Time to kill in Bangalore

wishfullthinking

I arrive in Bangalore at 9am, and have a 6pm flight to Madurai on the same day, so I have about 9 hours or so to kill in that time.

So I was hoping you could suggest what to do in that time:

Possible options:
1. Stay in the airport the entire time (preferably not). What can I do at the airport for 9 hours?

2. Is there a left luggage/cloakroom at Bangalore Airport I could leave my luggage there for a few hours while I sightsee at MG road or spend some time at Leela palace or something?

3. If there is no left luggage facility, only option may be to check in at a nearby hotel only to check out a few hours later, if that is even possible? (What good hotel is nearby with sights within walking distance, looking to spend around US$30-50?)

4. Hire a taxi for the day and leave suitcase in there while sight seeing (how can I go about finding a car that is safe and willing to do this with? and how much would this cost?)

5. Any other suggestions? What do you think is best?

Thanks for your help!

SueJ

Personally, I wouldn't want to spend 9 hours in BLR airport!! I'm not sure if there is left luggage or not, I've never looked for it.

Budget hotels are few and far between in BLR. I stay at Halcyon when on business, but that is about $80 a night. It may be worth contacting them to see if they would do you a day rate. The beauty of this place is that it is only about 15 or 20 minutes from the airport, even at busy times.

I think your alternative of a car may be a good one. When on business I use Transit Aids - they're not cheap but they are absolutely reliable, and I would have no concern at all about leaving my suitcase in the car with them. Their number is 080 2550 2030 or 92 431 04030.

As to what to do, there really aren't too many things for the tourist in Bangalore, but I personally enjoy it. My list of possibles would include:

- Tipu Sultan's palace. Only worth a few minutes, but a genuine bit of history.
- Botanical gardens to stretch my legs and have a pleasant stroll. It's also much better maintained than many equivalents in India.
- Forum Mall (or one of the other malls) to marvel at how the world is turning into a very small and consistent place, with many Western brands represented. There's a cinema on the top floor, if you feel like being lazy for a couple of hours.
- Chickpet. Stroll the backstreets of the district that is packed with shops selling fabrics.
- Central Market. This one is particulary colourful as the main building has a huge area devoted to flowers, so there are lots of photo opps.
- I'd avoid MG Road, which is full of overpriced shops, in my opinion.

Getting around in BLR takes ages as the traffic is so bad, so if you have a car you should take their advice on route planning to make sure you do whatever you decide most efficiently. And whatever you do, allow plenty of time to get back to the airport.

gautam

Tipu Sultan's palace is in mysore.which is around 140kms maybe roughly 2 hours journey one side. The palace lightens up around 6pm.

As SueJ suggested, a stroll in Lalbagh botanical garden should be fun.
MG road, Brigade road, forum, garuda malls can be helpful to kill time.
Try out some restaurant. Let us know what you like to eat and maybe someone can suggest the best place.
Traffic scene is bad on weekends.

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Nattusbs

Wishfulthinking

Are you arriving on a week day or weekend? Which day of the week is it and when?

I found this place called Royal Lodge in the heart of Bangalore - I can't recall if I found it on IM or somewhere else:

http://www.royallodge.net/

I have not stayed there and have no personal connection at all.

If you click on the Room tariff, you will see that it is rather inexpensive. You get to keep your baggage in the room, have a shower and get fresh, stroll around, check out eating joints and relax. Availability is a different matter - hurry & contact them - they may be able to do a special for day stay.

Cheers

Nattusbs

canoeberry

Dear Wishful,
My 10 year old son and I wound up with a day to kill in Bangalore last February, and I am happy to report that we had a lovely time. We had some of the best Chinese food we have ever eaten at the Green Onion restaurant (at Residency Road & MG Road) - Chinese food with a special Indian twist. Delicious! We shopped for music on Brigade Road - nice big music stores where you can listen to the cd before buying it. The shopping in Bangalore may be high priced, but they have many nice things. Our day in Bangalore was at the end of our 2 week trip. We did not love Bangalore as a place - so modern! - but we had a great day nonetheless.
If you have a flight later in the day, perhaps you can check your luggage early? We stayed at the Royal Inn right down the street from the airport - you can literally walk there from the terminal. I would not recommend staying there, but they might hold your bags for the day. Once your bags are taken care of, you can just get a rickshaw or car to wherever you want to go. - Jennifer

wishfullthinking

thanks for the suggestions everyone! Much appreciated

I tried finding some contact details for Bangalore Airport to ask about early check ins or left luggage facilities but no luck!

