Munnar

We needed a break

Our last holiday had been more than six months earlier, and the urge to go somewhere had been building for a while.

We wanted a hill station, but not Ooty or Kodaikanal. Both are places we have enjoyed, but this time I wanted somewhere I could drive to from Chennai without heading into another crowded hill-station holiday. Munnar seemed like the right answer.

There was another reason. On our earlier trip to Thekkady, we had touched Munnar and spent a night there. That had only given us a brief introduction to the place. This time, we wanted to spend some real time in Munnar.

The decision was almost completely spontaneous.

We booked a hotel just a day before leaving, packed our bags overnight and set off early the next morning.

Chennai to Munnar

We left home at around 4 AM.

For a long drive, I normally prefer leaving around 3 AM. The idea is simple: get out of Chennai before the city wakes up, avoid as much traffic as possible and reach the destination well before check-in. Once we arrive, there is plenty of time to rest.

That is more or less my standard pattern whenever we drive somewhere.

This time we were an hour later than usual, but there was no real pressure. Check-in at the resort was only around 2 PM, and we had enough time to get to Munnar.

The route took us through Trichy, Dindigul and Theni before the road climbed towards Munnar. It was a long drive, but the purpose of the trip was already clear: this was not going to be a holiday where we tried to squeeze every possible attraction into four days.

We were going to slow down.

The Feel Munnar

Our first booking was at The Feel Munnar Resort.

The choice had been made rather casually. I had been looking at Booking.com, saw the good rating and the reasonable price, and decided to give it a try. Our previous stay in Munnar had been at The Blanket Resort, which was considerably more expensive.

We initially booked The Feel Munnar for two nights, with the thought that we could extend if we liked the place.

The resort was small and cozy, with around twenty rooms. Most of the rooms had garden views and balconies, and the overall scale suited exactly what we had in mind.

We reached at around 1 PM and managed to get checked in.

And then we did something that is not always easy for us on a holiday.

We did almost nothing.

I had already decided before the trip that I did not want another sightseeing-heavy break. We had come to Munnar to chill out. There was no list of viewpoints to tick off, no race to cover attractions and no pressure to keep moving.

We spent the first few hours simply relaxing at the resort.

That felt like the right way to begin.

An unexpected spa

Later, we thought we would try the spa at the resort.

From the information I had seen while making the booking, I had the impression that the resort had its own spa. But The Feel Munnar was a relatively new property and its spa was still not operational.

So we found another option nearby — Amritha Ayurvedic Spa.

Instead of being disappointed, we decided to make the spa session part of the holiday.

The next day we went for a 130-minute session that included Abhyangam, Potli and Shirodhara, followed by a sauna.

After the long drive from Chennai, it was exactly what we needed.

The whole session was deeply relaxing. The nine-hour drive that had brought us into the hills suddenly felt like something worth doing when followed by this kind of afternoon.

The weather helped too.

Munnar in September felt wonderfully different from Chennai. At home, this time of year can still mean heat and humidity. In Munnar, the climate was pleasant enough to make simply sitting around and doing nothing feel like a holiday.

And that was increasingly becoming the theme of this trip.

One more day, one more resort

By the time we were getting ready to check out of The Feel Munnar, we had a small decision to make.

Why leave?

We had originally booked only two nights because we weren’t sure how we would feel. Now we knew.

We wanted one more day.

But instead of extending the same booking, we decided to try another resort.

The choice was Le Montfort.

It was quite a contrast to The Feel Munnar. The property had once been a school and had been converted into a resort, sitting on top of a hill with wonderful views.

On 25 September, we checked out of The Feel Munnar and drove the roughly 18 kilometres to Le Montfort.

Because we were already in Munnar, we reached very early — around 10 AM. The hotel was kind enough to give us an early check-in.

Again, we had no ambitious plans.

We took our time walking around the property, enjoying the views and simply experiencing the resort. There was something satisfying about moving from one kind of Munnar stay to another without changing the basic purpose of the holiday.

We were still there to relax.

The food at both resorts was excellent, which made it even easier to stay in and enjoy the properties rather than looking for reasons to head out.

A little bit of Munnar

We did venture out once for something small and simple.

We visited a nearby chocolate factory and bought some dark chocolate and coffee.

That was about as close as this trip came to a sightseeing itinerary.

And somehow, that was perfectly fine.

There are plenty of things to see around Munnar. This time, however, we weren’t trying to see them.

We were enjoying the luxury of having nowhere we needed to be.

Back to Chennai

The last morning eventually arrived.

We checked out of Le Montfort and started the drive back to Chennai at around 10:30 AM.

The return journey took about eleven hours, and we reached home around 9 PM.

On paper, an eleven-hour drive at the end of a holiday sounds tiring.

It didn’t feel that way.

The roads through Kerala and Chennai were excellent, and more importantly, we were coming back from the hills rather than from another exhausting sightseeing holiday. We had spent the previous three days resting, eating well, enjoying the weather, taking a long Ayurvedic treatment and doing very little.

We arrived home feeling surprisingly fresh.

A holiday where we did almost nothing

Munnar was not about the places we saw.

In fact, we saw very little.

It was about finally taking a break after more than six months, getting into the car with Pragati, driving to the hills, finding a comfortable resort and giving ourselves permission to slow down.

We stayed at two very different properties, enjoyed excellent food, spent an afternoon at an Ayurvedic spa, bought some chocolate and coffee, and spent a lot of time simply doing nothing.

That was the holiday.

Perhaps that is something I am learning about travel. A good trip does not always need a long itinerary. Sometimes the best reason to drive nine hours into the hills is simply to stop moving once you get there.

Munnar gave us exactly that.