Resorts in Wayanad, and the Thenmala alternative
Resorts in Wayanad are good but busy. Thenmala, further south, offers a plantation stay alternative that is just as green with almost no crowd. A short guide.
Resorts in Wayanad are having a long moment. The north Kerala hill district has forests, coffee plantations, a wildlife sanctuary and a reputation that has pulled traffic away from Munnar over the last five years. It is also, as of 2026, busier than it was. If what you wanted from a Wayanad resort was quiet, green, and a little colonial, you should know about Thenmala.
Why resorts in Wayanad got popular
Wayanad sits at around 700 to 2,100 metres in the northern Western Ghats, four hours from Kozhikode airport. It has everything Kerala tourism likes: coffee and pepper plantations, the Chembra peak trek, Edakkal caves, and the Muthanga and Tholpetty wildlife sanctuaries. A resort in Wayanad is usually cheaper than one in Munnar, and the landscape is different enough to feel worth the drive.
Between 2018 and 2024, the district moved from an insider pick to a mainstream one. New resorts opened, Instagram followed, and the weekend traffic from Bangalore doubled. The popular resorts in Wayanad now book out six to eight weeks ahead for season weekends.
What a Wayanad resort still does well
Wayanad is a better pick than Munnar if you want forest with your hills. The wildlife is real. The coffee plantations are a legitimate interest if you care about specialty coffee. Tholpetty and Muthanga are the best places in Kerala to see an elephant on a regular morning. And for a group of six or eight, Wayanad has a good supply of whole-villa options at a reasonable rate.
If your week is built around treks, caves and wildlife, we will not talk you out of Wayanad. Pick a property at least twenty minutes off the Sulthan Bathery main road, and go.
The Thenmala alternative
Thenmala is a small town in the Kollam district, on the southern edge of Kerala's high range. It sits between the Shendurney Wildlife Sanctuary and the Palaruvi waterfall belt. Above and around it, in the hills around Ambanadu and Aryankavu, are some of the oldest working tea and rubber estates in the south.
Plantation stays here are rare, quiet, and not on most Kerala tourism itineraries. Our Planter's Portico, a 1930s manager's bungalow on a 2,700-acre working estate, is ten minutes off the Thenmala dam road. There is a small handful of similar bungalows in the region. None of them are in Google Maps as prominently as the Wayanad inventory is.
If you liked the idea of Wayanad for the green and the quiet, but wanted more quiet and less traffic, Thenmala gives you almost all of it with a tenth of the visitors.
Thenmala vs Wayanad, what each week looks like
A Wayanad week gives you one or two safari mornings, a trek or two, a coffee plantation walk, and usually a busy dinner in Kalpetta or Mananthavady. It is active. It is green. It is, on a season weekend, not slow.
A Thenmala week is slower. A factory visit in the morning, a forest walk with a tracker, an afternoon by a natural-rock pool, and a dinner on the verandah with estate-made preserves. No nightlife to speak of. No crowd to dodge on the way to the waterfall. You read more. You sleep earlier. The contrast with Wayanad is the point.
How to reach Thenmala
Trivandrum airport is 75 km, about two hours and ten minutes by car. Cochin airport is 130 km, four hours. Kollam Junction railway station is 55 km, ninety minutes. Most guests fly into Trivandrum and drive up through the Kallada reservoir valley, which is one of the prettier approaches in Kerala.
If you are pairing Thenmala with another property, the natural choice is a beach cottage at Varkala or Veli on the way back to Trivandrum airport. Pair it with Vagamon to the north, and you have a hill and plantation week with no repetition.
The short answer
Resorts in Wayanad are good, but not quiet the way they used to be. If you want forest, coffee, wildlife and a crowd you can handle, stay in Wayanad and go off the main road. If what you actually wanted was a verandah, a plantation, no phone signal and the option of three days without a conversation, look at Thenmala. Most people who have not heard of it are the ones who would like it most.
People have also asked.
If your question is not answered in the piece or below, write to us.
Write to us- Are resorts in Wayanad still worth visiting in 2026?
- Yes, especially if you are after wildlife, coffee plantations and the Chembra trek. Pick a property twenty minutes or more off the Sulthan Bathery main road to avoid the traffic.
- What is a quieter alternative to a resort in Wayanad?
- Thenmala, in south Kerala, has working tea and rubber estates and a handful of plantation bungalows. It is quieter than Wayanad on any week of the year.
- How far is Thenmala from Cochin airport?
- 130 km via the Kollam-Punalur road, about four hours by car. Trivandrum is closer at 75 km.
- Is there wildlife near Thenmala?
- Yes. The Shendurney Wildlife Sanctuary is next to Thenmala, with guided walks and boat safaris. It is less visited than Periyar or Wayanad, which is part of its appeal.