[hummer]

Yercaud is the tamil meaning for 'Lake Forest', quite suitable for this hill town which is beautifully nestled amidst Shevaroy Hills in Tamil Nadu at an elevation of 4970 ft. Yercaud is also called as “Jewel of the South”.

We were planning for a weekend getaway (in fact for 3 days, Sat-Sun-Mon), family’s preference was any place not too far drive (not for me 😊, I live to drive) but still far away feel from Bengaluru, we checked out Sakleshpur, Hassan, Kanakapura side etc and finally decided on Yercaud as it is hill station in Tamilnadu, with different flavor of food and hopefully lesser crowd as well.

Started from Bengaluru on Saturday around 6.30am, joined Hosur road near Chandapura circle. As expected the road was full, slow moving traffic and people trying to join between in toll lanes etc - the usual story.

Traffic started moving well after crossing Hosur. We stopped at Murugan Idli Shop around 8am. By looking at the number of cars I thought it will be a long wait, however they were pretty quick in calling us.

I liked the way they serve there, they keep on brining items like varieties of Idli, Dosa, Vada, Pongal etc you can just ask to serve to your plate, it’s like see and eat. We had good breakfast finished with great coffee and tea.

Few pictures taken at Murugan Idli Shop:


Continued journey towards Krishnagiri, roadside was full of mango stalls on either side for long, it was very hot and dry even though we see a lot of greenery around Hosur and Krishnagiri.

Google suggested route ==> Krishnagiri==> Kariamangalam ==> Kambainallur ==> Kadathur ==> Bommidi ==> Yercaud, but one of my friends suggested via Salem, so we traveled through Salem.

Yercaud is just 30+ kms away from Salem, but you will see a change in weather, surroundings, trees and greenery makes so much of difference. Ghat has 18 hairpin curves, it was a bumper-to-bumper traffic, some morons were trying to overtake in curves, it was slightly a familiar scene of Bengaluru traffic, so felt at home.

Different points enroute:


Somewhere near a view point:


Weather got cooler as we climbed up , we reached our hotel Shevaroy around 12noon and checked in. We had booked a luxury villa for 4 of us (two adults and two teenagers), it has a large bedroom, hall with sofa-cum-bed, table + chairs, balcony with a view of a coffee estate, bath with tub + another bath area outside (open to sky with a small garden) and a front patio. Concept is good but resort needs improvements. It has two restaurants, spa, kids play area, camp fire area, landscaping, few birds etc but everything screams for better maintenance.

Each luxury villa has parking right in front:


We kept our stuff inside and headed towards the lake, nobody speaks English or Hindi unlike Ooty or Kodai, so we had little tough time getting directions for boating tickets. So many vehicles and tourists all over the place, too much garbage everywhere, half eaten corns, plastic bottles, rats, paper, none wearing masks, I hadn’t seen a dirtier tourist place in the recent past. Since we had gone all the way, we took tickets for two separate pedal boats and got away from crowd into the lake.

Crowd waiting to board:


Finally peddling in the lake:


We decided not to venture into crowded places like that. We searched for Saravana Bhavan Elite for lunch, there was no place to even stand, went straight back to our hotel and had lunch there, food was decent. They have a catering school attached, so the trainees were good.

Took rest in the room after lunch and evening visited the Lady’s seat, roads were so narrow, taxy drivers menace, wasted so much time for parking, finally got to the famous Lady’s seat. It’s one of the dirtiest sightseeing places I have seen during my travels. Garbage, garbage, garbage all over, monkeys, dogs, people throwing and spitting everywhere, it was absolutely disgusting. Earlier we decided on Yercaud thinking it’s less commercial, less popular and hence less crowded, we were completely wrong, by then we knew all tourist attractions at Yercaud were in the same condition. That’s when we decided to cut short and to return to Bengaluru next day.

We saw Sterling Holidays located just next to Lady’s seat, we entered inside for coffee. It was pleasant inside, we could take a sigh of breathe. Sterling is designed beautifully, we can actually see the valley view from rooms. On the flipside, there were no lifts to rooms, so you have to climb up & down a lot to move around. They took a good 45 minutes to serve coffee, tea and milk shakes after multiple follow ups, service for sure was a bit downer.

