[rahulrajeev]

What is the room tariff @ Kanoos?

I got a recommendation for Gokulam Sabari which is on the ring road near railway station. Rooms are really good and an A/C room will cost around 1000/- including tax.

[ampere]

Here is the hotel site:
Kanoos Residency - Guruvayur : The first world class hotel in Guruvayur with four star facilities

The rate starts 2000 onwards.

[ranjitp1]

The other good hotels in today's Guruvayur are Vysakh & Gokulam's Vanamala Kusumam.(the former better than the latter!)

[sarinkumar]

Originally Posted by sarinkumar

Thanks Rameshchanda and Ranjitp1. Input on Sopanam is useful. I will try Kanoos or some other hotels.
Regards,
Sarin

Came back from Guruvayoor visit. I stayed at Gokulam resorts. Its located at West nada in Guruvayoor. One need to go inside, about 100m, from the main road to reach this place. Good place. They have both a/c and non a/c options. They don't have any restaurants, hence one has to eat out which is very much ok in Guruvayoor as plenty of good restaurants are available. Just posting the contact details, in case someone wants to make a try
GOKULAM RESORTS
[COLOR=#888888] West Nada, GURUVAYOOR.
Thrissur, Kerala
Ph : +91 487 - 2552966
Tele / Fax : +91 487 - 2554432
Mob : 98478 55991, 94471 82415
Kuwait No : 0009659748500 ( Mr. Ravi Menon )
Email : gokulam_resorts@yahoo.com

Regards,
Sarin

[/COLOR]

[nfsfreak]

Planning for a Guruvayoor trip. Starting from Trichy tonight.

Plan is to start @ trichy by 11 PM

Take Dindigul-Palani-Pollachi-Thrissur-Guruvayoor route (travelling by a hired TT and with elders in the group, so suggest if any better route than this)

Reach Guruvayoor by 7 AM (max). Planning to book rooms @ Bhasuri Inn (suggest if Bhasuri Inn is ok)

Reach temple by 9 AM ... how long will it take for a Darshan?

After Darshan, need your suggestions on any good places to visit near-by?

We are in no hurry. Even we can start by night to Trichy.

How about Chottanikkara Bhagavathi Amman - GVR? Any help on route, temple timings welcome.

EDIT:
Hotel Room is just for getting ready to Temple.
Are ladies allowed to carry their hand bags (if not leather/plastic) ? In that case, we can have our wallets in their handbags.

[gadadhar]

Are you going on weekday or weekend? You should be able to have darshan in 1 hr on a weekday, weekend can be anywhere between 2 to 4 hours. Please check the link for temple timings Welcome to the abode of Lord Sree GURUVAYOORAPPAN at Bhoolokavaikundam . Make sure to visit Punathur Kotta where Guruvayoorappan's elephants are kept. You can plan to visit Mammiyoor temple Mammiyoor Temple - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[nfsfreak]

Thanks for your inputs Gadhadhar. I'm starting today.

Will include Mammiyor temple in our itinerary. Probably will look at Chottanikkara temple as well. (after 4 PM may be).

[ranjitp1]

Bhasuri Inn is awful in service and rooms have become pretty run down.Try Vanamala,Gokulam,Vysakh as they are better options.Kanoos is excellent,but I am not sure if it would fall into your budget.

As for temple visit,since there are elders in your group,there is a separate darshan Q for senior citizens in the mornings and evenings(Mornings 730-830 & evenings 430-530).If the old person needs an attender,then 1 person is allowed entry alongwith the Sr.citizen.

9am is not a good time for darshan,the Qs would be usually long,the best time is to reach the temple around 1245 because the temple closes at 1315,theres hardly any rush during that time.

GVR-Chottanikara would take you around 2hours.Go via Thrissur as it is easier and faster,do not go via Thriprayar-Kodungallur as it would be heavy traffic.You could visit Chottanikara in the evening and leave for Trichy from there via Theni-Dindigul,only downside is that the route would involve ghat driving in the nights,else you could stay the night near Chottanikara and leave next day morning.

[neo45007]

1) There is a seperate queue for ladies (if you want to have this option as well)
2) You can visit 'Snehatheeram beach' (25 kms) in evening - very good place.
3) If you are looking for a hotel just to spend couple of hours, better to reach there and check out various options nearby temple.

[ravib]

Just a word of caution. Since the SW monsoon is just settling in kerala, there could be heavy rains throughout, so suggest you to go prepared. Also, it could delay your schedules.

Yea, as gadadhar suggested, don't miss the Punathur Kotta. Its very close to guruvayoor temple and hardly takes 10 mts or so by vehicle. Its nice to see how they maintain temple elephants. Not a common sight in other places, so don't miss it.

-Ravi

[BaCkSeAtDrIVeR]

The ladies' queue mentioned above starts from INSIDE the temple.

Originally Posted by nfsfreak

We are in no hurry. Even we can start by night to Trichy.

How about Chottanikkara Bhagavathi Amman - GVR? Any help on route, temple timings welcome.

