Road Trip Bangalore to Munnar-Kodaikanal, India

An Enchanting Road trip from Bangalore to Munnar-Kodaikanal

Tour Summary of Munnar-Kodaikanal

Starting location: Bangalore             
Tour Duration: 4 Days
Travel Month: August (2018, 11^th to 15^th)
Number of People: Total 4 families 13 people (9 adults and 4 kids)
Munnar: 3 Nights
Kodaikanal: 1 night                                    
Purpose: To see Neelakurinji

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Driving Route

Hotels

The hotels we opted for in our Munnar-Kodaikanal Trip:

Sterling Resort Munnar: We took 1bhk (for 3 Adults, 1Kid, my father was travelling with us,) good for 4 people and they provided us with an extra bed in the hall. Good breakfast, average food in the restaurant; a lot of options are available for Nonveg and Veg. Lot of indoor games are there, and our kids enjoyed it every day.

Pears Tree Duplex Villa: We booked 1 2bhk and 1 3bhk Vila. A lot of space inside and outside. You need to order food well in advance they will arrange it from a local restaurant. Functional kitchen; with utensils you can cook. Good experience, entry road is not good; struggle for hatchback and sedan with low ground clearance.

We were travelling in a group and wanted to stay together; we decided to stay in Villa.

Tour Description

About Neelakurinji

This flower blooms every 12 years; can be seen on the hill ranges of Munnar and Kodaikanal. The “Nilgiri” hill ranges are named after it.

We knew the history of Neelakurinji, yet we were not sure about the timings. We came to know from one of my friends that the timing is in 2018 Aug.

Our Munnar-Kodaikanal road trip planning started for 4 days; initially, our plan was Athirappilly waterfall, Cheeyappara waterfall, Munnar, and back to Bangalore. The floods had blocked the road to Athirappilly. The flood was huge few roads were blocked for Munnar too. Initially, we thought that we will cancel our trip. We decided to call “Starling Resort” and tried to understand the roads open to reach Munnar. They suggested us to follow the route via Dindigul and roads are open; they told us the majority of the tourist spots are closed for heavy rain. We were kind of determined and our intension for this trip was to see Neelakuriniji; we decided to go.    

The Journey Starts

We were 4 families and travelled via 3 cars; we were prepared and carried a lot of essential including a lot of food. This trip was adventurous and risky; we were not sure we can reach to the destination or not. Almost everyday land sliding was happening in Munnar; the flood was increasing in Kerala and Tamilnadu and only one Road was open to reach Munnar.

Driving was very smooth; roads were empty all toll gates were empty. We reached Munnar within 9:00 hours with breaks. Normally it takes 10 – 11 hours to reach Munnar. Weather was awesome in Munnar. Driving through the cloud with low visibility; sometimes drizzling sometimes heavy rain lot of greenery a different experience. 

Places to visit in Munnar

Eravikulam National Park, Lot of waterfalls famous Attukad Waterfalls, Top Station, Kolukkumalai Tea Plantation, Mattupatti Dam (Speed boat ride in Mattupetty dam).

In our current Munnar-Kodaikanal trip, our plan was to visit Eravikulam National Park, as Neelakurinji can be seen from Eravikulam National Park. We booked the entry ticket online long back to avoid the entry queue. Yet the moment we reached there, we realized the Park was closed for an indefinite period for heavy rain and landslide. We were very much disappointed, and we felt that we will not be able to see Neelakurinji. With a heavy heart, we started exploring other places and we found we were the only people travelling; all the points were empty. The natural beauty was much better, more greenery. All waterfalls were showing their true pictures; whole day cloudy sometimes raining or drizzling it was really fun.

Our plan was to stay in Munnar for 4 nights. After 2 days we realized there was nothing more to explore; most of the points were closed. We decided to go to Kodaikanal as “Neelakurinji” can be seen from Kodaikanal. Getting hotel in Kodaikanal is difficult on long weekends. Yet we did not face any difficulty. Kerala and Tamilnadu were affected badly by the flood. The tourist footfall was less and limited demands for hotels.

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Trip to Kodaikanal starts

We started our trip to Kodaikanal on 3^rd day. It is close to 150 KM from Munnar, it took us approximately 4 hrs 30 minutes from Munnar. Majority of the driving was through the hill, and need experience to drive through hilly roads for the bad weather conditions. Driving experience was awesome. Throughout the tour, we enjoyed the driving, empty road, bad road, steep road, driving through tea garden, driving through the cloud, lot of viewpoints in between.

We reached Kodaikanal around 1:30 pm. We faced difficulties to find the property. The location of the property was not properly indicated by google maps. After checking in to the hotel, we started our trip at 2:30 pm. We went to Coaker's Walk and we could see the famous “Neelakurinji”. After spending an ample amount of time, we came back in the evening.

There are a lot of places to explore in Kodaikanal ideally 3 nights, 2 days are good to stay.

Places to visit in Kodaikanal

Kodaikanal Lake: Very good you can hire a bicycle and take a round of the lake. You can do boating in the lake; a good place to visit and a lot of activities.

Coaker's Walk: Close to 1 km pathway you can see the city and good valley view. 

Bryant Park: Very good place near Kodaikanal Lake; a lot of flowers and open space to relax.

Dolphin nose and Echo Point: Very good view narrow road. In almost all the peak seasons, you can see long traffic to reach there.

Kodaikanal Pine Forest: One more famous point; good arrangement for car park.

Suicide point: It has earned the name suicide point for the dangerous valley. The valley is dense and deep; below the point of almost 5000 feet drop. Located at 5.5 km from the Kodaikanal Lake, the Green Valley View offers a gorgeous view; surrounded by a lot of monkeys.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my Munnar-Kodaikanal road trip.