My Journeys In India

Yes, sparrows, bullbull, humming birds, king fisher and many other variety of birds wake you up in morning. Watch them feeding on insects from your own room. Get up early and see the sun rise.

Do a walk around and see amazingly beautiful flowers in all colours. See the Emerald lake in front of you. Do a trek on the mountain behind. Let me start with two photos of the place .....

Note: Click the pics to see the original full size.

This is just right within the Red Hills resort, you can trek to the top

Beautiful view of the Emerald Lake from top of the mountain you see in first photo. Do you see that temple (see the small circle)

Redhills is about 27 kms from Ooty. You will go via Avalache Emerald lake bridge. This is a very peaceful place away from the Ooty town and so beautiful. I am sure you will love this place. Use google maps to reach here.

You have two stay options, one is the Red hills nature resort and the other one is "Destiny farmstay". We chose the redhills and heard some better reviews for destiny farmstay as well. The "Destiny Farmstay" is from LittleEarth group and you may expect good facilities as well. Visit tripadvisor.in for more review details. But both the above places are in the best location and I am sure you will love it.
Here is My review of Red Hills Resort in Tripadvisor.in

Red hills nature resort http://redhillnatureresort.com/
Destiny Farmstay www.littlearth.in/destiny/

Perfect place for summer holidays. Book in advance as summer (April and May) is the peak season here. If you can get time during end march it will be awesome and less crowded. Apart from rainy season, any month is fine to come here.

You need to spend atleast two nights to enjoy this lovely place.

Note: I have covered mostly about the Red Hills and very few main attractions and stay options in Ooty town. There are plenty of things you can do in Ooty and Coonoor. Ride in Toy train from Mettupalayam to Ooty...etc which I will do once after I do the trip again. :-)

Day 1

It was very cold during end March when we went. We have got the topmost room which has excellent lake view and secluded from the main place. Outside the room there is a veranda with chairs where you can sit and relax. This is overlooking the lake downhill. If you get up early you can enjoy the sun rise, and lots of birds chirping around, eating the insects around. You can see mainly bull-bull, colourful sparrows and humming birds.

Behind the room, you see a mountain where you can trek and reach the top. (see the pics above)

The room had a fireplace with chimney, coffee table with two chairs, Extra Bed for kids and woolen blanket provided, Very spacious with wooden flooring, Bath tub, English style Dressing table with mirror, Small cupboard for keeping your luggage, A stool and extra chair for dressing, The room has good ventilation and lighting, towels provided but not replaced on daily basis, Big glass windows on both sides gives you good view of the lake in front, trees on the other side, Many plug points are available for charging mobiles etc.

The resort has varieties of flower plants. If you have a good camera, you may shoot multiple pics of 100s of different flowers here. So beautiful and well maintained.

You have two special persons to have fun with, Moby - a German shepard and Meeka the Golden retriever. Both are very friendly with all the guests and play with kids. If you have kids they will love to play. Vijay and his wife who own this place are very friendly. His staff are also very helpful.

We reached very late though planned to reach for lunch here due to car tyre puncture. Once we reached here, we were given the choice of tea/coffee and ooty special biscuits. We checked into the room. A very good room with good view of the lake.

We just got refreshed and waited for dinner. The dining cum meeting area is really good and has the chimney/fireplace. Once we went there, the staff started the fire. Dinner was ready at around 7:45. Dinner was really good with varieties. Not just the dinner, all the time the food was really excellent. All our diet plans gone for a toss !!! Kids enjoyed the food which is really important.

Day 2

Early morning

We got up early to see the sunrise and for bird watching. It is amazing to see the sun rise from the mountains. See the photos below. You can either watch from inside your room or come out and sit in veranda and watch.

Also see sparrows feeding on the insects in your veranda. Many more birds to see if you really curious. Carry a binocular and a good camera.

After breakfast

We planned to trek after breakfast on the mountain behind the room. It was not a very difficult one, even both my kids joined. Somehow I inspired my kids about trekking and it helped a lot. :-). Staff from the resort guide you. We started and reached the top in less than an hour or so. Had a beautiful view of the lake and the series of mountains on the backside as well. See photos....

After a break in top, we started to climb down. Took a nap after heavy lunch. :-) Food is again too good.

Picnic and Fishing on the Emerald lake side

We carried some snacks, juice, water and headed towards the Emerald lake. The resort staff came along with his fishing rod and other stuff. Though we were not so keen on fishing, we just tried. But could not catch any. Just left that fishing plan and started to sit and relax on the banks. Spent some time munching the snacks. It was very cold. After 45 minutes of relaxation, we started back.

It is very cold in nights in room, so we asked for the fire in fireplace inside the room. All of us spent long hours in front of the fireplace within the room and slept.

Day 3

After breakfast we decided to checkout and reach Ooty to see few main attractions. But decided to checkin first in some good place for overnight stay. We chose "King's Cliff" by Little Earth group. This is a very good choice though. We really enjoyed the stay here. If you want to stay in Ooty, look at this option as well and compare. Refer my review in tripadvisor.in http://www.tripadvisor.in/ShowUserReviews-g297679-d734975-r199006654-King_s_Cliff-Ooty_Tamil_Nadu.html

King's Cliff is one of the best places for food in Ooty.

After checkin, we visited Botanical Garden which is well maintained. The beautiful huge trees and the lawn please you to sit and relax. It is really amazing to see those very old trees and huge lawn. Also when we sat down under a tree, we could see too many humming birds and other birds. If you carry a camera and binocular, you could take photos.

After the Botanical Garden, we visited the Thread Garden which is unique. All the plants and flowers you see there are made with wool and some special thread. It is unique. They also sell these, but the range starts from Rs.1500/= plus.

We also went to Lake. Kids were attracted towards different rides, so they had fun. If you choose to go on boat, please wear Safety Jackets. I insist you wear this for your own safety when you go on boat.

Shopping in Ooty

Though there are multiple places to buy the famous Ooty Chocolates, we decided to try Mohans Department Store opposite to Collector's office. The main problem is with car parking here. Everywhere you see "No parking" and "Tow away zone" etc. So we had to find a close by street and park. Being opposite to collector office, you see many Govt official vehicles parked.

In Mohan's shop you get Brass, Bronze, rare antique pieces, Ooty Chocolates. Apart from that they have variety of dresses for Kids and are relatively cheaper especially the cartoon character based dresses for kids.

There is another Mohan's furniture shop as well which seem to have furniture of all diff.wood. Due to lack of time, we could not visit this place.

View of the resort from the close by secluded rooms

View of the lake from within the room

Beautiful view of the mountain behind and the lawn. Sit here and see the tea estate below and the lake. I am talking to Mr. Vijay who owns the place

Dining and meeting area with common fireplace

Fireplace outside the dining area. See the decorated entrance on left side for the small temple and few rooms.

Dining area with fireplace

Staff starting the fire in fireplace

This is the room we stayed having a fireplace and wooden flooring, very spacious

Birtish style mirror

You can walk down in this tea estate.

As we started trekking, we see the other mountains backside

Trekking, almost near the top.

Trekking.....

View from the top of the mountain

The very friendly Moby.... we really miss you. !!

Sunrise .....

Here comes the sun.....

View of the resort main place (dining area and the lawn behind) in early morning sunlight....

View of the secluded rooms from the lawn close to the dining area

This is just one flower that I captured with Samsung Galaxy Note 2. There are around 100s of varieties of flowers to see here. Amazing.... Very well maintained.