[DerAlte]

My friends, a couple from Japan, are visiting starting Dec 20. I wanted to show them all flavors of Karnataka in a week - monuments, coastal region, temples, palaces (OK, there is only one - at Mysore), nature, wildlife ...

I have a few tentative plans, but I am not sure of the do-ability. We would be traveling by road in my Safari, would like to stay in decent places, limit distance traveled in a day (my friend has just retired after a long innings), and see as much as possible. I have omitted a few obvious popular places for want of time.

Plan 1:
Day 1 Bangalore - Hospet, 1400-2100 (they arrive the previous night, so start only in the afternoon), Night stay at Hospet
Day 2 Visit Hampi, night stay at Hospet
Day 3 Hospet - Kundapura, en route visit Kollur, Murdeshwara etc. (no idea where to stay)
Day 4 Udupi - Hassan, look at coastal life, visit Sringeri, Belur (stay at a hotel in Hassan or home stay in Coorg?)
Day 5 Bylakuppe - Mysore, Golden Temple etc. (night stay at Mysore)
Day 6 Mysore - Bandipur or BR Hills, some sightseeing in Mysore, Jungle Lodge at Bandipur or K-Gudi, Jeep Safari, night stay
Day 7 Bandipur / BR Hills - Bangalore, via Srirangapatna, back to Bangalore by evening
Day 8 Bangalore, the usual places
Day 9 Bangalore, depart at night

Plan 2:
Day 1 Bangalore - Mysore, 1400-1900, via Srirangapatna (Tipu Palace, Ranganthittu Bird Sanctuary etc.), stay at Mysore
Day 2 Mysore - Coorg, after visiting Palace, Chamundi Hill etc. and Golden Temple on the way, stay at a home stay in Coorg
Day 3 Coorg - Hassan, visit Belur, Sringeri etc. stay undecided
Day 4 Drive to west coast via Udupi or Kundapur, visit Anegudde, Kollur, etc., stay undecided
Day 5 Visit Murudeshwar in the morning, Drive to Hospet (route undecided), night halt at Hospet
Day 6 Hampi
Day 7 Back to Bangalore, reach Bangalore by evening
Day 8 Bangalore, the usual places
Day 9 Bangalore, depart at night

Plan 3:
Day 1 Bangalore - Hospet, 2230 - 0800 (+1), night train to Hospet
Day 2 Hampi, night train back to Bangalore
Day 3 Bangalore - Mysore, visit Mysore, night stay at Mysore
Day 4 Mysore - Coorg - Hassan, visit Golden Temple, belur etc. on the way, night stay at Hassan or Chikmagalur (or may at a home stay in Coorg, and see Belur next morning)
Day 5 Hassan - Udupi, visit Anegudde, Kollur, Murdeshwar etc., stay undecided
Day 6 Udupi - Bhadra Tiger Reserve
Day 7 Bhadra - Hassan - Bangalore, back to Bangalore by evening
Day 8 Bangalore, the usual places
Day 9 Bangalore, depart at night

Plan 4:
Same as Plan 3, but go south-west from Coorg to Kannur etc. instead of going to Kundapur etc. and skip Bhadra

I welcome your comments and suggestions: route tips, where to stay, what to see and what to skip, must see places, 'must eat at' places (and shouldn't eat at ones),etc. Most of these places I have seen in the past, but would like to see again from a different p-o-v.

[akroy]

Originally Posted by DerAlte

Plan 1:
Day 1 Bangalore - Hospet, 1400-2100 (they arrive the previous night, so start only in the afternoon), Night stay at Hospet
Day 2 Visit Hampi, night stay at Hospet
Day 3 Hospet - Kundapura, en route visit Kollur, Murdeshwara etc. (no idea where to stay)
Day 4 Udupi - Hassan, look at coastal life, visit Sringeri, Belur (stay at a hotel in Hassan or home stay in Coorg?)
Day 5 Bylakuppe - Mysore, Golden Temple etc. (night stay at Mysore)
Day 6 Mysore - Bandipur or BR Hills, some sightseeing in Mysore, Jungle Lodge at Bandipur or K-Gudi, Jeep Safari, night stay
Day 7 Bandipur / BR Hills - Bangalore, via Srirangapatna, back to Bangalore by evening
Day 8 Bangalore, the usual places
Day 9 Bangalore, depart at night

I dont like this plan also worried of Day3 drive and their are disjoints like Coorg & Udupi or Hassan in Day4, it looks ambitious. Instead of Kundapura, take NH63 from Hospet - Hubli - Ankola and then to Murudeshwar (Book RNS Yatri Nivas, nice hotel).

