Kodaikanal
The Princess of Hill Stations. Shola forests, a star-shaped lake and cabins tucked into pine — Kodaikanal is where most first hill trips begin, and where the good ones keep returning.
- Altitude
- 2,133 m
- Best time to visit
- Oct – Mar
- Getting there
- 4 hr from Madurai
Valparai
Forty hairpin bends up from Pollachi and the world goes quiet. Tea estates to the horizon, lion-tailed macaques in the canopy, and colonial bungalows that have not changed in eighty years.
- Altitude
- 1,193 m
- Best time to visit
- Sep – Mar
- Getting there
- 1.5 hr from Pollachi
Kotagiri
The oldest and calmest of the three Nilgiri towns. No traffic, no crowds — just Catherine Falls, Kodanad viewpoint and the kind of silence you drove up here for.
- Altitude
- 1,793 m
- Best time to visit
- Year round
- Getting there
- 1 hr from Coonoor
Ooty
Everyone's first hill station, and still worth it if you stay in the right place. We keep to the lanes above the lake — botanical gardens and the toy train close by, the crowds comfortably far.
- Altitude
- 2,240 m
- Best time to visit
- Oct – Jun
- Getting there
- 3 hr from Coimbatore
Coonoor
Lower, warmer and greener than Ooty. Sim's Park, Dolphin's Nose, and tea slopes that catch the morning mist — Coonoor is the one guests come back to a second time.
- Altitude
- 1,850 m
- Best time to visit
- Year round
- Getting there
- 2.5 hr from Coimbatore