Ooty Kodaikanal and Munnar Honeymoon Tour

Coimbatore is the closest airport to the Nilgiri hills, with good connections from Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai and the Gulf. Look for a placard printed with your two surnames just past customs; the man holding it is your driver for the whole trip, and he will take the trolley, hand you chilled water and run through tomorrow's timings while the car cools down. The first hour runs north across flat farmland lined with coconut palms to the town of Mettupalayam, where the plains end abruptly at the foot of the hills. If you landed very early or after a long overnight flight, the driver can stop for a proper South Indian breakfast of dosa and filter coffee before the climb.

Above Mettupalayam the road begins its long series of hairpin bends, and within an hour the temperature drops by ten degrees or more. Banana groves and areca palms give way to silver oak, eucalyptus and the first neat terraces of tea, and monkeys often sit on the stone parapets watching the traffic. Your driver takes the bends at a calm pace and will pull over at a safe spot so you can photograph the plains falling away below. The town of Coonoor appears about two-thirds of the way up, and Ooty, officially Udhagamandalam, lies a further forty minutes beyond.

Home until Day 3 is a cottage-style hill hotel with a sit-out or small garden, and we have asked the hotel for a room upgrade on your behalf as honeymooners, subject to availability on arrival. Nothing at all is planned for the rest of today, which leaves room for a nap, a long hot shower and a gentle adjustment to the thinner air at roughly 2,200 meters. Evenings in Ooty turn cool quickly, and many hotels light a fireplace or bring a heater to the room after dark. Dinner is at the hotel or at a small restaurant nearby. Overnight in Ooty.

Clouds tend to gather over the Nilgiris by late morning, so your local guide meets you once breakfast is done, well before nine, and heads straight up to Doddabetta Peak. At about 2,637 meters it is the highest point in the Nilgiri range, and on a clear day the view stretches across rolling tea country toward the Mysore plateau in one direction and the Coimbatore plains in the other. A telescope house on the summit lets you pick out distant towns and reservoirs. On the way down you can stop at a tea factory and museum near the road to watch fresh leaf being rolled, dried and graded, followed by a tasting.

Back in town, the Government Rose Garden climbs a hillside in curved terraces just below the main bazaar. It was laid out in the mid-1990s and holds thousands of rose varieties, from tight crimson hybrid teas to rambling climbers trained over arches and pergolas. The flowers are at their fullest from April to June and again after the monsoon, though something is in bloom for most of the year. Ask your guide which upper terrace gives the best picture of you both, with the rose beds stepping away beneath. For lunch, pick any of the small cafés around Charing Cross, the busy junction near the market.

Late afternoon, when day-trippers have left, is the gentlest time for Ooty Lake. Ooty's founder, the Coimbatore collector John Sullivan, created this long, curving lake in the 1820s by building a dam across a hill stream, and tall eucalyptus still crowds the opposite shore. We reserve a rowboat just for the two of you, and the boatman can row while you sit back, or hand you the oars once you are away from the jetty. Watch the light turn gold on the water before the evening chill comes in. After dark, a hot chocolate by the hotel fire is the natural way to end the day. Overnight in Ooty.

Of the whole honeymoon, this is the day with the most hours in the car, and we prefer you hear that from us before you book rather than find out on the morning. There is no direct road across the hills from Ooty to Kodaikanal, so the route drops back down to the plains at Mettupalayam, skirts Coimbatore, then runs south-east through Pollachi or Udumalpet and the temple town of Palani before climbing again into the Palani Hills. With sensible breaks the trip usually takes six to seven hours. Your driver leaves after breakfast, around eight, so you arrive with daylight to spare, and the back seat has plenty of room for a nap after the hairpins.

The middle of the drive passes through coconut groves, windmill farms and small market towns where you can stop for tender coconut water or a banana-leaf lunch. Above Palani the road winds up through forest and cloud for roughly two hours, and the air cools noticeably again. Kodaikanal, at about 2,100 meters, was founded in the 1840s by American missionaries escaping the summer heat of the plains, and it still feels smaller and quieter than Ooty. You check in to a lake-view or valley-facing room for two nights, and the evening is free for a short walk and an early dinner. Overnight in Kodaikanal.

