Honda Drive to Discover 2025: A Southern Monsoon

In my years of driving around India, I've never quite managed to fully explore the southern Western Ghats. So when this edition of Honda's Drive to Discover was themed after India's monsoons, I knew this could be a great chance to tick another great road trip off my list.

As these events go, it didn't disappoint. There is a lot to be said for driving a crisp manual Honda City through the Gap Road past Munnar. It's a near-perfect spiral of tarmac with wide, flowing corners that seem laid across a scene from a picture postcard. You have rolling hills smoothed over by tea plantations, and in the monsoon, the mist that hangs over these makes for some stunning views.

It's fitting that we could refresh our memory of the Honda City in this setting. It's always special to see the City engine eat up revs in the way that it does, but the experience seemed enhanced by the great roads we were on. You could carve through these corners confidently with the City's flat and easy driving character. The City may not have as much favour as it once did with Indian buyers, but it still does what it is supposed to do better than many other cars.

This was just one morning in our drive from Kochi to Coimbatore, a 541 km road trip via Athirapilly, Munnar, and Kodaikanal. This region of the Western Ghats doesn't get the reputation of the Sahyadris, and is all the better for it, being much less crowded, but this truly is one of the best places to experience India's monsoons. If you aren't driving through lush plantations, there are dense forests and wispy clouds for company. You also don't need to be especially lucky to spot an elephant or a bison.

Aside from the City, we also had some great wheel time with the Elevate. The new Honda Elevate Black Edition is quite a looker to start with, and while the added heft and raised stance may not give it the same character as the City, it's still a great place to spend time in. It feels right at home on the narrow winding roads of the palm plantations around Kochi. But our highlight with the Elevate was the hidden gem of a drive downhill from Kodaikanal to Coimbatore. It's a scenic but tight 50 km downhill drive to the plains, with blind corners, S-bends and hairpins. It's an empty forested stretch that we had largely to ourselves.

You might think an SUV would be out of sorts here, but the Elevate handled itself well. It seemed to manage well enough and you could get into a rhythm easily. The ride is sorted enough too.

We do the Honda Drive to Discover every year, and we come away with the same feeling. It's a fulfilling experience, exploring new parts of our country we wouldn't otherwise. The cars always seem to leave an impression too.