Ooty and Kodaikanal packages at a glance
Ooty and Kodaikanal tour packages cost ₹11,999 to ₹14,999 per person for a 4 to 5 day trip, depending on the length, the season and whether you take a fixed-date group departure or a private trip.
- Duration: 4, 5 days; four days is the shortest that gives each hill station a full day, five or six adds Coonoor or Berijam without a dawn-to-dusk drive.
- Price: ₹11,999 to ₹14,999 per person, twin or triple sharing.
- Route: Ooty and Coonoor in the Nilgiris first, then the drive south through Coimbatore and up into the Palani hills to Kodaikanal.
- Travel: Coimbatore is the gateway for both: three hours up to Ooty, and three hours south to Kodaikanal.
- Stay: a hotel or cottage in Ooty town or on the Coonoor tea slopes, and a lakeside or valley-view stay in Kodaikanal.
- Best time: October to March for clear mornings; April to June for the summer season and the flower shows.
- Trip type: private trips planned around your dates.
Ooty and Kodaikanal 4 day package
4 days / 3 nights from ₹11,999 per person.
The first two days are Ooty and Coonoor: the botanical garden, Doddabetta, the toy train leg and the tea estates. The drive south takes most of the third day, and the last two are Kodaikanal: the lake, Coaker's Walk, Pillar Rocks and Guna Caves.
2 plans: 4 Days Ooty Kodaikanal Twin Hills Bliss (4D/3N, from ₹11,999); 4 Days Ooty Kodaikanal Bliss from Coimbatore (4D/3N, from ₹11,999).
Ooty and Kodaikanal 5 day package
5 days / 4 nights from ₹14,999 per person.
The longer plans add Pykara or Avalanche lake in the Nilgiris, Berijam lake at Kodaikanal on a forest permit, or the Isha Yoga Centre near Coimbatore, which sits on the road between the two.
3 plans: 5 Days Ooty Kodaikanal Isha Bliss (5D/4N, from ₹14,999); 5 Days Ooty Kodaikanal Twin Hills Escape (5D/4N, from ₹14,999); 5 Days Ooty Kodaikanal Escape from Coimbatore (5D/4N, from ₹14,999).
Places you see on the Ooty and Kodaikanal trip
The two halves of the trip, in the order most itineraries run them.
- The Nilgiri Mountain Railway: The UNESCO-listed rack railway; the Ooty to Coonoor leg takes about an hour and is the easy version of the ride.
- Doddabetta Peak: The highest point in the Nilgiris at 2,637 m, with a telescope house; clearest before the mid-morning mist.
- Government Botanical Garden and Rose Garden: 55 acres laid out in 1848, and 20,000 rose varieties on the terraced slope above Ooty town.
- Coonoor: Sim's Park and Dolphin's Nose: The quieter hill town 20 km down, with a 12-hectare garden and the viewpoints over the Catherine falls.
- Pykara falls and lake: A boat ride and two falls in shola forest on the Ooty to Mysuru road.
- Kodai Lake and Coaker's Walk: The star-shaped lake with a cycle path around it, and the mile-long cliff path with a telescope house.
- Pillar Rocks and Guna Caves: Three 400-foot granite pillars with a garden viewpoint, 8 km from Kodaikanal town.
- Bryant Park and Silver Cascade: A 20-acre terraced garden beside Kodai lake, and the 180-foot fall on the road up.
Ooty and Kodaikanal trip cost
₹11,999 to ₹14,999 per person, and what moves it is the length, the season and the room. 4 days from ₹11,999, 5 days from ₹14,999.
What the price includes
- Travel from the pick-up city and back on a group departure, or the car and driver on a private trip.
- Stays on twin or triple sharing.
- The meals named on the trip page, normally breakfast and dinner on a group departure.
- Sightseeing as listed, and a Travloger trip captain on every group departure.
What it does not include
- Entry tickets at the gardens, Doddabetta, Pillar Rocks and the viewpoints.
- The Nilgiri toy train ticket, which is booked separately and sells out in season.
- The Berijam lake permit, lunches on travel days, anything personal, and travel insurance.
Who this trip suits
Friends and solo travellers: every trip here is private, so a group of four to eight sets its own pace and splits the cost.
Couples and families: both hill stations are easy going — gardens, boating, a cliff walk and a train ride rather than treks — so this is one of the gentler trips in the south. As a private trip you keep your own car, a room to yourselves and the long drive split the way you want it.
Best time to go, and getting to Ooty and Kodaikanal
Best time
- October to March, 5 to 20°C: Cold and clear in both hill stations, the best light for the viewpoints and the toy train. December and January can bring frost in Ooty.
- April to June, 11 to 25°C: The summer season, when the plains escape the heat; both flower shows fall in May and rates peak.
- July to September, 10 to 20°C: Mist and heavy rain, valleys closed in for days at a time, and the lowest prices of the year.
Getting there
Neither hill station has an airport or a railway station. Coimbatore is the gateway for both: Ooty is 85 km and about three hours up the ghat, Kodaikanal is 170 km south through Palani, and the road between the two runs about 240 km through the plains. Every trip here includes the road legs.
Or take them one at a time
Each hill station also runs as a trip of its own: Ooty for the Nilgiris, the toy train and the tea estates, Kodaikanal for the lake and the Palani hills.
