[SDarshan]

Hi,

I just came across this site searching information for south trip and the kind of information, experiences posted here is just amazing. And Immediately I knew I can get help from this forum.

I am resident of Thane and am planning a 10 day trip to south. Couple of months ago have purchased SPARK LS and am dying to go on a long vacation. Previously I owned M800 -95 model and have gone on a lot of outings (Murud, Alibaug, nasik, Pune, Kolhapur etc). Now with this new car, I really want to go for a long distance vacation.

Can you please help me in planning this tour. Some facts are noted below:
1. Car - Spark LS, purchased in Oct 08
2. Plan to go in Jan/feb
3. Its just 2 of us, Me and wife.
4. Have got 10 days
5. I want to include Bandipur/ madumalai in this tour.

[Ananthang]

Darshan welcome to Team BHP.

Can you please clarify if you want to do Religious as well as Holiday vacation.

Also do you have plans to visit any other city in addition to places in TN from Thane.

[rudrah]

You can head to Bangalore in one stretch or if you have time visit Kolhapur in between that will give you some kind of rest.

After reaching Bangalore, you can go to Mysore 120 kms (3hrs). Mysore - Bangalore road is breeze.

Plan at least one night stay for Bandipur / Mudumalai (90-100 km from Mysore). You can get some good Jeep safari. Vehicles may not be allowed after the evening so reach early there.

NH4 - Roads are good except a few diversions in some places where the work is in progress.

My collegue went recently for marriage attending purpose and had visited the temple in Shravanbelagola, Halebidu and Bellur. If you like, you can also do that. That will take a day to visit all these three places and come back to Bangalore.

[deepclutch]

more of a north karnataka trip?if yes ,why not count tourist attractions near to hubli-dharawad(sirsi) etc.

[androdev]

Kerala is a good choice. The best in south I feel.
wayanard (jungle/wildlife)
kumarakom (backwaters)
Kovalam (beach)

[hondadude]

Originally Posted by SDarshan

Hi,

Can you please help me in planning this tour. Some facts are noted below:
1. Car - Spark LS, purchased in Oct 08
2. Plan to go in Jan/feb
3. Its just 2 of us, Me and wife.
4. Have got 10 days
5. I want to include Bandipur/ madumalai in this tour.

There are tons of choices depending on what you want to do.

Forests/Forest-resorts

- Dandeli
- B R Hills
- Kabini
- Coorg
- Mudumalai
- Bandipur
- Thekkady


Religious places

- Tirupathi
- Madurai
- Rameshwaram
- Shravanbelagola

Beaches

- Gokarna
- Kovalum
- Pondicherry

Historical places

- Hampi
- Belur/Halebid

Hills

- Munnar
- Ooty
- Kodai

Backwater

- Kumarakom

... the list goes on and on.

[snaronikar]

IMO, you an plan a trip to:

1) Karnataka (Coorg (homestay), Bandipur, Madhumalai, Mysore, Shivanasamudram (?), Jog falls (?), Ooty)-All these places are nearby.
2) Kerala (Munnar, Thekady, Waynad, backwaters of kerala etc)
3) Tamil Nadu

Just do a thorough search and you may find the places of interest. If you could be more specific, people can give in more ideas.

BTW, welcome to tbhp. Just go through the announcements.

[phamilyman]

Sir, you will only get confused without any constraints on team-bhp - we can flood you with as much info and then some more

All I will add in, is to try for mid/late Jan for Karwar/Cotigao along with Galgibag beach where you *may* just see turtles hatching/laying eggs (sic). You would definitely need discussion witht he local RFO but it would be a fun experience if you could call up and time things well. I got some gyan to the above from Cotigao RFO in 2006. YMMV

[SDarshan]

Originally Posted by Ananthang

Darshan welcome to Team BHP.

Can you please clarify if you want to do Religious as well as Holiday vacation.

Also do you have plans to visit any other city in addition to places in TN from Thane.

Thanks Ananthang, Religious places is not the priority. Infact I would like to explore as much nature as possible. Thats why Bandupur and mudumalai is what i am sure I want to go.

[hondadude]

Originally Posted by SDarshan

Thanks Ananthang, Religious places is not the priority. Infact I would like to explore as much nature as possible. Thats why Bandupur and mudumalai is what i am sure I want to go.

If forests is what you wish to explore, B R Hills, IMO, is much better than Bandipur or Mudumalai. Google for "Jungle Lodges and Resorts" (also called JLR). BTW, there is practically no difference between Bandipur and Mudumalai. The same forest which is called Bandipur is Karnataka is called Mudumalai in Tamilnadu.

Since you have ten days, you probably might want to experience more than just Bandipur/Mudumalai. There are offbeat places in Ooty where you can go and stay in very peaceful places, same goes for Coorg. There are several travelogues in team-bhp for these places. Check 'em out.

Like others have mentioned earlier, you must narrow down your scope.

[arindamray]

Day 1: Bijapur (via pune-solapur)
Day 2: Badami (visit Aihole, Pattadkal on the way)
Day 3: Hampi
Day 4: Mysore (via Chitradurga-Tumkur-Kunigal-Maddur)
Day 5: Mysore
Day 6: Kabini (Nagarhole, book JLR)
Day 7: Madikeri
Day 8: Madikeri
Day 9: Marwante/Udupi (any of the beach)
Day 10: return journey

This is only covering Karnataka - you are covering historical places - reserve forests - hill station - sea beach.

[sbraj]

From Bandipur/Mudumalai, you could get into into Kerala via Nilambur (roughly 2 hour drive). Depending on the days available with you, you could either proceed south to Munnar(hill station)/Kumarakom(backwaters)/Thekkady(forest)/Alappuzha(backwaters) or proceed north to Wayanad(Vythiri-Silent Valley forest) or Kasargod(Nileswaram -backwaters).

[hotstuff]

Hi Darshan,

We recently did a 7 day trip around Karnataka in a Santro, so the route is do-able in a Spark too. You can probably use part of the route during your south India trip and tweak it accordingly to include / drop places.

My travelogue is at this link :
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...-highways.html