Trip members: Karthik, Sankar and Dhanasankar
Trip date: 04 and 05 July 2026
Trip Plan : Chennai - Palakkad - Malappuram - Mini Ooty - Palakkad - Chennai
This was quick weekender trip - combined with some personal agenda for Saturday at Palakkad and Sunday for a trip to Mini Ooty of Malappuram.
Day-1
We started on Friday evening by Mangalore mail and reached Palakkad by 04:30 AM. We had booked retiring rooms at Palakkad junction to take some rest and refresh for 3 hours. We checked out around 8 AM and were involved in personal work in a nearby village to Palakkad.
FIFA Vibes
Across the day, we saw the FIFA world cup fever reflect all around the roads we went. We could see grand big posters and banners of teams from Argentina, Brazil and Portugal. It was a delight to watch; I had once seen similar vibe in Kolkata during 2018 FIFA world cup.
We had some very good local food in village hotels - shacks.
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| Kappa |
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| Aapam with Cauliflower roast |
Once the work was completed we checked-in to hotel Indraprastha in Palakkad - one of the oldest hotels just nearby to the Palakkad Fort. The rooms were quite big, with balcony, large beds and very comfortable.
In the evening, when we planned to visit nearby fort, there were continous heavy rains and we had to be in the rooms. We had dinner at the hotel itself.
Day-2
This day was planned to visit somewhere around Palakkad. We had a morning walk around the Palakkad fort, had tea and came back to the room. Our plan was to do a day trip around Palakkad somewhere and catch the train by 20:30.
We understood Nelliampathy was closed because of the monsoon rains; so we decided to go to Malappuram; one of our primary option.
Malappuram is around 80 kms from Palakkad and then plan was to visit the popular tourist spot called - Mini Ooty. Mini Ooty is the nick name of Arimbara hills of Malappuram. This scenic place is around 1450 feet above sea level and is in reserve forest area. This is best approached from Kozhikode as well.
Mini Ooty - Arimbara Hills
This is more like a picnic spot and has been converted to a theme park - Misty Land Natural park. The places has more than 15 items to spend time on. However, the major attraction being the GLASS BRIDGE. There is an entry fee for the theme park based on the items you want to chose to experience varying from Rs.200 to Rs.800.
We took a Rs.550 package for 10 activities involving Glass bridge, pet houses, and few more. There are 2 glass bridges - one of 150m and other at 70m. Through our ticket, we had access to the lenghtier one.
We first visited the Pets house as the glass bridge was slightly over crowded.
The place had parakeets and few other birds in a feeding cage and you can enjoy as it sits on you. The place also has a python snake, which can sport by wearing over your neck and few more like ostrich, camel and a chameleon - more of time killers.
Glass bridge
We next visited the Glass bridge.
This is a sea through glass bridge, and you get the walk about the hill and see the trees below you. This picturesque spot provides a stunning panoramic view of lush green valleys, beautiful hills and most importantly a view from the top. We spent almost 30 minutes here capturing the moments - through our 2 eyes as well as artificial eyes!
We spent rest of the time walking around the watch tower, rope car and few other time killers like aquarium, mirror maze and more!
We came out around 2:30 PM and our driver took us to a restaurant - Hotel Airlines at Down Hill in Malappuram. We had the all famous Kerala parottos with Paneer and Veg curry.
Back to Palakkad
Enroute, we drive back slowly enjoying the weather leading to Palakkad. We reached the station around 7:00 PM; packed our dinner from a restaurant closer to the station - no great restaurants in the proximity. Just ok-ok ones! And, started to Chennai! We got down at Perambur and drove back to homes safely!