Munnar Travel Guide: Tea Hills, Eravikulam and the Viewpoints

The name means three rivers in Malayalam: the Mudrapuzha, Nallathanni and Kundala meet here. Most sights lie along three roads out of town: north to Eravikulam, Marayoor and Chinnar; east past Mattupetty, Echo Point and Kundala to Top Station; and south-east towards Chinnakanal and Anayirangal.

Tea Museum and the estates

Tea came to Munnar in 1880, when the planter A. H. Sharp put about 50 acres under tea, Kerala Tourism records; today the plantations cover the slopes all around the town. The Tea Museum on the Nallathanni estate of Tata Tea tells that story through artefacts, photographs and old machinery. On our Kerala Backwaters Tour — 7 days, a local guide spends the morning with you at a working tea estate and the museum.

Eravikulam National Park and Rajamala

Eravikulam, 13 km from Munnar, protects 97 sq km of grassland and forest and the endangered Nilgiri tahr. The park is divided into core, buffer and tourism zones, and visitors may go only into the tourism zone at Rajamala, the one place in the park where you can expect to see the tahr. Buy tickets on the park's own website or at the counter at the Information Centre in Munnar. The park closes every year from 1 February to 1 April for the tahr's calving season.

Anamudi

Inside Eravikulam rises Anamudi, at 2,695 metres the highest peak in South India; Kerala Tourism calls it the highest point in India outside the Himalaya. You see it from the Rajamala side of the park. Treks to the summit are allowed only with permission from the forest and wildlife authorities at Eravikulam, and the park penalises unauthorised trekking.

Mattupetty Dam and lake

About 13 km from town and at about 1,700 metres, Mattupetty has a dam and a lake where you can hire pedal boats and speed boats, with the hills and tea gardens around you. Beside it, the dairy farm of the Indo-Swiss Livestock Project, set up with the Swiss government, breeds high-yielding cattle. It is the first stop on the road to Top Station.

Echo Point and Kundala

Further along the same road, about 15 km from Munnar, Echo Point is named for the way voices carry back across the water and the valley. Beyond it, Kundala has a lake, a dam, vast tea plantations and a golf course run by Tata Tea, a good place to stop on the climb. The Idukki District Tourism Promotion Council runs a Tea Valley Tour that covers Mattupetty, Echo Point, Kundala, Top Station and Rajamala in one trip.

Top Station

About 32 km from Munnar and at about 1,700 metres, Top Station is the highest point on the Munnar–Kodaikanal road, and its viewpoint looks out over the plains of the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu. It is also one of the places where the neelakurinji turns the slopes blue when it flowers in a mass, once every twelve years. Go early: on monsoon days mist can hide the view.

Power House Waterfalls and Anayirangal

Near the town, at Chinnakanal, the Power House Waterfalls, also called the Chinnakanal falls, drop down a steep rock face beside the road towards Thekkady, about 18 km from Munnar, with a small pool at the foot. About seven kilometres further on, Anayirangal, 22 km from Munnar, has a reservoir among tea plantations and evergreen forest; the boat trip on it is one of the quieter things to do near Munnar.

Pallivasal and Attukad

Pallivasal, about 8 km from Munnar near Chithirapuram, was the site of Kerala's first hydro-electric project, inaugurated in 1940 by the Travancore Diwan, and its slopes make a pleasant picnic stop. Between Munnar and Pallivasal, the Attukad waterfalls lie on a long trekking route, at their fullest in the monsoon and the cool months, with food stalls and toilets near the falls.

Devikulam

Less than 10 kilometres from Munnar and at about 1,800 metres, Devikulam, the 'lake of the goddess', takes its name from the legend that Sita bathed in its lake, and Hindu pilgrims visit through the year. Kerala Tourism notes that visiting the lake or fishing for trout needs prior permission from Tata Tea, and that the estates offer guided tours on how tea is grown.

Marayoor, Kanthalloor and Chinnar

About 40 km from Munnar, Marayoor is an important prehistoric site, with dolmens called muniyaras, burial chambers of four upright stones under a capstone, and ancient rock paintings. It is also the only place in Kerala where sandalwood grows naturally, and its jaggery, Marayoor sarkara, is well known. Neighbouring Kanthalloor is the only place in Kerala where apples are grown commercially. Beyond, the Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary, about 90 sq km in the rain shadow of the Ghats, shelters the grizzled giant squirrel and the Thoovanam waterfalls.

Munnar shares Kerala's dry season, December to March, when IMD's state normals fall to between 8 and 35 mm of rain a month. But Eravikulam National Park closes from 1 February to 1 April, so for dry weather with the park open, come in December or January; February and March suit the tea estates, lakes and viewpoints. April and May are warmer and wetter, with about 105 and 224 mm across Kerala.

The monsoon reaches Kerala around 1 June, and June and July are the state's wettest months, at 643 and 720 mm, when mist and rain can hide the viewpoints. October is wet too: in its first three weeks, Idukki district, which includes Munnar, has the highest normal rainfall of any Kerala district. At about 1,600 metres, evenings are cooler than on the coast all year, so pack a warm layer. The neelakurinji flowers in a mass only once every twelve years; Munnar's last great flowering was in 2018, and Kerala Tourism expects the next in 2030. Our best time to visit Kerala guide has the whole state month by month.

• By air: Cochin International Airport is the nearest, about 108 km away by the Aluva–Munnar road.
• By train: Munnar has no railway. The nearest stations are Aluva, about 108 km away, and Angamaly, about 109 km.
• By road from Kochi: about 130 km, which the Idukki district administration puts at about four and a half hours; our itineraries allow about four, climbing through spice plantations and past waterfalls.
• By road from Tamil Nadu: about 153 km from Madurai, five to six hours over the Western Ghats on our South India route, and about 160 km from Coimbatore, up to four hours by the district's reckoning. See our Madurai travel guide for the Tamil Nadu side.
• From Thekkady: Kumily, the town at Thekkady, is 110 km south; our Thekkady travel guide covers the Periyar side.

Our advice from running trips here is to sleep among the tea estates rather than in Munnar town, which puts the walks and viewpoints outside your door instead of a drive away. Most sights are spread along the roads out of town, so a car and driver, or the DTPC's Tea Valley Tour, make sense; our routes include a private car with a driver throughout. The winding road up from the plains makes some travellers, children especially, carsick, so we allow for stops.

• Book Eravikulam tickets ahead on the park's website in the busy months, and check the closure dates before you plan a February or March visit.
• Keep to marked paths: the park penalises unauthorised trekking, and Anamudi needs the forest authorities' permission.
• Ask before you fish or visit Devikulam's lake: Tata Tea's permission is needed.
• From Munnar, the backwaters are the usual next stop; our Alleppey travel guide and Kerala travel guide cover the route.