Tea Gardens

TRAVEL GUIDE
Making tracks

The nearest airport is at Kochi, from where you can get to Munnar in a 4-hour road journey by bus, taxi or car. Ernakulam Junction at Kochi is the closest railhead, connected to trains from Bangalore and the rest of the country.

Best time to go

The post-monsoon season, beginning October, is the best. It is cool and invigorating and the hills are beautifully green at this time. Carry woollens and rain protection.

Room with a view 

Munnar has low to medium budget lodges, guesthouses, hotels and resorts. Accommodation is available near the market in the town-centre and at quieter locations in the hills. Check up on hot water availability and bathroom arrangements in the budget and mid-rung establishments.

 

Misty Mountains

Four hours driving time away from the steamy, tropical palm fringed coastal Cochin and its seashores lies the verdant, picturesque hill station of Munnar. Tucked into the Western Ghats, surrounded by tea and spice plantations, soaked in atmosphere, Munnar is heart-stopping beautiful. Hidden away in the midst of thick vegetation and lush rainforest, Munnar was the secret holiday getaway of only a few who were familiar with its many charms. 

A misty, lush green hill station 1600m ASL in the Annamalai range of Kerala, Munnar is fast making a transition from a tea, coffee and spice plantation centre to a prime holiday resort and wildlife reserve. The town retains its colonial British character with neat bungalows, cottage gardens filled with flowers and the smell of fresh spices, tea and roasting coffee beans that hangs heavy in the air. The surrounding hill slopes are covered with orderly rows of tea bushes; the plantations, amongst the highest in the world, stretch for miles, interrupted only by pockets of forests teeming with local fauna and flora. Amongst the unusual flowers that grow here is the Neelakurinji that blooms once every twelve years and bathes the entire area in a beautiful blue. The Neelakurinji is next due to flower in 2006.

While in Munnar, visit the old Christ Church with its beautiful stained glass panels. Go boating in Mattupetty Lake and fish for trout in Elephant Lake. Make a trip to Top Station 41 km away,  to see some of the highest tea plantations in India. The tea gardens are the last bastion of the Raj; several still preserve customs like 'chhota hazari'. Most managers would be happy to let you take a stroll among the bushes.

Eravikulam Park (16 km) is where you can find the endangered Nilgiri Tahr (ibex). The Thattekad Bird Sanctuary has a resident population of Malabar gray hornbills, woodpeckers, and rare species like the rose-billed roller, and the Sri Lankan frogmouth. So if you're looking for quiet strolls along rows of tea bushes, if you're looking for the enveloping calm of cool mist, if you are partial to pristine green countryside laid out below clear blue sky.... then you will be hooked by Munnar.