Chottanikkara is a few kms (1 hour drive) from Ernakulam.

To reach Chottanikkara - take one of the various routes mentioned in previous thread to reach Vyttilla.

My suggested and straightforward route would be - NH 17 from GVR to Edappally (2,15 Hrs on a bandh day with deserted roads). Proceed straight to Vyttilla (major junction); turn left to Thrippunithura; take the road to Ambalamugal, and turn right after the toll on the railway bridge - reach Hill Palace and turn left. Follow the boards and traffic to reach Chottanikara. More than the time, the travel is very tiring.

Other option - better road, longer distance - GVR > Trichur > NH 47 > Aluva > Kalamassery (appollo tyres aka Premier junction) > Turn left at next Junction (HMT jn.) > Sea port Airport Road to Trippunithura > you reach vicinity of the toll bridge mentioned above > Proceed straight to Hill Palace.

Edit:- it is raining cats and dogs as I am writing this.

[pramodpk]

Originally Posted by BaCkSeAtDrIVeR

The ladies' queue mentioned above starts from INSIDE the temple.



Chottanikkara is a few kms (1 hour drive) from Ernakulam.

To reach Chottanikkara - take one of the various routes mentioned in previous thread to reach Vyttilla.

My suggested and straightforward route would be - NH 17 from GVR to Edappally (2,15 Hrs on a bandh day with deserted roads). Proceed straight to Vyttilla (major junction); turn left to Thrippunithura; take the road to Ambalamugal, and turn right after the toll on the railway bridge - reach Hill Palace and turn left. Follow the boards and traffic to reach Chottanikara. More than the time, the travel is very tiring.

Other option - better road, longer distance - GVR > Trichur > NH 47 > Aluva > Kalamassery (appollo tyres aka Premier junction) > Turn left at next Junction (HMT jn.) > Sea port Airport Road to Trippunithura > you reach vicinity of the toll bridge mentioned above > Proceed straight to Hill Palace.

Edit:- it is raining cats and dogs as I am writing this.

Instead of taking NH17 till edapally, join NH47 at Kalamassery via the new ly opened Vallarpadam container terminal road and then take the sea port airport road. This will be the shortest route.

[NPV]

I have stayed at these hotels when visiting Guruvayoor (Both are good, not sure about present tariff though) ...

1.Rukmini Regency (on the East Nada near entrance to temple) - the hotel car park and main entrance is in a small road parallel to the Temple's East Nada road. One of the good things about the location is yuo can walk to the back of the hotel and you're bang in front of the Temple ! This hotel is owned by the same family that owns Ramakrishna Lunch home, Rukmini Kalyana Mantapam, etc on the East Nada road.

2. Hotel Elite - also on the East Nada road, temple is walking distance from hotel. AFAIK, tariff will be higher than Rukmini Regency.

I have assumed that you will be staying overnight at Guruvayoor. It's it's just few hours there during the day you may be better off looking for a lodge nearby.

Hope this helps !

[nfsfreak]

Thanks ranjitp1, neo45007, ravib, BaCkSeAtDrIVeR, pramodpk, NPV for your inputs.

Just back from the trip this morning. Will share few updates on this trip, which could be useful to others.

Roads:
Trichy- Dindigul is good 4-lane roads except few stretches where one side of the road is blocked for constructions.
Dindigul-Palani is 2-lane and is good.
Palani-Pollachi is having few bad stretches. Road is driveable but not great.
Pollachi-TCR is 2-lane and average. TCR-GVR is good 2-lane road but narrow.
Started from trichy @ 11.30 PM and reached GVR @ 7 AM.

GVR-Chottanikkara thru Kodungallur, tripunithura. Driver insisted on this route and as everyone mentioned, its crowded. Took 3 hours.

Originally Posted by BaCkSeAtDrIVeR

Other option - better road, longer distance - GVR > Trichur > NH 47 > Aluva > Kalamassery (appollo tyres aka Premier junction) > Turn left at next Junction (HMT jn.) > Sea port Airport Road to Trippunithura > you reach vicinity of the toll bridge mentioned above > Proceed straight to Hill Palace.
Edit:- it is raining cats and dogs as I am writing this.

While returning back (Chottannikkara-TCR), we tried this route and is good overall. Its faster.

And Yes, it is raining cats & dogs on this part of Kerala

Room:
Dint check ranjitp1's post before we start to GVR. So, Checked-in @ Bhasuri yesterday morning. Dint get A/C rooms, so booked non-AC Rooms for a day.
Rooms are good. No probs there. Regarding service, we ordered just coffee and seems ok. Checked-out afternoon after darshan & lunch.
Tariff - Rs 675 for a non AC double room.


Darshan:
After breakfast, we stood in a not-very-long Darshan queue @ 9.30 AM.
Finished Darshan by 10.30. Thulabaram counter was long and took 1 hour to complete Thulabaram offerings.
We were told the crowd is less yesterday, else it would take 2 hours to complete the Darshan itself.

Once again, thanks everyone for your valuable inputs.