Originally Posted by DerAlte

Plan 2:
Day 1 Bangalore - Mysore, 1400-1900, via Srirangapatna (Tipu Palace, Ranganthittu Bird Sanctuary etc.), stay at Mysore
Day 2 Mysore - Coorg, after visiting Palace, Chamundi Hill etc. and Golden Temple on the way, stay at a home stay in Coorg
Day 3 Coorg - Hassan, visit Belur, Sringeri etc. stay undecided
Day 4 Drive to west coast via Udupi or Kundapur, visit Anegudde, Kollur, etc., stay undecided
Day 5 Visit Murudeshwar in the morning, Drive to Hospet (route undecided), night halt at Hospet
Day 6 Hampi
Day 7 Back to Bangalore, reach Bangalore by evening
Day 8 Bangalore, the usual places
Day 9 Bangalore, depart at night

THis is the best plan but my suggession would be to reverse the order. You will enjoy this plan. Blr - Hampi - Murudeshwar - Hassan - Coorg - Mysore - Blr

I am saying this based on the following:
1) You will be doing the longest on initial days of the trip. Also you will face the bad roads in the initials drives.
2) Return journey distances are less hence you will not feel that fatigued.
3) Return journey roads are the best

Originally Posted by DerAlte

Plan 3:
Day 1 Bangalore - Hospet, 2230 - 0800 (+1), night train to Hospet
Day 2 Hampi, night train back to Bangalore
Day 3 Bangalore - Mysore, visit Mysore, night stay at Mysore
Day 4 Mysore - Coorg - Hassan, visit Golden Temple, belur etc. on the way, night stay at Hassan or Chikmagalur (or may at a home stay in Coorg, and see Belur next morning)
Day 5 Hassan - Udupi, visit Anegudde, Kollur, Murdeshwar etc., stay undecided
Day 6 Udupi - Bhadra Tiger Reserve
Day 7 Bhadra - Hassan - Bangalore, back to Bangalore by evening
Day 8 Bangalore, the usual places
Day 9 Bangalore, depart at night

Dump this plan. No use. You cannot cover Hampi well in that short time and you can never trust the train timings. Plus you will be tired again if you are back home.


Sir, finalize the plan now. Based on that I will give you food / lodge details (whatever I am aware off)
Abhi

[rjstyles69]

Anirudh , check if this sounds good to you.

Day 1 - Bangalore to Chikmagalur. Enroute visit Belur and Halebeedu.
Day 2 - Chikmagalur Mullayanagiri, Bababudangiri, Kemmungundi and visit Hebbe Falls.
All these places are a matter of less than 100 kms from Chikmagalur. So you can finish Hebbe falls and drive on to Sringeri and stay there.

Day 3 - Sringeri and from there on you can do coastal karnataka.Depending on time you have.

You can cover coastal karnataka and come back to bangalore via Jog.

[roamingrao]

Sir, my suggestions :

Day 1 : 14.00 - Big banyan tree - Channapatna Toys - Srirangapatna (Tipu palace) - Brindavan gardens - Halt at Mysore

Day 2 : Mysore Palace - Museums - Art Gallery - Govt. Sandalwood factory - Drive to Dubare and Halt at Jungle resorts.

Day 3 : Dubare Elephant Safari - Bylakuppe golden temple - Madikeri ( falls, estates... ) : Halt

Day 4 : Route : Madikeri - Hassan - Chickmagalur - Kemmanugundi - Bhadra Sanctuary - Shimoga halt

Day 5 : Shimoga - Jog falls - Honnavar - Kumta - Yana - Honnavar - Murudeshwar halt

Day 6 : Murudeshwar - Kundapur - St. Mary's Islands - Udupi - Agumbe - Sringeri - Chickmagalur halt

Day 7 : Chickmagalur - Belur - Halebid - Shravanabelagola - Bangalore : Train to Hospet

Day 8 : Hampi all day and depart to Bangalore

Day 9 : Bangalore local


covered - Urban jungle, wildlife safari and resorts, temples, waterfalls, coffee estates, heritage sites, beaches, palaces, museums, ruins......

The schedule offers lot of spare time in between to explore local tourist sites.

