The Spices Route

You will enjoy this day around Munnar, in the midst of its abundant tea plantations and bountiful nature. Since we are on the border of the Eravikulam National Park, you will be presented with many options to fill your afternoon - there are so many possibilities here! According to your wishes and preferences this superb, relatively short loop, will be arranged by your tour leader.

We enjoy many more mountain roads with views over spectacular bodies of water. We briefly drop back down to the warm Tamil plains, only to climb back up to the Kodaikanal region, with the welcome fresh mountain air of the Palani hills. An English hill town, popular for its large cedar and eucalyptus forests.

Heading north back down the Palani hills we enjoy some wonderful views, especially overlooking Palar dam. We pass through Palani, a small holy town where scenes of religious fervour are commonplace. We take another series of beautiful mountainous roads, passing remote villages on our way as we push on through the Tamil Nadu plains north of the mountain range surrounded by lush, peaceful countryside.

We continue our adventure through farmlands and skirt around Elivai Malai. Dense forests and tea plantations surround us once more as we climb towards Ooty, another ancient hill station beloved by the English, set at the foot of the Doddabetta, the highest peak in the Nilgiri range (2,637 m). We make a crazily steep ascent on a series of 35 hairpin bends over only 12 miles!

We take in impeccable views as we slowly but surely descend through Mukurthi National Park on our way back to the plains. The route is peppered with forests and plantations and some stretches are just as steep as the previous day. Then, we descend onto the plains to reach Cheruthuruthy (Thrissur) and make the most of our hotel, a haven of peace.

We head towards the coast and Guruvayur, a spiritual Hindu town, which abounds with religious paraphernalia shops and thousands of Hindu pilgrims visiting each day. Lunch in the area, then we take the coastal road to Vypin Island and its numerous beaches that have only just begun garnering the attention of tourists.

You can spend the morning relaxing on the palm tree-lined beach, where we can walk between the salt ponds. To finish our journey, we enjoy a feast of narrow roads through some more backwaters, over tiny bridges, passing fishing and farming villages, rice paddies and tropical fruit plantations until we reach our final destination.

Your room is reserved until 10 am. You’re transferred to the airport or you can continue your stay. But this is where our services end!