Need Suggestions for Karnataka Plan around December

I have been trying my luck with Karnataka for last few years but somehow it gets cancelled everytime. So not sure how it would be this year but my plan is to undertake a trip this December, The trip would be atleast 3 weeks which can be extended by 1 more week. The following is the tentative plan based on my knowledge and also as suggested by few IMers.

The whole trip would be covered with a rental car, please pour in all your suggestions.

Day1- Arrive at Bangalore in morning and leave from Airport by 9.00am. Drive to Mysore.

Day2- Shrirangapatna Tourist spots - Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary - Brindavan Gardens, stay at Mysore. I am aware I am giving a miss to few more attractions around Mysore.

Day3- Start very early around 5am from Mysore, (May avail Bandipur Safari), Mudumalai, drive back to Gundalpet and then to Kalpetta via Muthunga. Night stay at Kalpetta. How much time should it take from Mysore if I don't take Bandipur Safari?

Day4- Edakkal / Suchipara , Night stay at Kalpetta.

Day5- Kuruwu Island / Tholpetty WLS, Night stay at Kalpetta.

Day6- Kalpetta-Mananthavady-Kattikulam-Karapura and Stay at Kabini, JLR. If I want to reach Kabini by 12.00 noon, when should I start from Kalpetta?

Day7- Kabini - Gonikoppal - Ammathi town - Nellihudhikeri - Kushalnagar - Bylakuppe to cover Tibetan Settlements, Golden Temple, Cauvery Nishagadhama - Madikeri. Night stay at Madikeri. Again how the day would be? I am only interested in Scenic spots not so much in others, so can remove something based on your suggestions.

Day8- Talacauvery - Bhagamandala - Madikeri- Abbe Falls- Evening at Raja's Seat. Night stay at Madikeri.

Day9- Madikeri - Virajpet - Kannur - Kasargod. How long this drive would be and are there enough options available in Kasargod for night stay?

Day10- Kasargod - Bekal Fort - Mangalore - Udupi - Maravanthe, Night stay at Maravanthe.

Day11- Maravanthe - Murudeshwar - Gokarna (Night stay at Murudeshwar or Gokarna), Please suggest a few nice beach around Gokarna that can be covered with less walking, Suggest a place in this section from where I should try for a nice sunset.

Day12- Murudeshwar (Start early) - Honnavara - a quick look at Jog - Shimoga - Lakkavalli (Night stay at Bhadra WLS, at River Tern, JLR). I need to reach here by 12.00 noon.

Day 13- Lakkavalli - Kalahatti Falls - Khemmangundi (Plan to keep it very light), Night stay at Khemmangundi

Day14- Hebbe Falls, Mullayangiri, Bababudangiri and night stay at Khemmangundi

Day15- Khemmangundi - Chikmagalur - Belur, Visit Temple and night stay at Belur.

Day16- Belur - Mudigere - Kalasa - Hornadu Visit - Kudremukh NP Drive - Srinigeri. Night stay at Srinigeri. Can I still have time to have a visit to Agumbe for sunset?

Day17- Srinigeri - Shimoga - Chitardurga - Hospet - Hampi. Is it possible in a 10 hours drive?

Day18- Hampi

Day19- Hampi

Day20- Hampi - Chitradurga - Bangalore - How much time this drive would take?

Please suggest any scenic place / natural beauty, scenic drive that I shouldn't miss around the places I am planning.

We stayed some days in Banavasi, a small town situated between Sirsi and Shimoga. It is a great region without many visitors.

Some of the most scenic places around are the Unchalli waterfall, Yana rocks and the lingas in the river near Sahasraling.

In Banavasi is a simple but clean tourist home.
See this trip report for more details.

Awaiting another excellent trip report. Happy travels kshil.

Once again a very nice report Vonkla, extremely informative and nice snaps. I have kept it bookmarked and if I couldn't manage the places this time, certainly it would be in my list for the next trip I have in my plan that includes North and North West Karnataka and Goa.

From my route Banvasi would be closest from Sagar on NH-206

Thanks buddy for all your wishes, wish me more, I need all those to make the Karnataka trip this December. Surely write a report once I complete the trip.

I am still waiting for Karnataka expersts to validate my plan and add / modify if anything is required.

Does that mean, kshil, that you have cancelled your return trip to Arunachal Pradesh?

Happy planning, anyhow, for Karnataka.

Yes Arunachal Central (Lilabari - Ziro - Daporijo - Aalo - Mechuka - Aalo - Yingkiong - Tuting - Pasighat - Dibrugarh) would be a difficult trip in the sense it's having very less tourism infrastructure (the reason why we love Arunachal actually) and may be little too much after back to back Zanskar - Ladakh in Sep-Oct. So much of mountains and hills, family suggests to take a break in beaches/ forests etc. Let's See, Arunachal is extremely close to my heart but it may be moved to Dec-2012

But again last year this time I was planning for same Karnataka trip but ended up in Eastern Arunachal, so who knows . But Theyyam, Dec of 2011 and 12, Arunchal and Karnataka should be over, not really sure in which sequence though.

