Hyderabad to Chikamagalur road trip

[RajG]

After staying abroad for five years.
I decided to come back to India for good.

Reason for the drive?

You will find out soon.. ?

 

Top three places to visit in Chikmagalur:

1. Mullayangiri

2. Baba Budangiri

3. Jehri waterfalls

 

Route 1:

Best route from Hyderabad to Chikmagalur
Hyderabad --> Kurnool --> Ananthapur --> Doddaballapura --> Visveswarapura--> Hassan --> Chikmagalur

 

Hyderabad to Doddaballapura : Excellent 4-lane toll road

Doddaballapura to Visveswarapura : Single road, road condition is average, but helps in avoiding Bangalore traffic.
You can skip Banaglore traffic using this bypass.

Visveswarapura to Hassan : Excellent 4-lane toll road

Hassan to Chikmagalur : Single road, road condition is excellent.

 

It took us around 13 hour to cover this route, while coming back from Chikmagalur to Hyderabad. 

 

Route 2:

Worst route from Hyderabad to Chikmagalur

Hyderabad --> Kurnool --> Ananthapur --> Challakere --> Hiriyur --> Chikmagalur

 

We took this route, while going from Hyderabad to Chikmagalur, just to check the status.

• It is a bad decision. 
• Roads are very bad once you divert from Ananthapur.
• There are some mud tracks.
• Too many diversions.
• No proper dhabas.
• No proper fuel options.
• Avoid this route at any cost.

 

 

 

Hyderabad to Chikmagalur four days road trip plan and hotel details:

Day 1:
Hyderabad to Chikmagalur town

Accommodation in Chikmagalur town

On day 1, it is better to take accommodation in the Chikmagalur town.

Reason? Accommodations are cheap and good in the town.
By the time you reach Chikmagalur it will be evening, it is better to stay in town.
Most of the sight seeing spots are under 40~50 kilometres from the Chikmagalur town. 

 

Accommodation :

• Name : Hotel Blue Perl Chikmagalur
• Price : 2.5k per day (3 pax)
• Hotel Rating : 5/5
• New construction
• Car parking is avilable
• Rooms are modern and neat
• Gobibo url

 

Day 2: 

Chikmagalur town to Mulyangiri

• Mulyangiri is a must visit place in Chikmagalur, it is the highest peak in Karnataka.
• It is around 20 kilometres from town. 
• Roads are little tricky but, it is accessible by all cars.
• Dedicated car parking available
• 200 steps from the parking, need to some energy to climb.
• Carry water and don't litter.
• There is temple at the hill top, with beautiful view.
• Weather can be spoil sport, some time visibility is almost zero and some times it is clear.
• Luckily we experienced both

 

Accommodation :

• Name : Kuteer home stay
• Price : 14k per day (6 pax)
• Food : 4k per day (6 pax)  (Includes: Bonfire,Lunch, Evening snacks, Dinner and breakfast)
• Hotel Rating : 4.5/5
• Food : Only vegetarian, but the quality is good, would rate 5/5
• Location is tough to reach, low GC cars will have tough time. 
• But they have jeep facility (for less  experienced drivers better to take jeep and park the car at the parking)
• Resort is very isolated better to visit only in group.
• View from the resort is best.
• They have two villas, each villa can accommodate around 10 members. 
• Staff is very supportive. 
• Carry all the stuff along with you, there are no shops/hotels around the resort. 
• You can carry your own liquor but it is tricky if you get caught at the forest check-post.
• Forest check-post is present at the entrance of the hill section, they check the cars randomly.
• For booking you can call the resort owner.
• You need to do the full/advance payment while booking.
• Issues? Too many insects, but it is expected when we say in the nature. 

 

Day 3

• Jahari waterfalls, it is around 2 kilomters from the home stay.
• You can visit this place in home stay jeep.
• 4x4 territory, don't attempt in your own car.
• Since we stay very close to waterfalls, we reached the place early.
• It is completely empty, not even a single person is present.
• Baba Budangiri is a must visit place. 
• Once you enter Baba Budangiri road drive till the end point, i.e Manikyadhara waterfalls.
• There are multiple view points. 

 

Accommodation :
Same as above

 

Day 4 :

Drive from Chikmagalur to Hyderabad.

• It took us around 13 hours.
• We started around 9AM and we reached home around 10PM.
• We also tried the famous Kothakota chicken, food is strictly average.

