Reach Ooty by Road
Ooty is very well connected by road with all major cities around it .
Distance of Ooty
From Kochi - 280KMs
From Kodaikanal- 270KMs
From Mettupalayam - 46 Kms
From Coimbatore - 90 Kms
From Mysore - 160 Kms
From Bangalore - 250 - 290 KMs depending on the route/short cuts taken
From Trichy – 300 Kms (My college :) )
Bangalore Ooty route
Drive from
Bangalore to Ooty takes 5-6 hours and the
Bangalore Ooty route is very good but for 20KMs after Gundlepet. The total distance from
Bangalore to Ooty ranges from 250-290 Kms depending on the route taken.
The route to Ooty from Bangalore is through Mysore. Though you can take the outer-ring road to bypass Mysore, you will end up driving around 20kms more. Both the roads are good but the route through Mysore city will have much more traffic. To take the bypass road you will have to take a right turn at the traffic signal just after the town of Sirangapatna, famous for the Ranganatha Temple. if you miss this turn you can go straight & you will enter Mysore and can take the route through Mysore city.
mysore --40-- nanjungad --30-- gundelpet --20-- bandipur forest
The road from
Mysore till
Gundelpet is decent and you can easily average around 60Kmph. However, from
Gundlupet till
Bandipur (distance of around 20km) the road is full of pot-holes. Though the construction of the road is on going but will easily take another year unless an MLA is selected from that region ;-)
Once you are inside the forest don't honk and drive slowly so that you do not disturb the wildlife. You can find deer, wild boars, monkeys and Langurs and if you are lucky you can even spot elephants. I have not seen a single one in my three trips to Ooty. Once the
Bandipur Forest boundary ends you will enter into the
Madumalai forest. It is actually the same forest but falls in Tamil Nadu. There is an entry fees of around 20 rupees. After
Madumalai there are two roads that lead to
Ooty (I think the place is called
Masinagudi), one with 36 hair pin bends and the other one is the older route that buses normally take. In the former route buses and heavy vehicles are not allowed and is around 30Km shorter than the latter one. I have never taken the older route as it is in a really bad condition. The shorter route with 36 hairpin bends is amazing and anyone passionate about driving will love it. You would however need to have a vehicle with good pickup. These routes meet around 8 Kms before Ooty and there is a police check post there. You might have to show your vehicle papers etc. They do not ask everyone to stop :).
Reach Ooty By Nilgiri Toy Train
Ooty is connected by a narrow gauge railway link to
Mettupalayam. One can reach
Mettupalayam by train from
Coimbatore or by road.
Mettupalayam is 46KMs from
Ooty and 43KMs from Coimbatore. I would definitely suggest taking
Nilgiri Toy train. The 4 hours journey is one of the most scenic train journey you will ever be on. There are close to 16 tunnels and bridges on this scenic route. It is the steepest railway track in the whole of Asia. Alternate Biting system (ABT), also called the rack and pinion system, is used to overcome this steep ascent. It is similar to the fashion in which we climb a ladder. Here the engine pushes the train from behind during this uphill climb and is present in the front while going down from Ooty to Mettupalayam.
Reach Ooty by Air
The
Coimbatore Airport is the nearest airport. From
Delhi to Coimbatore there are just 2 airlines, Jet Lite and Indian, operating a direct flight. All other flights are either through Hyderabad or Chennai.
From Chennai, Bangaluru ( Bangalore) and Mumbai there are quite a lot direct flights.
Coimbatore is around 90KMs from Ooty and you can book cabs/buses from the airport or through travel agencies( may be a better option if you are coming for the first time). One should definitely also consider the option of taking train to Ooty.