Returned to the room & relaxed without venturing out again, around 7.30pm received a call from reception for campfire, none of us were in mood to go, so we just ordered food to the room, had dinner and slept off.

I didn’t want to miss 32kms loop road drive at any cost, in fact my primary target at Yercaud was this drive but was worried about traffic jam, so decided to do a round trip before everybody wakes up, we let the kids sleep and only we two jumped into the car drove off at 6am, believe me it’s the best decision and the real beauty of Yercaud lies in this loop. Early morning drive through the winding roads of coffee estates was so soothing, some places pine trees were so tall & dense, there was no sunlight on road. This kind of stretch was not new to people like me coming from Malnad region (Shimoga/Chikkamagalur), but considering previous day experience, this drive was an absolute bliss. We even visited Servaroyan temple on the way.

Cauvery Peak is actually a coffee estate exactly 16kms from Yercaud through loop road, it has a beautiful set up with wooden seating, you can sit and sip hot coffee in the midst of nature. Both us were ecstatic seeing such a place in the middle of coffee estate, shop was just opened, I could get sweet fragrance of freshly ground coffee beans, shop owner and another lady spoke a fluent English, we felt we came to a different country (in fact that gentleman had a very good accent as well). My wife is tea lover, but there, she relished Caffe Latte and I took Cappuccino. We also bought 3 flavors of 100% coffee powder, its every sip at Bengaluru home reminds me of this place and the drive. We wanted to stay there for more time, but had to leave before it gets flooded, took few pics and left. Remaining 16 kms stretch was equally good and reached the room around 8am.

Beautiful empty winding roads:


Serene and bliss:


Just enough space to park at peace:


Small rustic entrance:


Beautiful set up for an early morning coffee:


Inside the coffee shop:


Some meaningful messages to those who can understand:



Wanted to sit everywhere:


Duster framed:


A Caffe Latte and a Cappuccino:


Continued through the paradise:


Morning breakfast buffet for was good, we checked out and went straight to Peeku Park. We were lucky that day I think, even Peeku Park was also good. It’s private, well maintained, even the staff was well trained and spoken, only the parking area was a bit small, it can get filled fast.

Staff gave the warning that birds may randomly fly and sit on our hands, shoulders or even head, we should not panic or shout or touch, they won’t harm. We loved the place and kids really had a lot of fun trying different things to attract birds.

Most colorful team:


Couple of Ostriches looking for food:


One flew to hand for food:


Sense of achievement:


Feeding to Ostrich, it comes as many times


At ease after a few tries:


Birds galore and fun for all :



Pagoda point was on the way, but it was in the same condition like Lady’s seat, we gave a quick visit, bought some home made chocolates and started the descend.

View from Pagoda Point:


Some recreation:


Reached Salem faster due to relatively empty roads and joined Bengaluru highway quickly. Since we missed Saravana Bhavan at Yercaud, I wanted to try lunch on the way, there must be more than 25 Saravana Bhavans on that road, we don’t know which one was authentic. We found a decent looking one near Krishnagiri and got in. Unfortunately lunch was closed, I took rice/sambar but got bisi bele bath, server later said Bengaluru’s bisi bele bath is called as rice/sambar in TN, but it was good, server also said it is Saravana Bhavan Pollachi branch, I didn’t try to decipher further.



Reached Bengaluru early enough to have a cup of Cauvery Peak Coffee at home. Overall 32kms loop road (Cauvery Peak) and Peeku Park were satisfying in the entire trip.

Onward & Return: Bengaluru <-> Krishnagiri <-> Salem <-> Yercaud

Total distance covered – ~500 kms

Road condition – Excellent except few narrow stretches in Yercaud and construction zones near Salem.

Wear seat belts and drive safe !!

[chaitanyakrish]

Excellent Pics and as a coffee lover, I can smell the coffee by reading the post and it pulls me



Yercaud is also known for Orange plantations. Did you happen to see any Orange Farms?

