Hill Station/ Tea Plantation South INdia

rebeccam

I hope this is posted in the right section of IM. Please feel free to move or advise, if not in the best place for answer.

IF you've been to both, which would your recommend, and why:

Coonor or Munnar?

Which is quieter, less "touristy" ? Which is more scenic?

Thank you.

vandy

Hi Rebecca,

Unfortunately On my way to Ooty the train only
stopped briefly at the train station at Coonor and
was unable to have a look around, the general area Did look nice though,have heard some good reports about Coonor being significantly Quieter than Ooty.

I think personally there would be more to see & do
in Munnar and I also believe Munnar would be a lot
easier to get to IF you haven't been to Sth India
before.Coonor has more forrest type scenery where
as Munnar is Full of Tea Plantations with good forrests on the Way there.

However IF you intend travelling to Mysore and/or
Bangalore, well thats a different story. You could
incorporate Coonor in your travels.The road journey from the back of Ooty to Mysore is just
amazing,real rural India.

Things to do in Munnar area,
1) visit to Tea Processing Factory
2) visit to Swiss Dairy Farm Project
3) visit to Metapatty Dam,Echo point,Chance for
a Elephant Ride on way to Dam,go onto vantage
viewing spot called Top Station,fantastic
drive through numerous Tea Plantations.
4) Half or full day visit to nearby town of
Marayoor( 1hr car)Sandalwood Forrest Area
5) Various Spice Plantation Tours.
6) Visit Tall Trees resort,set amongst beautiful
Forrest with great gardens & walk paths,I
Stayed and had a cup of tea in their Highly
perched restaraunt,great views.

rgds - vandy

capt_mahajan

Coonor is quieter, Munnar is more scenic.

rebeccam

Thank you, Vandy! We India-query folks can always count on you!
Yes, i am strongly considering a change from 100% Kerala, to entering S. India via Bangalore Airport, train to Mysore, then Nagarhole and Coonor, before a second week , in Kerala, via Coimbatore tehn Trichur, then Cochin.
It is for this reason that i wonder if , after visiting Coonoor, i would regret not having been to Munnar instead.
Same regarding Nagarhle, vs Periyar, for the wildlife viewing.
Sigh...there's only so much time for this two week trip!

thanks for the "heads up" re: journey from Mysopre to Ooty. Not sure if we'd backtrack from Nagarhole to Mysore, then Ooty, or take the road Nagarhole to Ooty via Gudalur?--or are they the same?

(I wrote you earlier about Cochin--check your email)

rebeccam

Sorry, i am just now seeing your post. Thank you for replying!
Maybe this is odd way to ask--but how do yoiu balance it out? For example, is Munnar SPECTACULAR scneery, while Coonor is dull? I know this is hard to describe, but i ma trying to get a sense of once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that i should not miss, between the two places.

capt_mahajan

Munnar is more varied, some water, nice scenery, some fast disapperaring cardamom plantations.. other spice plantations...

The Coonor/Kotagiri area has mainly tea. Also nothing too much else to do. Good for some peace and quiet.

Munnar also has more options for stay.

I wouldn't classify either as spectacular, that I reserve for the Himalaya. , but Munnar scores here over the Kotagiri/Coorg area.

In your place I would choose depending on the rest of my plan, with a definate bias towards Munnar. Better and more varied scenery. (search for munnar in google images, and also conoor, for a rough comparison)

And if other factors were not a consideration, I would choose Munnar.


Also, though I haven't been there recently, I am told that Munnar can get busy during the weekends, so if I wanted more quiet I would avoid that time.

naniravi

Certainly Munnar is better than Coonur. Its quite and scenic.For wild life u can find around Coonur.
During your travel from Mysore to OOty u pass through Bandipur National Park o Karnataka State and Mudumalai wild life sanctuary of Tamilnadu state.Both are separated by only a gate.If U want to see some wild life in Mudumalai, stay there.Acco is not a prolem there.U can find guides who can take U for a jungle raid also.From there proceed to Munnar or Coonur (1 hour journey)via Gudalore.

tasuray

But what about Ponmuri? It also has small hills and tea plantations.

