Kolli Hills Farmstay

The farmhouse

A tiled-roof farmhouse on the edge of a working pepper and fruit farm, with three plain, clean rooms, each with an attached bathroom and a veranda looking over the fields. Hot water comes from a solar heater; there is no air conditioning and none is needed on the plateau.

Meals and days

The host family cooks what the hills grow: millet rice and dosai, ragi kali, kozhambu with farm vegetables, pepper rasam, jackfruit in season and honey from the hills. Days are your own. Walk the farm with the family, visit the Arapaleeswarar temple and the viewpoints, or go down the Forest Department steps to the Agaya Gangai waterfall. In the month of Aadi the Valvil Ori festival brings music and crowds to the hills.

Getting here

Kolli Hills are about two hours by road from Namakkal or Salem, the last stretch up seventy hairpin bends. Mobile coverage is patchy, which most guests come to enjoy. The family can arrange pick-up from the foot of the ghat road.