How to Get There

By plane

The Coimbatore airport is the closest to the Ooty. It takes 3.1/2 hours by road to reach Ooty. There are flights into Coimbatore from Singapore, Sharjah, Colombo and most parts of India including Mumbai (Air Deccan, Indian Airlines,Jet and Go Air), Chennai ( Air Deccan, Paramount, Indian Airlines and Jet) and Bangalore.

By Train (Awesome Journey. Don't Miss)

The Queen of Hills is connected to the Chennai City (Capital of Tamilnadu) by a train at night hours. The train called as Nilgiri Express which leaves from Chennai at night, and reaches Mettupalayam a small town at the foothills of the Nilgiris early the next morning around 6.30am. The trainThe Nilgiri Mountain Railway (called as a Toy Train) leaves Mettupalayam at 7.10am The train is very smaller one and can only accommodate few passengers. A through ticket from Chennai to Ooty will ensure a place in the smaller train, although many prefer the faster route of taking a cab or a bus from Mettupalayam.

The steam train takes a very scenic route, and the pace of travel will let you take in the beautiful scenery at leisure with stops at stations for the engine to take on water (the journey takes about 5.1/2 hours compared to 2 hours by road). The train often travels only at 5 - 10 Kmph, allowing some adventerous passengers to disembark from the train and walk along the train.

Mettupalayam can prove to be a bottle-neck during the peak season of April-June with cabs charging exorbitant rates. The train is often quite regular in this part of the country, and is by far the most comfortable way to get here.
There are other trains from Chennai to Coimatore also.

By car

The Nilgiris are in Tamilnadu state (South india) but it is not far to the borders of neighboring karnataka and Kerala. The hills consequently can be reached from within Tamil Nadu by travelling up a heavily forested winding road, with many sharp hair-pin beds. The road trip from any state is quite scenic, although the Coimbatore-Ooty road is the most & frequentlytravelled and well maintained.

There are buses and shared taxi vans are available from most parts of South India to Ooty. Ooty is 284 km from Bangalore by road. The journey takes about 8 hours. One can take a shorter route for which a diversion has to be taken at Mudumalai wildlife sanctuary. There are eating places between Bangalore and Mysore, and within Mysore, but from Mysore to Ooty one should carry some food, as there are very few restaurants.