Visit just for the sake of popularity. Review on Ooty

Ooty is a picture of crass commercialization, ill-managed infrastructure, and crowded touristy places. I know if you have not already been there, you would still go once because you know it is the most famous hill station of the south?

We went to Ooty in July after a short sightseeing halt at Mysore. Most of the road from Ooty to Mysore was in a terribly bad shape with more potholes than road. We reached in the evening, found a nice hotel that offered independent cottages(as we were two couples+ two kids), had dinner, and went to sleep. IT was quite cold and rainy so we used out warm clothing.

Next morning we went to see the lake, did the famous dil-deewana boating, saw the absolutely-unreal wax sculptures at the wax museum(do not waste your money there), botanical garden, tea factory, Dodabetta, et al. Didn’t enjoy any of it much because of too much crowd.

Next, we went to Conoor in the Nilgiri toy train. The ride was more hyped than it was worth. We wasted four to five hours of our time getting tickets and waiting for the train. I feel that we must have seen better sceneries in our cab and the train experience was boring and crowded. Our driver met us at the Conoor railway station and we hired a guide to show us around. Conoor was an awesome place with vast tea gardens, and lovely scenery.  We got our bollywood-style photos clicked in the tea estates. We also visited the Conoor botanical garden and saw some rare trees.

Overall, I would say that Ooty was not worth the effort, while Conoor is a must-visit place. So just visit Ooty for its name and enjoy Conoor as much as you can.