 

 

Total trip cost (6 members)

• Accommodation : 5k(day 1) + 14k(day 2) + 14k(day 3) = 33k
• Fuel : 11kmpl (1600 kilometres) = 10k
• Food : 3k(day 1) + 4k (day 2)+ 4k (day 3) + 4k (day 4) = 19k

 

Picture credits: @Ranger

[RajG]

Day1: Hyderabad to Chikmagalur

 

We started at 5AM in the morning. Fuel re-fill on Hyderabad-Bangalore highway.

Nothing can beat the smoothness of Hyderabad-Bangalore highway!

If you dis-agree, please tell me which route it is..I will plan my next drive to that place!

Never ending tolls

Breakfast stop at Food Pyramid. 
Food quality is good. Neat washrooms and kids play area. 

We took a diversion at Ananthapur and found these windmills

From Anathapur to Chikmagalur it is a single lane road.

Some stretches are too good

and some are very bad

Clouds started playing hide and seek, weather was cool throughout the day. 

We reached the outskirts of Chikmagalur around 6PM.
We took a quick break at this beautiful sunset view point.

Soon the light started to fade out..we headed towards the town.

Our accommodation at Hotel Blue Perl is excellent, it is newly constructed hotel and rooms are very clean.

 

On day 1, overall mileage is around 12 KMPL.

Distance travelled around 700 kilometres. 

[RajG]

Day 2:
Chikmagalur town > Mulyangiri > Kuteer home stay

 

We decided to reach Kuteer home stay by afternoon and relax for the day.
The main reason for driving down to Chikmagalur is to relax.

 

En-route to Mulyangiri, it is around 20 kilometres from Chikmagalur town.

Your vehicle can be checked at the forest check-post. 

One cannot carry liquor beyond that checkpost, unless you have a resort booking in the forest. 

Hair pins and view points!

Roads started getting bad as we approach Muliyangiri peak, Old Honda city had tough time, but he managed to progress slowly. 

After parking at the peak entrance, we need to climb around 200 steps. 

It is worth the climb, has a beautiful view from the hill top. 

View from the hill top temple.

Some more pictures taken at different view points

Greenery everywhere, I couldn't find a single patch which is dry. 

After spending around two hours.
We started driving towards the home stay. 

No mobile signals, please load offline maps in advance. 

?

It started drizzling, perfect!

View started getting better and better as we approach the resort. 

Our stay is present some where in those hills

Quick snap at a view point. 

Approach road to resort is very bad. 
Resort guys have a jeep.
If you are not confident park you car and go in a jeep.

But we decided to drive.

Mud tack is too bad, we had a several heart in mouth moments, after driving around 2 kilometres we finally reached the resort. 

Dream home?

This home-stay is worth every single penny!

Camp fire

Vehicle parking

Very neatly maintained interiors 

They charged us around 4k for full day food, it tasted awesome (only vegetarian) 

Reason for the drive?
Best view point, best accommodation and best Coca-cola ?

Awesome  weather and the mountains view from the home-stay make you feel refreshing.

Ambience is too good.

[RajG]

Day: 3
Explore waterfalls near the resort.
Waterfalls name : Jhari waterfalls.

Waterfall usually opens at 9AM.
Since we stayed inside the forest.
We took the resort jeep and went till waterfalls, around 8 AM.

Don't attempt in your own vehicles, curves are too steep. 

No single person is present at the waterfalls, apart from us!

 

They charged us 500/- for ride to waterfalls

200 meter walk from the road..

 

After spending some time at the waterfalls, we returned back to the home stay.
Had breakfast and started to Babu Budangiri.

Clouds! We took some off-road trails.

Once the visibility is clear, we drove further.

Zero crowd,  we stayed here for an hour and enjoyed the view.

Photo time

Breath taking view

Some more pictures at the different view points.

 

 

 

Day 4:
We drove back from Kuteer to Hyderabad.

We started at 9AM and reached home around 10PM.

 

Thank you

[Sridhar Tandra]

On 6/18/2018 at 2:58 PM, RajG said:

Price : 14k per day (6 pax)

Is the price same (14k) irrespective of number of people? or does that change based on how many people we are in a group?

 

On 6/18/2018 at 2:58 PM, RajG said:

best Coca-cola

Best Coke eh? I see something else, an Old Monk waiting

[uday]

1 hour ago, Sridhar Tandra said:

Is the price same (14k) irrespective of number of people? or does that change based on how many people we are in a group?

The price is based on per head count.

 

Excellent pictures and fantastic write-up.

Had a great monsoon vacation. ?