Have you been to Karnataka?

Only to Hampi.

Kshil - The itinerary attempts to do quite a lot in a limited time. Perhaps its your style or constraints that it should be this way. So wont comment on the overall. I lived in Bangalore for 4+ years and hence had the opportunity to explore these places at a more leisurely pace. A few points though:

a) Please see if its possible to do a homestay in Coorg. I spent 2 nights at Honey valley estate (kakkabe) in 2003 with parents. We loved it - its in the middle of a 56 acre forest and a few kms from the nearest road. It also made a better base than madikeri to explore interior coorg. Pick some homestay -doesn't have to be this one but a place other than madikeri (which is little more than a bus station) would be a better option. If you stay in kakkabe, you can also go to Padi igguthappa temple (very coorgi in character)

b) If you can manage the descent, Meenmutty is a better fall to visit in Wayanad than Soochipara. Also Edakkal can leave people exhausted enough to not visit another place with ascent/descent the same day. You could do pookote lake that day and do the fall on the next morning from Kalpetta.

c) Are you putting up in Vyithri in Kalpetta - back in 05 it had few options other than the resorts and my stay in a smaller hotel, while comfortable, could've been better (was too close to the road). So please check where you're putting up (Kalpetta is a busy town on either side of some highway and has plenty of truck traffic)

That itself quite a lot Theyyam. Thanks for sharing the link.


Thanks Vaibhab for sharing your thoughts, it's a constraint and you are absolutely right, being located closer to the places for a long time would allow you to spend quite a few weekends in exploring these places. I have been to Sikkim and North Bengal for around 15 times, I still have places left to be seen there. But when someone from other part of India would come they won't be able to afford that. Same here but I am not interested to see every possible caves, water falls, forests, temples. That's the route I would be traversing and mainly interested in scenic drives, natural beauties with less crowds.


I would keep in mind and try to connect to the homestay you mentioned, honestly haven't yet started thinking on accommodation, would do so when the itinerary/route would be finalized.

Thanks, this is very sensible suggestion, As I would be walking with my kid, though she is well habituated with long walks even in high altitude, this makes a lot of sense to me.


Once again, I would keep this in mind when I would start arranging the accommodations. I was reading good feedbacks on couple of resorts in Kalpetta.

You can never count on the roads in Karnataka. Especially in Coorg and on the coast, where washouts are frequent and repairs often farcical. Even with the roads at their best, your itinerary is challenging.

Thanks Abracax for your thoughts. I have another week to spare, in case I go slow due to road. Do you think Day-7to Day-12 is at risk for road conditions? What's the likelihood of a washout during December? I don't think North East Monsoon would be active so late in the season.

Also can the road be worse than Zanskar/Spiti/Aruncachal in Karnataka?

In that case, you should look @ the elephant camp in Dubare - Coorg. You can bathe the elephants and there's usually a baby elephant for the children. You can do a day visit (as opposed to staying there). http://www.junglelodges.com/index.ph...ts/dubare.html - I went there as a part of a team building event - did a boat ride and fed something to a very cute baby elephant (2004)

Thanks vaibhav for the idea, I would keep that in mind. Being an experienced traveler in the region, could you please see if you can answer a few of the questions I have asked in first post, marked in bold.

One more update is the Kemmangundi Horticultural GH will not be available for almost a year as they are under renovation. Now do I have any other good budget option without hitting Chikmagalur? I want to cover areas around Kemmandgundi (Mullayngiri, Hebbe, Bababudangiri, Kalahatti), while enroute from Lakkavalli to Belur. So staying Chikmagalur means covering extra distance, can that be avoided? Is there any other staying option near Kemmangundi? What are the value for money options around Kemmangundi and even Chikmagalur? Not interested in high end resorts as I would roam around for most of the time of the day.

I am sure that PM Velu will be able to give you a lot of really useful input. You could send him a pm as he is probably busy and has not seen this post.

Adding some two bits in the meantime, see bold

snonymous, thanks a lot for such a great details in your reply. I too hope, Velu would get some time to reply and so the other Karnataka experts on the questions I asked.

Thanks specifically for Madikeri update, I am not sure if its over hyped but it would surely be very touristy and crowded, which I won't like.

Can you please explain why you specifically mentioned to visit Belur for sunrise / sunset? Is there any specific sunrise/sunset point there? My understanding was it's the temple town. Now with kemmangundi stay being uncertain, I may choose either Belur or Chikmagalur for my stay, but heard the hotel you mentioned is recently renovated and good value for money.

Bridaban Garden I may give a miss just because of crowd and yes it would be a sunday, so palace lighting is something I would try for sure.

More than Bijapur, I am interested in Aihole/Pattadakal/Badami but only issue is time. With my current plan and that too could be extended in 3/4 weeks span, people are telling it's difficult and cramped, so not sure if I can add any to the existing.

Thanks again for all help.