With Christmas vacations round the corner we were still debating whether we should do our much awaited Hyderabad trip or do something different. With the Telangana issues, many of our friends advised us to avoid Hyderabad. Last minute we canceled our train tickets . With plane tickets at soaring high prices and no hopes of getting train tickets, we thought the best way would be to DRIVE. We were debating on driving to Kanyakumari or drive to the Coastal belt of Karnataka. At last we zeroed on Coastal Karnataka.
Our plan was to drive to my hometown Belgaum, spend couple of days there and then travel to Karwar, Murdeshwar, Udupi, Shimoga, Chikmangalur and back to Bangalore. The whole trip was planned for 9 days (25th Dec – 2nd Jan)
Day 1 – Drive from Bangalore to Belgaum
This was our first road trip to Belgaum. Though we had drove to most of our vacations, going to Belgaum by car was first time. We were not sure how the kids would be on such a long drive (Belgaum is around 520 Kms from Bangalore). We started at 6:30AM from B’lore all charged up. Driving on NH4 is quite different from driving through the state highways. State highways are more scenic and with less traffic. We had our breakfast at Kamat Upachar near Tumkur and lunch at Haveri. We reached Belgaum at 3:30PM. Surprisingly none of us felt tired and kids were not cranky yet.
Day 2 – Chill out at Belgaum
Spent the time with my family
Day 3 – Stay at “The Hermitage Guest House” – Nersa
I had read about this place in Outlooks “52 Weekend Getaways from Bangalore”. Nersa is a small village near Khanapur, Belgaum. This is about 45 Kms from Belagum and will take an hour and half to reach. The drive to Nersa is awesome, especially the drive through the Shiroli forest. This village is in the forest. The Hermitage Guest House is a home stay amidst the forest. We were surprised to see this place in the middle of this forest. This guest house is a family run home stay. They have been living here for last 20+ years. We fell in love with this place as soon as we reached here. One cannot imagine such a cozy place in the middle of the forest.
This place is a prefect place for relaxing and unwinding. There is no TV, very intermittent mobile connection. The guest house has a Tree House, a cottage and a Room. The Tree house and Cottage do not have electricity. If one plans to stay here for 2-3 days, a trek to Bear Hills can be planned. Since we planned for only one night stay, we settled for a small walk through the forest, playing in the stream and just relaxing.
As dusk fell, the whole place was magically. Oil lanterns were put up in all the path ways, dining area, cottage and tree house. A camp fire was lit up under the clear sky with 1000 of twinkling stars. There were 2 other families and we had great fun over the camp fire and dinner. This was perfect way to relax and end the day.
Day 4 – Back to Belgaum
Day 5 – Murdeshwar
We started early morning to Murdeshwar. We choose to drive through Anshi forest -> Karwar -> Murdeshwar. We had no idea how bad the roads through Anshi forest would be. In 2008, we had drove through this forest, when we were driving from Karwar to Belgaum. The roads were pretty bad then. Somehow we assumed the roads would be fixed and planned to go through the same route. The route is very scenic, but the road conditions are so bad, one cannot enjoy the drive through the forest. We were driving at 15KM/hr speed. We took double the time we had estimated to reach Karwar. By the time we reached Karwar it was around 3PM. There was no place to stop over in between to have lunch. We had a late lunch at Karwar.
We visited the War Museum in Karwar. This is bang on the state highway NH-17. This museum was pretty impressive. It showcases the war ships, life on the ships etc. We spent an hour at the museum and started to Murdeshwar. The drive from Karwar to Murdeshwar was very good. Cool evening breeze, setting sun and endless coconut trees made us forget the tiring drive we had in the first half of the day. NH-17 runs along the Arabian Sea. The work of highway is still under progress, hence could not drive at the speed we planned. We reached Murdeshwar around 7PM.
We had booked our stay in Naveen Beach Resort. Since the whole trip was planned in the last minute, we had no prior bookings. We booked our rooms one day prior to the day we planned to reach a place. Since it was peak vacation time, it was very difficult to get accommodation. The prices quoted were also very high. Since Murdeshwar is mainly visited by pilgrims, the accommodation available around this place is also more inclined towards meeting the needs of such visitors. I guess, Naveen Beach Resort is the only place which is beach facing, with multi cuisine restaurant and caters to normal traveler (who need not be a pilgrim). The road to reach the hotel is not very great. It is full of shops selling different things, lots of lodges. However once you reach the resort, the place is calm and plenty of open and green space around.
