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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 Rd, 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 the 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.
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