Munnar travel guides
Munnar Travel Guide: Tea Hills, Eravikulam and the Viewpoints 
Travel guide · Destinations
Munnar Travel Guide: Tea Hills, Eravikulam and the Viewpoints
Munnar is a tea-growing hill station at about 1,600 metres in Kerala's Idukki district, where three mountain streams meet. The main places to visit in Munnar are the Tea Museum and the estates, Eravikulam National Park for the Nilgiri tahr, Mattupetty's lake, Echo Point, Kundala and Top Station. December to March is dry, but Eravikulam closes from 1 February to 1 April. Allow two nights.
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From the journal: Munnar
Hidden Places in Munnar You Can’t Miss Travel guide
Hidden Places in Munnar You Can’t Miss
Munnar, renowned for its lush tea gardens and misty hills, holds secrets beyond its popular attractions. For those yearning to explore the road less traveled, Munnar offers hidden gems that promise serenity, adventure, and a deep connection with nature. These Hidden Places in Munnar are perfect for travelers seeking unique experiences away from the usual tourist trails.
Read the guide7 Reasons Why Munnar is Best to Visit in Winter Travel guide
7 Reasons Why Munnar is Best to Visit in Winter
Munnar, the serene hill station of Kerala, sits peacefully in the arms of the Western Ghats. Famous for its lush tea plantations, rolling hills, waterfalls, and wildlife, it transforms into a cool, mist-covered paradise during the dry winter months (December to February). That’s exactly why locals and travelers agree— winter is the best time to visit Munnar.
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Frequently asked questions
How can you spend two days in Munnar?
Follow our routes: after the climb from Kochi or Madurai, spend the evening among the tea gardens. Give the next morning to a working estate and the tea museum, and the afternoon to a viewpoint and, outside its closure, Eravikulam. A third day leaves time for Mattupetty or Top Station.
What can you do in Munnar with children?
Take a boat on Mattupetty's lake, look for tahr at Eravikulam outside its February and March closure, and see the old machinery at the tea museum. Break up the drive: its bends upset some young stomachs.
What is Munnar famous for?
Tea, grown on estates across its slopes; the Nilgiri tahr of Eravikulam; and the neelakurinji, a shrub whose mass flowering turns the hills blue once every twelve years. British officials of South India once spent their summers here.
What can you do in Munnar when Eravikulam is closed?
From 1 February to 1 April, while the tahr calve, spend your time on the estates and at the tea museum, take a boat at Mattupetty or the reservoir trip at Anayirangal, drive to Top Station, or see the Power House Waterfalls. Those are dry months.
About Munnar Tours & Experiences
The best things to do in Munnar are a morning on a working tea estate with the tea museum, the Nilgiri tahr at Eravikulam National Park (shut in February and March), a boat on Mattupetty's lake and the view from Top Station over Tamil Nadu. Our three routes through Munnar each give it two nights and a tea estate visit.
Reviewed by Experience My India Editorial Team · Updated 21 Oct 2026
Things to do in Munnar
Spend a morning on a tea estate
At about 1,600 metres, Munnar is ringed by tea estates that are still worked. The Kerala Backwaters Tour — 7 days sends you to one with a local guide, then on to the Nallathanni estate's tea museum, with its artefacts, photographs and old machinery. Our other two routes also visit an estate.
See the Nilgiri tahr at Eravikulam
The endangered Nilgiri tahr is the draw at Eravikulam National Park, 13 km from town, whose 97 sq km also shelter rare butterflies and birds. The park closes from 1 February to 1 April for the calving season; at other times, buy tickets online or at the counter in Munnar. The Backwaters Tour includes it when the season allows.
Look out from a viewpoint
Our routes each include a viewpoint over the plantations. For a longer view, drive 32 km to Top Station on the Munnar–Kodaikanal road; at about 1,700 metres it is the road's highest point, with Tamil Nadu spread below.
Take a boat at Mattupetty
Mattupetty, about 13 km from town, has a masonry dam, a lake with boat rides and a dairy farm. At Anayirangal, 22 km out, a trip on the reservoir runs through tea country.
Waterfalls on the way up
The climb from Kochi, about four hours on our routes, passes spice plantations and waterfalls, and close to town the Power House Waterfalls drop at Chinnakanal.
Choosing between our tours and experiences
There is no Munnar experience to book on its own: Munnar is a two-night stop on three of our tours. The Backwaters Tour has a local guide in the hills and goes on to an Alleppey houseboat; the Kerala Ayurveda Retreat — 10 days heads for treatment at Thekkady; and the 10 Days South India Tour Package crosses the Ghats from Madurai. Compare them on Munnar tour packages.
When to go for these
For dry weather with Eravikulam open, come in December or January; February and March stay dry, but the park is shut. October is wet: IMD's normal rainfall for its first 20 days is higher in Idukki, Munnar's district, than in any other Kerala district. From June, the monsoon brings Kerala's heaviest rain.
Planning tips
Pack a warm layer, as evenings at 1,600 metres are cooler than on the coast. The hill road makes some children carsick, so we build in stops. Climbing Anamudi, South India's highest peak, inside Eravikulam, needs the forest authorities' permission. Sleeping on an estate rather than in town puts the tea walks outside your door. Our Munnar travel guide has more.
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