What to expect
Sholayar Dam (Upper Solaiyar)
A hydroelectric dam and reservoir in the forested hills beyond Valparai, near the Tamil Nadu-Kerala border, set amid dense evergreen forest. This dam guide is organized from Valparai in Coimbatore district, with practical planning for routes, timing, nearby stays, food, operators and direct local inventory. Use it to compare what to see, how long to spend, when to go and which verified stays, local guides, jeep or taxi operators, food stops, permits and safety-aware activity providers should be verified around Sholayar Dam (Upper Solaiyar).
Practical guide
Plan Sholayar Dam (Upper Solaiyar)
Who's going?Tailor Sholayar Dam (Upper Solaiyar) to your trip
Typedam
Nearest baseValparai
DistrictCoimbatore
Best timeOctober to March is the cooler, drier…
Time neededAbout an hour
EntryFree
Places to visit8→Listed businesses2→Sholayar Dam (Upper Solaiyar) is planned from Valparai, one of the travel bases in Coimbatore district. Use Valparai for stays, food and local transport, then plan this place as a focused stop.
Getting there
How to visit
- Base yourself in Valparai or nearby in Coimbatore, then confirm the last-mile route locally before travel.
- If access depends on temple, museum or seasonal rules, check on the day before you go.
Timing
Best time
October to March is the cooler, drier season in the Cauvery delta.
Weather in Sholayar Dam (Upper Solaiyar)Seasonal guide
Live forecast loads in your browser.
Today at Sholayar Dam (Upper Solaiyar)
Sunrise6:13 am
Sunset6:32 pm
Golden hour best light5:32 pm–6:32 pm
Blue hour after sunset6:32 pm–6:57 pm
Sun sets toward compass bearingW · 279°
Moon tonight🌖 Waning gibbous · 83%
South-west monsoon. June to September brings heavy rain to Tamil Nadu. Trails, falls and ghat roads can be slippery, swollen or closed at short notice, and forest departments sometimes suspend access. Check locally on the day before you travel.
Sun and moon are calculated for this location and shown in IST. Photography windows are the hour around sunrise and sunset; the sunset bearing is degrees clockwise from true north. Moon phase is accurate to about half a day.
Photos
Sholayar Dam (Upper Solaiyar) in pictures
Stay · eat · do · rent · see · shop
Stays, food & things to do near Sholayar Dam (Upper Solaiyar)
Verified hotels, homestays, restaurants, experiences, sights, shops and rentals around Sholayar Dam (Upper Solaiyar) — commission-free, with direct contact. Filter by what you need.
2 places to stay near Sholayar Dam (Upper Solaiyar)
R
Ravi Homestay
Place to stay
Top pick
Guest house
Ravi HomestayA seven-room homestay on Kumaran Road, with guide services arranged for guests. Check-in is one o'clock and check-out eleven.
Commission-freeView details
W
Wintel Wild Resort
Place to stay
Top pick
Resort
Wintel Wild ResortA resort on GH Hospital Road in Valparai, describing itself as budget rather than luxury. It takes reservations by email as well as telephone.
Commission-freeView details
Book with the place itself. India’s cyber-crime coordination centre warned in April 2025 that convincing copies of hotel and pilgrimage booking sites are being pushed through sponsored search and social ads, taking payment for rooms the property never hears about. Every listing here links to the business’s own contact details and its own Google or Bing profile — we take no commission and sit in nobody’s payment path. If a booking page reached you through an ad, check the address bar against the property’s own site before you pay. Fraud can be reported on cybercrime.gov.in or on 1930.
Ranked
The best of Valparai, ranked
Sholayar Dam (Upper Solaiyar) sits in Valparai, and these rank everything verified across the town rather than this one spot — built from the same listings shown above, ordered by the strength of the source evidence behind each entry rather than by anyone's star score. Every card shows how many places are really on it. Nobody pays to appear.
Across the whole of Valparai
Ranked guides
Top experiences around Valparai
7 more places around Valparai, each worth a day of its own.
wildlifeAnamalai Tiger Reserve
23.3 km · ~39 min by cab
A Western Ghats tiger reserve in the Anaimalai hills near Pollachi, home to elephants, gaur, and the endangered lion-tailed macaque alongside its resident tigers.
viewpointValparai
12.6 km · ~21 min by cab
A tea-estate hill station at roughly 3,500 ft in the Anaimalai hills, reached via a ghat road with about 40 hairpin bends past Aliyar Dam.
damAliyar Dam and Reservoir
25.0 km · ~42 min by cab
A reservoir and garden complex on the Aliyar river en route to Valparai, popular for its musical fountain, boating, and picnic lawns.
