Planning a road trip of western Karnataka - Need some info

I am planning a trip to western karnataka around late December this year. We will be a couple of families and couple of kids, and will have our own vehicle.

A rough plan is to stay at Murudeshwar for say 3 days and visit near by places and then go to Hampi and stay for another 2-3 days and visit near by places. Have read about places like Jog falls, Yana, Agumbe, Shimoga which we might visit.

I would appreciate any suggestions on good stay options and information about places to visit around these.

Re: Planning a road trip of western Karnataka - Need some in

The grandeur of Jog Falls is to be enjoyed during monsoon. You can either stay at Shimoga [120 km] or Sagar [20 km]. If you like to mix holidaying with adventure, then reserve at least half-day for Jog Falls, visit here during early morning and return in the afternoon. You can climb down to the valley, spend some time there and climb up. When I did this trekking in 2002, at many stretches, steps were either missing or in very bad shape. I don't know about it present status, but I hope, it must be better now. You can pack some food from Sagar/Shimoga, as the quality of food available at Jog Falls is lousy.

At Murudeshwara, you can stay at RNS Residency. But, reserve your accommodation before your visit. You can visit Idugunji Ganesha temple nearby. NH 17 was in good shape when I drove here this February/March.

In case of Hampi, you can either stay at Hospet or Bellary. Hotel Mallige, Hospet, is good. But, the roads [NH/SH] are in very bad shape, thanks to the overloaded trucks of mining companies belonging to the state ministers. Here also, you can go [with packed food] in the morning and return in the evening.

Re: Planning a road trip of western Karnataka - Need some in

Aditya you can visit Gokarna temple and om beach. since you come this close why don't you visit Goa too ?

Re: Planning a road trip of western Karnataka - Need some in

I did following round trip from 24th Dec to 1st Jan

Day 1 - Start from Pune to Wildernest Resort (on the border of Maharashtra-Goa-Karnatak) (via Kolhapur - Nipani - Ajra - Amboli - Sawantwadi - Banda - Dodamarg - Ayee - Parye - Keri)
Day 2 - Gokarna, stay at Kumta
Day 3 - Yana Caves, night stay at Murudeshwar
Day 4 - Murudeshwar
Day 5 - Via Kundapur - Someshwar to Agumbe, Kundadri, stay at Gabadi Riveredge (about 45km from Agumbe)
Day 6 - Via Shimoga - Chitradurga - to Hospet
Day 7, 8 - @ Hampi
Day 9 - drive back to Pune

Total of 2015KM.

The road from Pune to Wildernest is good. We lost almost a couple of hours because of a land slide in Amboli, but finally reached the resort at around 4pm.

Wildernest is an amazing place, but unfortunately we had planned stay only for one night here. It deserves a longer stay!

Here are some pics I clicked @ Wildernest

The location of the swimming pool at wildernest offers an incredible view.
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The Green Wine Snake waiting for its pray
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Next day afternoon we started to Kumta. The road was good till Kumta, we visited Gokarna, but it was already dark by the time we reached there, and there was quite a rush at the Mahabaleshwar temple, so we returned to the hotel (Pandurang International) at Kumta and next day visited Yana Caves. The road to Yana was very good, and we enjoyed the short trek to the caves and the amazing rock formations.

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From Yana, we went to Murudeshwar. Stayed at Navin Beach Resort (of RNS Residency). The resort is good, and offers good food. The beach was crowded, but the play of colors on the beach was just fantastic ... made me forget the crowd around.
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There is a cave below the Shiva statue that depicts the story of Gokarna, it is done very nicely.

We left for Agumbe from Murudeshwar via Kundapur. Had breakfast at Harsha Refreshments in Kundapur - delicious dosa's! The NH17 stretch from Murudeshwar to Kundapur was very bad, but then onwards (via Someshwar to Agumbe and onwards was good).

We visited Kundadri near Agumbe. Kundadri has an old Jain temple atop the hill, and the road to this place is very narrow and steep at places! It was fun driving up the hill. We crossed an auto rickshaw at a turn which was coming down, kept wondering how it could have made it up.
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We had planned to stay at Vihangam Resorts in Tirthahalli, but because of the elections they offered us stay at another place called Gabadi River Edge. They told us it is a heritage bunglow on the banks of River Tungabhadra. We were apprehensive of the option earlier, but once we reached the place we were pleasantly surprised. We had the best food in the whole trip at this place.
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I would recommend this place for a great relaxing homestay and just beyond-the-words food.
Next day we started then towards Hospet via Shimoga. On the way visited Sakrebyle Elephant Camp (about 30km from Gabadi), and had a short elephant ride.
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Between Shimoga to Chitradurga the road was bad for about 30 KM, and NH13 about 20KM before Hospet became extremely bad!
By sunset on Tungabhadra dam, we reached Hospet at Hotel Malligi.
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[Continued ...]

Re: Planning a road trip of western Karnataka - Need some in

[... continued from previous post]
Next couple of days we were in Hampi, mesmerized by the planning of the ancient capital city of Vijaynagar Samrajya and intricate carvings on the temples.



On the final day, we did the Hospet - Hubli - Belgaum - Pune journey with breaks for lunch and tea. Started at 8:30am from Hospet, and reached home at 8:45pm. The whole road was very good except few bad patches on NH13/63 between Hospet to Hubli.

Re: Planning a road trip of western Karnataka - Need some in

Nice photography!

Re: Planning a road trip of western Karnataka - Need some in

I enjoyed going through your travelogue, aditya. Excellent photographs.

Trip Update...!

Thanks guys!