[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by NPV

Most of your queries have already been answered by amp, but here are some random notes, hope they help
1. If you're heading directly to Kollur from Bangalore, you can take the Bangalore-Mangalore-Udupi-Kollur route or go via Shimoga-Tirthahalli-Agumbe

Originally Posted by ampere

Rajeev, Quoting NPV's post to add my notes.

Thanks guys for the inputs. Have much more clarity now. As of now no plans to visit Udupi. So based on the feedback, a tentative plan forming as below.

Day 1: Bangalore to Shimoga via CR patna. Reach by noon. In the afternoon/evening visit a couple of places Gajanur Dam/Elephant camp or the Safari.

Day 2: Shimoga to Mookambika, post darshan to Jog Falls and then back to Shimoga? (Will this be too much?)

Day 3: Return to Bangalore.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

Day 2: Shimoga to Mookambika, post darshan to Jog Falls and then back to Shimoga? (Will this be too much?)

Doubtful. Its about 140-150km to Kollur. You take 3-4 hours through the ghats. Assume 2-3 hours darshan followed by lunch. I am sure you wont enjoy the drive again to Jog and to Shimoga.

Instead drive to Kollur D1. Stay over night. Finish early darshan D2 and head to Jog. Once done with Jog instead of Shimoga head to Thirthahalli and stay at one of the good homestays (like Vihangama). You may also get the evening to see some local places.

D3 drive back towards Bangalore via Shimoga and visit the bird sanctuary, elephant and a few old temples around.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

Day 1: Bangalore to Shimoga via CR patna. Reach by noon.

As amp says, better to replan.
To give you some perspective, we started at around 5am from Bangalore, reached Shimoga by 9:30am after a 20-30 minute break. By 11:30am we had visited Gajanur Dam and the Sakrebylu elephant camp and reached Tirthahalli by 1pm.

You can consider these plans as well:
Day 1:Bangalore-Kollur with quick stops at Gajanur Dam and Sakrebylu camp, there are on the roadside, no detour required.
Plan your lunch around Tirthahalli and head to Kollur. Go for a darshan in the evening.

Day 2: Go for a morning darshan and head to Jog and stay at Shimoga (Lion & Tiger Safari closes by 1:30pm I think so visit if possible).

Day 3:Shimoga-Bangalore can be done easily.
*Chance to visit the Kollur temple twice with this plan

OR
Day 1:Bangalore-Shimoga-Tirthahalli, stops en route at Sakrebylu and Gajanur. Stay overnight at Tirthahalli.
Evening - you can visit Kuppalli (Kavishaila and Kavimane) and if possible Sibbalgudde by the Tunga river bank, beautiful place

Day 2:If you could not cover Sibbalgudde on Day 1 evening, go there and then head to Kollur.
Return from Kollur via Jog and stay at Shimoga.

Day 3:Shimoga to Bangalore
*More places to see with this plan

[ravib]

Those who are travelling towards Jog/Shimoga/sagars, hope this stay option at Sagara is useful.

One of my close friend stayed in this hotel 2 weeks back and had good feedback. The hotel is brand new.

http://www.greenembassy.in/

-Ravi

[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by ampere

Doubtful. Its about 140-150km to Kollur. You take 3-4 hours through the ghats. Assume 2-3 hours darshan followed by lunch. I am sure you wont enjoy the drive again to Jog and to Shimoga.

Originally Posted by NPV

As amp says, better to replan.

(Sorry for the delayed response). Thanks guys. After dilly dallying back and forth whether to go or not, finally decided to go just a week back. As expected everything was full. A known friend who is from Sagar recommended this hotel in Sagar (http://www.tiptopresidency.in/) and managed to get us confirmed bookings. Since this is close to Jog and not too far from Mookambika, decided to confirm and go ahead.

Day 2 Mookambika is fixed, rest of the plan is fluid and will take a call based on your inputs once we are there.

One other question. How bad is the Nelamangala and other tolls/ traffic on long weekends, compared to Mysore Road and Attibelle/Krishnagiri Tolls . Is a 5am start ok?

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

One other question. How bad is the Nelamangala and other tolls/ traffic on long weekends, compared to Mysore Road and Attibelle/Krishnagiri Tolls . Is a 5am start ok?

Much better compared to Attibele/Krishnagiri tolls if you compare.

Else 0500 is okay on normal weekend and if you can move it to 30 minutes early, that would be the best thing to do. Not that 0500 will be that bad but there will be lot of folks driving around that time.

My last drive on a long weekend was in August 2013 to Goa passing these tolls else its always on odd days/odd hours.

[Rajeevraj]

Update on my weekend trip to Mookambika and Jog.

Meant to start by 5am on Saturday morning but ended up starting only by 6am. My latest start in a long time and I knew I was in for some trouble. Fears came true at the Hosur Road NICE toll itself, with the queue extending almost till the point where the up ramp crosses Hosur road. But surprisingly, seeing the crowd building, they opened up couple of more toll booths and also opened up 2 of the return tolls to the outgoing traffic. End result was that I was through in 15 min. I noticed this at several tolls where pro active steps had been taken to manage the crowd, hence did not take more than 15 min at any toll.

As recommended here, route taken was the CR Patna-Shimoga-Sagar route. The stretch from Arsikere to Shimoga was pretty busy due to the weekend traffic (due to my late start) and also noticed few bad patches. In short, did not turn out to be the relaxed drive I expected it to be. Shimoga- Sagar was brilliant, scenic and traffic free.

