Planning · when to go
Best time to visit Thekkady, month by month
October – February. After the monsoons the forest is green and the mornings clear; December and January are the driest and the coldest at dawn, and the fullest, because the Sabarimala pilgrimage fills Kumily from mid-November to mid-January. March to May is warmer and hazier but the lake is low and the shore grass exposed, which is when elephants come down to drink. June and July are leeches, mud and cloud over Chellarkovil. Our pick: Late January — dry, cold mornings on the 7:30 boat, the pilgrims thinning, pepper red on the vines.
The season, honestly
Kumily sits at about 900 metres and is mild all year — a mean minimum of 16 °C, a mean maximum of 31. The south-west monsoon runs June to September and brings two-thirds of the rain; the north-east monsoon follows from October, tailing off in December; December to February is dry and clear with cold mornings. The figures are for Kattappana, twenty-five kilometres away at a similar height; Thekkady's forest runs wetter. The lake is lowest in May, which is when the shore animals are easiest to see.
October to March
Oct: 26° / 19° — north-east monsoon; afternoon rain
Nov: 26° / 19° — sabarimala season begins; Kumily fills
Dec: 26° / 17° — clear, cold mornings; Christmas peak
Jan: 26° / 17° — driest, clearest; coolest nights; peak season
Feb: 27° / 18° — dry; the last of the pilgrims
Mar: 29° / 19° — animals at the water; Good Friday pilgrims on Kurisumala most years
April to September
Apr: 29° / 20° — warmest; pre-monsoon showers; Chitra Pournami
May: 29° / 21° — thunderstorms; the lake at its lowest
Jun: 27° / 20° — south-west monsoon; leeches on the trails
Jul: 26° / 20° — wettest month
Aug: 27° / 20° — easing; mist; the lake rising
Sep: 27° / 19° — green, thinner crowds; Onam
If you can only come in the heat
Start at opening, be back indoors by eleven, and go out again an hour before sunset. The 7:30 boat at 8am in May is emptier and better than at noon in December — the city's rhythm is the desert's, and it rewards anyone who keeps it.
Keep going
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