The Royal Inn looks good, but I'm having trouble finding contact information for them too, because I want to ask if such an early check in time is possible. Can anyone help with this?

Thanks!

machadinha

Did you try here (open during business hours) http://www.airportsindia.org.in/allAirports/blr_gi.jsp or here http://www.toandfromtheairport.com/karnataka.html#BLR ?

I find no immediate website for them, however they seem to be listed on many other sites. The last aforementioned site lists them, but the link they give is down. It gives a phone number though.

ps Hotels don't normally mind customers showing up to rent one of their rooms at whatever time, besides 9 AM (plus getting out of the airport and to the hotel) is hardly early

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wishfullthinking

^^^ Thanks for the links!
Actually I did stumble across those emails in the second link a few days ago and emailed them but didn't get a reply, so I wasn't sure if the emails were still active. Will give it another go.

Haha yeah 9am isn't early but relative to normal check in times I think it is. I found the contact details for them anyway on this site and emailed them.

Fingers crossed! I've emailed a lot of places and they've just not replied, which is a bit annoying!

Thanks again for your help!

machadinha

Emails to India may go unanswered for any number of reasons; connectivity there just isn't what you may be used to.

If you can, calling up would be my preferred method (and be ready for some possibly confusing conversations over a crappy phone line ). Good luck with it in any case.

I'm not sure what you mean by email addresses on the second site btw, I don't think it lists any (?) Note that that site they give for the hotel may look to be up, but it's actually a domain that's up for sale; it no longer represents that hotel. That site itself in the meantime (To & From the Airport) is just a portal, I don't think they'll be able to help you directly.

On check-in times, people often get confused with this: Indian hotels may go by a 24-hr. check-out system, or by a fixed time for it. Neither means you can't check in or out at any other time, it just refers to the method of calculation by which you'll be billed for your stay. And remember, life in India tends to start early

canoeberry

Here's what I have on the Royal Inn:
Hotel Royal Inn
Adjacent to Airport Arrival,
Airport Road,
Bangalore – 560017
Phone: 91 80 2522 6853 / 91 80 2522 6861
Again don't really recommend staying at this hotel. (We had beds with dirty sheets, and mosquitos and ants in the room. Yuck!) But it is close to the airport and may be a good place to park your bags. We paid $65 for the room (through a travel agent).
Good luck!
Jennifer

hrishim

Bangalore airport is bad. It is very unlikely they will have a left luggage counter.

If you have a day visit:
- lalbagh gardens
- vidhan soudha (state legislature building)
- Bull temple (huge nandi statue)

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SueJ

Gautam

Hate to argue, but I am not talking about Mysore Palace (which is definitely worth a visit if you have more time) but the small summer palace that is in Bangalore, fairly near the City Market. A few more details here http://www.bangaloreindia.org.uk/tou...ltan-fort.html

or if you're of a masochistic tendency ;-) then you could look at this video clip on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0foTC...ture=re lated

bijapuri

yea, BLR airport is pretty much obsolete with almost no amenities, and no one is doing anything about it because a new one's set to open soon (ummm hmmmm . . . .)

MY favorite lace in BLR is Lal Bagh Gardens, about 30-45 minutes from the airport. There are lots of unusual trees and stuff.

And yeah, the MG Rd & Brigade Rd area has good food from around the country and the world. The best steaks in India are at The Only Place, run by one of the legends of the 70's- Hiroon

One caveat- it sometimes happens that the rd from airport to town becomes gridlocked. I mean GRIDLOCKED If this happens, blame the success of India, Inc. and try to get a nap in your taxi!

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ChocolatNY

you actually have abt 6 hrs to kill if you take away transit time. i guess you can go hang out at the Leela or Forum or Garuda malls. Visit Samarkand (near Commercial Street) for lunch, it's a theme resto and the food's great.

I stayed at a really nice service apt in Lavalle Road, the rent was 1800. If you're still looking for a reliable, clean place to stash your stuff or just rest, let me know and I'll dig up the number for ya.

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wishfullthinking

Thanks for the suggestions everyone!

I can't decide if I want to find a place near the airport or MG road, exactly how bad is the traffic?

I was thinking of maybe staying near MG road so I can take a quick 2hour bus tour with cityswaps from MG road to see all the sights in Bangalore, then do lunch. If my flight is at 5pm, can I get away with checking out and leaving from MG road at 3pm? Or should I give myself more time?

Everything would be so much easier if the airport had left luggage facilities! haha. Still waiting to hear back from them about early check in for 5pm flight, doubtful though.

ANyway, thanks for all the help! Everyone is so helpful and friendly on this board, I love it!