Regards,
Rao

[vikram_d]

I think your plan is too ambitious and will end up being too tiring. You will not be able to do any sight seeing at leisure. You will have to rush through everything. But this is only my view. Instead I would recommend that you choose the best 2 - 3 locations max (one coastal, one heritage etc) and visit them with time in hand.

[ravibhat]

My suggestion:

plan 1)

Day1) Bangalore - Hubli and stay there.
Day2) Visit Badami/Aihole/Pattadakallu/Bijapura and come back to Hubli
Day3) Hubli - yellapura - Ankola - Kumta - Murdeshwara (lunch) - Kollur - Kundapura
Day4) Kundapura - Agumbe - Sringeri - Kudremukha - Chikamagalur and stay
Day5) Visit Belur - Halebeedu - then lunch at chikamagalur then proceed to Mysore - cover KRS and stay there (royal orchids)
Day6) chamundi hills - Palace - Zoo, then either Madikeri side or Bandipura side
Day7) Cover more places around mysore and back to bangalore.

plan2)

Same as plan1 except
on day1 and day2) visit hampi instead of badami/aihole/pattadakallu.

on day4) avoid chickamagalur and travel towards madikeri from kundapura and cover belur / halebeedu while coming from mysore to bangalore on day7) leave morning from mysore and you can cover these 2 places and return to bangalore.

Still plan1) is easy one.



Ravi.

[condor]

vikram_d : Instead I would recommend that you choose the best 2 - 3 locations max (one coastal, one heritage etc) and visit them with time in hand.

+1 to this. The 3 options you have planned so far are too rushed. And even then, you are not providing enough time for Mysore / Srirangapatna. (Note: this point comes up because both are listed in the planned itenerarys, not because I want them in the plan).

Suggest you pick a few select places :
* Mysore - heritage,
* Hampi - heritage, architecture,
* Belur-Halebid -heritage + temples.

* Coorg ? Main attraction is Madikeri town. Heritage + landscape.

Bangalore will be there by default. You could include Srirangapatna if you have time en-route.

Pls check if you all want to do temples at Kollur / Udupi / Sringeri. You could drive through these areas, to get a glimpse of the land & country side.

One of the routes the taxi guys take is BLR - Mysore - Belur-Halebid - Hampi - Goa. This is a one-way route, where the tourists land in BLR or Goa, and fly out Goa / BLR respectively.

An un-hurried trip where you can see well, the places you travel to, feels a better bet than an intro of a few more places. Thing is, one will not really be able to cover sufficient number of places in the few days you have.

[sushrutha]

DerAlte,
The hotels I would suggest for you to stay are ( If you are willing to halt at these places),
Hassan - Hotel Hassan Ashok - 2500 Rs / Day
Chikmagalur - The Planter's Court - 1100 Rs/day Else Taj Garden Retreat - approx 4500Rs/day
Murudeshwar - RNS Residency - 2500Rs / Day ( AC ) 1800 Rs / day NON AC
Sringeri - Any Temple hotels - Apprx 800 Rs ( I'm not so sure)
Jungle Resorts - Approx Rs 3000/day/head
Shimoga - Hotel Jewel Rock - 600 ( Non AC) / day 900Rs/day (AC)
Hope this helps

[DerAlte]

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. Sorry, had a really hectic schedule the last couple of days.

Yes, on the face of it really looks an ambitious plan. But, if I limit the drives to 150Km or so every day (other than the BLR-Hospet leg, which is unavoidable) there would be hopefully sufficient time to enjoy the places.

I intend to concentrate on 3 areas now: Hampi, coast and Coorg (coffee estates and nature). Belur, Kollur, Murdeshwar, Dubare, Bylakuppe, Srirangapatna etc. would then be along-the-way sight-seeing. No eco-'Jungle Lodge'-tourism. Not Madikeri, Chikmagalur either.

* Hospet seems to have only 1 decent hotel: Malligi. The other one is daylight robbery! Question: are we allowed to drive upto the monuments in Hampi, or do we need to park somewhere and use tongas or autos?

* Where would be a good place to stay on the coast (Udupi - Kundapur) which would not upset an old Japanese couple not used to Indian conditions? There is a Taj in Mangalore, but I don't intend to go there

* Has anyone stayed at the Tata Coffee estate "home-stay" in Coorg? Or the one at Thadiyandamol?

