Munnar is a hill station with amazing views of tea plantations. I spent most of our time there taking photos of the stunning scenery as literally everywhere we looked was photo worthy. We spent two nights here but monsoon season really started on our last day and so we didn't do a lot. I think 2 nights is probably the right amount of time, unless you really bloody love tea
Accommodation
The Lost Hostel, Munnar- After staying in Lost Hostel in Varkala we decided to stay in their Munnar hostel as we got a discount. It was up a steep 300m hill and about a half hour bus journey out of Munnar, however the hostel was great with fast WiFi, air con, a kitchen, communal area and we met lots of people here. It was a bit more expensive than the super cheap one in Varkala but had some great extras like dinner and washing for 8 rupees per item which made it worthwhile.
How to get to/from there
From Varkala- Munnar was a bit of a struggle to get to and from as we were coming from Varkala. We managed to get a train fairly easily with tickets booked on the day to a place called Kottayam ??? where we then had to change to a bus. We'd been told and it said online that buses from there to Munnar ran hourly, but after arriving around 2.30 we were told the next bus was at 5. Not ideal, but we got some snacks and watched some Netflix whilst we waited. We then took a local bus for about 50p each for the 5 hours to reach Munnar. To reach our hostel we got off the bus a stop early and asked locals to direct us as we had no signal. A pretty long journey but worth it! If arriving in Munnar itself a taxi to the hostel should be around 200 rupees
To Kochi- We needed to get from Munnar to Kochi for a 1am flight. The journey should take 5 hours, and we were told to get the bus to SOMEWHERE as this was the closest stop to the airport. We waited in the centre of the small town where our hostel was and when a public bus arrived I asked the driver if the bus would go to Kochi and he said yes. We got on and about 5 minutes into the journey the ticket conductor came over and informed us that in fact the bus didn't go to Kochi. Around an hour later he and several other people shouted for us to get off the bus and we were quite literally thrown/carried onto the road in the pouring rain to board another bus which had pulled up in front of us. It was packed but people gave up their seats for us and we made it in one piece, and got some food and then found a cheap taxi to get us to the airport with time to spare. If you don't like the risk of this, a taxi for the 3 hour journey was about 4000 rupees.
Things to do
Sunrise tour- We did a jeep tour to see the sunrise and, like every other sunrise trip I've done it was too cloudy to see anything. Classic. The views were still nice and we visited a waterfall, chocolate factory, a dam. This tour was organised through our hostel and we were driven around in a jeep for several hours at times almost up vertically which was a cool experience. I think we paid about 600 rupees each. Not sure I'd recommend this tour as it involved leaving the hostel at 5am and without seeing a sunrise it was a bit average, but with a sunrise would have been nice!
Getting to Munnar from Lost Hostel- Local buses run from the town with the hostel, and we paid about 20p for the journey. One time a tuk tuk driver offered to take us for the price of the bus as he was going there anyway which was such a win
Tea museum- this was pretty interesting, a little museum about the formation of the tea plantations in the area. They'd been set up by the British and some of the photos of these rich white men being carried round by the locals made me cringe but hey there's no point pretending stuff like that didn't happen. We also watched a really interesting video about how the tea plantations operate now and the employment they give to the local community. There was also the chance to do a tour of the tea plantation and also try the different teas but we opted not to do this
Tuktuk tour- As usual we found a tuk tuk to do a little tour of the area for us. We used the tuk tuk driver who'd given us the cheap ride and his son drove us to a few sites, including a view point, spice plantation, tea plantations and a small garden. I found the spice plantation a lot more interesting than I was expecting, as we were given a tour and the medicinal uses of the different herbs and spices were explained to us. There was definitely an expectation of a purchase which we did not make, though.
Food
CHOCOLATE- there are so many chocolate shops and factories around Munnar which made delicious chocolate with different fillings. We found a shop that let us try samples for any we wanted and ended up visiting multiple times. The prices were per kilo and were roughly £6, so we got a lot of good chocolate (they had great vegan flavours too!)
