Windermere Estate

Location: Kerala & Karnataka | India

Price guide: $$$$$ $100-$200 per person per night

Windermere Estate is a charming boutique hotel in the Keralan hill station of Munnar, with rooms spread across colonial-style bungalows. A historic centre for tea, you’ll feel like you’ve stepped back in time to the days of the Raj as you sit enjoying a brew and gazing out over the Western Ghats mountains and the three rivers which give Munnar its name.
Perfect forStaying in a beautiful Keralan hill town surrounded by forested mountains
In the knowMunnar has been a tea-producing region for over a century

Recommended for...

  • Food & Wine
  • History & Heritage
  • Peace & Quiet
  • Setting & Views

Hotel Overview

Sense of place

Windermere Estate has a scenic setting in Munnar, whose name translates as ‘three rivers’ - and the mountain waterways of Muthirapuzha, Nallathanni and Kundala are responsible for the astonishing greenery of this verdant hill region.

Rooms at Windermere Estate

The rooms at Windermere have a cosy, homely feel, with exposed red-cedar beams and beds handmade from local teak and maple. They are set in high-ceilinged bungalows, with hardwood and terracotta-tiled floors and linen furnishings embroidered by women from the planter’s family. Garden rooms feature views over the garden or the valley, the colonial estate rooms are in the style of old plantation houses, and the spacious Planters rooms offer stunning views of the mountains.

Food & drink

A range of continental, Oriental and Indian cuisine is on offer at the Windermere Estate’s restaurants, with delicious delicacies handed down through generations of Syrian Christian Malayali cooks. A variety of ingredients are grown in the gardens, including bananas, passion fruit and guavas - honey from the plantation’s beehives is a delicious treat.

The Barn dining room, with its wooden beams and pillars and library of books on the natural world, has a rustic, old-world charm. The Hut takes things even further, with its eucalyptus stump stools and oak tables, and is a great place to enjoy a complimentary cup of homegrown tea.

Facilities

Windermere’s library is a beautiful place to relax and get lost in a good book, with its hardwood knotted floors, teak ceilings, wrought iron lamps and cost armchairs creating an old-world, colonial atmosphere. You can choose from a rich and varied collection of fiction and non-fiction in a variety of languages, as well as a range of magazines. The green, landscaped gardens, meanwhile, are a beautiful place for a stroll and are recognised as one of the best places in Kerala to spot butterflies.

Activities at Windermere Estate

In Munnar, as in other Indian hill stations, life revolves around tea. In the centre of town there’s a Tea Museum, where pictures, machinery, tea-brewing equipment and literature outline the history of production in this region over the last century. Christ Church, built by the British in 1910, is another legacy of colonial rule, and the even older Mount Carmel Church, dating from 1898, was the first Roman Catholic church in the High Ranges. Eravikulam National Park is a great place to spot elephants, mongoose and a variety of birdlife, with the Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary home to the endangered grizzled giant squirrel.

Best time to go

Best time to travel

Good time to travel (but some limitations)

Travel is possible (but it’s not the best time)

Travel is not recommended

  • Jan
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Best time to go

Hotel location

The nearest airport to Windermere Estate is Nedumbaserry International Airport in Kochi, which is a three-hour scenic drive through paddy fields, coconut groves and rubber plantations.

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