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Munnar – a picturesque hill station with vast plantations of tea (Blog Series Part 4)

Writer's picture: Marion MuellerMarion Mueller

Updated: Jan 22

After the buzzling city of Cochin and the beautiful landscape of the Backwaters comes a change of scenery. We escape the hot weather of the lowlands and we will explore the Western Ghats mountain region.


Munnar a hill station and former resort of the British Raj elite, is surrounded by picturesque hills dotted with vast tea plantations.




The area is ideal for hiking to explore virgin forests and splash in refreshing waterfalls. The flora and fauna of this area is nothing else than splendid – and maybe you are lucky and see Neelakurinji, a rare plant which flowers only once in twelve years. Further it is all about tea in Munnar – take a stroll through the never-ending tea fields and learn everything about the processing of this precious plant in one of the many tea factories.


Already the approach to Munnar coming from the lowlands is spectacular. You will wind up your way from curve to curve leaving the lower forests behind and you will arrive into a lush mountain scenery. The air gets fresher and the temperature more moderate.


Where to stay

In Munnar you will find a great variety of hotels, B&B´s plus backpacker hostels – however the most authentic place to stay in Munnar will be in an accommodation that is directly located within the tea fields like the Lockhart Bungalow (www.cghearth.com/lockhartbungalow).


The Lockhart Bungalow is managed by CGHearth hotels. You will not only have a real spectacular location at the Lockhart, but you will also travel back in time. Lockhart estate was established in 1879 by the British Raj and the bungalow is nestled in the vast tea estate.




Experience real hospitality paired with the ultimate privacy as the Lockhart Bungalow has only 3 rooms in total.


Our room was huge with an historic ambience and a generous sized bathroom.



From the room you can step right out into the garden – where you can relax and also enjoy your Afternoon Tea.


On sunny days also breakfast is served outside with a fantastic view onto the tea fields.



Dinner is served at the Lounge room on a big table together with the other guests of the house. It creates a nice, intimidate atmosphere. So you can have a chat with your fellow travellers while enjoying a delicious home cooked meal served by the very friendly staff of the hotel.


The hotel also provides bicycles for a small tour in the area plus they arrange tours to the nearby tea factory or various other hikes.



Don´t miss the morning walk through the misty tea fields.



What to do

As already mentioned the main activity in Munnar will be hiking. You can find a great variety of hiking and trekking routes with different length and for all fitness levels.


Further the Eravikulam National Park is one of the main tourist attractions in Munnar. The park is home to the endangered mountain goat Nilgiri Tahr, the stunning Lakkam waterfalls, hiking trails and the 2695m-tall Anamudi Peak.


Don´t  miss to visit one of the tea factories and to buy some real quality tea for home. We took a tour through the Lockhart tea factory and learnt a lot about tea – from the tea cultivation over the harvest process to the processing of the various tea leafes.



Afterwards we enjoyed our freshly brewed afternoon tea at the Lockhart Bungalow.



If hiking is not so much your thing, then you can also make a nice drive to the Kundala Dam, enjoying some beautiful landscape on the way.



Meet the residents of the Damn.



Also the little town of Munnar deserves a small stop en route.



Another scenic mountain drive is from Munnar to Thekaddy – which will be our next stop on this tour and which you can read in the next Blog post.



One agent that is operating throughout India (as well as Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka) and that I can highly recommend for your travel is:

Concord Exotic Voyages – and of course I have a nice discount for my readers: 




Or the easiest way – contact me and I will get things together for you!

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