[aargee]

Originally Posted by ampere

This sounds much more practical to me. Though Chennai Mysore is about 500Km, but the roads do not let you down.

Yes, we want to enjoy the trip rather than covering the distance. More over we will be taking a halt at Hosur when leaving from Chennai as well as when returning to Chennai at our co-brother's house & we have kept aside a day to commute between Chennai & Mysore.

Originally Posted by ampere

You can also couple the Angadipuram temple visit with Guruvayur. Its pretty close. May be in a month or two you may plan to go to Guruvayur for Annaprasanam . You can cover it then. There are good VFM hotels in Guruvayur.

You're right, I could club the trip; we've relatives at Wadakkanchery & Palakkad, hence we would be staying with them for more VFM

Originally Posted by aargee

14-Chennai-Hosur-Mysore (break in Hosur for lunch)
18-Mysore-Hosur-Chennai (break in Hosur for lunch)

You can top up your belly & car's fuel tank at BP, COCO retail outlet/Ghar Dhaba A2B, Chinnar, near Krishnagiri, located after toll plaza on the right side of NH 7, when you come from Chennai to Bangalore. You have to take an inverted U turn to reach there. The petrol price is less by Rs 2 per litre in TN than in Karnataka. The food, fuel quality and quantity are okay and the toilets are clean here.

[aargee]

^^^Thanks for the tip Ravi; will surely follow the tip. How about Hosur? That's also in TN right? So the prices should be little less isn't it?

I have affinity towards COCO retail outlets of all PSU oil marketing companies because their quality and quantity are okay plus good food and clean toilets tilt it in favour of BP COCO retail outlet, Chinnar.

[ampere]

I dont remember seeing many in Hosur, as most I am busy negotiating
the traffic .

Jokes apart, there should be some for sure.

[VMG]

Have you done this trip? would like to know the road conditions.

[aargee]

Time to revive this thread as we're planning the trip on one of the forth coming weekend. So the changed plan now is...

Saturday - Start from Chennai; short break at Palakkad; reach Thrissur by Evening
Sunday - Visit Guruvayoor temple & surrounding
Monday - Visit Angadipuram Temple; continue upto Udipi & stay at Udipi
Tuesday - Darshan Moogambigai & Udipi Temple
Wednesday/Thursday/Friday - ??? May be some coastal KA? Not sure
Saturday - Back home for dinner for sure

Pls let me know
1. If this plan is realistic?
2. Pls provide your suggestions on accomodations & food from Monday onwards as I've no clue on how easy or difficult or safe it is on each of the places we intend to stay. We basically need a safe comfortable locations with a budget not exceeding Rs 1000-1500 for a night stay. Regarding food, we like to have at some good vegetarian hotels & experiement local cuisine.
3. We basically don't know what else to plan for Wednesday to Friday as we intend to reach home by Saturday night max. Any suggestion is highly appreciated.

Travellers - myself, wifey, son of 3 & daughter of 0.8
Ride - WagonR Vxi

Thanks in advance for any help.

@VMG - Sorry, we're planning it only now.

[aargee]

One more traveller expected - Mother. But we intend to do this trip before Aug 20. Any help with the 3 days is highly appreciated. Not necessary that they should be covering temples, better if it could, otherwise also is OK; any location apart from Madikeri/Mysore/Bangalore is highly appreciated.

[ampere]

The Puttur road from Coorg through to Sulya, Mani it waterlogged. Check out the return route (if you plan to come via Mysore).

Shiradi is again heavy rain! But road is I think fine. Check with others.

[aargee]

@Ampere, according to google maps, I think I'll be taking Calicut-Kannur-Taliparamba-Nileswaram-Chattanchal-Kumbla-Mangalore-Udipi-Kolur, basically NH17. Are you not suggesting this route? Or are you talking about the return leg? If its return leg, then I'm not sure which way to take as I don't know which places to cover further.

Edit - Are you talking about this?

