Backpacking Trip To Magical Munnar, Kerala

It was turning out to be another boring week, nothing interesting happening even at the workplace. And my inner guide said, “Go somewhere, it’s almost a month you haven’t travelled anywhere”. So I decided to go out of the city, but where???

Then one of my friends suggested to me, “Munnar”. Munnar is a hill station situated in the Idukki district of Kerela. The name Munnar refers to the meeting point of three rivers (Madhurapuzha, Nallathanni and Kundaly).

As I have never been to Munnar, research about the place, weather & route needs to be done at first. So the plan for 2 nights & 3 days trip is finalized, I already started dreaming about the place. Now when the plan was mentioned to my better half, she simply asked, “why haven’t I made the booking yet?”

As this was not my first backpacking trip, I had a fair idea of what to look for. We looked for accommodation which is not on the main road but also not far from the main town all thanks to the reviews on  MakemyTrip & TripAdvisor and finally fixed on Westwood Riverside Garden Resort as we never look for a luxury stay, and exploring the place and trying local cuisine is the main agenda.

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15th April 2017

– Kick Start Our trip to Magical Munnar

So finally it was Saturday-the day of our journey. Do you know what the difficult part of the trip is? Getting up early in the morning at 3:00 am. Due to the summer season, riding in the early morning is always beautiful and it helps to get out of town without any traffic hassles. It’s a 477 km ride so I had a lot of time on the road which we enjoyed completely. Personally, I like long roads for some reason and sometimes it’s the winding road and sometimes it is a completely straight road, full of fun.

Random Clicks on the Road

We took a couple of breaks in local shops and continued our journey towards Munnar. Local routes are always amazing completely green on both sides.  Finally, we reached around 1:00 pm. We quickly did our check-in to our hotel which was pretty decent and left for lunch outside.

I wanted to have lunch at Butler’s Creek which is a small open restaurant and heard good things about food (a very important thing about my journey): they serve you local cuisine. But unfortunately that day it was crowded and I didn’t have the patience to wait and hence went to a different restaurant and thought of having from there the next day. We came to Royal Retreat for lunch which is located close by and the food was not bad.

Royal Retreat Resturant in Munnar

And after such nice food, we thought of taking the rest of the day off and going sightseeing the next day morning after breakfast, so we headed back to our hotel and slept soundly. We were so tired and due to the cold weather, we slept like a baby and only woke up to have our dinner at the hotel which is beside the lake. The location and the food here was super.
Next day morning we woke up fresh and had a nice quick breakfast beside the lake & left for local sightseeing.

Day 2 – 16th April 2017

Exploring the magical munnar

Our route plan to exploring the magical munnar

We started with Photo point followed by other places.

• Photo Point: In TripAdvisor, this place is ranked 8th out of the 50 places to visit in Munnar. Photo Point is only 5.8 km from the hotel. As the name suggests, it offers magnificent scenic views that one can never imagine! This place is quite ideal for leisure travellers and nature lovers alike. This point offers some amazing points for photography. One can even hire local attire and take pictures. We spent a half hour here and we hopped on to our bike to go to the next spot.

Photo Point in Munnar

• Mattupetty Dam: In TripAdvisor, this place has been ranked 12th out of the 50 places to visit in Munnar. Mattupetty is only 12 km from the hotel and only 6.2 km from Photo Point. Here we enjoyed the green valleys & amazing climate. The most attractive part of the dam is that its still water in the lake reflects the tea garden around.
  People can engage themselves with water sports organized by the District Tourism Promotion Council of Idukki and enjoy the scenic natural surroundings. There are also options for trekking in the Shola forest for trekking enthusiasts. People also refer to this as Echo Viewpoint which is ranked by TripAdvisor as 27th out of the 50 places to visit in Munnar.

Mattupetty Dam and Echo Point in Munnar

• Kundala Dam Lake: In TripAdvisor, this place is ranked  6th out of the 50 places to visit in Munnar. Kundala Dam is only 26 km from the hotel and it’s on our way to the Top Station, so we decided to stop there and trust me we didn’t regret one bit. In this place, the famous Kurinji flowers bloom once in 12 years. There is also a dam which we missed, unfortunately. There is a boating experience at this dam. Pedal boats, Kashmiri shikara boats and row boats are available on rent. As there are no fixed charges mentioned, we didn’t try it. Now from there, we moved to our next destination.

Kundala Dam Lake in Munnar

• Top Station: In TripAdvisor, this place is ranked 5th out of 50 places to visit in Munnar. This is the highest point (1700m)of Munnar on Munnar-Kodaikanal road. From here, we enjoyed the 180-degree view of the Western Ghats and the valley of Theni district of Tamil Nadu. As this is the highest point, it feels like the clouds are just a hand touch away. In this place as well, the famous Kurinji flowers bloom once in 12 years. The next flowering season of Neelakurinji is on 2030.

Top Station in Munnar

• Kannan Devan Tea Museum: In TripAdvisor,  this place is ranked 16th out of 50 places to visit in Munnar.  This is the country’s first ever Tea Museum and only 3.3 km from the hotel located at KDHP’s Nullatanni Estate. The best part of the travel is getting to know lots of new things like Munnar is a part of Kannan Devan Hills Plantation that’s the reason their famous tea is also known as KDHP tea. Tata Tea established this museum in 2005 which has photographs and machinery and shows the journey of tea growing in the area. We observed the history and growth of tea estates. We got to watch various stages of tea processing, which includes the making of black tea & green tea.
  Timings:
  • 09:00 to 16:00 hrs.
  • The museum is closed on Monday.

Tea Museum in Munnar

• Locks Heart Gap: In TripAdvisor, this place is ranked 4th out of 50 places to visit in Munnar. Lock Heart Gap is only 15.5 km from the hotel located in Mattupetty on the way to Munnar-Madurai National Highway. An experience of the green valley, vast grassland, rolling hills was waiting for us there. The air was filled with the aroma of tea, don’t miss to savour the taste of local tea before heading out. The best time to visit is either during the sunrise or during the sunset. But we can’t see the sunrise due to the low hanging clouds. A trek up those winding roads leading up to the viewpoint is always amazing we missed it because were super tired. Now it’s time to go back to the hotel.

Locks Heart Gap in Munnar

So we reached back to our hotel, and went for dinner and ended the day. (Please note most small hotels don’t serve alcohol and we didn’t notice any liquor shop nearby so carry your own stuff.) Next day, as planned we headed back to Bangalore. So we started just after breakfast and reached Bangalore at night.
There were so many more places on my list, but I think we got to experience a few great spots, but we will go back and explore the other places on the next trip! So that was my backpacking trip to magical Munnar, Kerala for 2 nights & 3 days. Above was my full list of to do’s and to eateries, and places to visit, so that if you are planning your trip it sure can be of some use. (nope we are not getting paid for tagging others in my blog. It’s just helping another fellow traveller to get complete information.)

On our way to Bangalore (Day3)

Research about the place before the journey

• Weather Updates on Munnar: AccuWeather
• Route Map from Bangalore to Munnar: Google Maps
• About the Place: travelwithneelima | UnTravel | TripAdvisor
• Local Attraction: TripAdvisor | Thrillophilia