I'm off ! Southern India 2012 - advice!

I first came onto IM.com back in 06 when i first planned to go to India - now, in 2012 its happening : booked my sabbatical and sandwiched between an organised trip to Peru in September and voluntary work in Nepal in November, I shall be visiting SOUTHERN INDIA in October next year!

I will be "freestyling" this trip and going completely alone - I want to visit Goa, Kerala and perhaps get to the South East coast too - I'd love to visit hillstations, coffee/tea and spice plantations, go on a houseboat, stay in a beach house and see some temples and forts ... so many websites, so many guides ...

Where do I start ... ?????

Any and all advice welcome ...

Welcome to IM - You have ample time to plan your trip in India. Hope you come up with an interesting itinerary.

Hi there,

One of the first things you need to decide is where you enter and exit India.

This will help with suggestions without too much backtracking if possible.


vandy

I suggest you start form Bangalore as it will be a center place to visit goa, kerala and beautiful stone temples like Belur & Halebid.In south India you can see most beautiful beaches, boat house in back waters of kerala & amazing temples.
You can also see tea estates & coffee estates of Munar & Chikmangalore.

While I don't know how many days you have planned in India, I can suggest a few things.

Karnataka is just adjacent to Goa to the south and the western ghats there are lovely. Only the tourism there isn't very well developed and thus not much exposure can be found. Roads are not good to travel at many places, you will have a bumpy ride. The road from Mangalore -> Gokarna to the north is mostly horrible despite being a national highway.

However here's the route I had previously taken in Karnataka few months back. The surprises in store were rather pleasant despite having my bones shaken off by the ride.



Now Ill list the places you can possible want to visit, I've attached the snaps below each place I've mentioned. All the photos except the one for Gokarna beach. The rest have either been taken by me or by my co-rider during the trip of Karnataka.

Gokarna beach [marked #7] on the map is a good beach and has some nice places to trek around. There are several beaches around Gokarna, this is the Om beach there with boatling facilites available, is the best beach around. However tempting this beach may look like this is strictly NOT for partying as such. I usually don't drink during roadtrips as such but this is additionally a religious site for Hindu pilgrims.

[Above pic taken from this site].

Just down the coastal route (horrible mostly) is the Murdeshwar temple situated on a beach. Very close to the spot marked as [#6] on the map. The temple itself is magnificient and the beach restaurant is a great place to eat in. Accomodation is available closeby. The beach is good too, but enjoyable when there are less crowds :P

This photo was taken by my co-rider, Ananth T.E, photo uploaded from my harddrive to photobucket.

From there you can head to Kodachadri, [marked #4] a must to visit place for hikers and offroading enthusiats. Although the place may remain closed during heavy rains. Accomodation is available at the top of the hill but not available round the year, nearest town is a bit far away. Need to be wary of leeches during rain. This pic is just at the begining of the climb to the top (for motorcycles :P )

Photo taken by me from my co-rider's cam. photo uploaded from my harddrive to photobucket.

From Kodachadri you can head down the coastal route to Udupi and then via Karkal reach Kudremukh. [marked #2] This is a very nice place to drive through or even by bus it will be rewarding enough. Although transportation like buses is very infrequent. The nearest town to stay here is Kalasa, as there's no place in Kudremukh itself sincei ts a sanctuary. Kalasa has a decent government run Inn.

Photo taken by my co-rider Ananth T.E, photo uploaded from my harddrive to photobucket.

From Kudremukh you can head to Kemmangundi, [marked #1] yet another unexplored place with waterfalls around (Hebbe falls if I may recall) the road till there is nearly non existant for 40 kilometers. Advised to go in a group. Kemmangundi too has a government run Inn. However Kemmangundi can be full at times to prior checking is needed.

the Mangalore-> Hassan -> Bangalore highway (not marked in the map, but you can see it) is mostly good till Hassan while coming from Bangalore.. So take the route from Kemmangundi -> Chikmanglur->Hassan->Bangalore and then head southwards if you have plans in Kerala (the highway from Bangalore will go to Kerala via Mysore)

Photo taken by me, photo uploaded from my harddrive to photobucket..

This is all I can input in for now, hope this is useful in some way

Wow!

Thanks everyone, am going to have a proper read and will be back again!

I will be coming into India (probably directly to Goa or possibly into Mumbai) via London, UK but I need to get to Kathmandu in Nepal afterwards - please advise: should I return to Mumbai via train or go from another Indian City nearer to where I'll be and go direct to Nepal from there? I guess I need to research flights in India!

Hi Pinga :

You could try this .

London - Goa [ Chill out for a week or so ] - Karnataka [ KEmmangundi - Coorg for coffee estates ] - temples - Kerala [ House boat - spice plantations ] - Tamil Nadu [ Temples ] - Delhi - Kathmandu .

Google Hampi, would be nice in december and a must visit ,

PM me if you need more info, and good luck with the planning .