Need Suggestions for Karnataka Plan around December

Brilliant Prasanna!!! We all know about Wiki but really never knew it could have this much detail information. You have exactly pointed me what I was searching, I can't remember getting more details on Beaches of Gokarna than this and I am sure it answered all my questions. Bottom line is it needs one half of the day atleast to explore OM and Kudle and all beaches of Gokarna (except main Gokarna beach) need some walking but walking reduces considerably when you have car with you. I am really attracted to even Paradise and Halfmoon and can't resist my temptation to visit them by taking a boat from OM beach though can't be sure how safe the boat journey or those isolated beaches are for family. Would take the call on spot.

Once again thanks a lot for the link. Can you please point me for some resources to choose the beaches to be visited in coastal Kerala/Karnataka belt. (From Kahangad to Gokarn)

So far my choice includes (from South to North) as below and I have 3 full days to visit them.

First day would cover from Mangalore to Maravanthe and next 2 days for Maravanthe and Northern parts.

Mangalore
Ullal
Suratkal
Kaup
Udupi / Malpe (Want to visit St. Mary's if I have time)
Bhatkal / Byndoor
Marawanthe
Murdeshwar
Kasarkod / Honavar
Kumta
Gokarna / OM/ Kudle

Is there any nice beaches between Gokarn and Karwar that should deserve a visit?

Thank you very much n kumar again for all your help.

This concerns me n kumar. Please help me here. I have planned this as Velu who has driven through this stretch estimated it around 5 hours and my plan is start at 6.00am from Murudheswara and my understanding was

Murudheshwara - Jog --- 2 hours

Jog - Shimoga -- 2 hours

Shimoga - Lakkavalli - 1 hour

I am keeping 1 hour for few photo stops and breaks. So I should be able to reach Lakkavalli by 12.00 noon and I want to do that for sure. If that doesn't happen then I have to stay the previous night may be at KSTDC, Jog but that would disturb my plan considerably. I want to drive the ghat section between Honnavara and Jog in morning time for a better photo opportunities.

Velu's post here :

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How long the drive could be from Murudheswar to Lakkavalli (via NH206 through Jog via Honnavar and Shimoga) ? How is the road condition? As I would be booked in River Tern, a JLR properties just for a night, I would prefer to reach resort by 12.00 noon. So need to plan accordingly for a stay in the night before.
From Murdeshwara, get to Honnavara and don't forget to taste "Kotte idly" ( Idly cooked in Jackfruit leaves) which is unique of this region and is available in kamat hotel in Honnavara just on the highway (just before the Highway leading to Jog Falls-Shimoga starts) .Take the right and drive straight and (I did shared the Kms, road conditions again in the same link which I mentioned above) do not forget to take a detour to just have a glimpse of Jog falls and this Bhadra WLS is again a detour of around 24 kms after shimoga in the same highway.
End-to-end , Close to 5 hours I would say
*************

I found similar report in another report here where the person started from Murudheshwara at 10.00am and reached at Shimoga at 2.15pm with a break of 20 mins at Jog. But that was an old report of 2006.

Please tell me if the latest road condition is very bad to overshoot my estimate by a big mergin.

Yes I understand, I have very few options left but was thinking which places need minimum trek/walk, I don't have absolute no time for trekking on this day. Can you tell me if Mullayangiri or Bababudangiri requires Trekking? I can't trek to Hebbe too, I heard from Horticultural GH, jeep can be availed to reduce the trek distance considerably, not sure about the news. Do you aware of any such Jeep and how much the expected cost for that?


Here I am little confused again, I understood Prasanna has taken this drive and as he mentioned in this thread here and here:

*************
Belur to Horanadu (the temple) took me close to 4 hours and the road was challenging as it became dark. Horanadu to Shrigeri was (thinking hard) around 2.30 hrs via Kalasa, as we left Horanadu after lunch and reached Shringeri before the temple was open. From Shringeri, we reached Agumbe.

