Indian Diaries

8 Essential Experiences for Munnar Road Trip

Munnar’s exquisite natural beauty attracts tourists from all over the world. It is located in south India’s beautiful green land known as God’s Own Country i.e. Kerala. It is also called as “Kashmir of South India”.

It is famous for Neelakurinji which is expected to bloom this year(2018). Neelakurinji is a rare plant which blooms only once in twelve years. The ‘kurinji season’ would be a magnificent sight, when the hills and valleys get covered with blue colour.

8 Essential Experiences

1) Blossom Park

It is located around 3 KMs from Munnar town, towards old Munnar. It has a vast stretch of landscaped mounts, nature trails, birds, blooming flower-beds and waterfalls. It offers a wide range of facilities to make the visitors feel relaxed and rejuvenated.

Visit Time : 09:00 AM to 07:00 PM
Entry Fee : Rs10/- per person

2) TATA Tea Museum

You can learn how different types of tea are prepared. It takes approximately one hour which includes a 30 minutes movie on the tea history. The first part of the movie recalls the main facts of the tea history and its benefits. After that you will see how the tea is processed from the picking of leaves to the grounding of tea. At the end of tour you can buy various kind of tea from the shop. I bought a lemon tea which was very refreshing.

Visit Time : 10:00 AM to 05:00 PM
Entry Fee : Rs75/- per person

3) Rose Gardens

It is a small garden with lot of flower varieties. There are rows of plants laid out on each side of traces on which you walk around .

You will also find small tea shops nearby. You can stop at any shop to buy some freshly picked Indian tea leaves and powders, as a gift from Munnar.

Visit Time : 08:30 AM to 06:30 PM
Entry Fee : Rs20/- per person

4) Photo Point

It is one of the most attractive view point, which you should not miss while on a trip to Munnar. Here you will find many workers hand-plucking the tea leaves and collecting them in their baskets.

Visit Time : 10:00 AM to 08:00 PM
Entry Fee : Free

5) Mattupetty Dam

Beauty of this place can be explored by a boat which is available near the entrance at nominal price. If you are not comfortable with boating, a walk alongside the road is also a beautiful idea.

Visit Time : 09:30 AM 05:00 PM

Entry Fee : Rs5/- per person

Fee for Speed boat : Rs500 (15 minutes, Max 5 passengers)

6) Top Station

It offers a clear panoramic view of Western Ghats “Nilgiris”. This is the highest point in Munnar, offering gleaming views of the hills, rivers and valleys. We enjoyed the cool mountain breeze and misty atmosphere at the Top Station. You can have a hot cup of tea, and some maggi or snacks, available at nearby stalls.

Visit Time : 06:00 AM to 06:00 PM
Entry Fee : Free

7) Attukal Waterfalls

Attukal Waterfalls is on the way to Munnar from Pallivasal. It is a pretty small waterfall, but very picturesque. You can sit nearby and have a cup of tea, take a stroll to click some photos. We did not get a chance to visit this place due last minute change in plans, but you can definitely visit this place if you have little extra time.

Visit Time : 10:00 AM to 06:00 PM
Entry Fee : Free

8) Local Market

In the evening, we decided to explore the local markets and streets. Munnar is the home for different type of spices. It has a lot of shops which sell packed tea and coffee, spices like pepper, cloves, cinnamon, and cardamom, wooden artifacts, handicrafts, fabrics, aromatic essential oils, homemade chocolates and much more. Rates are reasonable as everything is sold at wholesale prices, but you can still try bargaining if you feel anything is overpriced.

Visit Time : 10:00 AM to 08:00 PM
Entry Fee : Free

How to Reach Munnar

Munnar has well-established and safe roads. It is about 450 KMs from Bangalore, which makes it about 9 hours of drive. According to me, self drive is the best way to cover Munnar which gives you a chance to have a look at the fascinating scenery.

As you go up slowly through the narrow winding roads, you will see beautiful shades of green plantation, lush carpets of tea bushes and the silver green of the oak.

Some of the most fascinating part of Munnar road trip is driving on the adventures hair pin curves with mesmerising views of beautiful tea plantation.

In case you are not very fond of driving you can fly to one of the nearby airports and take a cab from there. Cochin, Coimbatore and Madurai are the three nearest airports to Munnar respectively.

Best time to visit

You can visit Munnar any time of the year especially from August to May.

You can plan your trip according to your favourite season. We visited Munnar in June 2015 which was a good season.

December to February : Winter season – It is the best time to visit Munnar, since the weather is pleasant you can try rock climbing and trekking in this season.

March to May : Summer season – A visit to tea garden during summers is enjoyable. It is a perfect time to enjoy sightseeing.

June to September : Monsoon season – It is highly recommended that you must visit Munnar during Monsoon season if you want to see beautiful waterfalls.

During this season, some parts of Munnar get covered with clouds which makes it even more beautiful.

Where to Stay

You can easily find budget hotels in Munnar. We stayed at Bella Vista Resort. There are few high end resorts also in case you want to spend a little more money. Munnar Tea county resort is one of such resorts.

Places to Eat

Munnar is a must visit place for food lovers. In every dish you can feel that rich taste of coconut oil flowing though your mouth as you take each bite of it. Vegetarian food is easy to find in Munnar. Although we could not find fine dining restaurants, but small food joints serve good vegetarian food.

These are the two restaurants we really liked :

  • Saravana Bhavan : Authentic south Indian and pure vegetarian restaurant.
  • Pizza Max : Pizza, garlic breads, etc.

It was a two day trip for us to Munnar. We checked out on the third day and came back to Bangalore. I wish we had some more time to spend in Munnar. It is a perfect destination for nature lovers, honeymooners as well as families to spend some quality time with each other. As far as your eyes can see, you’ll find lots of tea garden valleys, narrow streams, mesmerising mountains, amazing waterfalls. No matter which viewpoint you visit, the tea-scented undulating plantation will please you.

For all those love birds who are about to get married, you can choose this destination for your pre-wedding photo shoot as well. Many newly married couple books honeymoon package to Munnar.

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8 Comments

  1. Your blogs are very amazing and very helpful. I have been to Munnar and photo point was one of my favourite view point.

    1. Thank you 😀

  2. Neelam Sharma says:

    Amazing review.. I must say this is one of the best pictures of Munnar. I love photo point very much. Thanks for sharing.

    1. Thank you so much Neelam

  3. Looks like a serene place, absolutely beautiful. It’s been quite some time since my last visit to India, this lush area looks tempting!

    1. Thank you so much Milaela. You must add Munnar to your bucket list 🙂

  4. Great post! I love detailed posts like these that walk you through the prices and how much time you should allot. So informative!

    1. Thank you so much Anna Schaeffer. I am focusing on every possible point to make people’s journey more comfortable and easy.

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