Windermere Estate

Special place, peaceful, small scale, an estate with nice rich history, great staff including an excellent chef. Spacious rooms, beautiful lush grounds plus jungle, good facilities, extensive library, nice pool. Afternoon tea and snacks after hiking were great too. We stayed three nights and had a wonderful time.||A special mention to the guide Jyothis Thayil that accompanied us on a long hike through hills and tea plantations, and on two walking tours on the estate, one early morning bird watching and one afternoon walk on the Cardamom plantation. She is a wonderful guide, very pleasant company, who displayed amazing knowledge on birds and other jungle animals, and on various plants and herbs. We learnt a lot and left inspired to observe nature more in other environments.

A working tea plantation on the side of a small mountain. Family run and they couldn't have been more accomdating. Very peaceful setting with walking tours and bird watching if desired. They have a very nice swimming pool. Food was excellent and they were happy to cook more. Only reason for the 4 star rating is that they don't have an alcoholic bar. You can buy supplies in town and they are happy to provide ice to your cabin.

This is a beautiful spot in the mountains. We were in one of the Planters rooms, which was huge and very comfortable. It had a large terrace for sitting outside with a view of the mountains. The staff were friendly and attentive and the food was good. The staff naturalist did a great job guiding walking tours and really knew the birds. Two things to note are that staying in the Planters rooms requires navigating a lot of bumpy steps down to the room (and back up). And also that alcohol is not available, but you can bring it with you and drink it in your room.

Perched up in the hills overlooking a tea plantation on one side and a cardamom plantation on the other, this place has a warm friendly feeling. The rooms are large and clean and the layout of the facilities are excellent. One evening dinner started with a BBQ around an open fire followed by the rest of the extensive dinner in the restaurant. |A guided nature tour was given every afternoon by Medha who had an extensive knowledge of the nature we were surrounded by. A must do. We gad a very nice waiter called Mathew who spoke excellent English and made sure we had everything we needed. We also met John, one of the family owners. Having stayed previously at his Riverhouse resort it was nice to met him and congratualte him and his family on 2 excellent properties with two special teams of staff.|Thank you all for a lovely 2 days at the resort.

A jewel in the crown, all the little details which made our stay special. The owner John Simon (aka " the caretaker" his words not mine) was friendly and informative about the area. Nothing was too much trouble. We were discussing our love for literature and he recommended two books about Kerala.... The next morning he walked up to me and handed me one of the books to take home! There are two walks, one early morning bird watching and an afternoon walk to the plantation. Regarding eating; there were two choices of meals meat and vegetarian, both were fantastic tasty and loads of it! You need to bring your own alcohol if you wish to have any as the hotel doesn't have an alcohol licence. A beautiful and restful 2 nights here. Highly recommend.

We stayed here for two nights whilst we went walking the tea plantations and trekking in the mountains. The estate is situated in lovely grounds, the food was excellent and the rooms were spacious clean and well appointed. There are plenty of hammocks for you to lounge around and a lovely open air tea room. Our hosts were amazing and particularly Mr Jesu was always on hand with a smile. We really had a relaxing comfortable stay and I would love to go back there again as the place was calm and a real oasis away from the town.

We stayed for two nights on a round trip through Kerala. The estate is in the mountains close to Munnar bordering a tea plantation, forest and cardamom plantations. It is led by ecological principals and it provides a peaceful environment to enjoy the beauty of the Munnar region. Accommodation was excellent, the food and restaurant very good and we had good views onto the whole valley and surrounding mountains, so we didn't much leave the area except for hikes.

Amazingly restful hotel. Fabulous food and wish we had stayed longer!|The food was great and the pool was so comfortable.The view from our balcony was to die for. The space and cleanliness of our rooms was amazing and our laundry service was very prompt and reasonable! Completely recommend