stay in konark or bhubaneswar?

alouise

Hi Odisha lovers, has anyone stayed at the Yatri Nivas government hotel in Konark? Is it worthwhile staying there? I was thinking of staying overnight there rather than returning to Bhubaneswar on a day trip.

The thing is, I will only have three days in Bhubaneswar before catching an early morning train south to Srikakulam and I also plan a visit to Ratnagiri, Lalitgiri and Udayagiri. Not visiting Puri(or Chilka), so could probably just use Bhubaneswar as a base. Say, visit the Buddhist triangle as one day trip. Another day trip starting early at Dhauli, then to Konark early afternoon and return late afternoon. Would this be feasible, or is the transport situation going to laugh at this plan? Any feedback would be much appreciated.

edwardseco

Konark is much better! I didn't stay at the Govt. place but they had a mean French toast at the restaurant..

alouise

Yes, edwardseco, I think you could be right. Few people on IM and elsewhere rave about Bhubaneswar and I recall a couple of posts suggesting the place might have its charms .....as if to say they hadn't found them yet. The setting at Konark, with sun temple and beach does look far more enticing.

patnayak

Hey alouise Yatri Nivas is a basic accomodation kind of place.My suggestion would be start in the morning from Bhubaneswar and cover Puri and Konark on the same day .Stay in Puri overnight .Then visit Satapada (Chilika Lake ) the next day.Distance from Bhubaneswar to Puri is 60 km and from Puri to Konark is 30 Kms.Return to Bhubaneswar the next day and try visiting Dhauli ,Khandagiri,Rajarani temple etc

alouise

Thanx Patnayak. Good to hear Konark can be covered in one day from Bhubaneswar. Unfortunately I would not be visiting Chilka and Puri, though, as I only have time this trip for seeing the more ancient temple sites.

smo

Is there any specific reason to stay at Konark ? If you want to see sun rise at Konark beach ( Chandrabhaga beach ) then only you need to stay at Konark. As you are not going to Puri & Chilika you can return to Bhubaneswar any time. Konark is 2 hours drive from Bhubaneswar, visit to Sun temple will take one hour and then you can return.

BTW are you planning to visit the Budhist circuit at Visakhapatnam or Srikakulam ? Just want to know what is there at Srikakulam ?

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alouise

No reason, other than to spend more time at the sun temple and museum. I am going to Srikakulam to see Salihundam and nearby Kalingapatnam. There's also the Hindu temples at Srikurman and Arsavalli, which are fairly close to Srikakulam. Apparently not many foreign tourists visit this area - or Vishakapatnam, really - and I guess I might be about to find out the reason for that - or perhaps not.

70s-80s overlander

For me, one of the highlights of my trips to India was staying across the road from the Sun Temple at Konark -- arriving as the sun was going down then being right there the next morning as the sun was coming up. It both cases -- especially the latter -- there were few tourists with which to contend. About a half-hour after sunrise the place was swarming with tourists.

My plan for next time is to be there just before sun rise, then rest much of the day, then be there just before sun down -- then zip back to Bhubaneswar by taxi to catch an overnight train south.

alouise

Yes, I suspected the sun temple would be amazing at sunrise and sunset. One good reason to stay overnight in Konark!

Bhaswaran

Please give details of staying options in Konark. Are there any local transport like buses plying from Konark to Bhubaneshwar and also to Puri?

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steven_ber

Bhubaneshwar was the surprise place for me on my last trip, a really wonderful city.

In the south of the city is a small lake (tank), all around this tank are temples, and off the north west side of the tank is a newly created eco garden, it's not big, but it's full of different trees, grasses, shrubs etc. and there's an explanation next to everything explaining how the different parts of the plant can be used medically, it's a really nice place to relax.

Every road that leads away from the tank is either full of very old temples or has wonderfully coloured houses and great street life.

I really enjoyed Bhubaneshwar, and out of the 3 days in the area, I ended up only spending half a day to see Puri and Konark, don't miss Bhubaneshwar.

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Nattusbs

Hi Steven_ber

Nice to see your very positive thoughts on Bhubaneswar (spelt BBSR for short!). I was brought up in BBSR between 1966 and 1981 - so 15 years. In those days, it was a sleepy capital city, with clean air. We used to have nasty monsoon storms, one time, I remember my Mom was out of town and my Dad got his finger jammed when a window of the house slammed on it during a very bad storm. Poor Dad, he silently went through the pain to make food for the 2 kids (my brother & I). Many a times we used to go to Khurda Road in the middle of the night to receive a relative since that was the major train junction where the HWH-Madras Mail would stop. My Dad used to drive 15 miles towards Cuttack just to get freh Rasagoola at a small place called Pahala. Now, it has changed a lot - I could not recognize it last Oct especially the redone main platform of the station. I do remember the many trips that my family made to Konarak, Puri, Khandagiri & Udaygiri. Unfortunately, we never went to Chilka. I would love to make the trip again. There is also a Buddhist temple - I forget the name - Dhauli maybe?

Cheers for the nostalgia.

Nattusbs

nedhopkins

Bubaneswar has many interesting attractions -- temples, the zoo; to explore it fully requires at least three days.

Konark has one, though it is a magnificent complex, it doesn't take even a full day to explore. A day-trip from Bubaneswar could include gboth Konark and Puri.

As am elderly and retired guy, I chose to stay in Bubaneswar and at the Hilton in that city. It is a first-class hotel.

steven_ber

I'd imagine it has changed a lot, but to me, it was probibly the nicest and cleanest 'big city' railway station, especially the main platforn (pl. one I assume, the northbound platform), the entrance and the reservation centre.

All these areas had wonderful wood carved plaques (is that the right word) that seemed full of Orisan pride, it was really pleasant walking around the station.

Here's one of those wood things, it's a poor photo though, the thing is about 15 foot long.



Bhubaneshwar has a foriegn tourist window......but they can't access the foriegn tourist quota (I know, we couldn't make this stuff up ), but if a person is polite, they can ask the reservation supervisor to ask his area manager (in Kolkata, only after 10:00) for the relevent code, then their waitlisted ticket will be changed to changed to a foreign tourist quota ticket.

Bhubaneshwar is a great city to explore.