[MX6]

I'd suggest a small change in this aargee.
Stop at Udupi and check out kollur one day. Also you can go over to Kaup / Malpe beaches if the weather permits.
Leave to Sringeri on return. Then you can proceed to Kudremukha - Horanadu (annapoorneshwari temple) - Chikkamagalur - Hassan (belur - halebid if you are interested) - Bangalore - Chennai.
What say you?

[aargee]

Appreciate a few more pointers here @MX6

Stop at Udupi and check out kollur one day.

Per the plan, we're reaching Udipi/Kollur by Monday evening. So entire Tuesday is spent on Udipi + Moogambikai temple & surroundings. Are you suggesting anything in addition to this?

Also you can go over to Kaup / Malpe beaches if the weather permits.

Ok, but this should be on Tuesday evening right as we don't need entire day to be spending for this. Or is it that far?

Leave to Sringeri on return.

Thanks. WILL DO. So this will be Wednesday right?

Then you can proceed to Kudremukha - Horanadu (annapoorneshwari temple) - Chikkamagalur - Hassan

Is this Thursday?

(belur - halebid if you are interested)

Not sure what lies here?

What say you

Yes Sir; everything agreed with the expert

[ampere]

Originally Posted by MX6

I'd suggest a small change in this aargee.
Stop at Udupi and check out kollur one day. Also you can go over to Kaup / Malpe beaches if the weather permits.
Leave to Sringeri on return. Then you can proceed to Kudremukha - Horanadu (annapoorneshwari temple) - Chikkamagalur - Hassan (belur - halebid if you are interested) - Bangalore - Chennai.
What say you?

What MX said is something similar I had in mind. You wont have issues while going to Udupi. Stay at Udupi, finish Kollur/Gokarna/Murdeshwar. While coming back you need take one of the heavy-rainfall route.

- The one via Coorg (Mani/Puttur/Sulya) is flooded it seems (this is what I heard in news)

- Go to Sringeri and visit as what MX said. You can spend an extra day at CKM before returning to Chennai via BLR. Remember to enter BLR via Magadi. That would directly give you access to NICE road and bypass the city easily.

[aargee]

Originally Posted by ampere

finish Kollur/Gokarna/Murdeshwar

Do I need to consume one more day, Wednesday, for this?

Originally Posted by ampere

- The one via Coorg (Mani/Puttur/Sulya) is flooded it seems (this is what I heard in news)

Yes, this is what I read in the link I posted from NH17 updates too.

Originally Posted by ampere

You can spend an extra day at CKM before returning to Chennai via BLR.

I'll browse the threads on CKM as I've no clue what is in store in CKM

Originally Posted by ampere

Remember to enter BLR via Magadi. That would directly give you access to NICE road and bypass the city easily.

I'm aware of NICE road; last time when returning from Coorg, somehow I missed out this & returned via the industrial area & had to go beneath the bridge & what not on confusion? I'll triple check this time as how to bye-pass BLR OR may be visit BLR to pay a courtesy visit to relatives at KR Puram.

So the revised one would be...
Saturday - Start from Chennai; short break at Palakkad; reach Thrissur by Evening
Sunday - Visit Guruvayoor temple & surrounding
Monday - Visit Angadipuram Temple; continue upto Udipi & stay at Udipi
Tuesday - Darshan at Moogambigai & Udipi Temple & stay at Udipi
Wednesday - Gokarna & Murdeshwar temple & stay at Murdeshwar
Thursday - Start from Murdeshwar & reach Chikmagalur
Friday - Start from Chikmagalur & reach BLR/Hosur
Saturday - Back home for dinner for sure

This is the rough sketch I could draw, pls guide if there's anything incorrect


Any tips on accomodation at Udipi, Murdeshwar & CKM is highly appreciated.

[MX6]

Since you are taking your mother, aargee, think about gokarna and murdeshwar. It adds to extra kms. But worth the drive. Sringeri - Horanadu - CKM fall in the route to Bangalore and is better to traverse as they offer you temples to visit and a route which is open. Don't go near Mani/ Puttur/ Sulya. Also Shiradi ghat is fast deteriorating so wouldn't advice drive back through that side.