naniravi

Actually all the above said places comes under The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve.The reserve encompasses 5,520 km² in the states of Karnataka (1527.4 km²), Kerala (1455.4 km²), and Tamil Nadu (2537.6 km²).
In this area there are The Mudumalai WL Sanctuary and National Park (321.1 km²), Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary( 344km²), Bandipur National Park(874km²), Nagarhole National Park (643 km²), Nugu WLS, Mukurthi National Park (78 km²) and Silent Valley National Park (89.52km²,and Sathyamangalam forest (745.9km².
So U name one place in this Biosphere Reserve it will be beautiful.

federica

Do you mean Ponmudi? It's smaller than Munnar, only one guesthouse and a restaurant is on the hill. it's more a place for one night or a daytrip than for several days.

madan80

if you are taking the mysore coonoor route- i would suggest you avoid the gudalur route. Its back breaking to say the least.
Coonoor is a lovely place- esp upper coonoor. during decmeber- very non touristy. Munnar is very pleasant as well - however, other than the few mentioned places, nothing much.

rebeccam

Madan, Federica, Naniravi, Tasuri, Captain M, many thanks to you all for your posts.

Madan, doo you mean the road from Mysore to Gudular, VIA Gundlapet??

Is there a particularly difficult section of that road? Which towns is it between?
We certainly don't want to break our backs literally or figuratively, especially on holiday (-:

From Mysore we're hopinng to travel to Coorg area and Nagarhole Park, but it looks on the limited road map I have, that we inevitably have to go through Gudular on the way to Ooty/Coonor. Is that correct? How is that Gudular to Coonor part of the road?

pmvelu

Hi,

This is related to Nagarhole / Coorg(Kodagu) part you mentioned in your mail.

From Mysore, you could reach Nagarhole via 2 routes.

(1) Via H.D.Kote . Nagarhole is 93 kms from mysore
(2) Via Hunsur . Nagarhole is 83 kms from mysore

In Route(1), Road is excellent all thru and I haven't travelled in the second route

Nagarhole (Safari timings) -> 6 - 8 am and 3 - 5pm.

You could drive past nagarhole park and after 5 kms ,you could see another forest dept gate and once you are out, you are into normal area- I mean you are out of the Sanctuary area (But you could see a sudden change in the surroundings from Teak wood /Rosewood to Coffee plantations / Pepper on both sides) and you could contiue to "Iruppu Falls" (Around 17 kms from Nagarhole National Park) which is picture perfect which you could reach after taking a left past a place called "Kutta " and travelling the last 7 kms or so in a pathetic road to reach this Picture perfect place where one waterfalls can be seen (Need to walk for a km or so).

From here, you could drive to Madikeri (Mercara) (60 kms) via Gonikoppal, virajpet ..Scenic Route.

And From Nagarhole Or Kutta, you could drive to Wayanad district of Kerala .(There is no town called Wayanad as such and Mananthanvadi, Kalpetta & Sulthan bathery are the major places in wayanad district & Kalpetta being the district headquarters). Wayanad district is more scenic , Less Chiller(When compared to Nilgiris) and there are lot of options for Trekking as such.

Just my thoughts. Hope it's of some help
Regards
Velu

rebeccam

Velu, thank you so much. This is exactly the kind of information we seek: road conditions, turnoffs, good areas to see, and how to get there!!

Thanks again, I've just had the fun of looking on the So India Nelles map to find those routes and places you describe!

pmvelu

Good to know it helped you Rebeccam!.

And the actual traveloue I wrote after visiting Nagarhole / Iruppu Falls to my friends (thru email) is as below which may give you more info on the same: (Moderators, If this is too lenghty Or not appropriate, Please feel free to delete it )

Driving Directions :-
1) Mysore to Heggadadevanakota (Shortly H.D.Kota) (45 kms)

2) Take Right once your reach HD kota and drive for 3 kms. You will reach HD kota busstand. Drive past and take the first big left (There will be one left just adjacent to Bus stand which you should ignore)

3) Drive straight away for around 15 kms . You will reach a dead end (With Forest dept gate – Locked) . Just stop the car , get down and go near the gate .. one forest dept person will come and after getting your signature and details in a notebook will open the gate. And Nagarhole is 28 kms from this point & You are inside the real forest

4) Once you drive past this gate you will be alone and the FORESTS has started already …

5) Drive slowly (Around 40 to 50 kms) WITHOUT HORNS AND MUSIC

6) Yes, you can see N number of deers on the road side which will not move and just will stare at you.. & Occassionally wild elephants will cross the road .Just we have to wait and the elephants are moving without causing any disturbance to us

7) After 7 kms , you will see 1 left turn and 1 right turn (TAKE the LEFT TURN to go to nagarahole & the right turn will take you to hunsur )

8) After turning left , you will see a elephant in captivity and few tribal houses

9) Drive past and another 21 kms you will see N number of deers & we saw a fox and few peacocks also on the way.

