Three days in Kodaikanal-princess of hills – Itinerary (From Trivandrum)

Travel plan

After spending 2 days in Trivandrum , we took morning train to madurai which took around 6 hours, In madurai we already booked an Innova which picked us from train station.

We left from madurai around 1pm after having traditional “Sadhya” thaali, we didn’t visit inside Madurai as Meenakshi temple opens around 4pm, so we left to kodaikanal directly, driver which we hired was also our guide as he has been to kodaikanal many times.

Later I found that you can take a bus to kodaikanal and there you can book local cabs for sightseeing which might be an cheaper option.

Route was scenic with many coconut trees and lakes. Weather was quite good and since there isn’t much altitude driving seemed easy and we weren’t tired.

In the way before kodaikanal, we reached to our first destination,

Driver told that there was heavy rains since last 15 days so all waterfalls were in full flow

Silver falls

It is 7km before the kodaikanal, it was a maintained location

Since it has been 5pm in evening , weather was little cold in kodaikanal

So we reached to our hotel which I booked two days before

Hotel

We booked “The harmuse” which is in front of kodaikanal bus stand. Initially I was not sure about booking in middle of city but later it turned out to be right decision for many reasons.

1. All scenic points were in 5km radius including kodai lake
2. All restaurants were nearby
3. Back View from hotel was excellent

Tarrif was around 3500/- for two persons including breakfast. There are two restaurants in hotel, one thai restaurant at rooftop which runs at evening and one normal restaurant at ground floor called “Aroma”

Here is view from room.

The day ended with dinner in a restaurant in front of hotel, they usually serve hot water by default in kodaikanal. But spices are strong in food there.

Day 1 : Sightseeing

Kodai lake

We got up at 6 O’clock as I wanted to go to Coaker’s walk, but I added the wrong location on map but I ended up at kodai lake, which is a starshape man made lake created in 19th century,

There is a 4 km walking track, usually there is lot of traffic there but in early morning there was none and we had one of best walk of lifetime with sun rising on lake, morning mist from cold water and beautiful houses around the lake.

It took around 1.5 hours, way was completely flat so there was no effort , and by the time we reached hotel it was breakfast time.

Breakfast at “The hamuse”

I will cover it once as most of days it was identical

They had idli, dosa, sambhar, fruits(pineapple, water melon and papaya), two types of bread, fruit juice, eggs , omelettes , tea and coffee as common. And they usually change one or two dish each day.

Taste was very good, but if it is not included in your package food at hotel is generally costly.

Coaker’s walk

There is an entry ticket of 20/- each here, it was 300 meters away only, and one can’t imagine there is a gateway of heaven just along side a busy city street. This was the only location where I went twice during my stay duration.

It was 1km walk, there are street vendors and photographers along the way, and you see amazing views all around of valley, mountains and city

You can choose to stay for hours here as there are free benches along the way.

After this we left for another destination called “Upper lake view”

Upper lake view

This is a point where you can see kodai lake from a height and star shape lake among trees makes quite a scene

Although there was no place to sit and enjoy the view hence we went for our next destination after 15 minutes

We had lunch after this and went for few more locations for the day

Moir’s point

Again a little piece of heaven, there was everything mountains, valleys , clouds crushing on hills and a spectacular water fall, there was a garden on the point.

Also it is the entry to Kodai wild life safari which we opted to do next day

Pillar’s rock

It is like 5km away from moir’s point and easily one of my favourite locations ever.

There was a twin rocks structure , and with blue sky and clouds on top of it and fog at it’s feet, it was looking straight from Avatar movie.

I wish I would never leave from here and keep seeing the fog over the rocks.

Pine forest

It is quite a unique location and never saw in India anywhere else , although I saw similar in europe

It was dense pine forest and you can sit in between trees and enjoy the filtered rays.

After this we saw some small locations like an old church and small waterfall

It was already 4pm and I didn’t want a tiring trip so we decided to get back to hotel and take rest and dinner and call it a day.

Complete day was filled with surprises and beautiful views and lovely weather and btw there are lot of monkeys here.

I thought we covered all locations and nothing was left for next day , but there was more.

Day 2: Forest, Berijam lake and Mannavanur

We again started the day with walk and breakfast and decided to go to safari next.

Our driver has already got permit for visit which costed 250/- INR,

Forest

It was dense forest and there were lot of signs,

After 10 minutes we still couldn’t spot any animals except a group of monkeys

But after travelling 2km more we spotted wild buffaloes, driver told they are quite aggressive hence we maintained silence

We also spotted rare giant squirrel

After this there weren’t any animals but we encountered some amazing scenic views

Berijam lake

After 30km of drive we reached near berijam lake, since we were early in morning there was no traffic , sun was rising on the lake , there was beautiful grasslands near the lake with benches where you can sit and just soak the rays

Lake was quite beautiful as well with lots of fish

Mannavanur lake

This place was 30km away from Kodaikanal so basically it’s another town,

It took use around 1.5 hours to reach there downhill, again there were view points here like farms on hills and palni hills point

We reached to lake and there was few eateries outside so decided to have lunch and then enter

What a place it was,

A lake with sheep’s grazing Nearby, overlooking hills and lake in middle, I slept for an hour on grass first .

Then we went for boating in traditional round boats.

We spent 2 hours here alone.

There was also zipline activity which we didn’t do,

We again had to go back to kodaikanal which took another 1.5 hours hence we called it a day again with most of places covered.

Next day we planned to just have breakfast and go yo coimbatore to catch our return flight to pune

We didn’t cover few things

1. Guna caves
2. Dolphins nose view point

But we were quite satisfied with our trip and driver was very friendly as well. Foods and chocolates were amazing and very affordable compared to few other popular locations which sells similar items

We bought some local spices and wool sweaters for back home

Again the travel from Kodaikanal to Coimbatore was scenic.

It was an amazing and memorable trip and I hope to visit here again just to chill near lake and coaker’s walk.

I hope you enjoyed the travel walkthrough and I recommend highly to visit this place.