Ooty - The Queen

It was a quick weekend trip on 26th and 27th of June.
Left Whitefield at 4 in the morning.Reached Mysore at 6.30 AM. Had a quick breakfast at Kamath Madhuban. After breakfast, drove towards Ooty via Nanjanagoodu, Bandipur, Masinagudi and Kalhatti. It was cloudy weather all the way. The road we took has 36 hairpin bends and steep climb.
We reached Ooty at 11 AM. Checked in to Hotel Ponmari Residency on Conoor Road. If you want a review about this hotel, it only 5 letters 'AVOID' !!!!!
Visited Botanical garden, Lake and rose garden on 26th. Botanical garden had some leftovers of Flower Show in May. Those leftovers left me wondering how beautiful they would be during the flower show!!!!!. Visited the Lake and skipped boating. A shop there serves steaming hot baked peanut chat. It has heavenly taste, may be because of the cold weather.
Rose garden was full of colourful roses. Spent most part of the afternoon here. Its huge and consumes more than 3 hours to see all parts of the garden. Took a lot of photographs and returned to hotel.
Now it was time to have dinner. Went to Hotel Saravana's for dinner. Great vegetarian food.
Purchased some homemade chocolates and returned to the hotel.


Second day started at 7 AM. Drove to 'Doddabetta' peak, which is towards Conoor and 6 kms from Ooty. reached the peak at 7.30 AM. It was foggy and chilly at the top. Spent some time there. Try hot tea, chilly bajjis, fresh carrot and peanut chat on the top.
On the way back to Ooty, we visited tea factory and museum.

After that, drove to Mysore. On the way, we visited 'Himavad Gopalaswami Betta'.
Reached Mysore at 4. Spent some time at relative’s house there and reached Bangalore at 10 PM.

Details:
Route : Bangalore -> Mysore -> Nanjanagoodu -> Bandipur -> Masinagudi -> Kalhatti -> Ooty
Distance : ~ 280 Kms one way

Note: If you are planning to drive down to Ooty and do sightseeing, best idea is to leave behind your car at hotel and take an auto to visit the tourist attractions. We did the same on Day 1 and it saved us from headaches like finding the correct route, finding parking place etc.