By now, we were tired by the day’s drive and decided to spend the remaining time in the resort.
Day 6 – Murdeshwar, Udupi
Apart from the beach and the temple, there isn’t much to do/see in Murdeshwar. I felt the temple was like a museum or more like Universal Studio of Shiva. It is all created purely for business. The view of Murdeshwar is great from the top of the 17th floor Gopura. After visiting the temple, we had breakfast at RNS Hotel bang on the beach. This is a nice place for breakfast. After this we headed straight to the beach. The beach here is very shallow. We had a great time on the beach. Kids spent time in building sand castles, collecting shells and playing in the water. There are a few water sports also available.
We wanted to spend some time in Marvanthe before reaching Udupi, hence started from Murdeshwar around noon. At Marvanthe you have the sea on one side of the road and the backwaters with tons of coconut trees on the other side of the road. Marvanthe beach is very clean. It has a beach resort called “Turtle Bay Beach Resort http://www.turtlebayeco.com/ ”. Unfortunately we did not get accommodation here. We thought of fulfilling our desire by at least having lunch here. But the place was packed when we reached here. There was a wait of 1 hour, as the preference was to server in-house guests. However the resort looked awesome. It has a perfect location, plenty of water sports to keep you occupied, clean and deserted beach. In all a very nice place to spend couple of days. A note here: Please carry some food if traveling with kids on this highway. There are not many eat outs. We ended up having a late lunch (around 3PM) in Kundapur.
We reached Udupi around 5PM and headed straight to Kaup beach. This is a must visit beach. There is a old light house, which was built in early 20th Century. Entry inside light house closes at 5:30PM. This beach does not have many visitors like the Malpe beach in Udupi. Kaup beach is best, if one wants to sit and watch the sunset, enjoy the sea and sit in calmness. We spent couple of hours on the beach and headed back to our hotel. Unlike other tourist places along the beach, coastal Karnataka still does not have many beach resorts. There are few projects coming up. Hopefully in the next couple of years, there will be many more places to choose from.
Day 7 - Udupi
Udupi has a beach resort called Paradise Isle http://www.theparadiseisle.com/ on Malpe Beach. This resort has a fantastic location.
Places to visit in Udupi – Malpe beach, Kaup beach, St. Mary’s Island – There are ferries from the Udupi Harbor to go to St. Mary’s Island. This is ½ -1 day trip. Hence plan accordingly. The last ferry leaves the harbor around 4:30PM. One cannot visit Udupi and miss going to the Krishna Temple. This is in a complex with lots of temples. There is invariably a huge queue to get the darshan. Since the queue was long, we decided to give the darshan a miss. Had a peep through the “Kanakana Kindi” and headed for breakfast. There are few good restaurants within the temple complex. We had our breakfast at Mitra Samaj, one of the oldest restaurants. This reminded me of Vidyarthi Bhavan in Gandhi Bazaar Bangalore- Small place, over crowded, noisy but tasty food. Please do not go here if you want to have a quite and relaxed breakfast.
After breakfast we went to the Harbor to take a ferry to St. Mary’s Island. You will need to leave aside at least 4-6 hours for visiting St. Mary’s Island. This place is worth the visit. 30 passengers are required for the ferry to start. It takes about 40 min by ferry to reach the Island. You will need at least an hour on the island. The rock formations here are really beautiful. Best part is to just sit on the rocks and gaze at waves and the sea. It is very relaxing. Kids had a gala time collecting shells and dead star fishes.
After the visit to Island, our stomachs were grueling. Next big question was “Where do we have lunch?” This was December 31st, we thought lets have lunch in some COOOOL place by the beach. The only place we could think of was “The Paradise Isle”. Here is how our lunch experience goes…
We go to The Paradise Isle all boosted up to have a nice and cozy lunch. The location of the restaurant is fantastic. It gives a very nice view of the Malpe beach and the sea.
Waiter gets the menu.
My husband asks for Beer. Waiter says “Sorry Sir. Dry day :( Elections are tomorrow. 1st disappointment
While we are waiting for the waiter to come back, we are discussing what dishes to order. Since all of us are very hungry, we have planned for some ‘n’ things to be ordered.
