Western Ghats

Mountains and rainforest on South India's west coast: Munnar's tea gardens, the Nilgiri Mountain Railway, Coorg's coffee estates and Thekkady wildlife reserve.

The Western Ghats are a mountain range stretching about 1,600 km along India's west coast, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site and a global biodiversity hotspot. For travelers it mainly means the hill retreats of the southern section, spanning Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The core highlights are: Munnar in Kerala, with its terraced tea gardens and Eravikulam National Park (Nilgiri tahr); Periyar Tiger Reserve in Thekkady, where you can take bamboo rafting trips and visit spice gardens; Ooty in Tamil Nadu and the Nilgiri Mountain Railway (one of the Mountain Railways of India, a World Heritage site); Coorg (Madikeri) in Karnataka, with its coffee estates and Tibetan settlements; and, in the lowlands west of the range, the old town of Kochi and the Alleppey backwaters with their houseboats. Common itineraries are the Kerala loop from Kochi (Kochi–Munnar–Thekkady–Alleppey) in 6–8 days, or the Mysuru–Coorg–Ooty route from Bengaluru in 5–7 days. The mountain roads are winding, so a hired car is the most convenient; the Ooty toy train must be booked in advance on IRCTC. In the monsoon season the hills are slippery and full of leeches, and some routes in wildlife reserves require permits and guides.

Destinations

Itineraries