Travel to Madikeri and Subramanya

Bangalore – Madikeri – Subramanya – Madikeri – Bangalore

Brief Information about the travel

Purpose	It’s purely a personally organized travel to spend the weekend at Madikeri and visit places around it.
Travel plan	Two days one night 1.      Start from Bangalore on Friday night and reach Saturday morning Madikeri 2.      Local sight seeing on Madikeri on Saturday 3.      Visiting Subramanya on Sunday 4.      Start from Madikeri on Sunday night 5.      Reach Bangalore Monday Morning
Travel time	Bangalore – Madikeri – 260km	6 hours
	Madikeri – Talacauvery – 42km	1.5 hours
	Madikeri – Subramanya – 90 km	3 hours
Places visited	Madikeri Fort, Raja seat, Talacauvery, Bhagamadala, Abbey Falls, Omkareshwara Temple, Madikeri fort museum, Subramanya.
Total Budge for two person	Rs. 8500 (for two persons – with exclusive cab for site seeing in Madikeri and travel to Subramanya) Rs. 5200 (2 persons, one day, one night - Excluding Subramanya)

Mini Budget

Budget (INR)
Travel	1400
Accommodation	3000
Food	500
Site-Seeing	3300
Overhead Travel (auto, bus)	300
Shopping	0
Total	8500

Notes:

§         If you wish to spend just a day and start to Bangalore you can reduce 1500 Rs on Stay

§       If you wish just to see Madikeri alone then cab cost can reduce by 1800 Rs.

§       The Site-seeing cost would be same for two more people also (its Indica car).

§       Tune your overall budget if you go by your personal vehicle.

§       Expenses of Snacks, Beer, drinks not considered.

Google Maps Link

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Travel in Detail

Make sure to read “Final Note” section at the bottom.

It’s our Long term plan to make a trip to Coorg, Madikeri and Talacauvery. Since we had no plans on the upcoming weekend, we thought of planning for that trip. Since I already went there once, I've some idea about the travel. After enquiring KSTDC & Private tour operators we decided to make our own travel plan and execute it. 

§         KSTDC didn't operate that package at that time of year. (October 2011)

(http://karnatakatourism.com/touredge/madikeri_nagarhole_package_tour_by_kstdc_-_mnt.asp )

§         Private Tour operators (Greenline travels) costs around 3500/person for stay and travel (without food).

It was really one of the quick travel plans I've ever made.

 All I need to execute the travel is to take care of three things

1. Onward and return travel to Madikeri

2. Stay on Saturday night

3. Arrangement for local sight seeing as we don't know the places around & language.

1. Onward and return travel to Madikeri

I Login to KSRTC Site and Booked onward and return tickets to Madikeri

Onward		Return
Date	Friday night	Date	Sunday night
Source	Bangalore -Satellite Bus stand	Source	Madikeri Bus stand
Destination	Madikeri Bus stand		Bangalore -Mysore road Satellite Bus stand
Time	23:32	Time	23:00
Travel time	7 hours	Travel time	6 hours
Bus type	Rajahamsa	Bus type	Rajahamsa
Cost	300+	Cost	300+

Notes to Remember:

§         There are two routes to Madikeri from Bangalore. One is Kushalnagar route (Short) and Gonikoppa, Virajapet (longer but through forest - good).

§         Madikeri - Bangalore is of 260 km. So any typical Bus can take you within 5.5 to 6 hours. Plan your start time accordingly so that you don’t land in Madikeri in wee hours. Hence I booked after 11.00pm in night. Same vice versa.

§         All the Buses to Madikeri starts from Mysore Road Bus stand and not from Majestic, so make sure you have enough time for local travel to reach Mysore road Satellite Bus stand.

§         There is frequent BTMC Shuttle service available from Majestic Bus station to Mysore road bus stand. The exact location is just in front of “Swathi Hotel” towards the Road (not inside bus stand). You have to come outside the Bus stand towards road.

§         The travel time from majestic Bus stand to Mysore Road Bus stand would be around 20 to 30 mins with the ticket of  Rs. 7.00

§         There are some additional charges for online booking and infrastructure fees, etc. so the overall ticket (onward & return) per person would be around Rs. 675.00

I just booked through my Debit card and got e-ticket. I carried my Driving License as proof.

2. Stay on Saturday night

I actually would like to provide all the pain experience I went through before landing at the following accommodation, but it would be boring. I will cover that in other detailed article. Let’s provide quick information on where I stayed and how was the facility.

