The Blue Hills

The blue hills - eco-solidarity tourism in the heart of the Nilgiris biosphere in tea and spice plantations.

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The Nilgiris is a district of the state of Tamil Nadu located in the mountains of Tamil Nadu, on the border between Kerala and Karnataka, mountains also known as the "Western Ghats".

The Nilgiris (blue hills) owe their name to the bluish color of the young eucalyptus leaves, the majority trees in the region's forests.

With the collaboration of the inhabitants, Solidestinations has developed a unique network of homestays and eco-lodges, in the plantation areas of Naduvattam (1900 m altitude) and Gudalur (800 m altitude) These two villages located 30 km from the famous colonial town of OOTY.
The district is also a rich and diverse ecosystem classified as Biosphere by Unesco , its climatic spectrum has given rise to an astonishing animal and plant variety, endangered by extensive agriculture, a non-existent urbanization plan, failed plantations and increasingly intrusive tourism ...

Another vision of tea and spices.

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Solidestinations proposes to give meaning and put faces to your cup of tea and your Indian spices, by inviting you to a total immersion in the daily life of small planters and tea and spice workers.

A trip to understand the tea and spice industry from the workers' point of view ...

Meetings and discoveries to see life in a plantation village.

The beauty of a particular ecosystem

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Since the creation of these gigantic plantations by the English, during the colonization which led to the destruction of the local forest, the tea and spice plantations have become an ecosystem themselves ... Between the total abandonment of certain plantations and the overexploitation of some others, a population is trapped, that of the tea workers. Between political maneuvers and economic games that they do not understand, often cut off from the world, at the mercy of the planters, the workers still live as in the days of colonization ...

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Homestay rooms

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The rooms at the inhabitant (home stay) are selected for social, economic (people who need additional income), and obviously functional for travelers.

Their selection and their location obey precise criteria, to allow you a maximum immersion experience and maximum intensity in the exchanges with your hosts.

With some exceptions, our rooms are chosen in houses located in the middle of fields or plantations.

The rooms intended for one or two people present the maximum possible comfort in the context of modest village houses.

Your hosts are chosen for their sense of welcome and their openness; they will take care of your meals, laundry and will act as a mediator to meet the neighbors and the villagers.

For the most part, they do not speak English, but there will always be a neighbor to come and translate for you and during the day, you will be accompanied by a guide from Solidestinations.

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