Amazing Munnar Tour

Highlights & Route

Munnar is the hill station of Kerala, about 1,600 m above sea level and four hours uphill from Kochi. The hills here are covered edge to edge in tea bushes, trimmed flat like green carpets, with the occasional silver oak standing above them. Mornings are cool enough for a shawl even in April, and the air smells faintly of tea and eucalyptus. For a group that has only a long weekend, this four-day plan gives two full nights in the hills and one evening by the sea in Kochi.

The Munnar day covers the places everyone wants to see: the Mattupetty and Kundala dams with their boating lakes, Echo Point, the Pothamedu viewpoint over the estates, and a slow evening walk in Blossom Park in town. On the way down you visit the Tea Museum run by the Kanan Devan company, where old rolling machines and a short film explain how the leaf in your cup is made, and the hills around Eravikulam National Park, where the Nilgiri tahr grazes on the slopes below Anamudi, South India’s highest peak.

The last day belongs to Kochi. Mattancherry Palace, called the Dutch Palace, has some of the finest Ramayana murals in Kerala; St Francis Church is where Vasco da Gama was first buried; and at Fort Kochi the Chinese fishing nets are lowered into the harbour at sunset exactly as they have been for centuries. We offer this as a group or corporate outing as well as a family trip, and the vehicle and hotel category can be adjusted to suit.

Route

Kochi airport or railway station → Cheeyappara and Valara waterfalls → Munnar (2 nights) → Tea Museum and Eravikulam hills → Kochi (1 night) → Mattancherry and Fort Kochi → airport or station drop

Good to know before you book

• Eravikulam National Park closes every year in February and March for the tahr calving season; on those dates we visit the surrounding hills and tea estates instead.
• October to March is the pleasant season in Munnar. The monsoon (June to September) is beautiful but wet, and waterfalls are then at their fullest.
• The Tea Museum and Mattancherry Palace are usually closed on Mondays; the day order can be swapped if your dates fall that way.
• Entry tickets, boating at Mattupetty and jeep rides to viewpoints are paid on the spot.
• Kochi has an international airport (COK) with direct flights from Delhi; Ernakulam Junction is the main railway station.
• The road to Munnar is winding; those prone to car sickness should sit in front and carry a tablet.