Quick verdict
CONTENTS
Lazo Golden Valley Resort is a small valley-facing property in Chithirapuram, about 10 km short of Munnar town, and it is priced in a bracket where most Munnar options are either a concrete box on the bypass or somebody’s spare floor with a “resort” board outside. It is not a luxury property and does not pretend to be one.
What you are paying for is the position: excellent location overlooking the beautiful valley of Munnar that gets prettier and prettier post-monsoon.
Book it if you want hill views and quiet at a genuinely low price, you rate a view over a room finish, and you are either driving or willing to organise your days around bus timings.
Skip it if you want to walk to restaurants and shops in the evening, you need a spa, gym or pool, or you want to be out sightseeing after dark, because the last bus back up this road goes early and you will be paying cab fare instead.
I did the two nights without a car, on buses, in September. Both of those decisions changed the stay more than the room did, so I have given each its own section below rather than burying them in a bullet.
For the best deals, book early. Find out about amazing deals on this page.
Disclosure: My two nights here were hosted by Lazo Golden Valley Resort. Nobody read this before publication, and nobody paid for a verdict. The post also contains affiliate links, which earn me a commission at no cost to you.
Lazo Golden Valley Resort at a glance
| Where | Block 14, Pallivasal Village, Chithirapuram, Devikulam Taluk, Idukki district, Kerala |
| Distance to Munnar town | About 10 to 11 km, roughly 30 minutes by bus |
| Reachable by bus | Yes. It sits on the Kochi to Munnar road, so Munnar-bound buses pass it |
| Rooms | 23 |
| Room types | Superior, Deluxe, Suite, Family |
| Rates | Superior from ₹1,200, Deluxe from ₹1,500, Suite and Family from ₹2,500. Rates vary by season* |
| Breakfast | Included on most rates |
| Check-in / check-out | 1 PM / 11 AM |
| Restaurant | One multi-cuisine in-house restaurant, Kerala and North Indian |
| Facilities | Free parking, free Wi-Fi, indoor games, activity desk, room service, jungle safari bookings |
| Not there | Pool, spa, gym, lift, bar |
| Nearest attraction | Attukad Waterfalls, 7.3 km |
| Contact | bookings@lazoresorts.com, +91 89258 299560 |
| *Rates checked September 2026 |
Where it actually is, and why that matters more than the photos
Every Munnar property calls itself Munnar. Very few of them are in Munnar. This one is in Chithirapuram, which is the old British-era hydel settlement on the Kochi side, past Pallivasal, sitting above the valley on the road that climbs up towards the town.
That location cuts both ways, and you should decide which way before you book.
In its favour: Chithirapuram is where the tea slopes still look like tea slopes rather than a car park with a viewpoint fee. You are 7.3 km from Attukad Waterfalls, and the drive up to Munnar town takes you past the Pallivasal power project and a set of curves that are worth doing slowly. Nights are quiet in a way that Munnar town, which now has traffic jams outside a Chinese restaurant at 8 PM, is not.
Against it: there is nothing to walk to. No sight, no cafe, no shop worth the name, nothing that constitutes an evening. The road itself is quiet and pleasant enough for a stroll after dinner, but every actual destination needs a bus, an auto or a car. Without a vehicle, you eat at the resort restaurant twice a day, and that is your choice made for you.
The last approach is the bit nobody mentions in listings. I have dragged my heavy bags through dirt, hills that feel like my personal enemy after a long journey, walked through roads that need work since they do not look like roads at all – dozens of times in my eleven years of solo travel across the world.
I can tell you with full confidence that your experience will be so much better. Because it is right on the main road, you can walk in feeling like a queen (or a king) no matter how many bags you are carrying.
Getting to Lazo Golden Valley Resort without a car
Almost every review of a Munnar property assumes you have arrived in a hired Innova. I did not. I got here on buses, and since this resort sits 10 km outside town on a road that most visitors only see through a car window, that is worth spelling out.
The useful geography.
The Kochi to Munnar road climbs through Adimali, then Pallivasal, then Chithirapuram, and only then reaches Munnar town. The resort is on that road. This means you do not need to reach Munnar and come back out.
Any Munnar-bound bus is already going past you, which is the opposite of how most out-of-town resorts work and the single best thing about this location if you are on public transport.
I took the KSRTC bus from Kozhikode to Munnar, which cost around 300 INR. It is best to book the bus online, since the KSRTC buses are always full, and you will not be able to find a seat without a booking.
From Kochi. KSRTC runs services to Munnar from Aluva and Ernakulam throughout the day. Reckon on four and a half to five and a half hours, depending on how long you sit behind a lorry on the Neriamangalam ghat.
Getting down at the right place.
