Places to visit in Munnar
These are the places Munnar trips are built from. Each trip page lists exactly which of them it covers, and a private trip can swap one for another.
- Eravikulam National Park: The home of the Nilgiri tahr, on the grass slopes of Rajamalai about 15 km from town; a park bus takes you up and you walk the last stretch among the tahr. It closes for the calving season, usually February and March, and on heavy-rain days.
- Top Station: About 32 km out on the Tamil Nadu border, the highest point on the Munnar road at around 1,880 m, with the view down the Kottagudi valley on a clear morning. Go early; the cloud comes in by ten.
- Mattupetty Dam and lake: Thirteen km from town, a dam lake with speedboats, a Shola forest on its banks and elephants that sometimes come to drink in the evening. The drive out passes the Photo Point tea slopes.
- Kundala Lake: A few km past Mattupetty, quieter, with pedal boats and a Kashmiri shikara; the cherry trees on the bank blossom in December.
- Echo Point: A bend on the Mattupetty road where the valley throws your voice back; a ten-minute stop on the way to Top Station.
- Tea Museum: The KDHP museum at Nallathanni, with the old machinery, a film on the estates and a tasting; closed on Mondays. The working factories nearby do not take visitors.
- Kolukkumalai: The highest tea estate in the world at about 2,400 m, reached by a rough jeep track from Suryanelli that takes an hour; sunrise from the top, above the clouds, is the best morning in Munnar.
- Anamudi: The highest peak in India south of the Himalaya at 2,695 m, inside Eravikulam; climbing it needs forest department permission, but it fills the view from the park road.
- Attukal and Lakkam waterfalls: Attukal is a short walk from Pallivasal on the Kochi side; Lakkam is on the Marayoor road with a pool below it. Both are fullest from July to October.
- Marayoor and Kanthalloor: Forty km north, the only natural sandalwood forest in Kerala, dolmens from the Iron Age, and Kanthalloor's apple and orange orchards in a drier, Tamil Nadu-facing valley.
- Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary: Beyond Marayoor on the border, a dry-forest sanctuary with the grizzled giant squirrel, walked with a tribal guide on a permit from the gate.
- Meesapulimala: The second highest peak here, a day trek through Shola grassland from Rhodo Valley organised by the forest department; the view runs to the Tamil Nadu plains.
- Pothamedu viewpoint: Five km from town on the Kochi road, the easiest tea-estate view in Munnar and the usual sunset stop.
Opening hours and tickets
Eravikulam sells tickets at the gate from about 7.30 am and the park bus stops in the early afternoon, so go in the morning; the park closes for calving, usually February and March. The Tea Museum opens about 9 am to 5 pm and is closed on Mondays. Mattupetty boating runs through the day and Kolukkumalai jeeps leave Suryanelli before dawn for sunrise. Top Station and the lakes are on one road out of town, so they are done as one half-day.
What to eat
Kerala food with a Tamil edge, because the estate workers came from Tamil Nadu: appam and stew or puttu and kadala for breakfast, a sadya on a banana leaf at lunch, Kerala parotta with beef fry in the town's small hotels, and tea from the estate you slept on. The resorts serve their own dinners, which matters because the town is 20 minutes away and closes early. Carrot halwa and homemade chocolate from the shops on the main road are the things to take home.