Hyderabad to Araku valley and Vizag.

[hsudhir]

This has happened just a week ago on my way to attend my friend's wedding. It had all started with a group of 4 friends when we started to make up a plan to circuit the Araku valley and the beautiful beaches of Vizag. Few other friends of mine had pooled in and we ended up a group of 8 guys. We had planned to make it a road trip to bag in more memories and have rented 2 Ford Ecosports from 'Zoom Cars'. Unfortunately, Zoom cars had failed to rent us the the Ford as per the booking status and has replaced one with the Honda Jazz and that's how it all began.

 

Where : Araku valley, Vishakapatanam, Andhra Pradesh

Distance : ~700 kilometres (one-way)

Stay: Jungle bells Resort, Tyda.

 

Route Taken: 

Hyderabad (Gachibowli) - Vijayawada - Rajamundry - Annavaram - Vishakapatanam - Araku.

 

Best places to visit in Aruku

1. Ananthagiri Hills

2. Borra Caves

3. Katiki waterfalls
4. Chaparai waterfalls
5. Tyda nature camp

Best places to visit in Vizag
1. Yarada beach
2. Bheemili beach
3. Kailashgiri
4. Rishikonda beach

 

Cover pic

 

[hsudhir]

Having just 2 days in our hands which could fit in to our schedule, we thought of covering all the possible places and most importantly enjoy the drive on the ghat.

 

Heading our way to some view points, we took a pit stop where the valley offered magnificent views

 

 

Drive through this ghat was the best part of the trip and we had enjoyed every bit of this.

 

 

We stopped by our first destination, The Borra Caves. An arched entrance greeted us as we made our way slowly into the colossal caves. 

 

Numerous man made steps have been carved into the rocky terrain which are an amateur trekker's delight.

 

Stalactites and Stalagmites formations are seen in the interiors of these caves.

 

The views inside the cave were very intriguing which were said to have originated from the river Gosthani due to its continuous flow of action over the rocks.

 

 

2 kms from Borra Caves exists the Katiki waterfalls which involved some amount of travel on a Jeep to be hired and walk. We skipped to cover the falls as it could eat up a day's time which would be late for us to cover the rest of the places in Araku.

 

We drove down to our next destination across the Ananthagiri hills in Araku.

 

 

 

Our next destination was Thatiguda waterfalls which needed a diversion from the main road through the Thatiguda village.

 

Drive through the narrow deserted lanes enroute was quite fun and exciting.

 

[hsudhir]

We had reached the Thatiguda waterfall point and the views which the valley had offered was just breathtaking. 

 

Few stairs down to reach the foot of the falls

 

Breathtaking view of the valley between the clouds

 

The sun shone bright that noon. But, rain was all we had expected which could have shown up more green to the naked eye. 

 

 

The water flow at the Thatiguda waterfall disappointed us but the view what we had experienced at this place was quite refreshing.

 

Thatiguda village was surrounded by a lot of green crops which gave us a very pleasant feeling.

 

Thatiguda village road

 

 

The drive was set back through the narrow village roads until we reached the main road to head to our next destination.

 

Our next destination was the Gaalikonda view point enroute Araku.

 

A bird's eye view of the whole valley from the view point

 

This view point is one of the highest view points in the Araku valley.

 

Approach road to the Gaalikonda view point.

 

We drove through a numerous coffee estates and stopped by for a snacker.

 

 

The time passed  6 PM and the commercial point where the coffee is being sold was already closed for the day

 

The Jungle bells resort by Harita in Tyda lays amidst the forest on to the main road which is quite decent for a stay.

 

The newly built A/C wooden cottages were the best of our stay options we opted.

 

The resort management had arranged a traditional dance show of the native tribes for the residents in the night.

 

 

The next morning, Our drive was set back at pace towards Vizag via Thatipudi.

 

A click of the Thatipudi Reservoir enroute.

 

 

We reached Vizag by noon to relax at several beach points.

 

Beautiful views of the Bheemili beach.

 

 

Clicking our last pic at the RK beach, our drive was all set to hit back home. It has turned out to be a pleasant weekend overall.

[Gowtham]

Beautiful pictures and narration.

 

I have been to Aruku in 2011, it is been almost 6 years.

 

I have few questions.

 

1.How is the climate in Aruku? I heard December is the best time to visit.

 

2. Any new places to explore?

 

3. How much did the accommodation cost?

Is it safe for families?

 

4. How are roads from vizag to Aruku?

[sagar]

It has been a short trip but had so much fun driving through the ghats. 

 

[hsudhir]

@Ranger Thanks you so much .. 

The road condition throughout the drive were excellent. and most enjoyable drive happened between Vizag and Araku and I would say ecosport was the right option we opted for this drive. Where as, Honda Jazz wasn't so impressive as Ecosport was. 