I got this Home stay info from a travel agency (09342579007).  The travel agency played a middle man role and done the deal with me and the Home stay vendor finally gave me the contact number of the Home stay person. The Home details were

Name	Aarti Home stay
Contact Person	C.N.Muthappa (Suresh)
Address	Old Race Course Road, Block No. 14 H.No 21/21, Madikeri – 571201  ( sureshmuthappa@yahoo.co.in)
Phone	08272 – 229130,  09448561525
Price	1500 Rs (as on Oct 2011)
Features	Clean & Neat,  Nice Rest room, Enough Beds (2+), Dressing table, Wardrobe, Couch furnitures, A swing, and a balcony with good view of Madikeri town.
Food	Breakfast and Dinner Free with Accommodation. Dosa, Idly, Chapathi, Rice.
Others	Nice Balcony with good view of Madikeri, Pickup / drop facility on request from Bus stand.

Aarti Home stay visiting card

Mr. Muthappa is a National Athlete (around 40 to 45 yrs old), a very nice person. He provided us a very warm welcome and made our stay very comfortable. I personally recommend this Homestay for Friends, Couples (even honeymoon) & Families too. The place is so good to stay peacefully even if you have no idea of sight seeing. He also has a Home stay based on Estate, which must be still more luxurious and comfortable.

The moment we landed on Madikeri bus stand around 6.30 AM in the morning, he gave us a call and asked us to take an auto to reach the place. He himself guided the auto driver the route and location. It took us Rs. 30 to reach there. (Its even walk able unless you have big luggages).

He even organized us for a local sight seeing with one of the travel agent (his friend) with a reasonable price.

Drawing Hall

Spacious Balcony

Outside Balcony with swing

3. 

Spacious Bed Room with two beds

Bed Room

Arrangement for local sight seeing

The travel agent organized by Mr.Muthappa was a good person. His name is Mr. Sampath. Below is his visiting card.

Travel Agent Sampath Visiting Card

Travel Agent Sampath Visiting Card

Luckily the travel agent also understands Tamil. And the driver organized we decided to do a local sight seeing for the whole day and Kukke Subramayna temple the next day. After some bargaining we settled on the following deal

Total Price for the Sight seeing	Rs. 3100 ( 1300 + 1800)
Day-1	Abbey Falls, Omkareshwar Temple, Talacauvery, Bhagamandala temple, Raja seat, Madikeri Fort and a good view point.
Day-2	Kukke Subramanya Temple.

One day local sight seeing covering places around Madikeri usually costs 1300 Rs. All the places I listed above were either West of Madikeri or within Madikeri. There are also some places on the East side like Nisargadhama, Dubare Elephant Camp, Bylakuppe Golden Temple, etc. But since I visited those places, I had less inclination to visit them again with spending a day. There are also some places south of Madikeri like Nagarhole and Iruppu Falls. If you really like to see the above places you can plan on Day-2. But I decided to Kukke Subramanya for one main reason.

Subramanya is on the North side to Madikeri. The path from Madikeri to Subramanya is through a dense forest of western Ghats. In fact you cannot see such good route even in day-1 travel. Going in personal vehicle is really a recommended so that, you can stop my in between to see small streams that come by the road side. The way is full of Supari, Rubber, Cardamom, Pepper plantations.

Beautiful Western Ghats Route from Madikeri to Subramanya

Day-1

On day-1 we started around 8.30 AM in the morning. Visited the following places in order (recommended) and spent relaxed time at each place.

Place (direction)	Time travel from prev location	Time spent at spot	Distance from Madikeri
Abbe Falls ( North )	20 mins	30 mins	6 kms
Omkareshwar temple (within)	20 mins	20 mins	0.5 km
Bhagamandala (West)	1.5 hour	1 hour	36 km
Talacauvery (West)	30 mins	1 hour	42 km
Raja seat (within)	1.5 hour	30 mins	1 km
Madikeri Fort Museum (within)	10 mins	20 mins	0.5 km
A good view point stone hill (within)	10 mins	20 mins	0.5 km

We returned back to the room surprisingly at 6.00PM itself while it was still not dark. After fresh ourselves up, we spent our evening in the balcony swing viewing Sunset with a good coffee. Mr.Muthappa provided us dinner (he also gets from outside if requested).  Since Auto facility is not as flexible unless you go to downtown, Muthappa have an auto guy’s number. If you call that person and ask him to bring anything (including liquor) he will bring and take the money (including auto charge).

