Periyar National Park, Kerala Holidays, India

Jungle hideaways don’t come more stylish that the Shalimar Spice Garden, near the Periyar National Park, whose romantic rooms are made of varnished Nilgiri hardwoods and dark silks, and where the verandahs look across neatly clipped coffee bushes and cardamom fronds to a wall of dense forest.

Each of its cottages are thatched with grass, giving the place a deliciously earthy feel. Luxuriate in the resort’s beautiful Ayurvedic spa or in the outdoor pool, as exotic birds and insects flit through the foliage.

Our opinion

Comfortable en suite rooms set in a spice garden a short drive from the main town.