Group Tour Urbania Hire from Madurai

The southern circuit from Madurai is one of the better group itineraries in the country, and also one of the easiest to over-schedule. Kodaikanal, Rameswaram, Kanyakumari, Thekkady and Munnar are each worth a proper stop, and a plan that tries to include all five in a week produces a group that has spent the week in a vehicle. We will say so when we see the itinerary, and suggest which two or three to do well instead.

The reason to travel as one group rather than in a convoy is the same everywhere and slightly stronger here, because the distances are long. Three cars means three sets of decisions about when to stop and a lunch halt that runs to ninety minutes because the last car is behind. It also means somebody in the family drives to Kanyakumari and back instead of looking out of the window. One vehicle is generally cheaper per head once fuel, tolls and parking stop being paid three times over.

The climbs are where vehicle choice and seat position start to matter. The ascent to Kodaikanal and the ghat road towards Munnar are sustained hairpin sequences, and the rearmost row of a long Urbania is where travel sickness makes itself known. If someone in the group is prone to it, claim a middle row and tell us in advance — occasionally it is a reason to take the thirteen rather than the seventeen even where the larger vehicle would seat everyone comfortably.

Two practical notes. Stops on a long vehicle need planning, because you cannot pull a seventeen seater onto a narrow verge on a ghat road, and we identify halts that can take it before setting off. And luggage on a full vehicle is the usual quiet limitation: twelve passengers with twelve suitcases fills a thirteen seater completely, and a hill-station trip generates more baggage than the headcount suggests. Give us the bag count with the passenger count and we will tell you honestly whether the next size up is worth it.

Season is worth a thought on the western legs. The ghat roads towards Thekkady and Munnar are wet and slow through the monsoon months, with visibility on the climbs dropping and diversions a genuine possibility rather than a theoretical one. We check conditions before dispatch during those months and will advise against a leg rather than commit a family to a road we would not choose to drive ourselves that week.