Abbe Falls

Abbe Falls - Rope Bridge

Triveni Sangama at Bhagamandala

Triveni Sangama

Nice scenery at Bhagamandala

On the way to view point at Talacauvery

Its..me

View point at top of Talacauvery (always hidden with Fog)

View point at RAJA SEAT

View from Raja seat

View of Coorg from Raja seat

Madikeri Fort - Converted to Govt Offices. Nothing to see

Madikeri Fort Museum

Picturesque view at Stone hill view point

View of Madikeri from Stone hill view point

View of Madikeri from Stone hill view point

View of Madikeri from Stone hill view point 

Cab driver Mr.Ganesh - very good person

Evening sunset as viewed from Room balcony

 Notes to Remember:

• At Bhagamandala there is a Big Pooja at 12.00pm noon everyday. According to the above schedule you may be crossing bhagamandala at that time.  Never miss it.
• Actually you go to Talacauvery Crossing bhagamandala (triveni sangama). The return path from Talacauvery is also the same. You can visit Bhagamandala temple based on the pooja timing.
• If you plan to take holy dip at triveni sangama (water is good), carry a towel, shots, clothes, etc.
• There are no big time hotels around Talacauvery, Bhagamandala. But you get reasonably good food at bhagamandala (Santhosh Veg. restr).  Have it here or else you only get at Madikeri.
• On the way back from Talacauvery to Bhagamandala there are couple of shops selling Spices, Tea powder, coffee powder, cashew, Cardamom, Amla, Honey, etc. If you are interested in purchase do so. I bought it in “Nisagra Shop” as suggested by the cab driver. Ask them for taste of each item before you purchase.

Spices store on the way to Talacauvery

Items sold at Spices store

Day-2

Place (direction)	Travel time	Time spent at spot	Distance from Madikeri
Subramanya (North)	3 hours	2 hours	90 kms

Since we had only one place to go, we started leisurely at 8.00AM. By 7.45 we got our breakfast from Homestay. Started our travel to Subramanya. It’s a awesome lifetime experience travelling in that route. It is totally 90Km around from Madikeri. Completely inside Western Ghats. We were enjoying each and every scene that passed by. At around 20 kms before Subramanya, a KSRTC bus fell down off the road in to a Supari plantation. Luckily it was not so steep. We had little space around the road to cross that area and continued our journey. We reached Subramanya around 11.30 AM.

Rubber Plantation on Western ghats - en route Subramanya

On the way to Subramanya

On the way to Subramanya

On the way to Subramanya

Temple On the way to Subramanya

Temple On the way to Subramanya

On the way to Subramanya

Supari Plantations On the way to Subramanya

Subramanya Temple

Lord Muruga Temple Entrance - Subramanya

Lord Muruga Temple Entrance - Subramanya

Hotel Kumara Kripa near Temple - Subramanya

KSRTC Bus fell down aside Road blocked our way

A early morning incident blocked the Ghat route

tilted Bus

Attempt to lift Bus

Fell down bus Blocked our way

We had 12.00pm Darshan and came out of temple around 12.30 pm. We had our lunch at “Kumara Kripa” Hotel. Not so taste and big, but you get descent Udupi style meals, Dosa, Masala Dosa even in afternoon. Once we finish Lunch we spent our time around the river bridge just 200 mts away from the temple. Then we started back to Madikeri. On the way back, we were struck by the same KSRTC bus. Now there were lots of cranes blocking the road trying to lift the bus up. We waited there for around 1 hour for that to be cleared. On the way back to Madikeri (30 km before Madikeri), there is a place called Sampaje. If you are interested in “Palm Toddy” (kallu), you can stop by here and have it. Its very good (than any other place I had). We spent around 30 mins there and had quick snacks.

Toddy Shop On the way to Subramanya

Toddy Shop On the way to Subramanya

Sampaje - On the way back to Madikeri. Place to stop for Toddy

Finally we reached Madikeri around 5.00 PM.  We settled the money with Travel agent.

Then as usual we had our coffee. Packed our things to go back to Bangalore.

Notes to Remember:

• There is a big pooja at Subramanya at 12.00 PM noon. If possible attend it.
• There is also a free meal provided at the temple around 12.30 around.
• You can also have lunch at “New Mysore Café” or “Kumara Kripa” both is just near to temple.

Eating

Madikeri

§         Coorg Cusine

§         Hotel Green land

§         Hotel Hill Top

Bhagamandala

§         Santhosh – veg Rest. (It’s not a big hotel, just a shop with reasonably good food).