Also, please share Google Maps route details for the loop road.

Also, is the Yercaud hills good for a newbie? I had done Nandi Hills in the past and that's the only hill experience as of now.

[pjbiju]

Originally Posted by chaitanyakrish

Excellent Pics and as a coffee lover, I can smell the coffee by reading the post and it pulls me
...
Yercaud is also known for Orange plantations. Did you happen to see any Orange Farms?

Also, please share Google Maps route details for the loop road.

Also, is the Yercaud hills good for a newbie? I had done Nandi Hills in the past and that's the only hill experience as of now.

There are orange trees in many of the coffee estates. The variety I have seen are small oranges (and not like the Nagpur Orange variety) that are used to make orange juice. You will also find Sweet Lemon (Mosambi/Sathukudi) farms as well.

Loop Road - starts and ends at the main lake.


The road going up from Salem to Yercaud is pretty good and wide. There was some road widening work going on at some spots as of April this year. If you follow the hill driving rules, you should be good. Keep your speeds low, keep to the left of the road, give way to vehicles faster than you (if you have the visibility ahead for the vehicle behind to overtake, give them the hand signal and slow down so that the overtaking is quick), be aware of buses and trucks getting into the opposite lanes around hairpin bends to complete their turning maneuver whenever they are on the inner part of the hairpin bends (so you need to stop early), horn liberally, and expect the unexpected etc.

[bajoseph04]

Originally Posted by chaitanyakrish

Also, is the Yercaud hills good for a newbie? I had done Nandi Hills in the past and that's the only hill experience as of now.

Yeecaud is one of the best hills for a newbie. In fact my first hill driving experience with my WRV was in Yercaud nearly 4 years back and all my family really enjoyed it. Since you only have a very short distance to travel on the hills you will reach the top pretty quickly. You'll love the 20 hairpin bends and will be a good learning experience too. Just be cautious and follow the hill driving ethics.

[hummer]

Originally Posted by chaitanyakrish

Also, is the Yercaud hills good for a newbie? I had done Nandi Hills in the past and that's the only hill experience as of now.

Thanks chaitanyakrish, I couldn't observe Orange trees, may be hidden inside coffee plantation, some places were dense.

Thanks pjbiju for sharing the google map of loop road. Basically take left side road from lake circle and you will return from right to the same point.

Yercaud is a great hill drive experience for newbies, enjoyable with ease, not tough and very different compared to Nandi hills, I am sure you will love this stretch. If you keep windows open, you can feel the change in weather as you climb.

[Atom]

Nice travelogue , The loop road and the aroma of coffee at Cauvery peak that I could smell through my laptop screen (Am from the Malnad region too - Hassan/Shivamogga) are enough reasons to plan a trip to Yercaud. Cheers!!

[hummer]

Originally Posted by Atom

Nice travelogue , The loop road and the aroma of coffee at Cauvery peak that I could smell through my laptop screen (Am from the Malnad region too - Hassan/Shivamogga) are enough reasons to plan a trip to Yercaud. Cheers!!

Thanks Atom, some stretches are just like you are driving through Sakaleshpura or Chikkamagaluru coffee estates. Generally TN is famous for tea (KA is for coffee ), but Yercaud is an exception I think, I haven't seen any coffee estates in TN except Yercaud now.

[Amit Maratha]

Thanks for the detailed write up and beautiful pictures. Hope you tried jiggar thanda at Murugan idli.

[hummer]

Originally Posted by Amit Maratha

Thanks for the detailed write up and beautiful pictures. Hope you tried jiggar thanda at Murugan idli.

Thanks Amit, we didn't know about this jiggar thanda, but whatever else we tried were all .

[Amit Maratha]

Well, Jigar Thanda is actually a drink from Madurai. It is very sweet and with loads of dry fruits. During my visit to Murugan Idli two years ago, this stall is at the property's entrance. I did the south tour from Bengaluru and covered Madurai, Kanyakumari, Rameshwaram and Terichurapali and back to Bengaluru. Jigar Thanda is sold at one shop near Madurai Palace. So that is why I recommend if that stall is still there try it out on your next visit.