Shrigeri to Agumbe is around 30 kms and would take approx 45 mins to an hour
**************

So in that case it's 7 hours 30 mins max and if I take some breaks in Hornadu and Kudremukh for photos, add another 1.5 hours, total time shouldn't be more than 9hours to reach Agumbe. So if I start at 7.00am from Belur, I should be at Agumbe by 4.00pm. If I spend an hour and sunset there and start around 5.00pm, I should be able to reach either Srinigeri or Tirthahalli by 6.00pm. In such case I could manage this day but if it's more than 12 hours, I have to think of an alternative plan.

I understand you suggest me to include Bijapur but the two reasons why I haven't included them are

1. The tour is already quite stretched and adding Bijapur that too at end of the trip make it more hectic and that too just for Gol Gombus. May be I would include this in a trip planned to cover Hyderabad - Goa.

2. The last day would be very stretched, specially after visiting Badami caves, another 10 hours drive would be very tiring.

Thanks a lot for sharing hotel number of Belur. I would be really grateful if you can post numbers of few hotels in Thirthahalli. Securing an accommodation there would help me to a great extent with my current plan.

Hi kshil
We visited Wayanad at the end of February. At that time the weather was fine but it was always hazy so the viewpoints had a limited view. At the evening it rained often and when we visited Thamarasery Ghat we could not see anything. We did not visit Edakkal Caves because they were closed for maintenance. And the wild-parks were closed to so we just had a great drive through Muhanga and spotted a black bear, elephants, monkeys and different type of deers.

As I re-read the above it looks as we had a bad trip, in contrary we had great days.

As someone mentioned before the scenery is not overwhelming, enjoyable is a better word to describe it. And this is also true for all the points mentioned in the guidebooks.

For us these points turned out to be the landmarks to give a structure to our itineraries through the region. To make it perfect we had a driver that had a keen eye for interesting things along the road and showed us all kind of plants, agriculture and so on. In other words for us the rides where more satisfactory than the 'official points'.

Back to your questions and plans
Banasura dam is very nice, but you must be prepared to climb a stair with more than 160 steps (my wife counted them)
We liked Karalad lake better than Pookot lake. The latter is more touristic but the advantage is that you can walk around it.

Other great points from our list were Kanthanpara fall (easy to reach), Phantom Rock and Muthanga.

Something else.
One of your other posts you mentioned Ulal beach. We visited it as a bus trip from Mangalore, it has very little to offer.

hi kshil,
The normal time taken to drive this strech from murudeshwar to shimoga is around 5 hours and another 1 hours to lakkavalli and another 15 mins drive to jlf.
So if you start from murudeshwar at 6 am you will reach jlf around 1.30 pm maximum including 30 mins at jog falls,
this is my personal opinion.
I only adviced you to be at jlf by 3.30 pm for the safari.

I have only visited bababudangiri and this does not require any trekking. I have no idea about the jeeps to hebbe and kalahatti falls but i will post about these details later.

You could cover belur and halebid by afternoon and probably after lunch you could travel to horanadu and stay their instead of sringeri. You will be balancing the travel time between these 2 places and staying at horanadu is a fine experince.

Visiting bijapur was just my proposal as you were very close to the place and if you could include this in your next trip its fanastic

Thirthahalli has got some good accomodation and i will get you those details thru my contacts,

with regards

Thanks Theyyam Dancer for finding the Excellent thread.
No Problems Nandakumar Sir.

KShil,

PFB my comments inline



I thought December should be a clear weather and had an idea the fog/mist of December usually happens in North India and not in South. But from your post it seems its not a very clear weather we can expect in the region. Just want to know what time of year one can expect clearest weather in the region? Also what's your idea on weather in coastal belt during December? Clear sky or not?
I meant Haze, Cloudy weather. Mostl
y in coastal karnataka too , it will be Haze in december.