Mornings in Kodaikanal often begin with mist lying on the valleys, and Coaker's Walk is the place to watch it clear. This paved path of about a kilometer was laid out in the 1870s by a British engineer named Coaker along a steep southern slope of the town, and it looks out over the plains far below. On a clear morning you can see as far as the flatlands around Periyakulam, while on misty days the clouds drift up the cliff past the railings. Go early, before the souvenir stalls open, and you may have long stretches of it almost to yourselves.

Next comes the lake. Kodaikanal Lake is shaped roughly like a star and is circled by a road of about five kilometers that is popular with cyclists and walkers. Rental stands near the boat club hire out ordinary bikes and two-person tandems, and we suggest the tandem, which tests teamwork in a light-hearted way on the gentle slopes. The loop passes old cottages, Bryant Park with its flower beds and greenhouses, and spots where horses wait for riders. If you would rather be on the water, a pedal boat or rowboat can be hired at the jetty for half an hour.

After lunch your guide drives you along the forest road to Pillar Rocks, three upright granite columns roughly 120 meters tall that rise side by side from a wooded slope. Clouds move across them constantly, so be patient at the viewpoint: they often appear and vanish within a few minutes. Close by are pine plantations with tall straight trunks and soft needles underfoot, a pleasant place for a slow walk together, and the Guna Caves viewpoint, where entry beyond the railing is not allowed. Back in town, pick up a bar of homemade Kodaikanal chocolate before dinner. Overnight in Kodaikanal.

A map suggests that Kodaikanal and Munnar are neighbors, and in a straight line they almost are, but the old forest road between them has long been closed to tourist traffic. The practical route goes down the eastern face of the Palani Hills to Batlagundu, then south through Theni and Bodinayakanur before climbing the Bodimettu ghat into Kerala, a drive of five to six hours with stops. We leave after an early breakfast. The first descent is the steepest part, and your driver will stop at a viewpoint where the hills open toward the plains and the villages scattered across them.

The valley floor around Theni is one of the most fertile corners of Tamil Nadu, with grape vines on overhead trellises, banana plantations, cotton and fields of onions and chilies. Roadside stalls sell bunches of local grapes in season, and a short stop to buy some is a cheerful way to break the drive. Lunch is at a simple restaurant in Bodinayakanur or Theni, or we can pack something from the hotel if you prefer a picnic. After Bodi the road climbs about seventeen hairpin bends to the Bodimettu pass on the state border, where cardamom plantations shaded by forest trees replace the dry plains.

From the pass the road runs along ridges covered in tea and cardamom, past small Kerala towns with tiled roofs and white churches, until Munnar appears where three mountain streams meet. Your tea estate resort for the next three nights has rooms facing the slopes, and the team welcomes you with a pot of local high-range tea. After a long day, we recommend nothing more ambitious than a hot bath and an early dinner. Ask at reception about the best time for tomorrow's national park visit, as morning queues can build quickly. Overnight in Munnar.

First stop is Eravikulam National Park, a short drive north of town, where rolling grassland and dark pockets of shola forest spread across a plateau beneath Anamudi, which at about 2,695 meters tops every other summit south of the Himalayas. Your car has to stay at the gate; from there a forest department shuttle runs up to the Rajamala sector, and a paved track continues on foot along the slope. Herds of Nilgiri tahr, a sturdy brown mountain goat found only in these ranges, tend to wander close to the footpath, chewing grass and ignoring the cameras. Because young tahr are born in early spring, the park shuts for several weeks each year, usually inside the February to April window, and we adjust the plan if your dates fall then.

Down in the valley, a plantation company runs a tea museum at Nallathanni that follows Munnar's estates from the Victorian-era clearing of the forest to today's cooperatives and factories. Old photographs, a small rolling machine from the early days and a short film explain how the high ranges were cleared and planted, and a working section shows the leaf moving from withering to grading. The tasting at the end is a good chance to compare orthodox and CTC tea. Afterward, lunch can be at your resort or at a small restaurant serving Kerala meals in town.