Atlast waiter comes to take order and we start listing out the dishes we want. Waiter says “Sorry Mam. We only have noodles. No chefs/cooks available”. 2nd disappointment
With no other option, we ended up having noodles L. Now we decide to have some good dessert. Ask the waiter for the menu. We were sure they would have some ice-creams at the least (if not anything jazzy). Our bad luck, other then butterscotch ice-cream, they did not have any other dessert. We ended up eating butterscotch ice-cream. By this time we were really frustrated and wanted to get out of the place. No, it does not end here. We are made to wait for another 45 min, before they return our card. Why? Because the card machine was not working L. Hope this was just a bad luck for us.
From here we started to Chikmangalur
Day 8, 9 – River Tern – Jungle Lodges
Our next stop was the River Tern - Jungle Lodges Resorts in Chikmanglur. The drive from Udupi to Shimoga/Chikmanglur was one of the most memorable one. The highway through Bhadra Sanctuary was amazing. Roads were in good condition, thick forest on both sides of the road (for some part) and then the evergreen western ghats, they are just awesome. We stopped at Agumbe for sunset. The very though of Agumbe makes you hum the kannada song “Agumbe ya prem sanje ya….”
I feel River Tern is one of the best Jungle Lodges. The location is excellent. The new cottages on the adjoining island are big and give very good views of the reservoir. Since the Bhadra wild life sanctuary is categorized as ever green forest, spotting animals here is very difficult. But we had a great time during our 2 hour safari into the forest. We shared the jeep with a Naturalist from Bangalore who gave us some insights into the different types of trees, birds and animals which we spotted.
At dinner, the whole Gol Ghara and the bridge connecting the 2 islands of the resorts were lit. This was very unique experience. All jungle lodges are lit only during new year’s time.
Next day morning, we had a safari on the river. Saw a few River Tern’s. The migration season for river tern birds is April-May. During this time, one can see 1000’s of these birds. The river safari was excellent. We saw different variety of birds. The lodge also provides some options for Adventure Water sports like Kayaking, water trampoline, boating etc. We had a great time at this place. After lunch it was time to pack and leave for Bangalore.
Our plan was to drive to my hometown Belgaum, spend couple of days there and then travel to Karwar, Murdeshwar, Udupi, Shimoga, Chikmangalur and back to Bangalore. The whole trip was planned for 9 days (25th Dec – 2nd Jan)
Day 1 – Drive from Bangalore to Belgaum
This was our first road trip to Belgaum. Though we had drove to most of our vacations, going to Belgaum by car was first time. We were not sure how the kids would be on such a long drive (Belgaum is around 520 Kms from Bangalore). We started at 6:30AM from B’lore all charged up. Driving on NH4 is quite different from driving through the state highways. State highways are more scenic and with less traffic. We had our breakfast at Kamat Upachar near Tumkur and lunch at Haveri. We reached Belgaum at 3:30PM. Surprisingly none of us felt tired and kids were not cranky yet.
Day 2 – Chill out at Belgaum
Spent the time with my family
Day 3 – Stay at “The Hermitage Guest House” – Nersa
I had read about this place in Outlooks “52 Weekend Getaways from Bangalore”. Nersa is a small village near Khanapur, Belgaum. This is about 45 Kms from Belagum and will take an hour and half to reach. The drive to Nersa is awesome, especially the drive through the Shiroli forest. This village is in the forest. The Hermitage Guest House is a home stay amidst the forest. We were surprised to see this place in the middle of this forest. This guest house is a family run home stay. They have been living here for last 20+ years. We fell in love with this place as soon as we reached here. One cannot imagine such a cozy place in the middle of the forest.
This place is a prefect place for relaxing and unwinding. There is no TV, very intermittent mobile connection. The guest house has a Tree House, a cottage and a Room. The Tree house and Cottage do not have electricity. If one plans to stay here for 2-3 days, a trek to Bear Hills can be planned. Since we planned for only one night stay, we settled for a small walk through the forest, playing in the stream and just relaxing.
As dusk fell, the whole place was magically. Oil lanterns were put up in all the path ways, dining area, cottage and tree house. A camp fire was lit up under the clear sky with 1000 of twinkling stars. There were 2 other families and we had great fun over the camp fire and dinner. This was perfect way to relax and end the day.