Velu, can you please suggest me an itinerary covering a few good and nice scenic places that won't be very crowded for Waynad considering I have 2 full days to spare. As I am not sure about the geographic locations, can't club them together logically for a day or in a half day. Also the consideration like day shouldn't be tiring is difficult to make unless one is having very good knowledge on the region and the places

Day 1:- Visit Soochipara waterfalls + Chembara peak . Lunch

Around 3 pm visit Pookot lake and View point in Thamaraserry Ghat road

Day 2:- Visit Banasura Dam , Kuruwadweep Island,Tholpetty WLS and Thirunelli temple

Stay at any of the resorts/homestays in Kutta/Iruppu falls area (I dont have contact info but please google_

Day 3:- Visit Iruppu Falls and then proceed to JLR,Karapura (Close to 2 hours travelling time)

Too much of a walk Velu for a particular spot, is it worth taking this effort? How good the Southern India waterfalls are in December?

Soochipara is scenic and worth eventhough all of the karnataka's waterfalls will be with less water and for sure it won't be water gushing down with full force(Same is the case with abbey falls,iruppu falls,Jog Falls,Shivasamudra falls during December).



Velu, is this rush common in case of weekdays too?? I am aware about this weekend rush of Waynad and hence kept my 3 days from Monday, Tuesday and Wed, do you still foresee a problem without prebooking?

No . Weekdays is ok but still it's better to block in advance . The problem is 80% of wayanad's tourist places are closer to kalpetta and only 1 or 2 Budget lodges are there and there are several high end lodges/resorts and apart from that there are few lodges which is not good / very old types. Hence the suggestion.


My bad velu!! I was going to ask you a scenic route with some intermediate good scenic spots for a journey from Kabini to Madikeri (not from Kalpetta to Madikeri). Can you please do that for me?

Kabini to Madikeri is Again Via Kattikulam and you need to take the same route as I specified for kalpetta to Madikeri.


I was talking about Madikeri - Bhagamandala - Kanhangad - Kasanagod route and it's 130km as per google map.

I believe if I take this route I can have a nice evening and sunset from Bekal even before entering the Kasaragod enroute. If I am not mistaking Bekal fort comes between Kanhangad and Kasaragod. The second route would take away much time from me because of long detour and would force me to put Bekal on next day.

There is one parallel Coastal road(Which runs very close to the ocean) just as a parallel road to NH17. If you take any left from NH 17, mostly you will be hitting the ocean or Road which will lead to ocean. So with this logic you can assume Bekal fort is between KAnhangad and Kasaragod. ( I mean there is NH 17 as well as this coastal road between these 2 places).

If Direct Road is opened (It will be opened by Dec for sure). It's just 100 kms from Madikeri to Kasaragod in Super-fine / Scenic Road Via "Sulya" ( This is the normal route between Madikeri and Kasaragod which is currently closed ). Nothing much to worry on this part.

I wish you get it, else I am not sure if I would get any pointer for an accommodation option here.

The hotel name is Century park or plaza. Just turn up and you will get a room here(Atleast that's what we did in all our 3 trips). (Key clue is Look for Malabar gold Jewellery showroom in NH17 KAsaragod bus stand)

I have seen that already and Theyyam even has posted the link in this thread and the post by Steven was extremely informative but only problem is it's 3 years old information, hope someone would be able to post some recent update on this.

Oh ok Kshil.


Hmm.. on this lodge I read some mixed reviews.. some says excellent.. some says waste. Not sure how it actually is but they are quite costly. I was reading in some of your post somewhere you wrote, there are 2 options for accommodation in Maravanthe, if one is Turtle Bay, what is the other one?

I did not stayed but have seen the 3 or 4 lodges which are just spread on the beaches of Maravanthe.I do not have much info on this.