Subramanya

§         New Mysore Café

§         Kumara kripa

 Drinking (Liquor)

There are few wine shops around Madikeri downtown (3 or more).

Near Bus stand there is a A/C Bar & Restaurant

 Shopping

Niagara Store at Talacauvery (for spices, tea/coffee powder, etc)

Honeydew Multi-store (Talacauvery)

 Roaming

Madikeri itself is a good hill top; you can walk around in the evenings. There are some specific view points with meadows where you can spend some time.

 Links

Homestay / Hotel Related

[BEST ONE] http://www.kodagu.nic.in/tour/lodges.htm

http://travel2karnataka.com/home_stay_in_coorg_kodagu_madikeri.htm

http://www.holidayiq.com/Honey-Valley-Estate-Coorg-hotel-1430.html

http://www.coorgtourism.com/coorg_info.htm

Other Good Blogs / Sites related to Madikeri & Subramanya

http://vasanth-trip.blogspot.com/2007/08/trip-to-kukke-subrahmanya.html

http://www.mustseeindia.com/places-around-kukke-subramanya

http://www.mustseeindia.com/Kukke-Subramanya/attractions

http://nharipra.wordpress.com/2008/02/25/kukke-subramanya-temple-accomodation-and-travel/

http://www.mustseeindia.com/Dubare-Rafting/attraction/12574

KSTDC

http://www.karnatakatourism.com/kstdc.asp

 Alternative Plans (as I thought later)

Plan-B (simple)

• Start from Bangalore on Friday night.
• Reach Madikeri in morning,
• Take a simple Homestay/lodge, fresh up, have breakfast.
• Arrange a taxi to see around places. Pack up all your luggage’s and keep in car.
• Visit all the places around and make sure you end your trip at Kushalnagar. (Bylakuppe, Nisargadhama)
• Book KSRTC bus from Kushalnagar to Bangalore.
• Catch the bus (around 00:30 hrs) and reach Bangalore in morning.

 Plan-C (expensive but good for people never visited Karnataka)

• Book for a KSTDC – Mysore tour package, which would start early morning and cover places en route Mysore. Ramanagara, Channapatna, Tipu palace, Crocodile Park, Chamundi Hills, Brindavan gardens.
• Terminate the KSRTC trip voluntarily at Mysore (KSTDC bus will return to Bangalore). Book a Hotel at Mysore. Stay over night. Book for a local cab for sight seeing
• Visit Nanjangud  at early morning (6.00AM). Have Breakfast and visit Mysore Zoo, Mysore palace, etc.
• Start to Madikeri at evening through KSRTC or other means. And reach there at night.
• Stay overnight at Madikeri.
• Next day visit all the above listed places within and around Madikeri through another local cab.
• Catch a KSRTC Bus to Bangalore or wherever you want.

I made the above trip once with my family (completely with Cab from Bangalore and back).  It was very good and it cost me around 15k at 2008 (including travel, food, accommodation,etc).

Final Note

I’m employee of a Bangalore based organization. I like to travel a lot. Some of the places I travelled and have experiences include

South India

Trichy, Madurai, Rameswaram, Tiruchendur, Tuticorin, Kanyakumari, Ooty, Kodaikanal, Trivandrum, Alapuzha, Madikeri, Shimoga, Hubli, Chikamangalur, Kemangundi, Belur, Halebid, Sringeri, Shivasamudra, Subramanya.

North India

Goa, Vascodagama, Panaji, Taj mahal, Delhi, Punjab, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Haridwar, Kolkatta, Lucknow, Vijaywada, Nagpur.

International

Chicago (Illinois), Missouri (St.Louis - USA), Sri Lanka (Kandy, Colombo)

An Offer for Help

If the above information is still not enough to get you comfortable for the travel, please call me and I’m glad to provide personal tips & advice before / while travel. Even you can call me from the travel spot for any suggestions.

Whenever I visit some new place, I always wish someone with knowledge & experience about the place  accompanies me. Even if it takes me to bare their travel and stay expense charges. I believe everyone wish the same way provided the person is reliable and honest.

If you are comfortable, I can accompany you / your friends / family and take care of your complete travel plan, hotel booking, train/bus booking, sight seeing, etc, if you only bare my stay and travel expenses. (Only if time permits, mostly on weekend).  This is purely to help people getting along the travel places and not for any business purpose.  I don’t run any company or travel agency, but I’ve contacts to make this possible.

S. Murali Krishnan

Mobile: 09741500275, 09962091084

Email: muralikrishnan.s@gmail.com