coorg - waynad trip

I'm hoping for some help on an itinery.

i have 10 days, starting and returning to bangalore around new year, and would like to do the following trip, but i need some help on the best ways to get between stops, and any recommendations on how long to stay at each place

bangalore
mysore
madikeri including visit to dubare elephant camp
kannur
kalpetta or sultan bathery visit waynad wildlife sanctuary
bangalore

how easy is it to get between madikeri and kannur, and kannur and sultan bathery/kalpetta? i guess getting the local bus is the cheapest, but how long are the journey times? would it make more sense to hire a car and driver either for the hole trip or the individual journeys?

thank you inadvance for your help

i'd really appreciate some help. Thank you.

Charkit, an ideal intinerary to cover these places would be bangalore - mysore - madikeri (if possible cover dubare enroute Madikeri from Mysore) - kannur - wayanad (Kalpetta/Bathery) - Mysore - Bangalore.

On transportation, hiring a car is indeed the best way to enjoy the beauty of these places. In that case, you could also add Bekal fort to your itinerary. There's a route from Madikeri to Bekal. You can then head to Kannur from there.

Public transportation is not an issue in moving between these places but I am not sure about the Madikeri - Kannur leg. You might have to hop buses either at Virajpet or Iritty.

On the other hand, if you do not have Kannur in your itinerary, you can directly come down from Madikeri to Wayanad through Nagarhole national park.


In terms of time to spend, Wayanad offers you the most of all the places. You could consider spending 3 days here 2 days in the Madikeri region. With 10 days you have a lot of time, since the distance between these places is quite less and can be covered within 4-5 hours.

Have a great trip!

Thanks for the input.

I'd definitely like to spend some time on the coast, would you recommend bekal over kannur, or are they pretty similar?

how much is it to hire a car? should i hire it with a driver or drive ourselves? if with a driver, and we stay overnight somewhere what does the driver do?

we'd like to be quite relaxed about traveling, not moving on every day

There is nothing much to do in Bekal per se, except for checking out the magnificient historic bekal fort adjacent to the Arabian sea.But since you have time, you could consider a drive from Madikeri to Kannur via Bekal, just dropping a visit to the fort. There are also a couple of serene beaches (one of them a drive-in beach) enroute from Bekal to Kannur.

I presume you would not have experience driving in India. Furthermore, Kerala's roads are notorious for the rash driving by bus and lorry drivers. So its best to hire a car with driver in case you are hiring one. Hire rates would be INR 7-8 per km on an average with a min distance of 250 km per day.

Some hotels offer driver accommodation in dorms but this cannot be assumed. Most drivers manage to sleep inside the car or in the hotel lounge/corridor.