This is worrying me, Prasanna has posted a link in this thread on Srinigeri Temple accommodation and it's clearly written the lodge accommodates on first come first serve basis. As Srinigeri is at end of my journey for the day, I really can't depend on this while planning. That's a big confusion where can I get an alternate accommodation and I would prefer something towards Thirthahalli, where I remember I saw some accommodation option posted in IM somewhere. But direct search is not yielding result, has to search more but hope someone would give me some alternate suggestion

You are right .Let's wait for a better response. Jean-Phillipe might help you with this.He did travelled extensively in that region in his Motorised Bike and he might know some Homestay contacts or smaller hotels/Lesser known hotels. Try pinging him.


As usual excellent informative posts Velu, I am almost certain to stay my Belur nights in KSTDC now but still would ask for the contact number of Hotel Sumuga Residency, if you have that with you.

No Kshil. Please try googling.


If you need more info, Please post.

Regards
Velu

Hi,

I would suggest you to reach Horanadu after Belur/Halebeedu for the night stay. The reason being the choice of accommodation option and fairly good weather. You may consider Shringeri on the return direction. The place I stayed, the Nature Valley is some 7 kms from Kalasa, on the way to the temple, and maybe 2 kms before the temple. Would not rate it star but one cosy little place in the corner of a hill with good views. As for the links, I am checking and will revert, as it makes me a little nervous in this well traveled forum.

Regards

Prasanna

Hmm.. So if February too had haze and rain, then it's much of luck I understand, February as per weather scientist is the driest season in this region.

Any reason why the wild park was closed? Closed for that day or it was a seasonal closure?

Not really I feel that way, Vonkla, every trip is great by its own virtue, your days were great and trip was great too. Yes I do understand that overwhelming, enjoyable are the adjectives those are very relative, may change between persons, locations and even between days for same person at same location. I think with the help from you all, I have set my expectations properly but only thing I feel from my heart, I would enjoy the places, I don't start planning a trip until I really feel attracted to that place.

Absolutely, I too may prefer to simply drive rather than spending time in spots mentioned in guide books. Those are required to prepare the structure of itineraries, very rightly said, my only concern is it should be as per their geographic location, I don't want to do much of crisscrossing.

Is the boating facilities available in Bansasura Dam, Karalad / Pookot lake? Which one is least crowded when you visited?

Haven't you visited Thirunelly / Tholpetta side?

Good info Vonkla, that day I would start from Kasaragod and reach Maravanthe and my most important activity would be to visit St. Mary's Island, so rest what would come up on my way, I may just have a look.

I understand n kumar and I am more worried as I would like to enjoy the JLR stay without any compromise, so I would like to reach even by 12.00 noon. But from the timing you mentioned, it seems then the night should be spent in Honnavara or Jog. Let me think on this, actually I wanted one more night at Murudheshwara to explore the coastal region with some more time. But reaching JLR is definitely a priority.

Please let me know any information on Hebbe and Mullayangiri too, which of them requires less walking, no time to walk on this day. I read and even see some You Tube Videos that Jeeps are available from Kemmangundi Horticultural GH to Hebbe but still some walking is involved, need to understand how much is that walking, Hebbe seems to be remain strong even in colder months.

Prasanna is also suggesting me this to break at Hornadu. Stay at Hornadu means shortening Belur/Halebid by half day and also no rest for 4 consecutive days (Lakkavalli - Belur/ Belur -Halebid - Hornadu/ Hornadu - Kalasa - Kudremukh - Srinigeri - Agumbe - Thirthahalli/ Thirthahalli - Shimoga - Badami) I was thinking if Belur - Hornadu takes 4 hours and if I start at 6.00am from Belur, I should be there at 10.00am. If I start at 11.00am with breaks and photostops in between I should be at Srinigeri by 3.00pm (4 hrs). Now as I won't be stopping at Srinigeri, I think I should reach Agumbe by 4.00pm and spend an hour there and try to see the sunset. Then Agumbe to Thirthahalli is 30 mins drive, If I start at 5.30pm, I should be able to reach by 6.00pm. I have to closely think on pros and con between breaking at Hornadu as also I am not sure being 25th Dec Holiday, I should take a chance of hitting a place with limited accommodation so late .

