How to Get to Parambikulam Tiger Reserve, Kerala
Updated: Nov 11
I visited Kerala's Parambikulam Tiger Reserve as a solo traveller in September 2024, and before my trip, I could not find any information on how to get there without a car.
After a bit of digging, some guessing, and A LOT of time spent, I made it to Parambikulam in one piece. So here is how to get to Parambikulam Tiger Reserve without a car, and read on to find out whether I thought the experience was actually worth the hassle of getting there!
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Travel Tips for Kerala
I have been to Kerala many times, and I have written extensively about travelling there, so you'll find lots of information in the following articles:
… Or click here for all of my travel guides for India.
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About Parambikulam Tiger Reserve
Parambikulam Tiger Reserve is a government-run national park in the Western Ghats of Kerala. Its 285 square kilometres are home to around 30 Bengal Tigers, leopards, elephants, 250 types of birds, and a huge variety of other animals.
Visiting Hours & Accommodation
Parambikulam National Park is open to visitors:
Monday to Friday: 7am - 5pm
Saturday & Sunday: 9am - 4pm
Many people visit for a day-trip, but there is an option to stay overnight and they have a range of accommodations.
I stayed in the cheapest one which was called the 'Tented Roost', and it was essentially a very nice safari tent priced at 2000rs per night.
Activities
Parambikulam Tiger Reserve offers shared safaris along a 52km road through the park. The first bus leaves at 8am, and the last bus of the day leaves at 2pm - the buses only set off when they are full, and the safari takes around 3 hours. There are other activities like bamboo rafting down the river and trekking and everything can be booked online.
To do any of the trekking programmes, the website states that you need a minimum of 5 people or you will need to pay extra on the day. To avoid the extra charge, I scoured their online calendar and chose a day and a trail where other slots had already been taken - booking myself in for the 'Pug Mark Trek'.
In fact, as it turned out on the day, I was the only person on my trek and I did not get asked to pay extra. This was one of the many confusing parts of the system at Parambikulam, but I wasn't going to attempt to find the reason. This trek was 600rs and 12km, it took me and my forest guides 4 hours to complete.
They also offer the 'Bear Path Trail' and the 'Elephant Song Trail', for the latter I was told it is recommended to bring leech socks, as they do not sell them on site.
Food
There is a restaurant and a cafe at Parambikulam Tiger Reserve, as well as a tuck shop. The tuck shop was closed when I arrived and the cafe apparently opens 8am-6pm, but you can only get breakfast and lunch, not dinner. It is simple and very cheap – my idly breakfast was 20rs – but the cafe is very drab and not somewhere you would want to hang out.
The main restaurant serves buffet meals at select times, the day I was there dinner was at 8pm. The food was really good and 200rs for the meal, the guides collected me from my room when it was ready, in fact, they escorted me everywhere I went during my stay at Parambikulam, thankfully with the exception of the toilet.
You should bring your own water bottle as filtered drinking water is free to refill!
Not sure what to pack for your trip to India? Check out the I Dream of Mangoes article:
My Top 3 India Packing Essentials for 2024:
Scrubba - An awesome 'washing-machine bag' so I can handwash my own clothes while travelling, paired with this clothesline and laundry soap. (It only weighs 150g!)
Lifestraw - So I can drink rainwater and boiled tap water instead of constantly buying plastic bottles. This one is made of stainless steel, so it can be taken inside National Parks that have banned plastic (there are many!)
Head Torch - You will use this more than you ever think... there will be plenty of outdoor loos, power cuts and poorly lit streets and a head torch comes in so handy!
How to Get to Parambikulam
Whichever way you choose to get to Parambikulam Tiger Reserve, you need to first pass through Tamil Nadu's Anamalai Tiger Reserve, and as a non-Indian, you need to pay 350rs for the privilege! (You cannot pay with cash.)
Option 1 - Train to Pollachi & Bus/Taxi
The best way to get to Parambikulam Tiger Reserve without a car is to get the train to Pollachi Station in Tamil Nadu. From here, you can get a government bus all the way to Parambikulam, the buses leave early in the morning. I was told this was at 8am but I could not verify this.
The bus price is 50rs, or a taxi would set you back closer to 1500rs. This needs to be a taxi, not an Auto or motorbike, as to get to Parambikulam Tiger Reserve you need to first drive through Anamalai Tiger Reserve and two/three wheelers are not allowed in the park.
Pollachi is not that well connected and finding a train that arrives early morning to make your bus connection is not so easy, and staying a night in Pollachi is not a great option either. There is a smattering of expensive hotels and they all have terrible reviews.
Option 2 - Train to Palakkad & Taxi
For me, getting the train to Pollachi was not an option due to timings, so instead I took the train to Palakkad. I started in Ernakulam and the journey was 3 hours, a ticket in AC Chair costing 350rs.
Now this is where I made my mistake, as I checked my platform and my train time when I arrived at the station – so when a train arrived at my platform at the time my train was due I got on it. (Yes, that is the mistake). It turns out my train was suddenly 10 minutes delayed and this other train had come first.
