overview

about

Picturesque tea nest is a green-roofed colonial cottage with gables, high ceilings and lace curtains, and snuggles in 1,800 acres of tea plantations. In front of it, jagged mountains slope down to curving green valleys. The 1800s heritage mansion was once the home of British aristocrats and also an international tea school. Nature resorts took it over, restored and refurbished it, keeping its colonial spirit intact.

There are six rooms with evocative tea-themed names – lemon, green, silver tips, golden tips, chamomile, and jasmine. Have a crackling fire going on chilly nilgiri nights while you snuggle in your room’s inviting confines. Indeed throughout the year, a soft mountain breeze wafts into tea nest making it a cool getaway.

The rooms are all done with understated elegance typical of a british tea planter’s mansion. A snug living room with a welcoming fire place warms chilled feet after a long trek or a guided tea garden walk.

Relax on the sun-stunned porch with a cup of fragrant tea; perhaps you will see a bison or Indian gaur lumber through the plantation even as nimble women, with baskets on their backs, pluck two leaves and a bud, flitting from bush to bush like bright butterflies.

Go bird watching, smell the flowers and sip a cup of fragrant tea as the early morning mist rolls in. Wake up with the sun…

nilgiris

Nilgiris – it’s easy to get poetic when pronouncing the name; to linger over it; to stretch out the word like a song… So evocative is the name of the misty beauty of these blue-green mountains, shared by tamil nadu, karnataka and kerala…

And nothing is lost in translation for nila means blue and giri means mountains… blue mountains is an equally enchanting name.

One of the earliest descriptions of the nilgiris where tea nest is situated was the one by captain s. b, ward, dy surveyor General of the then madras government. “The climate of these mountains,” he said “is the finest known in the tropics.”

And we at tea nest intend to keep it that way – the tea estates that surround the property create beautiful geometric patterns across the rolling landscape. And don’t be surprised if you see wild Indian gaur foraging in this maze of green. mountains – tall and sentinel – look down on this pristine land and guard the secrets of the past in their stony folds.

Ootacamund, queen of the hill stations, is only 22 km away while kotagiri and wellington are other spots that visitors can explore at leisure. Scale the highest peak in south india – dodabetta – all of 8,649 ft; head out to mukurthi, another lush rainforest area; or the hills and dales of upper bhavani.

If you want, you could head for kanyakumari, the tip of India where three oceans meet; to chennai by the sea or even to the neighbouring states of kerala and karnataka.

responsible tourism

We are “earthy,” we love our planet and will go the extra mile to preserve it for future generations. Our resort is located in a heritage bungalow which is surrounded by tea estates and we have spared no effort to give our guests the best and most authentic plantation experience possible. We also strive to leave a light footprint – minimize use of plastic, over-use of detergents, have good waste management practises, enhance the quality of soil, water and air and purchase everything locally. We want to keep our corner of the earth as pristine as when it first awakened to life!

Our Green Code

We have installed foam flow faucets to reduce water consumption
Degradable / bio degradable waste is segregated
Plastic / paper / glass / metals (cans) waste are recycled
All the shampoo, conditioner and lotion bottles are returned to the supplier so that they can be sterilized, refilled and recycled
We are continuously working at minimizing noise levels at the homestay
Our staff is accommodated within the property.
Energy-efficient cfl bulbs are used on the property
We have planted native species of trees within the resort. These include fruits and plants that are the natural habitat of birds and amphibians
We have taken steps to minimize formal landscaping
Our efficient usage of lights in public areas minimizes disturbance to nocturnal wildlife
We have restored and maintained the heritage structure in which tea nest is located.
Restoration material was sourced locally.
Our kitchen and restaurant work to showcase local cuisine.
About 80 percent of our staff is local
Our resort supplements the income of local taxi drivers, doctors and families
We purchase our groceries and vegetables from local markets
The resort complies with all the labour laws of the state
Wherever possible, we ensure that products used at the resort are not made by child or bonded labour
We ensure that suppliers are paid a fair price for their products and services

climate

An ideal climate makes coonoor a year-round destination. The air here is crisp and the temperature remains cool throughout the year, even during the summer months. And the monsoons bring their magic with mist sweeping across the mountains like the flutter of a seductress’s veil.

SEASON	MIN	MAX	CLOTHING
March – May	17 Deg C	29 Deg C	Light woollens
June – September	15 Deg C	22 Deg C	Thick woollens & rain-wear
October – February	7 Deg C	20 Deg C	Heavy woollens

travel

Tea nest sits snug in the middle of tea estates in upper coonoor. To reach it, one must take a small detour (3 km) from the scenic mountain road between mettupalayam and ooty.

Closest airport: coimbatore (74km)

Closest railway stations: mettupalayam (34km) on the main line and coonoor (3km) on the toy train line between mettupalayam and ooty (22km)

The toy train

When you travel on the toy train in the nilgiris, the journey is indeed the destination. For this quaint little train that recently chugged into the listing of unesco world heritage sites, brims with raj nostalgia. Built over a century ago, the 40 km track that ducks through 16 tunnels and trundles over 362 bridges, snakes up mountains that are carpeted with virgin forests, rolling meadows and the neat geometric patterns of tea plantations. And if you are lucky, you might even get to see a herd of wild elephants crossing the track.

According to discovery channel, the narrow gauge track between mettupalayam and coonoor is one of the steepest in world and it was one of the very first railway projects to use the cogwheel to negotiate the incline.

The toy train is a year-round service. It chugs out of mettupalayam every morning and returns in the evening. Its timings tie in with the overnight nilgiri express between chennai central station and mettupalayum via coimbatore.

The railways run an additional service between mettupalayam and ooty to cope with the summer and diwali vacations rush.

In addition there are morning and evening shuttle services between coonoor and ooty – 19 km apart.

Getting to tea nest by road

(Distances in Kilometres)

CITIES	ROAD
Coonoor	3
Ooty	22
Coimbatore	74
Salem	238
Kochi	267
Mysore	242
Bangalore	320
Chennai	565
Hyderabad	943
Mumbai	1306

Time taken to travel by air and rail to coimbatore

(The closest airport and main-line station to the resort)

Time in Hours

CITIES	AIR	RAIL
Salem	—	2.5
Kochi	30 minutes	4
Mysore	—	5.5(bus)
Bangalore	30 minutes	8
Chennai	1	9
Hyderabad	—	24
Mumbai	1.5	36

The drive from coimbatore to the homestay is about 2 hrs

Location

Latitude : 11.353002
Longitude : 76.795909
Altitude : 6000 feet or 1850 meters above sea level.