Two hill stations, one tiger reserve, and the sea at the end of it

This is the long one, and the geography dictates it: Kodaikanal and Munnar are both in the Western Ghats but on opposite sides of the state border with no direct hill road between them worth driving. The route runs Madurai up to Kodaikanal at 2,100 m, back down to the plains and around through Theni and Bodinayakanur to Munnar at 1,600 m, then south through Thekkady and the cardamom hills to the coast, and finally 250 km down to Kanyakumari. About 1,100 km over seven days, with three of those days under 100 km and two of them over 250.

Hill weather is the variable nobody controls. Kodaikanal is cold from November to February, misty from June to September, and clear and full in April and May. Munnar is the same but wetter. The Theni to Munnar ghat road closes for landslides most monsoons at least once, and the Munnar to Thekkady road is slow at all times. We build a spare half-day into day five for this reason and we tell people at booking that a hill road closure means a longer plains detour, not a cancelled day.

Kanyakumari is the last two days and it is deliberate. After six days of hills, mist and tea, the sea and the open horizon land differently. You arrive for the sunset, wake for the sunrise, take the 8 am ferry and finish with Suchindram on the way to Trivandrum airport. The glass bridge and the rocks are the closing image of a week that started 2,100 m up. If a week is too long, our Kerala and Kanyakumari plan does the coast in five days.

What this trip includes

• Kodaikanal: Coaker’s Walk before the mist, Pillar Rocks at 8 am when they are visible
• The Theni ghat to Munnar via Bodi, 120 km of tea and cardamom
• Top Station and Eravikulam at Munnar, Eravikulam closed February to March
• Periyar lake boat at Thekkady on the 7:30 am sailing
• The long day south: Thekkady to Kanyakumari, 250 km, sunset on arrival
• Kanyakumari sunrise, 8 am ferry and Suchindram on the last morning

Day-by-day itinerary

Why Kodaikanal to Munnar takes a whole day

On a map they are 90 km apart. On the road they are 190 km and six hours, because there is no usable direct route across the ridge. The old forest track via Top Station is closed to vehicles and the alternative via Kumily is longer still. So you come down the Kodaikanal hill on the Palani side, cross the plains through Theni and Bodinayakanur, and climb the Bodimettu ghat into Kerala. Three hours of that is hairpins.

This is not wasted time. The Palani descent has better views than the ascent from Vathalagundu, the plains around Bodi are grape and vegetable country, and the Bodimettu ghat is the steepest and greenest of the three you will drive on this trip. The tea starts at the state border and does not stop until Munnar.

What we ask is that you accept the day for what it is and do not try to add stops. People who insist on a detour to Kurangani or Meesapulimala on day three arrive in Munnar after dark and lose the estate walk. Our drivers stop for tea and photographs; they do not stop for two-hour side trips on a six-hour day. If you are prone to car sickness, sit in front and take the tablet before Bodi, not after the first hairpin.

Munnar without the traffic

Munnar town is a bottleneck. One road in from Kerala, one from Tamil Nadu, and a bazaar in the middle where the tour buses stop. The good parts are all outside it. Eravikulam National Park, 13 km north, opens at 7:30 am; go then, take the park bus up, and you will have the Nilgiri tahr and the Anamudi view before the queue at the gate reaches a hundred. It closes for calving from about February to early April; check with us for the exact dates the year you travel.

Mattupetty, Echo Point and Kundala are on one road to the north-east and they fill by eleven. Top Station is 35 km along the same road, on the Tamil Nadu border, and it is worth the drive on a clear morning for the drop to the Theni plains. On a cloudy afternoon it is a car park in the fog.

Stay outside town if you can — Pallivasal or Chinnakanal are quieter and cheaper, and both put you on the right road for the morning. The tea museum in town closes on Mondays. Kolukkumalai, the highest tea estate, needs a jeep from Suryanelli and is a separate half-day we can arrange. It is the best sunrise in the district and the roughest road, in that order.

The Periyar boat at Thekkady, and why the early sailing matters

Periyar Tiger Reserve is entered from Kumily and the standard visit is a 90-minute boat on the reservoir. There are five or six sailings a day and they sell out on weekends and holidays. The 7:30 am sailing is the one where you see animals — elephants at the water, bison, sambar, a lot of birds. By the 3:30 pm sailing the shore is empty and the boat is a boat ride. We are honest about that because the difference is real.

The catch is that the morning sailing means an extra night at Thekkady or leaving for Kanyakumari at 9:30 on day six, which makes for a long day. Our default is the afternoon sailing on arrival day five, with the morning as an option if you want it and can absorb a later Cape arrival. Tickets are bought at the forest counter and cannot be booked online by us on your behalf, so the driver drops you at the gate as soon as you reach Kumily.

Beyond the boat, Thekkady is the spice bazaar and the plantation walks. Kumily town sells cardamom, pepper and vanilla at close to estate prices and you can watch the auction house if you are there on a weekday. The plantation walks are a tourist product, but a good guide at one of the smaller estates is genuinely informative for forty-five minutes. Check our seasonal guide before choosing this week.

Vehicle choice on a 1,100 km hill circuit

This is the one package where we push the Innova Crysta for anyone above three passengers. The reasons are the three ghat roads. A sedan with four adults and a week of luggage is at its limit on the Bodimettu hairpins, the boot is full, and the back seat on a six-hour day is cramped. The Crysta has the ground clearance for the Kolukkumalai and Top Station approaches, the luggage space for seven days, and a higher seat that reduces car sickness.

At ₹51,800 for seven days it is about ₹17,000 more than the sedan, or ₹2,400 a day. Split between five people that is under ₹500 a head per day. For groups of eight or more, the Tempo Traveller at ₹74,500 is the only sensible single vehicle, though it is slower on the ghats and cannot enter some forest roads.

Whatever the vehicle, the drivers on this circuit are our hill-experienced people, because the Bodimettu and Peermade descents are not roads for anyone who learnt to drive in Chennai. Fuel, tolls, the Kerala entry permit and the forest parking fees are all inside the price. What is not is any jeep hire inside forest areas where cars are not allowed — Kolukkumalai, Meesapulimala base, the Periyar interior — which runs ₹2,500 to ₹3,500 per jeep and is arranged locally.

Best time and who it suits

When: October and November, or January and February, when the hill roads are open and the Cape ferry runs; avoid June to August for this circuit because the ghat roads close and Kodaikanal is inside a cloud.

Who: Suits people with a full week who want hills and sea in one sweep and do not mind two 250 km days; it does not suit anyone prone to car sickness on ghat roads or travelling with children under five. See our month-by-month guide before you fix dates.