A Trip to Coorg - The Scotland of India

Coorg(Madikeri) is one of most sought after place in Karnataka due to its breath taking scenic views, coffee plantations and spices plantations. This place is easily approachable from nearby places like Bangalore, Mangalore and Wayanad(Kerala). It is easily approachable via road which are in excellent condition.

Distance from different places:

Bangalore: 250 Kms

Mangalore: 138 Kms

Wayanad: 125 Kms

This place has lot of things to offer based on your taste. Right from the temples with historic values to scenic views to water falls. You need at-least two full days to cover all the sought after places in Coorg. Description of the main tourist attraction places are as follows:

1. Nisargadhama: This place is a small kinder-garden type place with lot of unique paintings and carvings on the trees along with a bridge on a small river. This place has some birds and animals too. It is located around 22 km before the Madikeri and just after Kushalnagara. Here you can do small distance zipping too, mainly for kids.

The bridge on the river

Some really nice art work

The River

2. Talakaveri: It is a must visit place due to its rich history and beautiful location. This place is around 43Kms from Madikeri bus stand. The way to this place is very scenic with beautiful coffee estates and spices plantation on both sides of the road. The road is full of turns and couple of T-points.

History- This place is the "udgam isthaan" or birth of sacred river Kaveri.

Alongside the temple, there are 200 odd stairs which leads to the top of a hill and gives you a beautiful view of the place.

Kaveri Udgam Isthaan

The Temple. The priest tell very interesting story of this place, Don't miss that

Around 200 stairs to reach the top

View from the top. Just ignore the guy in the middle

3. Abbey Falls: The fall is situated around 8 kms from the Madikeri and is a must visit place. The falls is in the midst of dense plantation but very nicely maintained and proper cemented stairs to go down to the fall with good parking space. One disappointment could be for the people who want to go beneath the falls and be adventurous as no one is allowed to go close to the fall.

Zoomed in view of the Fall

Falls in its full glory

4. Raja Seat: Raja seat is a place where the emperor used to sit and enjoy the beautiful view from the top. This is a garden with a good view of the valley. This place is approx. 2 Kms away from the Madikeri bus stand. The entry ticket is Rs.5 plus the camera charges extra. The place also has Light and Sound program in the evening around 7:00 pm.Opposite to the park, there is a small Toy Train too with ticket price Rs.20 and total run of 5 mins. You can also relish on some street food like corn n bhel.

A view of the valley from the Raja's Seat

The Toy Train

5. Mandalpattal Hills: The most beautiful and scenic place of Coorg is this hills. It is located nearly 25kms away from Madikeri bus stand. One peculiar thing is you can go to this place only in a Jeep which you can get at Madikeri bus stand only and they will charge you around Rs.1500-1600 per ride. The way to go there is very bumpy but the view in the end is worth waiting and the money. Once you reach there, you can see the beautiful hills and the mist too. Try not to go to this place very early morning because there will be too much mist and you might not be able to see the whole view of the hills. Also, on a clear day, you can enjoy the beautiful sunset view which is as good as any other best sunset view point across India.

Caution:

1. If you have travel sickness, please be careful.

2. Try not to go to this place after having a meal. Due to bumpy ride, you don't want to throw up.

3. Please don't try to go via your own vehicle. The way in the end becomes very steep and only a four wheel vehicle can go up that too with an experienced person behind the wheel.

Amazing view of Western Ghats 

Breathtaking view

You can also trek and go to any mountain

Mists starts coming in around 4 pm on a sunny day

View from the Top

Beautiful sunset in the sea of mountain ranges 

6. Dubare Elephant Camp: This place is around 29 Kms from the Madikeri Bus stand and has many elephants on which you can take ride. You need to buy a ticket and cross a small river on boat to reach to the elephants. If you have kids with you, then it make sense to go to this place else you can give it a skip.

The River which needs to be crosses to see the elephant

The Elephant himself. Wanna ride?

View from the Elephant camp

7. Golden Temple: This temple is very pristine with a nice backdrop and is approx. 34 Kms from the Madikeri bus stand and is close to Kushalnagara. You can see lot of Tibetan shops and monks around and is an ideal place for meditation. There are many eateries too which can help considering it becomes quite a crowded place during the weekends. The place brings calmness in you in the hustle bustle of the city life. This is also known as Tibetan Monastery.

Golden Temple

8. White River Rafting: On the way to Dubare elephant camp, the setup has been prepared for the River rafting. The current is not very high, but still it's a good adventure sport to go for. The charges for the rafting is around Rs.600 per person. They take generally 8 people in a boat and even non-swimmers(like me) can also enjoy in the water with the help of jackets which will keep you afloat. The rafting session is generally of 2-3 hours, so make sure you have enough time to spend here.