Damn. I was lucky I could hop off this one about halfway along the journey at Thrissur and board my actual train there. I did miss out on having AC for this part of the journey, but I was lucky a conductor didn't come by and fine me, so you win some you lose some.
To avoid this, make sure you have data and your 5-digit train number to hand - and google '12345 running status” (this is an example use your own train number obviously.) It will tell you the exact location of your train so you can keep refreshing it whilst on the platform to make sure some cheeky different train doesn't slide into the platform before yours, unbeknownst to you!
According to Google Maps, the journey from Palakkad Train Station to Parambikulam is 2.5 hours, and with no information on buses, I took a cab. This was 3500rs + 500rs for the permit. This is because a taxi from Kerala needs to buy a permit to cross into Tamil Nadu even if it is only for 30 minutes or so. This turned out to be a huge ordeal and we went to no less than 5 permit shops to sort this out, my patience was wearing very thin.
The road to Parambikulam, especially when you reach Anamalai, is a steep mountain pass full of hairpins, which can send your heart to your throat, especially when it is your maniac driver's first time in the area and he is taking the corners way too confidently, and cackling when he nearly goes off the edge!
Option 3 - Bus & Bus & Bus/Taxi
To leave Parambikulam I found a train from Pollachi leaving at 7pm to Ernakalum, which I booked for 700rs in 2AC. This is a bed in first class essentially, I would have preferred a seat (cheaper) but it is all that was available.
The journey length was 4.5 hours and you can read more details in my step-by-step guide to buying a train ticket in India here.
My hike actually finished at 12:30pm, and as I had already checked out of my room I wasn't enjoying the thought of spending all afternoon at Parambikulam's dank cafe, so when my guide told me there was a KRSTC bus to Palakkad once per day at 1pm, I just went for it.
This leads me to believe there is a bus once daily from Palakkad to Parambikulam, my guess would be around 9am, but I can't verify this.
FYI I was told by the guide there are buses to Pollachi at 1pm, 4pm and 6pm daily too.
So I wrote off my train ticket and jumped on the 3-hour bus to Palakkad (which stopped at Pollachi first), the ticket was 93rs – a huge difference from the 4000rs I had paid to do this journey in reverse in a taxi.
At 4pm or so I rocked up to Palakkad bus station, and through the IRCTC website I knew there were no trains from Palakkad in my direction for a while, so instead I jumped on a bus to Thrissur.
I was pretty lucky the Thrissur bus was right next to mine as we pulled in, and it left about 5 minutes later. I had been purposefully not hydrating all day, something I always do on bus days when I know access to a toilet is not promised, so I was starting to feel rough. (Which is why I always prefer taking the train, I can pee whenever). The ticket from Palakkad to Thrissur was 93rs for the 2-hour journey.
When we arrived at Thrissur I didn't have it in me to get another bus to Cherai, where I was staying in Ernakulam, so I got an Auto for the last 90-minute leg. In Kerala, it is in the region of 15rs per km for an Auto, but you often have to cover the driver's return journey (so 30rs per km). This knowledge can give you a rough estimate of the fayre so Auto drivers don't rip you off! Thrissur to Cherai beach was 53km and I paid 1650rs.
For travel insurance, I have put my trust in Safety Wing, and I use their 4-week rolling policy as it is affordable and covers almost every country. They have been great so far!
My Experience at Parambikulam
Parambikulam is very well kept and the staff really try to ensure you have a good time, but as usual with anything government-run around here, there seem to be a lot of human bodies milling about not doing much and a lot of confusion.
This unnecessarily complicated hierarchy in government organisations is a leftover gift from the British, so cheers! I spent most of my experience not knowing what was going on, some of this was also due to their lack of English (and my lack of Malayalam).
For example, when I got there they told me the trek started 8km from the accommodation, which was an issue as I did not have a car, and this fine detail was not mentioned at all during the booking process. They arranged a car to take me to the start of the hike in the morning, but on the way back one was not available, so me and my guide had to hitchhike back.
I won't bore you with the rest but let's just say it was painfully disorganised, food was not readily available, and the guides did not speak enough English for the trek to be that insightful (but they did protect me from standing on snakes and bumping into elephants).
So I guess my final thoughts are, if you're in the area it's a nice stop, but it is not worth the 8-hour multi-layered journey that I made each way.
Parambikulam Tiger Reserve is also surrounded by managed Teak plantations and what looked like Palm Oil fields, whereas I have heard Periyar National Park is much more flora diverse (it is also easier to get to) so my recommendation would be to go there instead. They have 40 tigers plus better-managed tourist facilities, however, Parambikulam is rated higher for wildlife viewings, so it depends on what is important to you.
I don't really enjoy saying “don't go” because they are doing a great job at preserving the area, and the money you spend not only protects the tigers and the environment but provides employment to the local forest-dwelling tribes... but I am here to be honest, after all.
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Happy Travels
xx
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