[Gowtham]

Thank you for penning down the information so quickly!

 

1 hour ago, Sridhar Tandra said:

Is the price same (14k) irrespective of number of people?

No, it is based on number of people.
But there wont be a huge difference, i think 14k is the base price.

 

Food is 4k for six members, includes breakfast, lunch, evening snacks and dinner. 

 

View from the resort is excellent. 
Hope some day we will make it to this place for a meetup. 

[RajG]

1 hour ago, Sridhar Tandra said:

Best Coke eh? I see something else, an Old Monk waiting

 

In the middle of forest, indulged in nature,

Sitting over a drink with friends and forgetting the worries in life.

It is working.,Old is Gold. I'm talking about Coca-Cola?

Hope posting a Coca-Cola pictures is not against the rules. ?

 

1 hour ago, uday said:

fantastic write-up.

 

14 minutes ago, Ranger said:

Thank you for penning down the information so quickly!

 

Thank you guys, this is my first post. 

Excited to write and share it. 

 

Let me attach the bill per day.

 

[shiva]

Weather is ?

I heard heavy rains?

Did you guys face any challenges?

How are the local roads?

[sagar]

Excellent post @RajG. Awesome pictures. Looks like you guys were lucky to have escaped the heavy rainfall during the trip  You guys should have visited the Bhadra wildlife sanctuary too 

[Sridhar Tandra]

17 hours ago, Ranger said:

make it to this place for a meetup

Already Excited then

 

17 hours ago, RajG said:

I'm talking about Coca-Cola?

be sure of what you say  you might get only a Coke next time.

 

17 hours ago, Ranger said:

i think 14k is the base price

Thanks @Ranger

[RajG]

16 hours ago, sagar said:

Bhadra wildlife sanctuary too 

 

It is just a four days trip.
It is more like a relaxation trip. 

We finalised the destination based on resort, If this resort was not available, we would have landed in Goa. ?

 

17 hours ago, shiva said:

I heard heavy rains?

Did you guys face any challenges?

How are the local roads?

 

No heavy rains during our visit.

Local roads are good, no issues, cars like Honda city are roaming around without any hurdles.  

 

15 hours ago, Sridhar Tandra said:

Already Excited then

 

I will join again, In love with the ambience of this resort. If only we have access to monk. ?

 

 

 

[shiva]

On 6/21/2018 at 10:10 AM, RajG said:

No heavy rains during our visit.

Local roads are good, no issues, cars like Honda city are roaming around without any hurdles.  

 

Thank you for the update.

[Naveen1]

Wow, I missed this log.

Fantastic information and pictures are marvellous.

Justice for a monsoon getaway.

 

I love the resort. 

If I am not wrong this resort is located enroute to waterfalls right? 

[Musafir]

What is the best route now in 2019?

What are must visit places for 5 days trip?

[RajG]

10 hours ago, Musafir said:

What is the best route now in 2019?

 

Via Bangalore is good to go. Don't take the shorter route. It is very bad.

 

10 hours ago, Musafir said:

What are must visit places for 5 days trip?

 

Four days is good enough.
On day1, Stay in the Chikmagalur town.
On day2 and 3, Stay in the guest houses, these are located in hills.

[sagar]

On ‎8‎/‎1‎/‎2019 at 11:21 PM, Musafir said:

What are must visit places

 Places to be Covered:

1. Mullayanagari

2. Gaalikere

3. Bababudangiri (Datta Peeta)

4. Manikyadhaara and Kadambi Falls

5. Attigundi

6. Kemmangundi

7. Hebbe Falls and Kalahatti Falls

8. Rose Garden

9. Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary

10. Ayyanakere Lake

 

you can also check out the link below for a detailed log

 

 

 

[Guest Guna]

On 6/20/2018 at 3:38 PM, uday said:

The price is based on per head count.

 

Excellent pictures and fantastic write-up.

Had a great monsoon vacation. ?

Hi
Need some info regarding the trip.. Can we make it in Alto 800 car(2017 model) (2 Adults 2 children(below 5). How much it will cost for 4 days based on your view 

[Gowtham]

7 hours ago, Guest Guna said:

Can we make it in Alto 800 car(2017 model) (2 Adults 2 children(below 5)

 

You can do it in Alto can comfortably. There wont be any issues.

 

7 hours ago, Guest Guna said:

How much it will cost for 4 days based on your view 

 

A decent accommodation costs around 2k~3k per day. 
You can close it around 15000/-