The bus actually stops at Munnar KSRTC bus stand. If you are coming from the north, like Bangalore, you will have to book a cab or arrange it with Lazo Resort by calling them when you start the journey. If you are coming from southern Kerala, just locate the resort on the map and show it to the conductor, and they will drop you right in front of Lazo Golden Valley.
Getting around once you are there.
Local buses run between Munnar and Adimali throughout the day and pass this stretch, so getting into town for sightseeing is straightforward in daylight. The catch is the evening. Hill services thin out early, and the last one is earlier than you expect. You can rent a bike in Munnar and use that for seeing the sights, which is the cheapest way if you are one or two travelers.
For a group, the next economical option is to book an auto for half/full day. Talk to them and decide pricing based on the sights and number of hours. Autos usually cover around 15 to 20km maximum. The current prices are either a fixed rate or 30 INR per kilometre (if it exceeds 10km). Negotiate before agreeing to a price.
I will recommend getting a car if you are traveling with children under 5 years old or more than one kid. There is AC, and you can plan day trips and cover long distances over multiple days.
Would I do it again without a car?
Yes, I would do it again for its convenient location, pocket-friendly prices and, of course, the best part – stunning valley views every day of my stay. But having said that, I am used to using public transport, and the hassle is something that will not bother me.
I have written elsewhere about why more Indian women should be allowed to get used to it too.
If you are someone who wants more comfort and wants to choose this property without a car, I would think again – the choice is to book a car (the upside of a car is you can also explore a lot of places throughout your trip).
The Deluxe Room: what you actually get
I stayed in a Deluxe Room, which is listed at 300 sq ft and sits second from the bottom of the four categories.
My room was on the top, which means I could see the best views of the valley day and night. The most beautiful time to enjoy the views is in the morning, just after sunrise, when clouds form curtains, revealing the landscape dramatically.
The bed is large, and the room is comfortably big, with a seating area and a table.
There is a balcony in upper rooms from Deluxe onwards where you can also sit down and unwind.
Bathroom. Hot water comes from a geyser that reception switches on for you, which I have more to say about below. Water pressure was good all day. Towels, soap and the basics are provided. There is no window.
Wi-Fi and signal. Wifi was good enough for me to work, including the optimal speed. You can take a call too, and if you are planning to work from the room, consider it done.
The food
There is one restaurant and no realistic alternative within walking distance, so the food is not a side note here.
Breakfast is included on most rates. There is a fixed menu that you can choose from. Breakfast starts at 8 AM, so you can begin your day early.
Dinner is a longer menu covering Kerala and North Indian. It is fine. Competently cooked, hot, served without fuss, and entirely unmemorable. I am not going to pretend otherwise, because at these rates I did not expect a destination kitchen and you should not either.
What matters more is the practical bit: there is no walking to a better option, so if you are particular about food, either bring snacks or plan your sightseeing days to include a lunch in Munnar town.
Service and staff
Two people made this stay, and I am naming them because “the staff were helpful” is what every hotel review says, and it tells you nothing.
Vimal, the manager, was out for my bags before I had properly got through the gate, which sounds like a small thing until you have hauled a case up a dirt track at the end of a five-hour bus journey, as I have done more times than I care to count.
After that, he handled everything on the property. Meals, the geyser, whether I was comfortable, all of it dealt with, before I had to ask twice. The geyser has to be switched on by reception before you shower, which is the one genuine friction point of the room, and he had it running each time promptly. It is a design decision rather than a service failure, but it does mean a call to the front desk before your first coffee.
Bala works nights and did the things nobody is obliged to do. He booked an auto for me rather than steering me towards a car at resort rates, and talked me through which sights were worth the trip and which were not. On the day I left, he came along to help me get my bags onto the Kozhikode bus.
Plenty of properties are attentive right up until checkout, at which point you become someone else’s problem, and your luggage becomes entirely your own. I have put cases onto buses in more countries than I can count, and I have very rarely had company.
What I would flag
I would rather you hear this here than find it out on arrival.
- No pool, no spa, no gym. Several Munnar properties in the ₹3,000 to ₹5,000 bracket have all three. If those matter to you, this is not the booking.
- You are dependent on the resort for food and transport. Build that into the budget before you compare nightly rates.
- Transport is on you, and it is not neutral. Without a car, the resort restaurant becomes your only dinner option, and the last bus decides when your day ends. Add cab fares to the nightly rate before you decide this is cheap.
Things to do near Lazo Golden Valley Resort
Everything below is reachable as a half day from the property. The first two you can do on foot or with one short bus hop. The rest need either a hired cab for the day or a bus into Munnar town and a local arrangement from there, so cluster them rather than doing one a day.
- Attukad Waterfalls, 7.3 km. Closest attraction to the resort and at its best right after rain. Best done early, before the tour buses come up from Kochi.
- Pallivasal Hydro Electric Project, minutes away. Kerala’s first hydel project and the reason Chithirapuram exists. Old British-era bungalows and quarters are still standing along the road.
