Chennai – Wayanad – Coorg – Chennai via Bangalore and Mysore

[Karthikkrish]

Dear all

Need suggestion in planning my vacation.

Chennai – Wayanad – Coorg – Chennai via Bangalore and Mysore.



Planned for a 5D – 4N trip, starting on 11th Jan (Sat) and returning on 15th Jan (Wed), not yet decided where to stay and how many days to stay in one destination.

Let me brief about me and my car, first, to understand my actual requirement.

My Ownership thread

I am a new driver with 1700km of driving experience, in which 700km in highway and 1000km in city. My car has clocked around 2700km, 3rd service is due in Feb end. BTW, I am not interest to cross 100kmph speed, keeping in mind safety and mileage (liquid gold - Petrol). Only me and wife are traveling and only I know driving.

Need suggestion on following

• Any pre-check needed for car?
• To-do for the trip (Safety: tools and other stuffs, both for the car an us)
• Road condition, where to halt or to what extend to stretch
• Good hotels
• Suggestion on route
• Place to visit on route
• Anything else?

Thanks in Advance for the suggestion

 

[generalmax]

This trip is very much possible.

The route you can take is as follows.
Day 1 :Chennai to Bangalore (Electronic City)~ 6 to 7 hours with lunch break,from Electronic city take the NICE road ,then on to Mysore road .In 2 to 3 hours you'll reach Mysore.
Overnight stay in Mysore.
Day 2:Sight Seeing in Mysore in the morning and afternoon to Coorg.(Via Hunsur- Periyapatana,Madikeri ~120 Kms.Overnight Stay .
Day 3 :Sight seeing in Coorg and to WayaNad .Night stay in Wayanad .
Day4 :Start to Bangalore Via Nanjangud ,Malavalli Kanakpura Road .Night in Bangalore
Day 5: Start to Chennai in the morning.

All stay can be arranged through online booking.
However the trip will be too much to ask for as you will be driving most of the day time.
With the same reason I am not giving any suggestions for stay and places to see . Depends upon your availability. For everything else there is google.
For the trip:-
See that you have drinking water in the car.
Spare tyre and tools.
Do you have a GPS device ?
If not have a map.Your wife can be the Navigator .Train her
Also arrange for some snacks to carry on as you may need not stop for that.
Need to have good sleep before you start.
Though roads are nice there will be sudden humps and potholes in the interior roads.
On Chennai Bangalore route there are some diversions ,be careful about that.
In some cities during day time heavy rush can be anticipated.
Don't drive too slow or too fast in highways.
Don't stop in Secluded areas.
Be calm and don't start an argument.
Always (make sure) lock the car with window glasses rolled up.
Cheers

 

[Octy_Vin]

Karthik, My Wishes for your first long trip. Ram sir will be the best person to answer you. I think Dhaya also went there some time back. You can check with him also.

 

[Bopanna]

Road conditions are fantastic between Bangalore-Mysore-Coorg. Bangalore-Mysore is 4 lane but has a lot of humps which are unmarked - be careful. In this stretch, villages abound and locals care two hoots about road manners. I'd advise you to be double careful and accommodate their whims. Mysore-Coorg is 2-lane and needs careful driving on twisties and ghats - since you are a new driver. One good thing is that the twisties in Coorg district are clearly marked with yellow line where overtaking is dangerous. I strongly recommend you to not overtake on bends which have a yellow line - even if 90% of other drivers are doing it. One good tourist spot on this route is Bylakuppe Tibetan monastery where you can sample Tibetan food and handicrafts and visit a Tibetan temple.

If you can plan and earmark some good Petrol Bunks in your route, it will be very convenient. I'm sure you can find good ones in Bangalore. And I can recommend few good places to fuel up further in this route:

1. Chennapatna - BP COCO adjoining McDonalds and Kamath
2. Mysore (HP COCO Nandi Petrol Pump on intersection of Hunsur Road with Valmiki Road)
3. Mysore (Shell on Hunsur Road)
4. Mysore (IOC Belwadi, Ilavala, Hunsur Road)

The Mysore-Bangalore route can get very crowded on Sunday afternoons. On those days, you can save travel time and have a easier drive if you skip the state highway and instead use NH 209 which is 2-lane and goes via Malavalli-Kanakpura and is mostly hump-free.