Yes I have got a few contacts and most probably going to book one soon.

Velu, thanks again for this help, I am almost planning the same, so it's mostly fixed, I believe I would close the acco part by tomorrow, 2 Nights at Kalpetta and 1 Night at KTDC, Tamarind Thirunelly, seems to be my choice. I like KTDC resorts though I know this would be budget but suits with my itinerary very well.

Don't care on water level to be honest, I am thrilled that I could see so many waterfalls in that region, yes soochipara is in my itinerary.

Yes Velu, I believe Waynad part is closed now, we have a decent plan in hand on this region.

Direct or No direct, I am going to Kasaragod from Madikeri after having a look at Abbey Falls. Road, let's take a call on spot and I hope I would get update on both the roads before trip, it's still 4 months away. Also would like to spend the evening at Bekal Fort. Let's see how it shapes up.

Thanks Velu, I got this and also a list of Kasaragod Hotels from net, seems there are many options, so not much tension now, but I would try to hit this one first for sure.

Maravanthe would also be closed as I have zeroed in on Turtle Bay, spoken to them and going to book it soon.

Thirthahalli is same, spoken to few hotels/ resort and going to book soon.

So to sum up except Hampi/Badami rest part has taken a satisfactory shape now. Thanks to all of you for your help.

Hmm, n kumar too suggested that, what I wrote him was :

"Prasanna is also suggesting me this to break at Hornadu. Stay at Hornadu means shortening Belur/Halebid by half day and also no rest for 4 consecutive days (Lakkavalli - Belur/ Belur -Halebid - Hornadu/ Hornadu - Kalasa - Kudremukh - Srinigeri - Agumbe - Thirthahalli/ Thirthahalli - Shimoga - Badami) I was thinking if Belur - Hornadu takes 4 hours and if I start at 6.00am from Belur, I should be there at 10.00am. If I start at 11.00am with breaks and photostops in between I should be at Srinigeri by 3.00pm (4 hrs). Now as I won't be stopping at Srinigeri, I think I should reach Agumbe by 4.00pm and spend an hour there and try to see the sunset. Then Agumbe to Thirthahalli is 30 mins drive, If I start at 5.30pm, I should be able to reach by 6.00pm. I have to closely think on pros and con between breaking at Hornadu as also I am not sure being 25th Dec Holiday, I should take a chance of hitting a place with limited accommodation so late ."

Why nervous Prasanna, all your points / views are so crucial, it helped me a lot to be honest, IM is IM just because it has many people like you

To All

As my initial questions are almost all answered and helped me to plan for 80% of my trip, just want to concerntrate more on the rest 20% part. That's Badami and Hampi

1. How to go from Thirthahalli to Badami:

Plan is:

Thirthahalli - Shimoga -- Harihar (On NH4) --Haveri - Gadag -- Badami -- Is this a route I could take? I have seen Shimoga - Harihar - Hospet Bus of KSRTC that covers in 5.5 hours. So upto Harihar I am confident, Harihar -- Haveri is on NH4, not an issue but after Haveri, if I take Lakshmeshwar - Gadag - Ron - Badami, can anyone tell me how is the road? Or should I proceed from Haveri - Hubli by NH4 and Hubli - Badami via NH218.

Few people suggesting me to take Shimoga - Chitradurga - Hospet - Badami but that's quite long,

Anyone having any idea if I completely avoid Shimoga and take the SH through Thirthahalli - Konandur - Ripponpet (Crossing NH206) --Shikaripur -- Siralkoppa --Thilavalli - Haveri, what type of road I have to face. This is actually the shortest route and if the roads are generally in a better shape in December and someone can throw some light I may take this route.

2. Which is a value for money Hotel at Badami?

Badami Court is expensive? How is KSTDC Chalukya? I never heard much of good feedback on Badami hotels, can anyone throw any light?