- Tata Tea Museum, 12.8 km, in Munnar town. Worth 90 minutes, mainly for the old machinery.
- Mattupetty Dam and Echo Point, about 25 km via Munnar town. Overrun, but the drive there is the point.
- Eravikulam National Park, about 25 km. Book the online slot in advance. Closed from 1 February to 1 April for calving season, with entry from 8 AM to 2 PM the rest of the year.
- Top Station and Kundala Lake, about 45 km, a full day.
What September is actually like here
I stayed in September, which is the month everybody describes as post-monsoon. Expect roughly 26C in the day and 19C at night, and something in the region of ten rainy days across the month. The pattern is mornings that start clear and afternoons that close in, which matters when you are planning around bus timings rather than a car you can dive into.
For the rest of the year, briefly:
October and November are the sweet spot. The rain tails off, the tea slopes are at their greenest, and rates have not yet climbed to Christmas levels.
December to February is dry, cold at night, and gives the clearest valley visibility of the year. It is also the most expensive and the most crowded, particularly the last week of December, when half the country is on the move.
April and May are warm by Munnar standards and busy with domestic school-holiday traffic.
June to August is the heavy monsoon. The valley disappears into cloud for days at a time, which is either the whole reason you came or a wasted booking. Rates drop hard. If you are booking a valley view room in July, understand you may be paying for a view of the inside of a cloud.
If you are coming without a car, weigh this more heavily than you otherwise would. Standing on a hill road waiting for a bus is a different proposition in October than it is in July.
Is Lazo Golden Valley Resort worth booking?
At the Superior and Deluxe rates, roughly 1,200 to 1,600 a night with breakfast, the comparison set is not other resorts. It is homestays and roadside hotels. Against that set, a valley-facing room with parking, a restaurant on site and staff who are friendly, helpful and make sure you are comfortable is a straightforward yes.
At the Suite and Family rates, the comparison set changes, and Munnar has a lot of options at that number. Tall Trees, where I stayed on an earlier trip, sits in a different bracket and buys you a different kind of stay.
I had the most relaxing experience in Lazo Golden Valley, where I did a bit of everything, but I spent most of the time just admiring the views from my balcony, having lunches and snacks, and even working. Overall, I am glad I came here.
Frequently asked questions
In Block 14 of Pallivasal Village, Chithirapuram, in Devikulam Taluk of Idukki district, Kerala. It is about 10 to 11 km from Munnar town on the Kochi side, and 7.3 km from Attukad Waterfalls.
Superior rooms start around ₹1,200 and Deluxe around ₹1,500, with Suite and Family rooms in the ₹2,500 to ₹3,000 range. Breakfast is usually included. Rates rise sharply over Christmas, New Year and the April to May holiday weeks.
No. There is no pool, spa or gym. Facilities are limited to a restaurant, games, an activity desk, free parking and Wi-Fi.
Many rooms in the Deluxe, Suite and family categories come with a valley view. I suggest you book one of these for waking up to beautiful valley views. You can also call up the property and check with them to guide you in booking the best rooms.
Cochin International Airport is roughly 110 to 120 km away, four to five hours by road through Neriamangalam and Adimali. A private cab is the simplest option. You can also do it entirely by bus: KSRTC services run from Aluva and Ernakulam towards Munnar and pass through Chithirapuram before reaching Munnar town, so you get down before town rather than after it.
Yes, and I did. The resort sits on the main Kochi to Munnar road, so buses in both directions pass it through the day and getting into Munnar town for sightseeing is straightforward in daylight. The limitation is evenings.
Hill bus services stop early, there are few options to eat within walking distance, and anything after dark means an autorickshaw or a cab. I booked a KSRTC bus to arrive and leave online (which is a lot cheaper than the private buses).
You can ask the bus to drop you at Lazo if you are arriving from within Kerala. If you are coming from Bangalore, I suggest calling Lazo upfront so that they can arrange a cab for the pickup.
Yes, Lazo Golden Valley Resort is a great fit for solo travelers. It sits right on the main road rather than down some interior track, which means transport is easy to reach and the stretch outside the property is lit and quiet enough that I was comfortable walking it after dinner. That is a stroll, not an outing. There is nothing within walking distance to actually go to, so anything you want to see needs a bus or an auto.
The staff at the property are also excellent and will go above and beyond to make your stay comfortable, and you can eat alone in your room or at their dining area, enjoying the views.
If this is your first solo trip, the practical groundwork is worth doing before you arrive: here are the 25 things I tell people to sort out first.
Yes, it is, and I recommend you have a car or any vehicle of your own to get around. There is a 400 sq ft Family Room with a valley view, games and safe parking. Since there is no pool and nothing within walking distance, a family without a vehicle would be largely confined to the property after the afternoon buses thin out.
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