It is a hill station in the South of India in Tamil Nadu. It is about 150 kms from Mysore and approximately 300 kms from Bangalore.
The road way from Mysore side takes one through the wonderful Bandipur and Mudumalai forests where one can easily spot some wildlife.
This was my fourth visit to Ooty and I decided I can write something useful
Best time to visit - mostly all year round. the winter and rainy seasons can be more charming.
Places to see - Unless one wants to get frustrated with the crowd there is no point in going to the sightseeing places. These are highly crowded and commercialized.
- Coonoor ( Sim's Park) -> the journey by Toy train is nice if you are able to get tickets
- Dolphin's Nose
- Lamb's Rock view Point
- Ooty Botanical gardens
- Ooty Lake
- Ooty Rose Garden
- Dodabetta Peak
- the trip from Mysore to Ooty is through the Mudumalai forest.
- The Tea Gardens
There is a second side which I want to visit in future
- Avalanchi
- Muturthi Peak
- Upper Bhavani
Places to STAY - The whole town has a few hundred hotels. Its always crowded so if you want good hotels book ahead.
We stayed at a hotel called Ganapati hotel which turned out to be very bad. At the end of the stay they cut a 12% service tax for which they did not even give a receipt.
Places to Eat - There are a lot of places to eat around. The local cuisine is quite exotic but unfortunately the cooking standards are not as good as in Chennai or several other places in Tamil Nadu. As a popular tourist destination it fails to offer much like it did even about a decade back.
Things to check
- Ooty chocolates ( although you will get it at any of the nearby towns in S. India at good prices but these are still a treat)
- Tea ( I always drink tea at the gardens , the elaichi //chocolate etc flavour prepared by the locals are excellent)
- raw Mango ( try out the raw Mango with black salt + chilli powder , its a real treat )