If you are reaching Udupi on Monday evening I'd suggest you this
Stay at Ramakrishna/ Kediyoor hotel. That will fit your budget. If possible, try get a room in Bhoo Varaha complex. That's real cheap and is very good and is bang next to the temple. There's parking facility as well and the temple complex is just 2 mins away. You get rooms for 150 - 200 bucks. You can have food in Udupi temple itself and there's a good icecream parlour called Dwarika which also serves fast food. And nothing more to state about Mitra Samaj.
Keep Monday evening to enjoy the Navaratna theru going around the car street and visit all the three temples there. All this will be done in 1 hours time with the three temples taking just 15 mins totally for darshan.
Tuesday early morning, go over to Kollur. Enroute you can stop at Anegudde Ganesha temple. They've also opened a new Ayyappa temple around. Kollur is a good 2 hour drive from Udupi during the rains. If you leave by 6:30, with a brief stop at Anegudde, you can expect to reach kollur max by 10 am.
Have darshan at kollur and have food in kollur temple itself and prepare to leave by 2 to come back. Do take a diversion to enjoy the sunset (if visible) at Maravanthe. Also you can admire the sowparnika river that runs along the arabian sea separated only by NH17 for a km or so there.
Come back in the night around 8 - 8:30 back to Udupi and stay put there.
Relax the next morning and do your window shopping and have early morning darshan of udupi again. Set out to Sringeri around 10 after breakfast. You should reach Sringeri by 1 maximum.
There are two routes. One through Hebri - Someshwara - Agumbe. But remember, Agumbe records second highest rainfall in India. Another is through Karkala - Bajagoli - branch off from road towards kudremukha.
I'd suggest Agumbe as the climb is shorter and more exciting! There's a small ganesha temple at someshwara. You can break a coconut there before climbing up. Don't try walking there barefoot, I have a history associated with walking barefoot

Once in sringeri - check in to the choultry rooms. Those are the best. Tell them that you need to stay back to see the puja in the night and you are coming from chennai. They might mostly put you up in Yatri Nivas. Good rooms.
Immediately proceed for lunch at sringeri mutt. Then spend time relaxing feeding the fishes of tunga.
Evening you can go take darshan off all the temples and then cross over to narasimha vana to attend the puja of chandramouleeshwara spatika linga by his holiness. It starts at 9 sharp. If your mother can't walk the distance, there's a route which cars can take. Ask locals for the drive route to narasimha vana.
Stay the night of wednesday at sringeri and proceed to early morning darshan of the temple.
Leave after collecting prasad on thursday (guru's day) from guru and breakfast towards horanadu. Have breakfast from one of the brahmin messes in Sringeri. There are a couple. You get good bonda and idly and great filter coffee.
You leave sringeri towards mangalore, then join the kudremukha - karkala route, take a left towards kudremukha
stop at kudremukha for photo session and proceed to kalasa and horanadu. Kalasa route is always in tatters. But Horanadu Annapurneswari is a good calm temple.
Have lunch there and leave to chikkamagaluru from there.
Stay thursday night at CKM. Friday you can proceed to Hassan leisurely.
Near Hassan are the WORLD famous temples of Belur and Halebidu - the crown jewels of the hoysalas. you can reach Bengaluru or stop before that on Friday night.
Saturday you can wake up and leave outskirts of Bengaluru - take the nice - hit hosur then the GQ and reach chennai comfortably!

So here's the snapshot
Monday eve - Udupi - witness car fetival - visit temples
Tuesday morn - Anegudde - Kollur - lunch at kollur - return to udupi - stop at maravanthe for sunset and sowparnika river snaps
Wednesday morn - visit temples of udupi - have breakfast - leave to sringeri - lunch at sringeri - leisure in the noon - evening darshan of temples - night puja at narasimha vana
thursday - morning collect prasada - have breakfast - leave to horanadu through kudremukha - kalasa - lunch at horanadu - reach chikkamagaluru and stay the night
friday morning - leave to hassan - visit belur - halebid - reach outskirts of bangalore by evening and stay the night
saturday - leave to chennai.

I'd say skip murdeshwara as you are taking your mother. It's a commercial monstrosity now. Nothing more. Gokarna is good, but then I'd say why go the extra in this weather?