Tamil Nadu

Ooty Tour Packages

Udhagamandalam, known to everyone as Ooty, was the summer capital of the Madras Presidency and still has the tea, the eucalyptus and the colonial bones to show for it. The Nilgiri Mountain Railway is the thing that lifts it above other hill stations — a UNESCO-listed rack railway from Mettupalayam that climbs through sixteen tunnels and is one of the genuinely great train journeys in India. Book it well ahead; seats are limited and it sells out. The town itself is busier and more built-up than photographs suggest, so the plantations and Doddabetta are where the pleasure is. Two nights, and avoid the April–May Tamil Nadu holiday peak if you can.