The Windermere Estate in Munnar is one of the most special places we’ve stayed. For us, it made our two-week trip to Kerala magical and showed us what Indian hospitality really means. We stayed for three nights at the Windermere Estate and it’s the place we would recommend to every traveller.
This is our review of the Windermere Estate in Munnar, sharing why we loved it, how the experience went above and beyond your usual stay, and also a mention for the food!
Windermere Estate at a Glance
There Windermere Estate is a working cardamom plantation on the Pothamedu side of Munnar, a short drive above the town.
- Included: Breakfast and afternoon tea; dinner is extra and worth having. Guided walks, including a morning Birdwatching Walk and an evening Cardamom Plantation Walk.
- What We Paid: ₹32,332 for two nights, then ₹16,166 to extend for a third night. This roughly equates to around £140 a night. This was during November.
- Ideal For: Couples and anyone who wants Munnar’s tea country without the chaos and dirty streets of Munnar town.
The Setting
Windermere sits on a hillside outside Munnar with the cardamom plantation around it and the tea estates rolling away below. The rooms and cottages are scattered across the slope so that nothing feels crowded, and you have your own cottage and terrace. There’s a swimming pool, hut for afternoon tea, and a high-up viewpoint where the view changes by the hour as the cloud comes and goes across the valley.
It’s about ten minutes by tuk-tuk down into Munnar town, which is close enough to be convenient and far enough that you never hear the traffic noise. I would definitely recommend avoiding Munnar town, and especially avoiding staying there. It’s busy, dirty and doesn’t show the best of the beauty of this area. A stay at the Windermere Estate or nearby Blackberry Hills is a much better experience that captures the real beauty of this area.
The Team and Why It Was Special
Plenty of hotels have views. What made Windermere was the people. Our host checked in on our plans every day, suggested what to do with the weather we had, and organised all of it: the local guide for the Seven Hills tea-estate hike, the tuk-tuks each morning, and when we set off too late for Chokramudi peak, the honest advice not to go (which we ignored and regretted). It was the kind of attention to detail that made you feel taken care of.
The estate’s naturalist, Medha Hebbar, took us birdwatching and on a walk through the cardamom plantation, and she is wonderful: her eyes light up every time she spots something, and within an hour we’d seen sunbirds and the giant Malabar squirrel. If you stay, book time with her. These walks are included in the price of the stay and are only open to guests. The walks were a wonderful way to see the nature of the area.
The Rooms
We stayed in one of the Garden Rooms at Windermere. These rooms are on the lower floors of the chalets and are well-decorated, comfortable and perfect for two people. Our room had a private terrace with two chairs where we watched birds fly through the trees and the night roll-in.
The Food
Breakfast and afternoon tea are included. We looked forward to afternoon tea in their special al-freso hut every day. The tea is freshly brewed with cardamom and ginger from their own estate with changing daily treats including traditional banana fritters, and the most melt-in-your-mouth shortbread biscuits.
We ate dinner at Windermere two of our three nights. The food is home-cooked Indian with a Western palate in mind: lighter and less oily than restaurant food, healthy, and made in a kitchen so clean that it took the worry about stomachs off the table for three days. We enjoyed many types of vegetarian curries, dhal, seasonal veg, rotis, rice and desserts. We were well-fed!
We went down the hill to Blackberry Hills one evening for the view from its restaurant, and came back thinking Windermere’s kitchen was the better one.
What We Did From Windermere
Our best things to do in Munnar post has all the details of our day trips, excursions and favoruite things to do in the area. The Seven Hills hike through the Lakshmi Estate, organised by Windermere with a local guide, was the best activity we did in all of Kerala: up and over the tea ridges, back by three in the afternoon.
What It Costs
We paid ₹32,332 for the first two nights and ₹16,166 for the third, which came to around £140 a night at November’s exchange rate. That’s expensive by Kerala standards, where you can find a place for as cheap as you like, but it was worth every rupee. If you can only afford to go up a level once in Kerala, this is where to do it.
Windermere River House: The Sister Property
Windermere also has a River House at Neriyamangalam, roughly midway between Kochi and Munnar, and we stopped there to break the long drive down to the coast. It’s one of the most beautiful places we’ve ever seen: plush bedrooms, a garden full of fruit trees and butterflies, peacocks wandering about and the river right below the terrace. We only had a few hours and wished we’d had a night. If you’re driving up from Kochi, a night at the River House before Munnar is the way to do it.
Book here: Windermere River House
Is Windermere Estate Worth It?
Yes, the Windermere Estate is absolutely worth it. We booked two nights, extended to three as soon as we saw it, and would have stayed longer if the itinerary had allowed. It was the best place we stayed in Kerala. If you want Munnar’s tea country, a host who makes the days easy, and food you don’t have to think about, we haven’t found anywhere better. If the price is a stretch, our where to stay in Munnar guide has the alternatives.
Windermere Estate FAQ
The best time to stay at Windermere Estate is between November and February, when the mornings are clear for the tea-estate hikes and the evenings are cool enough to enjoy the terrace. We went in November and had clear mornings and cloudy afternoons; the monsoon from June to September brings heavy rain and far fewer walking days.
Pack a warm layer for Windermere’s evenings, which drop to around 10°C in winter, good walking shoes for the Seven Hills hike and a light waterproof for the afternoon cloud. Binoculars are worth the space if you’re going birdwatching with the estate’s naturalist.
Windermere Estate is small, so booking ahead is sensible, especially for December to February and any Indian public holiday. We were able to extend our stay by a night on the spot in November, but we wouldn’t rely on that in peak season.
You can walk down from Windermere Estate to Munnar town, but it’s a few kilometres of steep, winding road with traffic and no pavement, and the walk back up is a slog. A tuk-tuk takes about ten minutes and the estate arranges them, so that’s what we’d do every time.