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I am planning to visit Orissa on a sight seeing trip for 3 days or so.
Mainly want to visit the Sun Temple, Jaganath Temple & any other
historical places/temples? Planning to visit in Mid September.

I can fly from either Bombay or Pune - what airport should I fly to in Orissa
for these places? Are hotels easily available? I mainly good clean hotels - 1000-2000 Rs (can go bit higher if needed) - not interested in any other facility in the hotels. Can I book on reaching there?

Also how do I travel between the different places - are there organized tours - can I book them on the day?
Or is hiring a taxi more convinient?

Anybody from Orissa or visited Orissa recently give any advice?


Or will co-ordinating all these things be difficult & I should just book a package through SOTC or something?

I think you should fly into Bhubaneshwar (has an airport). From there take a cab to Puri. From there take another cab to Konarak. Come back to Bhubaneshwar and fly back. Bhubaneshwar and Puri don't need any advance booking (unless you are going during the Durga puja or Rathayatra) but it's always preferable to book in advance. If you have travelling experience then you will face no problem. Puri and Konarak get millions of travellers every year and they are very traveller friendly places with more than adequate infrastructure. Rs 2000 is a star hotel budget for Orissa.
Orissa has some fantastic jungles but with the ongoing Maoist problem, it is not advisable to go to those places now.
Bhubaneshwar has a wonderful temple complex called Lingaraj. Udaigiri and Khandagiri caves are also worth visiting.

1. board a flight to Bhubaneswar
2. Taxis are available from the Airport - you should be good at bargaining with drivers.
3. Puri (jagannath temple and beach) is 60kms approx from Bhubaneswar and takes around 1.5 hours (max) by road.
4. Konark temple is enroute Puri or you can take a bus/cab from Puri.
5. Hotels are available both at Puri and Bhubaneswar.
6. Temperature remains on the higher side.

In Bhuvaneshar try Ginger hotel. That would be approx 2000. Puri has lots of Hotels on the beach and can get it around 1000.You should keep one Day for Bhuvaneshar itself. it's has several amazing temples other than Lingaraja.You can do some good shopping also at Ekamra Haat.

if you are going so far Include Chilka lake as well in your trip. Largest Lake in India.if you stay in Puri You can cover Konark and Chilka in once day. both are in opposite direction approx 30 Km from Puri. Start with konark in Morning finish by noon and then Chilka. Puri temple's can be done in evening and doesn't take much time.

There is only one airport in Orissa and that is at Bhubaneswar.
Konark, Puri and Bhubaneswar are on 3 sides of an imaginary triangle. From Bhubaneswar, if you travel to Puri, you come across a place called Pipli, around half way. From Pipli, it is equidistant to Konark and Puri. You could also go from Konark to Puri directly on the beach road, instead of coming back to Pipli and then turning left to Puri.

Apart from temples at Bhubaneswar, you also have Nandan Kanan zoo at the outskirts of Bhubaneswar, and Chilika lake around 100 kms away from Bhubaneswar towards Berhampur.

If time permits, you could also visit and stay at the Taptapani Panth Nivas, which is 55 kms beyond Berhampur (totally 220 kms from Bhubaneswar). It is a lovely guest house perched on a ghat road in thick forest, with hot sulphur spring water flowing into the rest rooms.

Last time I cancelled my trip to Orissa but thinking about it now.

How will the weather be around the end of December in Bhubaneshwar, Puri, Konark?
Day temps, Night temps?
Also are there any political problems in these places these days?

Also can any Orissa T-BHP member suggest any good hotels?

I am planning an itenary roughly similiar to this?
Cox & Kings tour operators, india tours, luxury tours, flights, hotels, cars, holidays, cruises, rail, incentives, franchisee&

For this itenary is it best to book the hotel at Bhubhaneshwar or at some other place? Or multiple places on diff days?

Also is it easy to get hotel books in End of December?

Also does anyone know which flights fly direct from Mumbai to Bhubaneshwar?
Or flights which have stops but you don't need to get down or checkout/checkin luggage at the stop?

Any T-BHP member from Orissa here to answer my questions?

Check out travel sites or airline sites - they will have the latest info. on flights.
Check out Ginger Hotels for hotel acco.

Regards

Check makemytrip or other travel sites for direct flights.
Apart from Ginger Hotel, there is Mayfair, Swosti, Swosti plaza, etc costing around 2 to 3 K per day.
If you want cheaper accomodation, let me know and I shall contact my people in Orissa.
The weather will be moderately cool, but light woolens will do in the night. Daytime is moderately warm.

I guess you don't get answered when you use the forum just to ask a few very basic questions that are answered easily on any travel agent's web sites, like makemytrip etc, as has been suggested already.
This forum is essentially about cars and travel is an add on here. We always give friendly advice to each other on other non-car matters also. In fact you got quite a bit of response when you asked initially.
But if someone is found to be just asking some very basic air travel related queries, then I don't think you will find too many enthusiastic responses. Sorry mate for giving a straight answer that might hurt but your query shows you don't want to spend the minimum time to find your own answers from the web. We don't really like lazybones :) .
Have a nice time.

Are these other hotels (Mayfair, Swosti etc) better than Ginger - my main concern is cleanliness of the hotel - other factors are secondary.

Also if I want to visit Konark Sun Temple, Jaganath Temple, Chilika Lake & Lingaraj, Parsurameswar, Mukteshwar temples etc, is it better to

- Book all 4-5 days hotel in Bhubaneshwar & travel to these places from there & come back every evening
Or
- Book 2 days in Bhubaneshwar, a day in Puri, a day at some other place etc?

Tx for your reply.

You have mentioned Mayfair Puri & Mayflower Puri - I am assuming it's a typo & it's Mayfair Puri. What is the approx tarrif at Mayfair Puri?
Also googling shows Bhubhaneshwar-Puri distance as 60 kms. So would it be really hectic driving down to Puri & coming back?
If I were to stay a day or 2 at Puri, what places can be visited more conviniently with Puri as base (as against Bhub as base).

Sorry about that,yes its a typo.Well if you are staying at Mayfair Lagoon,then you would be able to negotiate a good deal for the stay at Puri.PM me in case you need the numbers of the people.Puri is in the range of around 4k i think.yes distance wise its just that much,it can easily be done as a day trip from bhubaneswar.also at the temple,you would be surrounded by the so called poojaris and its one hell of a task negotiating through them,its daylight robbery and you would literally be pulled away.the best way is to get your cab guy to hook you up with someone there at puri as that is the easiest way to do it.With all due respects to religious sentiments,ground realities are something totally different as the whole show is run by the people called the Pandas,google it and you would see results for yourselves.the car guy we had knew somebody so it was relatively easy,we could see hapless guys being harassed to their tears all around.Staying 2 days at Puri is really not needed.you can stay a night if you want the sea breeze and to soak in the atmosphere of the temple,otherwise head back to BBI by night.If you leave BBI by 7 in the morning you would easily make it back to BBI by 3-4pm latest by 6pm visiting Konark on the way as well.