[sid18]

TL; DR.
Hi folks, this is my first travelogue in team-bhp, and I have tried my best to pen down my memories of my recent visit to Coonoor and its nearby places in Tamil Nadu. My wife Asmita has been following the portal regularly as well and she co-authored this travelogue with me.
The year 2022 was rather hectic and was filled with a slew of unforeseen events that kept us away from a REAL vacation apart from a couple of impromptu weekend drives in and around Hyderabad. This was also a year of great migration of some sorts. After spending more than a decade in Bangalore, we decided to move to Hyderabad due to our professional commitments. A few months in, and it was evident that we don’t have quick weekend getaway places nearby anymore.

Anyways, fast forward to June 2023, my parents came to visit us in Hyderabad for the first time. Upon discussing on nearby places to visit, wifey suggested that we should take a proper weeklong vacation as the last one we took was way back in late 2020, in Europe. Thanks to COVID-19, everything after that was shortened to 2-3 days. Western ghats has always been our favourite. But, with our aging parents it wasn’t possible to drive all the way there from Hyderabad. So, we decided to take a flight to cover some major distance and rent a self-drive car from there for the rest of the trip. We came up with the following plan:

Day 1: Hyderabad to Coimbatore – Take a morning flight, collect the car(revv) at the airport and drive to Coonoor.
Day 2: Toy train ride to Ooty, Ooty sight seeing and Back to Coonoor.
Day 3: Drive around Coonoor, Pine Forest, 8th mile, Pykara lake.
Day 4: Coonoor to Coimbatore, Isha foundation. We stayed at JK Hotels.
Day 5: Coimbatore to Madurai. We stayed at Hotel Madurai Residency.
Day 6: Visit to Meenakshi temple, back to Hyderabad.

Day 1: It was a Saturday, and we booked an early morning flight from Hyderabad to Coimbatore. We reached Coimbatore at 9.30 AM and the delivery executive from Revv was already waiting at the airport parking lot. We already had our breakfast in the flight, so, after a thorough inspection of the car, we started off to Coonoor without wasting any time. I must say the experience with Revv was exceptional.

We took a Ciaz AT as our travelling companion. Upon exiting Airport, we took Coimbatore-Annur-Avinashi-Mettuplayam road to reach Tea nest. This route is little longer, but the tarmac was better than the alternative. Most of the road was two lane carriageways. Now coming to the car, the Ciaz AT was in decent shape with 60K KMs at odo. The car was clean from inside, however, had couple of big dents on the bumper and rear quarter panels. Overall, it was decent enough without any major issues and rattles to break the silence of the cabin. What was surely missed were the higher gears. With the ancient Maruti 4 speed TC AT, one needs to really plan an overtake, especially if you are driving on a two-lane carriageway. Nevertheless, it was a good decision to opt for an AT as it was very easy to drive in the hills.

Route map - Coimbatore - Coonoor


The road condition was good with sparse traffic on a weekend. It turned green with mountains on both the sides as soon as we entered Mettupalayam Road. We took a break after an hour into the drive and had Coconut water on the roadside with the mountains in the backdrop.

With a sedate drive through the hills, we reached the resort around 1.30 PM. Here are some pictures we took enroute. We had our lunch at the resort and took rest for a while. It started to rain but went off within half an hour. My wife and I went for a walk in the late afternoon. The winding road through the lush tea garden on one side and valley on the other was amazing. Upon reaching the resort, all four of us joined for a tea and onion pakora overlooking the hills. We chatted for some time in the courtyard and met again at the restaurant for dinner. Remember to order your dinner by 6.30 PM as they prepare only according to orders received. We chose Oriental and the food was delicious. We called it a day post dinner and proceeded to our rooms by 10 PM.

Day 2: Day 2 witnessed partially murky clouds and light drizzle. We started off our leisure activities with a scrumptious breakfast of colorful and flavorful idlis, crispy pooris, crunchy dosas, and masala tea amongst the lavish spread at Tea nest. Coonoor railway station was approximately 2 kms from our place, and it took 15 mins to reach the parking and another 5-10 mins to reach the platform. We had made online reservations at one of the second-class coaches (Website: www.irctc.co.in). As the train whistled in through the mist, we checked in and settled down. Through valleys, hills, tunnels, and forests, the journey from Coonoor (departed at 10:40 AM) to Udhagamandalam/Ooty (arrived at 11:55 PM) was one of the most scenic and breathtaking routes. “Around a pile of mountains, and, supercilious, peer; in shanties by the sides of roads, and then a quarry pare” (Emily Dickinson).

