Coonoor

About Coonoor

Surrounded by the tea plantations, and at an altitude of 1850 m, Coonoor is the first of the three Nilgiri hill station-Udhagamandalam (Ooty ), Kotagiri and Coonoor - that you come to when leaving behind the southern plains. Like Ooty, it's on the toy train line from Mettupalayam. While Kotagiri had the Kotas, and Ooty the Todas, so Coonoor was home to the Coon hill tribe. ( The suffix, 'oor', means village. ) This now bustling town appears rather squashed between the hills and it's only after climbing up out of the busy market area with the bus and train terminals that you'll get a sense of what hill stations were originally all about. For this reason, too, most of the better accommodation is in Upper Coonoor.

Places To Stay And Eat

YWCA Guest House  in Upper Coonoor is the best budget option but it's often full- phone in advance. Open to men and women, it's a handsome old colonial house with two wooden terraces and views over Coonoor. Large clean singles and doubles rooms are available here. There's hot water and basic food is available. To get there, take a town bus to 'Bedford' from where it is a five minute walk.

Vivek Tourist Home  nearby, is a reasonable place. There are deluxe rooms available.

Blue Hills at Mount Road, has a good non-veg restaurants, you may get rooms there.

Taj Garden Retreat on the hill top is an excellent hotel with a beautiful garden and a fine restaurants. The rooms are in cottages. 

Places To Visit Here

Pasteur Institute 

It is just opposite to the Sim's Park, established in 1907. This is famous Institute for the  research on Rabies. It is also famous for the manufacture of POLIO VACCINE. 

Sim's Park 

This beautiful park is situated in a deep ravine on the Northern side of Coonoor Railway Station. The park can be divided into eight major sections. The winding footpaths spreaded all over the park is the most distinctive and lovable feature of this park. There are also a number of individual tree specimens planted all over the place, give a special charm to the park.

Lamb's Rock 

It is 8 Kms from Coonoor on the way to Dolphin's Nose. It commands a grand view of the Coimbatore Plains. It is a favourite place for tourists. 

Laws Falls 

The Place is a beautiful picnic spot, situated at Coonoor-Mettupalayam road at a distance of 7 Kms from Coonoor. The height of the falls is about 180 feets. It is just a paradise for Nature lovers. 

Dolphin's Nose

The view point is 10 Kms from the town. The Nose is a unique rock of tremendous proportions which looks like a Dolphin. 

The Droog

This picnic spot was used by Tippu Sultan as an outpost. It is 15 Kms from Coonoor and stands 6000 feet high overlooking the plains. To get the spot you have to have three km of  trekking.

Getting There and Away

Coonoor is on the toy train line between Mettupalayam (28 km) and Ooty (18 km). Buses to Kotagiri are available every 15 minutes.