Packed schedule - drop Hampi

weldafava

Hello, like many 1st time visitors my wife and I are concerned we may have overbooked. We have revisited our itinerary to scale it back and try to slow down. One question we had that we were looking for advice is on our visit to Hampi. We currently would be in Kolkata after a few days of down time in Darjeeling/Kalimpong. We would fly out to Hyderabad- board an overnight train to Hopset. Visit Hampi for that day and the next then board an overnight train for Bangalore as we work our way to Chennai/Pondicherry for a 2 days.

We are debating whether we take Hampi out and just fly from Kolkata to Chennai and spend more time around there and Pondicherry. We are already spending 2 weeks in Rajasthan- Delhi- Agra triangle.

Bottom- Hampi looks incredible- but is it worth the stretch.

Thank you

MartinP

All I can say is that in my four trips to India Hampi is up there with Varanasi as an absolute highlight and must.

After my second visit, I dreamt about it on a weekly basis for 10 years. Really, truly.

Just one tip: don't worry too much about the Queen's Baths and the royal enclosure etc. They're worth visiting, but the real atmosphere of Hampi is wandering about by the river near the Monkey temple at sunset, clambering over rocks and discovering beautiful little temples. Or having lunches at the Mango Tree cafe.

As for Pondicherry (big caveat – I was there 14 years ago) it does not even begin to compare to Hampi. Those places – Kodai, Pondi etc – that are somehow 'like' the west usually have more charm for Indians than for Westerners, in my experience.

Good luck with the trip

nayan

If it was me, I would drop chennai-pondy and increase the time in hampi.

livinhimalayas

Agree with Nayan, Hampi is worth a longer time.

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capt_mahajan

It is not worthwhile, unless one has an interest in Auroville, to travel far to visit Pondicherry.

Hampi, on the other hand, is my top recommended destination in the South- and a must visit in India.

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Outside the machine

SueJ

I'd vote for Hampi against Chennai/Pondy, too.

It's very difficult to explain Hampi. On the surface it's purely about the ruins, which are spectacular, but in practice we found that the whole place just had 'something' beyond that which we could not really explain.

Would be good to understand where you intend heading after Chennai/Pondy as well.

One other point is whether you see this as your first trip or your only trip to India. If it's your only trip then I'd say definitely include Hampi. If you expect to return again, then I'd probably query whether heading South makes sense at all and consider saving Hampi/Chennai/Pondy for your next trip. We ALWAYS seem to try to squeeze too much into each trip and have now learnt that to focus on a smaller geographical area works better and gives more flexibility.

steven_ber

Agree with all, if you opt for less than 4 days in Hampi, you'll regret it as soon as get there, it's real special, you could comfortably have a week in Hampi nand maybe still want more.

I only had just under 4 days, so I want to go back.

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