Hostel dinner- Our hostel offered a family dinner served in the evening. For 150 rupees we got unlimited vegetable curry, vegetables and rice. It was SO good
Breakfast- In the little town by our hostel we wandered around trying to find breakfast and got paratha and tea from a local restaurant. Paratha is my favourite and the Kerala one is especially good. It came with a bean curry and was super cheap and delicious
General advice
We were unsure about going to Munnar due to the length and effort of the journey but I'm really glad we did. It was very different to the other places we visited and the chocolate and tea were an added bonus. The views were amazing and although it's very touristy it's definitely worth visiting for a couple of days. The order of our route made no sense, though, so it's worth planning
Laura x
Accommodation
The Lost Hostel, Munnar- After staying in Lost Hostel in Varkala we decided to stay in their Munnar hostel as we got a discount. It was up a steep 300m hill and about a half hour bus journey out of Munnar, however the hostel was great with fast WiFi, air con, a kitchen, communal area and we met lots of people here. It was a bit more expensive than the super cheap one in Varkala but had some great extras like dinner and washing for 8 rupees per item which made it worthwhile.
How to get to/from there
From Varkala- Munnar was a bit of a struggle to get to and from as we were coming from Varkala. We managed to get a train fairly easily with tickets booked on the day to a place called Kottayam ??? where we then had to change to a bus. We'd been told and it said online that buses from there to Munnar ran hourly, but after arriving around 2.30 we were told the next bus was at 5. Not ideal, but we got some snacks and watched some Netflix whilst we waited. We then took a local bus for about 50p each for the 5 hours to reach Munnar. To reach our hostel we got off the bus a stop early and asked locals to direct us as we had no signal. A pretty long journey but worth it! If arriving in Munnar itself a taxi to the hostel should be around 200 rupees
To Kochi- We needed to get from Munnar to Kochi for a 1am flight. The journey should take 5 hours, and we were told to get the bus to SOMEWHERE as this was the closest stop to the airport. We waited in the centre of the small town where our hostel was and when a public bus arrived I asked the driver if the bus would go to Kochi and he said yes. We got on and about 5 minutes into the journey the ticket conductor came over and informed us that in fact the bus didn't go to Kochi. Around an hour later he and several other people shouted for us to get off the bus and we were quite literally thrown/carried onto the road in the pouring rain to board another bus which had pulled up in front of us. It was packed but people gave up their seats for us and we made it in one piece, and got some food and then found a cheap taxi to get us to the airport with time to spare. If you don't like the risk of this, a taxi for the 3 hour journey was about 4000 rupees.
Things to do
Sunrise tour- We did a jeep tour to see the sunrise and, like every other sunrise trip I've done it was too cloudy to see anything. Classic. The views were still nice and we visited a waterfall, chocolate factory, a dam. This tour was organised through our hostel and we were driven around in a jeep for several hours at times almost up vertically which was a cool experience. I think we paid about 600 rupees each. Not sure I'd recommend this tour as it involved leaving the hostel at 5am and without seeing a sunrise it was a bit average, but with a sunrise would have been nice!
Getting to Munnar from Lost Hostel- Local buses run from the town with the hostel, and we paid about 20p for the journey. One time a tuk tuk driver offered to take us for the price of the bus as he was going there anyway which was such a win
Tea museum- this was pretty interesting, a little museum about the formation of the tea plantations in the area. They'd been set up by the British and some of the photos of these rich white men being carried round by the locals made me cringe but hey there's no point pretending stuff like that didn't happen. We also watched a really interesting video about how the tea plantations operate now and the employment they give to the local community. There was also the chance to do a tour of the tea plantation and also try the different teas but we opted not to do this
Tuktuk tour- As usual we found a tuk tuk to do a little tour of the area for us. We used the tuk tuk driver who'd given us the cheap ride and his son drove us to a few sites, including a view point, spice plantation, tea plantations and a small garden. I found the spice plantation a lot more interesting than I was expecting, as we were given a tour and the medicinal uses of the different herbs and spices were explained to us. There was definitely an expectation of a purchase which we did not make, though.
Food
CHOCOLATE- there are so many chocolate shops and factories around Munnar which made delicious chocolate with different fillings. We found a shop that let us try samples for any we wanted and ended up visiting multiple times. The prices were per kilo and were roughly £6, so we got a lot of good chocolate (they had great vegan flavours too!)
Hostel dinner- Our hostel offered a family dinner served in the evening. For 150 rupees we got unlimited vegetable curry, vegetables and rice. It was SO good
Breakfast- In the little town by our hostel we wandered around trying to find breakfast and got paratha and tea from a local restaurant. Paratha is my favourite and the Kerala one is especially good. It came with a bean curry and was super cheap and delicious
General advice
We were unsure about going to Munnar due to the length and effort of the journey but I'm really glad we did. It was very different to the other places we visited and the chocolate and tea were an added bonus. The views were amazing and although it's very touristy it's definitely worth visiting for a couple of days. The order of our route made no sense, though, so it's worth planning
Laura x
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