10) Finally you will be at nagarhole national park .

11) The Drive (Safari) inside the park is between 6 -8 & 3 -5 ONLY

12) For Each person, it’s 95 Rs (Not sure for Non-indian tourists thou) and you will be taken in the Forest dept vehicle and it’s AMAZING … I had been in many a safaris like this BUT this is different.

13) Infact the Safari lasted for 1.15 hours & We saw, 3 wild elephants , hundreds of deer, 1 fox, 5 to 6 peacocks , around 20 Wild Pig….

14) After finishing the safari, you could drive straight and after 5 kms , you could see another forest department gate. Drive past and after a place called “Kutta”, look out for the signboard “Iruppu Falls”. From this Road is excellent and basically you need to turn left for this iruppu falls (Sign board will be big and visible – around 5 kms after kutta) - Upto this point roads will be Excellent

15) Now , the road will be Worst to much more worst and drive straight for around 8 kms, and you would reach a temple . There is no signboard suggesting the “Iruppu Falls” is behind the temple and infact we thought just that as a temple and drove another 5 kms towards “Konikoppal” and then asked a person and came back to the Falls !!

16) Park your vehicle near the temple and the place is tooo good .. Temple is surrounded by mountains and it’s really scenic. You need to walk a km or so behind the temple to reach the falls and it’s too good.

17) From here, if you are interested, you could reach madikeri (60 km) via Gonikoppal & Virajpet.





“+” :-



1) Real real forests with abundant animals

2) In No where else in S. India, we can drive past the forests on our own(With forest dept gate closed behind you & in front of you) and here we have a chance of being on our own for 28 kms with NONE in between and it’s Sheer THRILL. Gundlupet - Bandipur & Gundlupet - Sulthan bathery road is also good for sighting wild animals (especially elephants) but you will be along with the Trucks & cars atleast which is not the case with nagarhole driving

3) Not commercialized

4) Lot and lot of Deers which we can’t see anywhere else in S.India

5) Upto HD kote , State Highway 33 (Excellent) & from HD kote to nagarhole , 85% roads are too good .



“-“ :-



1) It’s fearsome after you cross the forest dept gate after HD kota for few kms(as I had my aged mother, wife & 4 years kid with me in the car & I'm the only Male) as you can see elephants crossing and dense forests on both sides BUT after 15 minutes or so, we will get accustomed

2) Nothing available enroute from HD Kote to this place

3) Not even snacks Or Tea available in the Nagarhole park BUT a Forest lodge available for stay !!





Helpful hints:-



1) Last Petrol bunk is at HD kote (“Pure for Sure” bunk just before HD kote busstand)

2) Last ATM is State Bank of Mysore ATM in HD kote.

3) Definitely take food, snacks etc OR else you will be in trouble as none available .

4) Mobile phone will not work for around 25 kms from the Forest dept gate until Nagarhoe park BUT in nagarhole Signals are there . (Especially BSNL and also feeble airtel)
5) Toilets available next to the Forest ranger office in Nagarhole (Nothing in between& it’s not safe to get down too)

6) After HD kote, just see the taller trees and you will be surprised to see many a treehouses which villagers are using for their night stay due to elephant menace.

7) Week-end Travel is suggested as week-day you may feel odd as even this week-end hardly 6 to 7 cars are there out of which 5 cars are Tourist taxis.

8) Once you see the Forest Range office, Nagarhole, you need to stop as that’s the location(and no body will ask you to stop and no sign board will be there to strongly suggest that you are @ the right place). Inside the forests, 2 wheelers are not allowed and there is 1 KSRTC bus from Hunsur which comes to nagarhole in the morning and returning back @ evening 6 pm --- > But this may not be a dependable option.