Toward the end of the afternoon you head for Pothamedu viewpoint, a few kilometers south of town, where tea, coffee and cardamom slopes fall away in layers toward the valley. It is quieter than the better-known lookouts and faces west, so the sunset light catches the ridges and the tea bushes look almost velvet. Bring a jacket, as the wind can be sharp once the sun drops. Tonight the resort kitchen lays a table for two outdoors, lit by lanterns and set away from the restaurant, with Kerala dishes such as appam and vegetable stew or a mild chicken roast. Overnight in Munnar.

Today has no driving schedule at all, which feels like a small luxury after the road days. Sleep in, then join a resident naturalist or tea estate guide for a walk along the footpaths that cut between the tea rows, where pickers move along the slopes with baskets and shears. Ask him why every bush is clipped flat at about hip level, what the tall silver oaks between the rows are for, and which bird is making that whistling call from the forest edge. Early in the walk there is often dew on the leaves and mist in the folds of the hills, and the paths are wide enough to walk side by side.

The afternoon belongs to your couple's spa session, which is included in this package. Most resorts in Munnar offer Ayurvedic treatments, and the classic choice is abhyanga, in which two therapists per person work warm medicated oil into the body with matching strokes, ending with a short herbal steam. Treatments take about an hour, and the therapists will ask about any health conditions first. If you prefer something lighter, a head and shoulder massage or foot reflexology works well too. Allow time afterward to rest on the balcony with herbal tea, because oil treatments are best followed by quiet rather than activity.

If you still have energy in the evening, your driver can take you to see a short performance of Kathakali or Kalaripayattu, the Kerala martial art, at a small cultural hall in town; shows usually begin as it gets dark. Otherwise, stay in and enjoy the resort, where evenings are often spent around a bonfire with mugs of something warm and the sound of crickets in the tea. Tomorrow you drive down to the coast, so ask reception to prepare an early breakfast. Your driver will confirm the departure time tonight, based on traffic and the timing of your sunset sail in Kochi. Overnight in Munnar.

The road from Munnar to the coast follows the Muthirappuzha River down through tea, then spice gardens, then rubber plantations and finally coconut country. On the way, the Cheeyappara and Valara waterfalls tumble down the cliffs right beside the highway, at their fullest from June to November but pleasant at any time of year. Your driver stops at a spice shop in the hills if you want to buy cardamom, pepper or cinnamon for home, and at a roadside stall for jackfruit chips. As you descend, the air turns warm and humid again, a clear sign that the hill part of your trip is complete.

Kochi comes into view by early afternoon, and you settle into a heritage boutique hotel in Fort Kochi, the old waterfront quarter where Portuguese, Dutch and British traders all left their mark. Once you have rested, a local guide takes the two of you on foot past St. Francis Church, colonial bungalows with deep verandas and the old Dutch cemetery near the beach. Tall rain trees shade most of the streets, and small galleries and cafés fill many of the restored warehouses. The walk is deliberately short and timed to end near the water about an hour before sunset, ready for the evening ahead.

Your sunset sail is a private boat trip on Kochi harbor, and it gives you a sea-level view of the town you just walked through. First the boat slides past the Chinese fishing nets lining the point of Fort Kochi, large wooden frames whose crews are usually lifting the last catch of the day, then crosses toward the islands where cargo ships and fishing trawlers come and go. With the light dropping behind the Arabian Sea, it is a fitting farewell to Kerala. Dinner afterward can be at a seafood restaurant along the waterfront, where you choose fish from the counter. Overnight in Kochi.

There is no rush this morning. With a later flight, you could stroll once more along the seafront or spend an hour among the curio dealers and pepper godowns of Jew Town in Mattancherry. Keep in mind the weekly closures: Fridays for Mattancherry Palace, and Fridays, Saturdays plus Jewish holidays for the Paradesi Synagogue, which we check against your date. Most hotels here ask guests to vacate by midday; for a night flight we can request a later checkout ahead of time.

Allow roughly ninety minutes by road from Fort Kochi to Cochin International Airport; your driver plans the pickup so that you reach check-in a comfortable three hours before an international flight. Plenty of daily departures leave Kochi for the big Gulf hubs and for Singapore, where long-haul connections take you the rest of the way home. Over nine days you have seen three very different hill stations and the old trading port of Kochi, and we hope you take home good memories of the hills. Safe travels, and congratulations once again to you both.