waterfallMonkey Falls
20.1 km · ~34 min by cab
A roadside waterfall on the Pollachi-Valparai ghat road, a popular bathing and picnic stop named for the bonnet macaques common in the area.
viewpointNallamudi Poonjolai Viewpoint
11.4 km · ~19 min by cab
A tea-estate viewpoint above Valparai offering sweeping views over the surrounding hills and valleys, popular at sunrise.
heritageChinnakallar Falls
16.3 km · ~27 min by cab
Chinnakallar Falls, near Valparai in the Anamalai hills, lies in one of the highest-rainfall pockets of southern India, often described as among the wettest places in the region. The powerful falls plunge through dense rainforest and are usually viewed from a designated safe distance because of slippery, hazardous terrain. It is a signature natural attraction of the Valparai plateau.
heritageLoam's View Point
20.3 km · ~34 min by cab
Loam's View Point sits at the 9th hairpin bend of the Pollachi–Aliyar–Valparai ghat road and is named after Mathew Loam, who surveyed the route in 1886. The platform offers sweeping views of the Aliyar Dam and reservoir and the Anamalai ranges of the Western Ghats. It is a favourite sunset stop on the climb to Valparai.
Roampedia is commission-free — own or know a stay, eatery, guide or shop near Sholayar Dam (Upper Solaiyar)? List it and it appears here once verified.
Add a nearby businessBefore you go
Sholayar Dam (Upper Solaiyar) — at a glance
Timings9:00 AM–5:00 PM; forest checkpost timings apply
Best timeSep–Mar; avoid heavy monsoon
Entry: Free — indicative, confirm on site
Getting here
How to reach Sholayar Dam (Upper Solaiyar)
~30 km from Valparai town via forest road
Getting around Sholayar Dam (Upper Solaiyar)
We have not assessed physical access at this place yet. Across India, step-free routes, handrails and accessible toilets are the exception rather than the rule, and pavements are often interrupted — if step-free access matters to you, contact the site or a local operator before committing to the trip.
If you need help at Sholayar Dam (Upper Solaiyar)
112All emergencies (police · fire · medical)The single number to call in any emergency (ERSS).100Police101Fire108Ambulance (emergency / EMS)1091Women’s helpline (distress)1098Child helpline1363Tourist helpline (India, 24×7, multilingual)
Emergency numbers are verified against official government and state tourism sources. 112 works anywhere in India.
Nearby
What’s near Sholayar Dam (Upper Solaiyar)
On the map
Where Sholayar Dam (Upper Solaiyar) is
Good to know
Sholayar Dam (Upper Solaiyar) — frequently asked
When is the best time to visit Sholayar Dam (Upper Solaiyar)?
October to March is the cooler, drier season in the Cauvery delta.
What are the entry fee and timings at Sholayar Dam (Upper Solaiyar)?
Entry: Free — indicative, confirm on site. Timings: 9:00 AM–5:00 PM; forest checkpost timings apply.
How do I reach Sholayar Dam (Upper Solaiyar)?
Base yourself in Valparai or nearby in Coimbatore, then confirm the last-mile route locally before travel. If access depends on temple, museum or seasonal rules, check on the day before you go.
How much time do I need for Sholayar Dam (Upper Solaiyar)?
About an hour.
What else is near Sholayar Dam (Upper Solaiyar)?
Nearby you can pair Nallamudi Poonjolai Viewpoint (11.4 km), Valparai (12.6 km), Chinnakallar Falls (16.3 km), Monkey Falls (20.1 km).
Read before you go
Sholayar Dam (Upper Solaiyar) guides, stories & itineraries
We have not published a story about Sholayar Dam (Upper Solaiyar) itself yet. These cover Valparai, the town it sits in, and the wider district.
Around Valparai
Sholayar Dam (Upper Solaiyar) sits in Valparai, so these cover the streets, buildings and surroundings around it.
Guide
Pollachi Travel Guide: Coconut Country and the Gateway to Valparai
7 min read · Read →
Story
Valparai: tea country and wildlife in the Anamalai hills
6 min read · Read →
Itinerary
Coimbatore & Valparai in 3 Days
8 min read · Read →
Tamil Nadu-wide guides & itineraries
Route-level itineraries and practical guides for the rest of Tamil Nadu.
Photographs: Dilli2040 (CC BY-SA 3.0), Jaseem Hamza (CC BY 3.0), This Photo was taken by Timothy A. Gonsalves. Feel free to use my phot (CC BY-SA 4.0). Wikimedia Commons.
Image credits
- Sholayar Dam (Upper Solaiyar):Dilli2040 · CC BY-SA 3.0