Description
The Stanmore bungalow is a sprawling 7500 square feet British built bungalow located in Valparai, a plantation town on the fringes of the Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary. It has 3 large bedrooms, dressing rooms, modern toilets and boasts of fireplaces in all rooms. A verandah surrounds the entire bungalow and green lawns lie spread across the open courtyard like a proverbial carpet.
A quintessential British bungalow, it is also home to Malabar Giant squirrels and the occasional barking deer making its way across the lawn, heading for the vegetable garden behind the bungalow.

Destination Valparai
Valparai is located 3800 feet above sea level on the Anamalai Hills, a mountain range on the Western Ghats, 100 kilometers from the nearest airport, Coimbatore. A small plantation town, the people of Valparai are mainly plantation workers who live within the tea, coffee and cinchona plantations that make the area. Valparai is mostly carpeted with tea plantations and is renowned across Southern India as among the most productive tea growing regions in South India. All major tea companies have a presence here including Tata Coffee, BBTC, PKT and the largest planters, the Woodbriar Group.

Apart from a salubrious climate year round, Valparai is bordered by the Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary, making it a haven to sight wildlife of all kinds. The Sanctuary is home to the Indian Elephant, Wild Gaur (Bison), Leopards, the endangered Lion – Tailed Macaque and rare birds including the Great Indian Hornbill. Sightings of herds of Wild Gaur (Bison) , Elephants are common on the periphery of the sanctuary at Valparai. The endangered Lion Tailed Macaque is a common sight within the private forest at Puthuthottam Estate and so is the Great Indian Hornbill.

Experience
Its’ palatial. Its’ regal. For once you feel transported to a different era in time, a feeling of being an English Sahib. The white suited butler, the fireplace and the sprawling verandah with an expansive well maintained lawn and garden, finish the `awe-some’ picture.
As time passes, the animals come into view perhaps across the stream below or on a jeep ride across the vast plantation expanse and your idea of the place gets altered. You begin to look all the time for that barking deer that walked across the lawn on a misty morning, the Giant Squirrel that shifted home only a week back or the permanent residents, the Lion Tailed Macaques and Hornbills, which visit your area once in a while.

Alive each moment for that elusive mammal or bird, you play planter and visit perhaps the best maintained tea factory in Southern India located above a catchment lake. Then the news arrives from nowhere about a herd of elephants across a bio diversity zone a few 100 meters away and then you understand the uniqueness of the holiday, being within in the comfort of a tea plantation yet surprised by the sight of a grazing herd of elephants just below the last tea hill.

Tourist Highs

Its' about Wildlife . The bungalow is the ideal place to explore the fauna within and on the periphery of the plantation. Valparai is flanked by the Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary and therefore provides plenty of scope for animal sightings. The endangered Lion tailed Macaque ; only 400 reported in the wild on the Western Ghats and the Great Indian Hornbill are some of the common sightings. There are three herds of Elephants that roam within the plantation area apart from incidences of Barking deer's straying into the plantation. Wild Gaurs (Bisons) are usually sighted in the older plantations of Puthuthottam and Iyerpadi, though on the periphery of the Sanctuary area.

Bird populations are found extensively in the bio-diversity spots created by the plantations within the plantation area itself.

Apart from wildlife, Valparai also provides scope for treks, camping and picnics with its mountainous landscape and gurgling streams all around.

For those of you who would like to savor the life of a British planter and live for a while in a quintessential bungalow, the Stanmore bungalow would be the best bet across Southern India

Tourist Lows

It's a tea plantation and sighting animals might seem like an anomaly.
No room service, No Swimming pool.

Facilities

• Bedrooms with fireplaces
• Morning bed tea and coffee
• Common dining hall
• Hot water in every room
• Library
• Home cooked meals as per request of the guest
• STD ISD facilities

Activities

• Jeep safari across the plantation to see animals – Rs 1000 per room
• Tea factory visit – Complimentary
• Bonfire and BBQ dinner – Rs 1000 per room
• Picnic below near the stream – Rs 800 per room

Access
Nearest Airport – Coimbatore , Tamil Nadu / Distance 110 kilometers
Nearest Rail Head – Coimbatore / Distance 110 kilometers

Routes
Bangalore – Salem – Coimbatore – Pollachi – Valparai / Distance
(Travel time – 8 hours)

Chennai – Salem – Coimbatore – Pollachi –/ Distance
(Travel time – 18 hours)

Coimbatore – Pollachi - Valparai / Distance
(Travel time – 3 hours)