The accommodation costed us  around 2000 INR for a night which we felt was worth booking for 3 members. Also, the food was good at the restaurant inside the resort.

The bookings were so full at the resort and very much safe for families. Note: There are monkeys inside the resort and we did not face any problem with them.

Weather has turned out to be one of the most frustrating thing. It was very humid and hot. We expected rains being the mid of monsoon season which did not happen.

 

[Saran]

This has happened just a week ago on my way to attend my friend's wedding. It had all started with a group of 4 friends when we started to make up a plan to circuit the Araku valley and the beautiful beaches of Vizag. Few other friends of mine had pooled in and we ended up a group of 8 guys. We had planned to make it a road trip to bag in more memories and have rented 2 Ford Ecosports from 'Zoom Cars'. Unfortunately, Zoom cars had failed to rent us the the Ford as per the booking status and has replaced one with the Honda Jazz and that's how it all began.
 

Where : Araku valley, Vishakapatanam, Andhra Pradesh

Distance : ~700 kilometres (one-way)

Stay: Jungle bells Resort, Tyda.

 

Route Taken: 

Hyderabad (Gachibowli) - Vijayawada - Rajamundry - Annavaram - Vishakapatanam - Araku.

 

Cover pic

 

Nice pics@hsudhir



Sent from my S7 - Using India-Drive App

[venkat]

Place is very neat.
Agree on climate, it is always humid.

Best time is November mid to Jan 1st week.
In monsoon, it is little sultry.

[mayank]

Brilliant travel story accompanied by superb pictures @hsudhir. You have not missed any detail to mention. Araku is a place which is surely not to be missed out on during the winters. It is very cloudy and beautiful. Treks in Araku will be very exciting where you get a chance to meet the local tribes who usually are not to be known to the outside world.

[bpt]

Hi @hsudhir, excellent post. Very informative. I am planning to do this trip from Hyderabad for this Sankranthi weekend next week. I have heard of the Hot air Balloon festival in Araku during this month of January. Any information on that buddy?

[rkamal]

fantastic pictures and a well written triplog with all the places to see. nice!

[karthik]

Visited Vizag during end of December. 

 

I have very less expectations on the City.

I was blown away by cleanliness and well organised roads around Vizag.

 

Even beaches are clean and good.

Many new resorts are available around the beach. 

[sagar]

On ‎1‎/‎7‎/‎2019 at 9:22 AM, bpt said:

 I have heard of the Hot air Balloon festival in Araku during this month of January. Any information on that buddy?

 

I have been to araku 4 times till now, never heard of this hot air balloon ride in this area before.. Or, Is it any new initiative from the AP tourism department? Any additional information on this would be helpful if this is true ?

[hsudhir]

On ‎1‎/‎7‎/‎2019 at 9:22 AM, bpt said:

Hi @hsudhir, excellent post. Very informative. I am planning to do this trip from Hyderabad for this Sankranthi weekend next week. I have heard of the Hot air Balloon festival in Araku during this month of January. Any information on that buddy?

 

Hi bpt, My friend who hails from Vizag had told me that it was conducted in 2017 in Araku for the first time by AP Government. This year it's said to be scheduled between 18th to 20th of January in the valley.

There were different shaped balloons available such as Chicken Egg, Honey bee and Baby car which we can choose apart from the regular balloon rides. 

[Sridhar Tandra]

On 1/8/2019 at 12:29 PM, sagar said:

Any additional information on this would be helpful if this is true ?

Too costly and not worth it @sagar I tried contacting the organizers to see what are they up to and ended up with a Europe trip on mind after looking at their pricing.

 

 

[hsudhir]

1 hour ago, Sridhar Tandra said:

Too costly and not worth it @sagar I tried contacting the organizers to see what are they up to and ended up with a Europe trip on mind after looking at their pricing.

 

This pricing is heights, I doubt if people would really go for this :O I was expecting it to be around 8K to 10K at the maximum and I am no where close to these numbers :@

[Sridhar Tandra]

33 minutes ago, hsudhir said:

I was expecting it to be around 8K to 10K at the maximum and I am no where close to these numbers

True! Even I was under the same assumption and checked with them to plan a trip with family, but changed my mind after looking at that quote!

[sagar]

3 hours ago, Sridhar Tandra said:

Too costly and not worth it @sagar I tried contacting the organizers to see what are they up to and ended up with a Europe trip on mind after looking at their pricing.

 

Haha.. Super expensive this is. Cappadocia's air balloon ride over the mud caves would be a lot better when compared to the one in the Araku valley. I was mistaken that tourism department has taken a good initiative by introducing something unique which could be a USP to this place. I'm worried that this productive step by them is going to be of no use to serve tourists