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| The Hermitage Guest House |
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| Nersa Forest |
Day 4 – Back to Belgaum
Day 5 – Murdeshwar
We started early morning to Murdeshwar. We choose to drive through Anshi forest -> Karwar -> Murdeshwar. We had no idea how bad the roads through Anshi forest would be. In 2008, we had drove through this forest, when we were driving from Karwar to Belgaum. The roads were pretty bad then. Somehow we assumed the roads would be fixed and planned to go through the same route. The route is very scenic, but the road conditions are so bad, one cannot enjoy the drive through the forest. We were driving at 15KM/hr speed. We took double the time we had estimated to reach Karwar. By the time we reached Karwar it was around 3PM. There was no place to stop over in between to have lunch. We had a late lunch at Karwar.
We visited the War Museum in Karwar. This is bang on the state highway NH-17. This museum was pretty impressive. It showcases the war ships, life on the ships etc. We spent an hour at the museum and started to Murdeshwar. The drive from Karwar to Murdeshwar was very good. Cool evening breeze, setting sun and endless coconut trees made us forget the tiring drive we had in the first half of the day. NH-17 runs along the Arabian Sea. The work of highway is still under progress, hence could not drive at the speed we planned. We reached Murdeshwar around 7PM.
We had booked our stay in Naveen Beach Resort. Since the whole trip was planned in the last minute, we had no prior bookings. We booked our rooms one day prior to the day we planned to reach a place. Since it was peak vacation time, it was very difficult to get accommodation. The prices quoted were also very high. Since Murdeshwar is mainly visited by pilgrims, the accommodation available around this place is also more inclined towards meeting the needs of such visitors. I guess, Naveen Beach Resort is the only place which is beach facing, with multi cuisine restaurant and caters to normal traveler (who need not be a pilgrim). The road to reach the hotel is not very great. It is full of shops selling different things, lots of lodges. However once you reach the resort, the place is calm and plenty of open and green space around.
By now, we were tired by the day’s drive and decided to spend the remaining time in the resort.
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| Karwar War Museum |
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| Murdeshwar Shiva Temple |
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| Murdeshwar Beach |
Day 6 – Murdeshwar, Udupi
Apart from the beach and the temple, there isn’t much to do/see in Murdeshwar. I felt the temple was like a museum or more like Universal Studio of Shiva. It is all created purely for business. The view of Murdeshwar is great from the top of the 17th floor Gopura. After visiting the temple, we had breakfast at RNS Hotel bang on the beach. This is a nice place for breakfast. After this we headed straight to the beach. The beach here is very shallow. We had a great time on the beach. Kids spent time in building sand castles, collecting shells and playing in the water. There are a few water sports also available.
We wanted to spend some time in Marvanthe before reaching Udupi, hence started from Murdeshwar around noon. At Marvanthe you have the sea on one side of the road and the backwaters with tons of coconut trees on the other side of the road. Marvanthe beach is very clean. It has a beach resort called “Turtle Bay Beach Resort http://www.turtlebayeco.com/ ”. Unfortunately we did not get accommodation here. We thought of fulfilling our desire by at least having lunch here. But the place was packed when we reached here. There was a wait of 1 hour, as the preference was to server in-house guests. However the resort looked awesome. It has a perfect location, plenty of water sports to keep you occupied, clean and deserted beach. In all a very nice place to spend couple of days. A note here: Please carry some food if traveling with kids on this highway. There are not many eat outs. We ended up having a late lunch (around 3PM) in Kundapur.
We reached Udupi around 5PM and headed straight to Kaup beach. This is a must visit beach. There is a old light house, which was built in early 20th Century. Entry inside light house closes at 5:30PM. This beach does not have many visitors like the Malpe beach in Udupi. Kaup beach is best, if one wants to sit and watch the sunset, enjoy the sea and sit in calmness. We spent couple of hours on the beach and headed back to our hotel. Unlike other tourist places along the beach, coastal Karnataka still does not have many beach resorts. There are few projects coming up. Hopefully in the next couple of years, there will be many more places to choose from.
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| Light House - Kaup Beach Udupi |
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| Sunset at Kaup Beach Udupi |
Day 7 - Udupi
Udupi has a beach resort called Paradise Isle http://www.theparadiseisle.com/ on Malpe Beach. This resort has a fantastic location.
