Top places to visit in Ooty and a weekend Itinerary if traveling from nearby place.
0. Mysore Palace
We started our journey from the Banglore at the Friday night, then we took a break in Mysore, and had some tea outside of the Mysore Palace.
1. Bandipur Forest
Crossing the bandipur forest or bandipur tiger reserve is itself like a mini safari. There were lots of deers roaming and eating grass around the road. You could easily spot some elephants in the forest. We also encountered other wild animals alongside the road, like sloth bear, stripe-necked mongoose. Unfortunately, we didn’t saw any tiger.
The forest part was one of the existing part of our journey. It makes your whole journey very attentive, beautiful and surprising.
We reached Ooty in the Saturday morning and roamed around the city and market. Most of the stays were full and available one were very expensive at the time of our visit. But after some searching efforts we got a 2-BHK Villa in Muthorai Village. The place was very calm and beautiful.
If you prefer less crowded and calm place, you could also stay in Coonoor, which is around 18 to 20 KM from Ooty.
If you staying in Ooty, during evening you could visit the St. Stephen’s Church and can do the boating in the Ooty lake. The market area is very crowded and there is always a hustle for the parking. So, be prepared to have some time reserved for the traffic.
2. Avalanche Lake
The next day we started our journey from the Avalanche Lake. It is 22 KM from the Ooty, located inside a forest. We visited the first week of May, So, the lakes had very low water levels at the time of our visit. But, it was worth the visit. You could rest and enjoy near the water stream, it was very scenic view.
3. Emerald Lake
4. Pykara Lake and Waterfall
On our return towards Ooty we visited the Emerald lake, which is around 5-6 km from the Avalanche lake. But, this is less scenic and touristy compared to Avalanche.
Next we went to the Pykara Lake, it 23 KM from the Ooty and 42 KM from Avalanche Lake. It is most popular destination of the Ooty along with the Pykara waterfalls, which is 2-3 KM distance from the Pykara Lake. At the waterfalls there were many stalls, selling local chocolates and other food items.
If you are returning towards Mysore or Banglore, it recommend to cover the Pykara Lake and waterfalls at the end of your journey, because they are situated at the route of Mysore and Banglore.
Don’t blindly follow the route by Google Maps, better to ask local people if you are coming towards Mysore side. In our case, after visiting Pykara waterfalls, we followed the route show by google maps, and reached back to Ooty, where we came to know about the route show by google map is wrong and we have follow that same highway where waterfall was located.
Link for the Youtube Video –
Expenses
Villa – 10k per night for 2 BHK villa (in May month, in off season it would be like 5k)
Food – Around 400/person
Alcohol – Very cheap compared to Karnataka. 2-3 wine shops only.
Note – Always keep some cash, there are low number of sellers or shops that have the UPI.