All the different segments of the trip turned out well and lived up to or exceeded expectations. Backwater boat cruise and Trecking to within 30 meters of wild elephants in Periyar.
Trident Hilton : Very clean. modern and efficient - a little impersonal although all staff friendly and helpful when approached.
Rice boat : Better than we were expecting, very clean and comfortable, staff (crew) first class, food superb, memorable experience.
Deshardan : Not in a particularly good setting, but a good comfortable hotel as a base for exploring Varcala and returning to chill out by the pool. Very clean, friendly and helpful. Didn't try the food (other than breakfast) - I think they accepted that most people would be dining out at the clifftop restaurants each evening.
Aranya Nivas : Being Government run it felt a little bit institutionalised at first, lacking character - the dining room was very large, plain and echoey, the bar lacked atmosphere. However, food was still very good, the staff friendly and helpful, and the accommodation very spacious - although the bed mattress was like a sparcely padded rock. Being inside the park, on the face of it the gate opening and closing times could have been a problem - however, in the end there were ways around these and we had no problem. The co-ordination between the park and the hotel could have been better, but that would have involved cutting down on the bureauocracy, and this was India after all.
Casino Hotel : Very comfortable, slightly less modern than the Trident Hilton, but less formal and more friendly - and therefore better for us - with a more personal touch and a superb seafood restaurant. Very clean and comfortable - a very good way to wind down before flying home.

Our Service
Having visited India on three other occasions and made most of the arrangements ourselves, we were aware how cheap many things are over there and concerned that using an agent didn't result in our paying over the odds - and I am pleased to say I don't think we did. Given that we had already decided we wanted a little bit more luxury on this trip (we are getting a bit long in the tooth for backpackers hostels) I still think we got good value for money. All aspects of the trip met or exceeded our expectations. Knowing that Sholto had personal input in both countries, and local knowledge of Kerala was very re-assuring. Venu was most helpful both before the trip and during it, although I found his accent a little hard to deal with over the phone when planning things, particularly with the time delay. If you can get him to talk a little slower that would improve things a lot.
Venu met us at the Airport - contacted us at various points during our trip, sorted out our final accommodation at short notice and arranged our taxi to the airport and met and accompanied us on that journey. He explained everything we needed to know and it was re-assuring to know we could contact him with any problems at any point during the trip - although we didn't need to. I was very satisfied.
We used the Preeth Hotel Ayurveda centre in Varacala and both of us came out very impressed with the full body nassage we experienced.