Tea Tour through Priyadarshini Estates: taste of authentic Wayanad | Weekend Destination

If you are a tea loving traveler, then you will sure cherish a visit to Priyadarshini Tea Estates near Mananthavady in Wayanad.

This is first of a series of Tea Tours planned by the District Tourism Promotion Council (DTPC) in Mananthavady to popularize estate tourism. DTPC has teamed up with Mananthavadi Tribal Society to make Tea Tours an authentic and unique Wayanad experience for the visitors.

Tour Timing: 8:30 am to 4.30pm

Entry Fee: Rs 30 (Stay and other facilities can be availed by paying additional fee)

Make your own tea!

Visitors will be given a guided tour explaining the entire process behind tea production. Those who want to take part in the factory work could get hands-on experience of how the tea is plucked, cut, heated, rolled, dusted and packed. The factory even allows the visitors to steep a good cup of tea with the leaves or dust they helped to make.

The Priyadarshini Tea Estates makes six varieties of tea and it is offered to visitors for Rs130 per kg, half the market price.

Stay, camping & mountain biking

There are three cottages in the middle of the estate. The rent varies from Rs 1,000, for a double room, to Rs 15,000, for a whole cottage which can house 15 people.

For those staying overnight, Tea Tour has made provisions for trekking and jeep safaris to Biswas Mehta Viewpoint. The 4.5km off-road jeep safari could cost Rs1,500 for a 5-member team. It takes up to two hours to trek to the viewpoint.

The Biswas Mehta Viewpoint is a picturesque location. Incidentally, the 4-km long International Mountain Terrain Bike Track set up in 2014-15 runs along the place. The adrenaline junkies can hone their mountain biking skills and it would cost only an additional Rs 250 for the access to the hour-long course and a bicycle built to international standards.

Food specials

Of special interest are the dishes available here. The laborers in Priyadarshini Tea Estates who belong to the Pania and Adiya tribal communities cook their special meals for tourists provided bookings are made. The menu would include indigenous dishes like churula chappu mezhukkupuratti, Kattukizhangu, mulayari rice and bamboo shoots thoran. The non-vegetarian menu includes roast of a special variety of country crab caught from forest brooks. This is served with gandhakashala rice. A meal for five will cost Rs 1,500.

Camping out

There are plenty of tents pitched at a hill top inside Priyadarshini Tea Estates for the visitors. Up to 25 people can be housed under one big tent. And the charges are Rs 1,500 per person which includes dinner. The camping zone can be reached by foot or by jeep.

To avail of tent facilities, tourists need to make bookings well in advance and they must reach the place before 3 pm.

Though the camping will give the visitors a feeling of staying out in the wild, enough precautions are taken to make it safe.

This distinctive tour concept was introduced by sub collector Sambasiva Rao.

How to reach

Drive down from Wayanad to Kaniyaram Junction in Mananthavady and from there to Pancharakolli via Thilakavu. From Pancharakolli, Priyadarshini Tea Estates is 9 km away.

Tips for tourists

BSNL, IDEA and Vodafone network services are available all over the Estates.

It would be ideal to come armed with torches and power banks and of course, warm clothes, during the cold months.

For bookings contact: 99473-12260