Munnar...tea gardens and more

Munnar is one of the most beautiful hill stations I had heard of, so while we were planning to travel Kerala, it had to be in our Itinerary. It is known as a land of tea gardens, spices and wildlife. While travelling from Cochin airport to Munnar, you will spot lots of waterfalls, spice gardens and elephant camps on the way. If you are not too tired after your flight, it is worth to stop and get down for snaps.



How To Go: From Cochin Airport the journey by car is about 3.5 to 4 hours and can increase depending on how long you stop to see the beauty of waterfalls and tea gardens on the way. There are pre-paid taxis available at the airport. We had booked a cab for our entire 4 days trip with a driver which costed us ~Rs 8000 for the entire trip. It was a nice Ford Figo with AC and stereo. I had heard that if only a one way cab is hired from Cochin to Munnar we have to pay the two way fare, which was 1500/- so its better to book a cab for the entire trip.
Also, bus options are available and are good too, but since we were travelling with a baby, we did not opt for that.
When to Go: Best time to go is after the monsoon is over, say from September till February. But season time, rates can be very high in Kerala. We had traveled during early March, the weather was very good but most of the waterfalls had relatively less water, rest was good.

What to do - Chill... Enjoy the weather and views of tea gardens. Here are a few sightseeing places we went to along with some photographs.

Mattupetti Dam- This is some 10kms from Munnar town, nice water body, boating options and bridge. Since it drizzling when we reached there, boating was not possible. But we did spot a nice rainbow at this Dam.




Kundala Lake - Beautiful lake amidst the mountains and greenery. Boating can be done. It is just few kms ahead of Mattupetti dam on the same road.



Echo point - It is situated near Kundala lake. Try to scream something and it will come back to you. We tried to make all sort of sounds and it did come back and was loud enough for us to feel. Must go.

Top Station - Have heard a lot about this point, but since it was raining, we decided to skip it and head back to Munnar town

Elephant Park - This is near Munnar town. You can bath, feed and click photos with the elephants but everything is chargeable. Feeding/Bathing can be done only in the mornings, while elephant ride is available all day. We took that elephant ride and it was breathtaking.  It is Rs 400 per head. The elephant will walk uphill, watching the cold breeze caresses your face and the jungles and mountains around made me forget all my stresses. And when the elephant walks downhill, all your focus moves to balancing yourself which indeed is an amazing experience. Must try.


All the above sightseeing spots are in the same route so must be covered together.

Tata Tea Museum - Nice artifacts about tea making and a must visit place. A half hour documentary will be shown to you about Munnar and history of tea gardens and how tea became a popular drink. Then you can visit the tea factory, where all the machinery is functional and actual production of tea can be seen. There is shop inside where various variety of tea can be purchased. We bought black/milk tea, cardamom tea, green tea and instant coffee. At home, we tried that tea and it is awesome.


Where to Stay - Lots of resorts and hotels in Munnar and can be booked online. We wanted to stay in the town rather than a far away resort since we had had a bad experience in Ooty where we had chosen a resort far from the city. We decided to stay at Grand Plaza hotel and took the room with a small balcony and good view. Good hotel, good food, and they also offered a complimentary foot massage which I didn't take.

What Next: While returning back from Munnar, we went to Allepey and took a slightly different route, lots of photo opportunities in tea gardens, you can get down and enjoy.

P.S - All photos are taken from my iPhone

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3 comments

  1. Nice post Sneh ! It has inspired me to write about my experiences there :) But I missed out on the Elephant safari part which now seems like a mistake !

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Kokila :) Yeah Elephant safari was nice.. next time :)

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  2. Hi Madam

    Nice to see bloggers like you highlighting Munnar your writings

    Anytime in future, if you planing here again try to include Marayur Sandalwood Forest & Chinnar Wild Life in the itinerary and you will definitely like it

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