Places to visit in Udupi – Malpe beach, Kaup beach, St. Mary’s Island – There are ferries from the Udupi Harbor to go to St. Mary’s Island. This is ½ -1 day trip. Hence plan accordingly. The last ferry leaves the harbor around 4:30PM. One cannot visit Udupi and miss going to the Krishna Temple. This is in a complex with lots of temples. There is invariably a huge queue to get the darshan. Since the queue was long, we decided to give the darshan a miss. Had a peep through the “Kanakana Kindi” and headed for breakfast. There are few good restaurants within the temple complex. We had our breakfast at Mitra Samaj, one of the oldest restaurants. This reminded me of Vidyarthi Bhavan in Gandhi Bazaar Bangalore- Small place, over crowded, noisy but tasty food. Please do not go here if you want to have a quite and relaxed breakfast.
After breakfast we went to the Harbor to take a ferry to St. Mary’s Island. You will need to leave aside at least 4-6 hours for visiting St. Mary’s Island. This place is worth the visit. 30 passengers are required for the ferry to start. It takes about 40 min by ferry to reach the Island. You will need at least an hour on the island. The rock formations here are really beautiful. Best part is to just sit on the rocks and gaze at waves and the sea. It is very relaxing. Kids had a gala time collecting shells and dead star fishes.
After the visit to Island, our stomachs were grueling. Next big question was “Where do we have lunch?” This was December 31st, we thought lets have lunch in some COOOOL place by the beach. The only place we could think of was “The Paradise Isle”. Here is how our lunch experience goes…
We go to The Paradise Isle all boosted up to have a nice and cozy lunch. The location of the restaurant is fantastic. It gives a very nice view of the Malpe beach and the sea.
Waiter gets the menu.
My husband asks for Beer. Waiter says “Sorry Sir. Dry day :( Elections are tomorrow. 1st disappointment
While we are waiting for the waiter to come back, we are discussing what dishes to order. Since all of us are very hungry, we have planned for some ‘n’ things to be ordered.
Atlast waiter comes to take order and we start listing out the dishes we want. Waiter says “Sorry Mam. We only have noodles. No chefs/cooks available”. 2nd disappointment
With no other option, we ended up having noodles L. Now we decide to have some good dessert. Ask the waiter for the menu. We were sure they would have some ice-creams at the least (if not anything jazzy). Our bad luck, other then butterscotch ice-cream, they did not have any other dessert. We ended up eating butterscotch ice-cream. By this time we were really frustrated and wanted to get out of the place. No, it does not end here. We are made to wait for another 45 min, before they return our card. Why? Because the card machine was not working L. Hope this was just a bad luck for us.
From here we started to Chikmangalur
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| St. Marys Island |
Day 8, 9 – River Tern – Jungle Lodges
Our next stop was the River Tern - Jungle Lodges Resorts in Chikmanglur. The drive from Udupi to Shimoga/Chikmanglur was one of the most memorable one. The highway through Bhadra Sanctuary was amazing. Roads were in good condition, thick forest on both sides of the road (for some part) and then the evergreen western ghats, they are just awesome. We stopped at Agumbe for sunset. The very though of Agumbe makes you hum the kannada song “Agumbe ya prem sanje ya….”
I feel River Tern is one of the best Jungle Lodges. The location is excellent. The new cottages on the adjoining island are big and give very good views of the reservoir. Since the Bhadra wild life sanctuary is categorized as ever green forest, spotting animals here is very difficult. But we had a great time during our 2 hour safari into the forest. We shared the jeep with a Naturalist from Bangalore who gave us some insights into the different types of trees, birds and animals which we spotted.
At dinner, the whole Gol Ghara and the bridge connecting the 2 islands of the resorts were lit. This was very unique experience. All jungle lodges are lit only during new year’s time.
Next day morning, we had a safari on the river. Saw a few River Tern’s. The migration season for river tern birds is April-May. During this time, one can see 1000’s of these birds. The river safari was excellent. We saw different variety of birds. The lodge also provides some options for Adventure Water sports like Kayaking, water trampoline, boating etc. We had a great time at this place. After lunch it was time to pack and leave for Bangalore.
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| River Tern |
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| Water Sports at River Tern |
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| Evening in Agumbe |
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| Bhadra Dam |
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| Boat Safari on Bhadra Back Waters - River Tern |