* Where can we find out if there is a typical village performance on somewhere, like Bailata / Yakshagana or something that a tourist, even Indian ones, don't get to see normally?

[sushrutha]

Originally Posted by DerAlte

* Where would be a good place to stay on the coast (Udupi - Kundapur) which would not upset an old Japanese couple not used to Indian conditions? There is a Taj in Mangalore, but I don't intend to go there

*

Heard that Hotel Sharon at Kundapura is Good.
Try Paradise Isle at Malpe Beach Udupi, I have been for lunch over here, But I haven't stayed. Nice location .

[DerAlte]

Thanks, @sushrutha. I have stayed at the Paradise Isle on Malpe beach last Dec. There is nothing distinctive about it. Food is very ordinary (their idea of North Indian dishes), nor could I find any decent coastal cuisine place nearby.

Discussed the difficulties with my friend today, and we decided to drop Hampi in this trip, since it is causing most of the problems. We decided to do Mysore - Coorg - Udupi - Kudremukh - Chikmagalur - Hassan - Bangalore in the same time. So now the plan looks like this (doesn't look so good yet):

Dec-20 Post lunch, travel Bangalore - Srirangapatna to see Tipu Palace & Ranganthittu Bird Sanctuary, then stay the night at Mysore
Dec-21 Mysore Palace, Chamundi Hill etc.. After lunch, travel to Bylakuppe (Golden Temple) and then to stay at home-stay (probably near Siddapura or Kakabbe)
Dec-22 Walk around the estate in the morning, Dubare elephant camp, etc., stay at home stay
Dec-23 Travel to Udupi via Suliya, visit Anegudde, Murdeshwar, stay in Udupi or Kundapur,
Dec-24 Kollur, etc., maybe a coastal village (any recommendations?), chill out on a beach, stay as above
Dec-25 Drive through Kudremukh to Hassan (is there anything better we can do?)
Dec-26 Belur-Halebid, Shravanabelagola, reach Bangalore by evening
Dec-27 In and around Bangalore
Dec-28 Bangalore Depart at night

Please, please, please give some suggestions, tips etc.

[princezahed]

Originally Posted by DerAlte

T

* Has anyone stayed at the Tata Coffee estate "home-stay" in Coorg? Or the one at Thadiyandamol?

Thats the Plantation Trails owned by Tata.I heard its a nice place but never been there.Prices range from 3k-4k/room/day for two people.The one near thadiyandamol is palace estate.If something close to madikeri is ok with you then you are always welcome to come over to our estate.

[ampere]

Bumping up this old thread. Has any one stayed at the Tata Plantation Trails in Chikmagulur? If yes, any feedbacks? I called them up and they mentioned the prices are in the range of 4200 per day per room which I think included BF.

I was looking at alternative to JLR Rivertern. I know its far, but just was interested to know if there are other good options.

Mods, I saw this reference to CKM Tata estate and hence the question. If this needs to be moved to a correct thread, please move this post.

[krishnathanthri]

Originally Posted by DerAlte

Plan 2:
Day 1 Bangalore - Mysore, 1400-1900, via Srirangapatna (Tipu Palace, Ranganthittu Bird Sanctuary etc.), stay at Mysore
Day 2 Mysore - Coorg, after visiting Palace, Chamundi Hill etc. and Golden Temple on the way, stay at a home stay in Coorg
Day 3 Coorg - Hassan, visit Belur, Sringeri etc. stay undecided
Day 4 Drive to west coast via Udupi or Kundapur, visit Anegudde, Kollur, etc., stay undecided
Day 5 Visit Murudeshwar in the morning, Drive to Hospet (route undecided), night halt at Hospet
Day 6 Hampi
Day 7 Back to Bangalore, reach Bangalore by evening
Day 8 Bangalore, the usual places
Day 9 Bangalore, depart at night

I welcome your comments and suggestions: route tips, where to stay, what to see and what to skip, must see places, 'must eat at' places (and shouldn't eat at ones),etc. Most of these places I have seen in the past, but would like to see again from a different p-o-v.

DerAlte: I suggest plan 2.

For your day three halt there is no good lodge in Sringeri but i recently heard that a good lodge has just opened(10-15 Days ago). I can get you the info.

And ya for your day one stay in Mysore, I can surly help you on this. Pm me if interested.

Krishna

[ampere]

Krishna,

This is an old thread. I just bumped it because others may have some feedbacks on Tata Plantation Trails at CKM.