Checked into Tip Top Residency which is located on the right side just before you reach Sagar town. Good clean rooms, decent service and good rates ( Rs 1800 for an AC double room). Only weird thing was the restaurant. Only one person who takes the order, does most of the cooking and also serves. And it was a north indian style restaurant with both veg and non veg. In addition, the hotel does not serve breakfast. For breakfast and pure veg option, you need to go out to a small hotel next to this one. Quite a weird setting. The food itself was pretty good.

Left for Jog by 3.30 PM. Again lovely roads. Got caught in a mini jam at Talaguppe due to the vegetable market and weekend traffic. Got back by 7PM (Will add more details and a couple of pics in the Jog thread).

On Day 2, started to Mookambika by 6.30am. The shortest route involves taking the ferry to cross the river and then join up close to Nittur. Initially planned to take this route although I was a little hesitant to take the car on a ferry considering that it was expected to be crowded and it was raining pretty heavily. Luckily the decision was taken out of my hand as we came to know the first service starts only by 8 am. So we took the longer route (50 km more but only 20 min extra driving time) which was Sagar-Hosanagar-Kodase-Nagara-Nittur-Kollur. It was a lovely drive with excellent roads throughout. The road looked to be recently resurfaced between Hosanagar and Nittur. It was raining pretty much throughout the drive.

Once we entered Kollur, it was a different story though, totally jammed and crowded. Finally managed to park near the bus stand. Temple was crowded and took us ~3 hours to finish Darshan and come out. Noticed a new hotel just at the turn to the temple-called Mahalakshmi Residency. Looked plush and upmarket from outside. Had breakfast in the restaurant attached to this hotel and was decent. (TripAdvisor indicates that this place has been open from Feb-March this year)

It was almost 1pm when we left from Kollur. Initial plan was to visit Thirthahalli and then Gajanur Dam (Came to know at that point that the Elephant Camp was open only till 11.30). But somehow managed to get lost after taking a wrong turn near Hosanagar due to the rains and a spotty GPS connection. Had to go through some very bad roads for 10-15 km and ended up on the Thirthahalli-Shimoga Road. By then kids were tired and it was getting towards evening, so turned towards Shimoga and had to be content by enjoying the drive towards Shimoga. Stopped at the Gajanur Dam for a few min.

On Day 3 planned to visit the Lion and Tiger Safari before heading back, but then came to know it is closed on national holidays. So had to drop that also.

Overall, we messed up/delayed the planning a little bit and this resulted in getting constrained with the accommodation and thus missed some spots we could have covered with better planning (As Amp and NPV had rightly indicated in response to my earlier post ). On the plus side, the main 2 intentions, the temple and Jog falls was done. In addition, did a lot of driving, with the beautiful roads, low traffic, rains and greenery all around, it was a worthwhile trip.

Will add some more details in the thread for Jog as it would be out of context here.

[ajishanand]

Planning to do Bangalore-Shimoga-Kollur tomorrow (Sep 4). I was going through the above posts and a bit condfused about the route from Shimoga to Kollur. Which is the best route from Shimoga?

[ampere]

Originally Posted by ajishanand

Planning to do Bangalore-Shimoga-Kollur tomorrow (Sep 4). I was going through the above posts and a bit condfused about the route from Shimoga to Kollur. Which is the best route from Shimoga?

Shimoga-Ayyanur-Ripponpete-Hosanagar-Nagar-Nittur-Kollur

Take the above. After Ayyanur, roads are narrow, but hardly any traffic. Dont expect hotels and places for break. Carry your own food and water for that stretch.

I dont know the current status if the conditions of the roads have changed off late.

[spiler]

Hi, I am planning a Kollur trip from Bangalore on 6th Oct. Will be taking the Bangalore-Nelamangala-CR Patna - Arsikere - Shimoga - Ayannur - Ripponpete - Hosanagar - Nagar - Kollur route. Any updates on the road condition?

[ampere]

Originally Posted by spiler

Hi, I am planning a Kollur trip from Bangalore on 6th Sep. Will be taking the Bangalore-Nelamangala-CR Patna - Arsikere - Shimoga - Ayannur - Ripponpete - Hosanagar - Nagar - Kollur route. Any updates on the road condition?

Have not heard anything of late. Also I hope you note the option to bypass Shimoga.

Shimoga Bypass

[spiler]

Originally Posted by ampere

Have not heard anything of late. Also I hope you note the option to bypass Shimoga.

Shimoga Bypass

Thank you. Will take note of the bypass. Also this is first time i am taking this route & will be travelling in a hatchback with a 3 year old, so wanted to know the road conditions. Planning to leave around 7 Am from Bangalore

[ampere]

Originally Posted by spiler

Thank you. Will take note of the bypass. Also this is first time i am taking this route & will be travelling in a hatchback with a 3 year old, so wanted to know the road conditions. Planning to leave around 7 Am from Bangalore

You should leave much earlier. I would say 5 if you can. That would help you cover max distance till the kid sleeps. By 7 you should be on your break-fast stop if possible (past Kunigal at least).

If 7 is the time, then plan for lunch in Shimoga town. You will need to get into town. If its untimely when you pass Shimoga, then you need to carry lunch. Because after Shimoga there is nothing much available on the road.

[spiler]

Thank you for the input. Will try to leave by 5.

[spiler]

Hi All,
Did the Bangalore Kollur trip on 6th Oct. Managed to start from bangalore only by 8:45 AM and reached Kollur at around 5 PM. Took the Bangalore-Nelamangala-CR Patna - Arsikere - Shimoga - Ayannur - Ripponpete - Hosanagar - Nagar - Kollur route. Barring few potholes near Arsikere, roads were good throughout. Thank you for the inputs.