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Route
Bangalore → Bandipur → Ooty → Coonoor → Kotagiri → Munnar → Kumarakom → Alleppey → Kochi → Bangalore
Distance
1620 km
Duration
8 days, ~35 hours at the wheel
7 overnight stops, one on a boat Best Months September to March October to February for the clearest hill weather World Heritage Nilgiri Mountain Railway, 1908 Western Ghats — a serial natural site Parks & Protected Areas Bandipur Tiger Reserve Mudumalai Tiger Reserve Eravikulam National Park Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary Signature Roads The 36 hairpins, Masinagudi → Ooty The Munnar descent to the backwaters |
Route Map
Open in Google Maps The Plan Eight days that change altitude, climate and language, and arrive somewhere that feels like a different country, because in every sense that matters it is. It begins on the dry Deccan and ends on a boat in a lagoon. The change happens slowly enough for a child to watch. The Western Ghats are older than the Himalaya and catch the monsoon before anything else does. Into that, the British inserted tea, and a hill town where they could pretend it was Surrey. Then a rack-and-pinion railway that climbs to it at walking pace and has never once been asked to hurry. Then the road turns south and drops — through the sandalwood forest at Marayoor, into the cardamom hills at Munnar, and finally all the way down to sea level, where the pace of everything becomes the pace of a boat.
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