Visit To Kodaikanal

Kodaikanal and Ooty are two well known hill stations in Tamil Nadu. Ooty has more places to see, more crowded and a little more easily accessible from Bangalore. Kodai is a little less crowded during non peak season, and most of the important landmarks are within 1/2 a km radius.

Buses, Trains

Train route from bangalore:
Bangalore - Salem - Karur - Dindigal or Kodai Road
Catch bus from Dindigal or Kodai Road to Kodaikanal

Bus:
SETC (Tamil nadu state bus), KSRTC (karnataka state bus) and private operators operate buses from Kodai to Bangalore.
Strangely, KSRTC online service does not show the Rajahamsa and Volvo bus they operate from Kodai to bangalore. We need to go to the bus stand and book it.
In kodai, the reservation counter in bus stand never opens, but bookings can be done through local operators.

I believe there should be some understanding between KSRTC bus service and local operators, otherwise I dont see how they are able to correctly tell the seat numbers available etc.

Buses are available to Palani, Dindigul, Kodai Road, Madurai, Coimbatore, Chennai and Bangalore from Kodai bus stand.

Accomodation

If you do not have car/transport, then opt for a lodge close to the bus stand. Within 200m there are a number of them:

• Hotel Bala, Hotel JC Grand, JC Woodsville, Astoria, Annapoorna right opposite the bus stand
• Hotel Anjay, Hotel Strawberry park, Apple Valley, Golden paradise, Kodai Star, Kodai Crystal, Snooze Inn (Towards Bazaar road)
• Valley view, Sunrise, Pleasant Stay (Slight deviation from bazaar road)
• Kodai Resort, Valley Retreat (towards Coaker walk)
• Hilltop Inn (Towards Petrol bunk)

If you have some transport or if you would like to use local taxi, you could choose

• Paradise Inn, Spring Valley, TTDC tamilnadu hotel
• Hotel Mount view, Hotel Kodai International
• Hotel Gurupriya, Royal Hotel, Spring Valley, Fairstay

The above list is not exhaustive. You could get much more hotels for stay. Charges for accomodation ranges from Rs. 1500/- to 5000/- during peak season. During off season, charges are generally half the above amount. I booked Hotel Mount View. Its decent but the location given in Google Maps was wrong. Its around 1.5 to 2 kms from bus stand. So its not easy to walk specially uphill. We have to hire local taxis. Another point is hot water availability. Most hotels have timings for hot water like 7-10 in morning and 7-9 in night.

Food

Some decent Restaurants include:

• Astoria Veg right opposite bus stand
• Annapoorna Veg
• Dominos
• Rasoi Veg

Places to see

Package tours are available by a lot of tour providers. You can have

• Group tour - Daily packages available for 3 - 4 days
• Individual taxi tour - Rs. 600/- for 6 points, Rs. 900/- for 10 points etc

I went for group tour with SKM travels. The office is within the bus stand complex. They are good value for money in their service. They also provided free cloak room facility for the last day. But there are no refunds for their group tour packages. So its better to book only for next day's outings.

Local Transport

Local Taxis can be hired for Rs. 120/- to Rs. 150/- for a short distance travel (say hotel to bus stand etc).

Boating

Its easily the biggest attraction. There are plenty of boating options - Paddle boats, Row boats, Honey moon boats costing 50/- to 300/-. Cycling is also available. We can cycle round the lake (4 kms). There are also children park, dashing car, skating hall and other options in the periphery of the lake.

Shopping

Shopping places are near lake and near bus stand in Bazaar street. Except this, most of Kodaikanal is just mountains.