quite nice. There is a well stocked library in case you forgot to take books along.

Since we had a long 10 ten holiday, we decided to give our Buffet challenged stomachs a small break by going only B&B at Spice Vilalge. If you dont mind good Kerala Dhaba style food without the ambience of 5 start, then Periyar Cafe is just a five minute walk on the main road to the left of Spice vILLAGE.It is neat ,clean and has great Syrian kerala food, as well as regular Mughlai fare

There are no in- room TV's in any CGH property .Spice Village is not for Urban Cowboys. Get lots of books, decide that you enjoy just sitting and communing with nature, and chill out. This experience is not for Raucous groups wanting to drink,shout and make merry.

Don't bother visiting spice plantations etc as all the spice plants and more are growing inside the Hotel itself. Ask the inhouse naturalist to take you on various tours of the property - no charges for that. Same for Tea gardens, you can see them enroute to the place , so dont waste time making a separate trip unless you want to see how tea is plucked, dried and processed

CGH deserves commendation for what they have achieved in Spice Village.

Its always difficult returning to a favourite place. We had such a wonderful stay at Spice Village two years ago, we were a little nervous about staying again. Could it be as wonderful as we remembered? Would we be spoiling a perfect memory?

On the contrary, everything we enjoyed about Spice Village was still there. The warmth, welcome and friendliness was as great as ever and the note on the pillow in the bedroom said "Welcome home."

The greatest interest and charm of Spice Village passes by most of the people who stay, who come for a night or two nights. It is more than just a place for an overnight stay. Unfortunately for many guests that is what happens.

We've stayed in most of the cghearth properties and Spice Village is our favourite.

The upgraded deluxe villas are very comfortable indeed and the bathrooms have been beautifully done.

There have been many favourable comments about Anand the botanist who is a great asset to the property and who offers a rare and learned insight into just how eco-friendly Spice Village is.

The new restaurant typifies the developments here since our last visit. The green policies have produced the 50 mile restaurant where the food is superb and, best of all, resourced within 50 miles of Spice Village.

We visited the farm in a stunning position on the heights of the Western Ghats where some of the food is sourced. Of course the garden at Spice Village is extensive and supplies vegetables for the table. The farm adds greatly to this. While many guests will find this of little interest it demonstrated to us how seriously the company takes its green credentials.

Girish, the ranger, is helpful and directed us to great places in the region we could not possibly have found unaided.

So our most recent stay more than confirmed our initial impression of Spice Village. Highly recommended - and it's worth more than a quick visit.

Stayed here for 2 nights with my family in Feb 2009. A superb hotel- def 5 star.The hotel rooms are clean and comfortable though perhaps the bathroom can do with a little updating but they are well furnished and have a traditional rather than modern look.

The grounds are wonderful with hundreds of spice plants all within the grounds. Plenty of bonuses at this hotel. Everyday there is a free spice tour round the grounds of the hotel and at 6 or 7pm the chef gives a cookery class which was brilliant. I would also recommend buying their book of recipes for about £1-2 in the bookshop as the recipes are fab.

If you are keen on sports then there are tennis/badminton courts and we played with the boss, who despite being around 70, was exceptionally fit. The staff were very friendly.

The 2 srestaurant have everything you can imagine in terms of options in the buffet breakfast and dinner but we found the price of the dinner too expensive so went to the other 5star hotel- the cardomom county hotel next door who serve an excellent dinner for less than half the price.

In this area I think 2 days is plenty as the hotel is the best part. We went to an elephant orphanage on the way to the hotel, but close by which I would recommend. The Periyar national park though is not that great and I am happy that we only went for the boat ride. Apart from a few elephants you would be lucky to see anything else. The highlight was meeting some school children on the boat

The Spice Village was a large hotel consisting of about 60 thatched bungalows. It had good quality rooms but not as nice as others we had stayed in. The rooms were nicely spaced out and there are numerous labelled spices and plants along the pathways. The bathroom was quite small though and had an old fashioned green tub.

The restuarant was buffet style. We were on B&B basis so breakfast was included, lunch and dinner were extra. The buffet had a good selection of Indian food (poppadums and pickles were tasty).

The chef put on a cooking demonstration at 7pm before dinner. He showed us how to cook some local dishes which we found interesting. You get to sample the end results too. The hotel also put on a traditional dance show near the reception area at 7:30pm which was also good.

The Spice Village Hotel is a 5 minute drive from the main entrance of Periyar National Park (easy walking distance). The town is also in walking distance for shops.

Overall, a good hotel and perfect if you are visiting Periyar National Park.