View from the toy train, somewhere around Wellington.


At Ooty we made a quick plan to visit the nearby tourist spots hiring a local cab for Rs 1000. Our first stop was the Ooty lake/boat house, just 2.1 kms from the station. We got lucky enough to get a speed boat on time for 4 people at Rs 800. The 20-minute ride on the pristine waters, touching the lush green lakesides with the cool breeze stroking our faces, surely pumped up our adrenaline! Our next stop was the Karnataka Garden, 2 kms from our first stop. This was a gigantic, picturesque lawn, with innovative landscaping and many photogenic spots where you can sit and relax for a while. We grabbed some chocolates, and varkeys from a Chocolate Factory- outlet, on the way back to the station, and boarded the pre-reserved train (departed at 2:00 PM), back to Coonoor.

Ooty lake/boat house


Karnataka Garden, Ooty




Arriving at our destination at 3:00 PM, we decided to have a late lunch at the Open Kitchen Restaurant, around 2.5 kms from the railway station. This small, quaint cafe is famous for its pizzas, and we thought to give it a try along with its garlic bread and chilly cheese toasts, from the menu of the day, and trust me, the food was absolutely delicious! However, this didn’t quench our hunger from the exhausting tour, and we had some delectable onion pakoras and ginger tea after reaching Tea nest. For dinner, we had the chettinad chicken curry and phulkas at the hotel, both fresh and well prepared, and retired for the day listening to the incessant chirp of crickets.

Barbeque chicken pizza, Open Kitchen Restaurant, Coonoor


Day 3: We started our day quite leisurely. With a view like this, it’s hard not to spend enough time idling at the Veranda and do nothing but to gaze at the mountain. Will let the photos do the talking.

The view from my balcony:




After soaking in the sun for a while, we had our breakfast and got ready for the day. The plan was to drive through the scenic route of Ooty-Gundalpet. We started lazily around 11 and the destination was set to Pykara lake around 45 kms away. We took the route through Coonoor-Wellington-Ooty-Gundalpet. This goes through the famous pine forest, 8th mile tree park and the picturesque winding road towards Gundalpet. Having visited Ooty lake and boat house, Pykara didn’t feel appealing to us. We spent some time at the boat house and decided to head back towards Ooty to have lunch at Kailash Parbat in upper bazar, Ooty. Some pics to do the talking.

Pine forest at 8th mile.


Pykara Lake.


Pakora with tea followed by dinner at Tea Nest. It was the last night here and we tried some western cuisine; and boy, we were not disappointed.







Day 4: Alas, our Coonoor stay came to an end and we descended to Coimbatore, once again crossing the green mountains and numerous hairpin bends. We decided to visit the Isha Foundation at Coimbatore, and it was a whopping 3.5 hrs journey from our Coonoor stay. After spending some time in the calm and serene shadow of Adiyogi, we drove to our accommodation in Coimbatore at the JK Hotels. If you stay there, you must try the dosas.

Adiyogi, Isha Foundation, Coimbatore.


Day 5: It was time to switch to the passenger seat after 4 days of awesome driving, and for a change, it was not that bad. We booked a cab through MMT from our hotel in Coimbatore to Madurai. As usual, the roads in Tamil Nadu were buttery smooth and we covered the 200 odd kilometres in 4 hours with a couple of breaks in between. We had lunch at Temple City on Coimbatore-Madurai highway. This place is highly recommended with great food and clean toilets. As it rained in the evening, we decided to stay at the hotel and took rest for the rest of the evening.

Day 6: The temple was located about 2 kms from our hotel. We took an auto to the West gate and got the essentials for puja from a nearby shop, where we also kept our slippers and walked barefoot to the main temple. Remember to deposit your phones and bags outside the temple. Though we could only catch a glimpse of Devi Meenakshi hovering over the crowds and queues, the piousness and serenity of the surroundings filled our hearts with peace and joy. We were mesmerized by the 2500 years old stories of Devi and Shiva, the colourful structures, the 1000 pillars temple, and the multitude of stone sculptures of Gods and Goddesses. We took the flight from Madurai to Hyderabad, that evening, and ended this short and fruitful trip with blissful hearts and fond memories.

Meenakshi Amman temple, Madurai.


Thanks for reading this far
- Ash & Sid