Caution:

1. The start and end point of the rafting session is around 2-3 kms apart. So either ask the organizers to have a drop back facility at the starting point or you might need to take rick or walk back to the starting point (in case you have a car).

2. Camera and mobile phones are safe to take as all the guides in the boat have a waterproof bag( tried and trusted). Make sure you ask them before about waterproof bags as you might not want to miss on the lovely pics you can capture along the rafting.

3. While they push you in the river for swimming, try to remain in the middle of the river and avoid on the banks of it as there are forest on both the sides and you never know if some animal can swim through( No incident has been reported, but this is just precautionary measure).

When they throw you in the Water with Life jacket and Ropes

A spot where they stop and submerge you in the river. Pretty exciting stuff

9. Omkareshwar Temple: This temple is around 2 Kms from Madikeri bus stand and is a normal temple with nothing much to offer. But for the religious people, this is a good place to go and find some piece nearby. Photography is strictly not allowed inside the temple.

Small Pond in the compound of the Temple

The Temple

10. Madikeri Fort: The place has a lot of history. This fort was built in 17th century and currently has museum, a very ancient church (St. Marks Church) and Madikeri Deputy Commissioner's Office. For the people interested in history, this place has lot to offer as the museum boast of lot of ancient things of British era. Please do check whether the museum is open or closed.

Other Details

• Food: The restaurants in Coorg are generally average, so you can't have your lunch/dinner just at any other place. We went to a place called "Spicy Treat" located around 1 Km from the Madikeri bus stand. The place is very good for Non-Vegetarians and serve different variety of veg dishes too. Since Zomato/Swiggy doesn't operate there, finding good restaurant is little difficult. We tried chicken alfaham and its special chicken which is a mix of hyderabadi chicken and handi chicken. In the end, we ordered a Spicy Treat special shake, which was very tempting and fitting end to our meal. I've been to Coorg 4-5 times and this is the best meal I ever had here.

  

  Spicy Treat Special Chicken

  
  

  

  Spicy Treat Special Shake

• Parking: Special care has been taken to make sure tourists doesn't have this problem. There is ample parking space at each of the spot (long weekends in monsoon can change the condition though). Only thing is you might need to shell out some money (Rs.20/30) at each spot for the parking.
• Coffee and Spices: This is the specialty and you can't leave Coorg without taking all the different types of spices, coffees and homemade chocolates. There are hundreds of such shops (some retailers some whole selers). Do make sure you go in and buy in the things you want. This will surely bring nice smell out of your kitchen back home.
• Treks: Coorg boast of very high natural habitat, hence there are beautiful treks around here. Some of the best treks are:
• Kumar Parvat
• Tadiandamol
• Brahmagiri
• Total Cost: Though cost might vary based on the hotel you stay and mode of transport, it shouldn't cost you more than 12-15K(per couple) considering you are commuting via taxi and staying in a decent 3*-4* hotel.
• Best Time to go: Sept to Feb
• How to Reach
• Bus: From Bangalore, you can get very frequent buses to Coorg especially in the night. Other than the Majestic bus stand, lot of buses to Coorg starts from Satellite bus stand too which is little far from the city. Normally bus takes around 5 hours 30 mins to reach Coorg. Generally the bus ticket is around 400-600 depending on the type of buses.
• KSRTC Link: http://www.ksrtc.in/oprs-web/avail/services.do
• Redbus Link: https://www.redbus.in/search?fromCityName=Bangalore&fromCityId=122&toCityName=Coorg&toCityId=71696&onward=14-Jul-2017&opId=0&busType=Any
• Train: Unfortunately, Coorg doesn't have a railway station, hence you need to go to the nearest station if you are thinking to go via train. The nearest railway station to Coorg is Mysore which is 3 hour journey from Bangalore. Once you reach Mysore, you need to book a taxi or bus to reach to Coorg which is another 107 Kms apart.
• Indian Railways Link:  http://www.indianrail.gov.in/cgi_bin/inet_srcdest_cgi_time_10354.cgi
• Taxi: If you are going for a taxi, then make sure the taxi is comfortable enough as this will be a 600-700 Kms round trip. Generally the rates are:
• Indica Non-AC: Rs7/Km
• Indica AC: Rs.8/Km
• Etios AC: Rs.9/Km


• I booked via "Diamond Cabs" (Contact no: 096110 04040) in Bangalore and was very much pleased with their service, the driver and condition of the car.