3. If I keep a whole day for Badami / Aihole / Pattadakal, should I stay that night at Badami or I can move to Hampi after comfortably covering three places?

4. I will be having 2 and half days in Hampi and still can't make out a good itinerary, seems quite complex? Anyone can share some 2/3 days itineraries that you have covered at Hampi?

5. Is there any bridge on River there or Coracle is only option if someone wants to go up in Hanuman Temple that's on other side of river?

6. How safe these places to climb before sunrise for sunrise view? Any recommended place to take some nice landscape snaps of Hampi?

7. How is hotel KSTDC Maurya Bhuvaneshwari? Any recommendation of hotels for 3 Nights around Hampi, definitely not looking into very expensive or very cheap.

Hope someone would again be helping me with this part of plan.

TD's Hampi report might be of some help to you.

Hi,
Congradulations to to you and hats off the IM on this issue.
This is the place where i am really concerned.
Prasanna is also suggesting me this to break at Hornadu. Stay at Hornadu means shortening Belur/Halebid by half day and also no rest for 4 consecutive days (Lakkavalli - Belur/ Belur -Halebid - Hornadu/ Hornadu - Kalasa - Kudremukh - Srinigeri - Agumbe - Thirthahalli/ Thirthahalli - Shimoga - Badami) I was thinking if Belur - Hornadu takes 4 hours and if I start at 6.00am from Belur, I should be there at 10.00am. If I start at 11.00am with breaks and photostops in between I should be at Srinigeri by 3.00pm (4 hrs). Now as I won't be stopping at Srinigeri, I think I should reach Agumbe by 4.00pm and spend an hour there and try to see the sunset. Then Agumbe to Thirthahalli is 30 mins drive, If I start at 5.30pm, I should be able to reach by 6.00pm. I have to closely think on pros and con between breaking at Hornadu as also I am not sure being 25th Dec Holiday, I should take a chance of hitting a place with limited accommodation so late .
My suggestions :
Belur and halebid requires half a day and after lunch travel to horanadu so that you reach the place around 6/7 pm.
The next you can take part in the aarthi at 12.30 pm, have temple lunch and then travel to sringeri spend an hour or so and travel to thirthahalli via agumbe

Badami court is the most expensive hotel, you have 2/3 small hotels other than kstdc.

Aihole and pattadakal are all on the way to hampi from badami,
so it makes sense to travel to hampi.
to be cont.......d

@Aarosh, thanks a lot buddy, you have an excellent index in built and you could find so easily some excellent posts. Though this one I have read couple of times, TD herself put the link in the start of this thread and I read that and noted few points.

@n kumar, Thanks for your help and yes I do agree it's IM that can do this magic, I was reading the thread from start again and found it's even difficult to assimilate and take down all the points several IMers mentioned here, it' so deep.

Belur - Hornadu - Kalasa - Kudremukh - Srinigeri - Agumbe - Thirthahalli, I am keeping open for comments from IMers and then I would take a call. I understand it's difficult but as I won't be visiting any of these temples in detail, I may able to manage. With the intention of detail visit to temples, I agree the plan is not a good one.

Now I am more concerned on the questions on Badami and Hampi and hope some experts of Northern Karnataka would help me here.

As far as I understood the always close half February, we were just a week to late.


We did not do any boating but this is what we remember of it.

Banasura Dam, it is a large lake and their was boating facility, but to reach it we had to climb down at the other side of the Dam (after climbing already over 200 steps). Besides a school class there were not many visitors.

At Pookot lake there were pedalo's and probably also other boating. It is quit busy but you can easy walk around the lake.

Karalad is small and less visited, I think there too were pedalo's. I managed to walk around it but get wet feet in since I slipped from a small bridge.
No



We visited Badami as well as Hampi in January 2007. We stayed in both KSTDC hotels. The one near Hampi was fine, the one in Badami was very simple.
For more details see the January part of our journal Mumbai-Dehli in three months