Unfortunately, I have rarely stayed in Hotels in these towns as I have relatives there, so not much idea on hotels. Only know about Hotel Hilltown in Coorg - quite clean and neat at reasonable rates. Hotel Dasaprakash in Mysore is quaint old style but no-nonsense and clean. Better to book ahead as I know Hotels were heavily occupied during new year period.

If you are a pure vegetarian, then Coorg town has fewer choices compared to Sakleshpur which precedes it on your route.

 

[Karthikkrish]

This trip is very much possible.

The route you can take is as follows.
Day 1 :Chennai to Bangalore (Electronic City)~ 6 to 7 hours with lunch break,from Electronic city take the NICE road ,then on to Mysore road .In 2 to 3 hours you'll reach Mysore.
Overnight stay in Mysore.
Day 2:Sight Seeing in Mysore in the morning and afternoon to Coorg.(Via Hunsur- Periyapatana,Madikeri ~120 Kms.Overnight Stay .
Day 3 :Sight seeing in Coorg and to WayaNad .Night stay in Wayanad .
Day4 :Start to Bangalore Via Nanjangud ,Malavalli Kanakpura Road .Night in Bangalore
Day 5: Start to Chennai in the morning.

Thank you buddy, you have saved lot of my time. I was so impressed with the day by day itinerary

All stay can be arranged through online booking.
However the trip will be too much to ask for as you will be driving most of the day time.
With the same reason I am not giving any suggestions for stay and places to see . Depends upon your availability. For everything else there is google.
For the trip:-
See that you have drinking water in the car.
Spare tyre and tools.
Do you have a GPS device ?
If not have a map.Your wife can be the Navigator .Train her
Also arrange for some snacks to carry on as you may need not stop for that.
Need to have good sleep before you start.
Though roads are nice there will be sudden humps and potholes in the interior roads.
On Chennai Bangalore route there are some diversions ,be careful about that.
In some cities during day time heavy rush can be anticipated.
Don't drive too slow or too fast in highways.
Don't stop in Secluded areas.
Be calm and don't start an argument.
Always (make sure) lock the car with window glasses rolled up.
Cheers

BTW, I got my GPS enabled Mobile for Navigation and my wife is better navigator too.

Once again thanks, for the tips

 

[Karthikkrish]

Karthik, My Wishes for your first long trip. Ram sir will be the best person to answer you. I think Dhaya also went there some time back. You can check with him also.

Thanks Vinodh, As of now I know very little people in this forum.

But, am very happy that many are voluntarily helping.

I know Mr. Sethu, who will surely help in this regards.

 

[AR Ram]

Dear all

Need suggestion in planning my vacation.

Chennai – Wayanad – Coorg – Chennai via Bangalore and Mysore.

View attachment 120431

Planned for a 5D – 4N trip, starting on 11th Jan (Sat) and returning on 15th Jan (Wed), not yet decided where to stay and how many days to stay in one destination.

Let me brief about me and my car, first, to understand my actual requirement.

My Ownership thread

I am a new driver with 1700km of driving experience, in which 700km in highway and 1000km in city. My car has clocked around 2700km, 3rd service is due in Feb end. BTW, I am not interest to cross 100kmph speed, keeping in mind safety and mileage (liquid gold - Petrol). Only me and wife are traveling and only I know driving.

Need suggestion on following

• Any pre-check needed for car?
• To-do for the trip (Safety: tools and other stuffs, both for the car an us)
• Road condition, where to halt or to what extend to stretch
• Good hotels
• Suggestion on route
• Place to visit on route
• Anything else?

Thanks in Advance for the suggestion

Congrats for your upcoming trip

Since your car is new, you need not worry much. Check the air pressure on all wheels including spare wheel. Keep the jack and wheel spanner, check the engine oil level, coolant, windshield washer tank. Weather in Wayanad and Coorg will be cold during nights, so carry woolen clothing.

The route you planned is perfect. You can take Nice road to Mysore bypassing Bangalore city, and before reaching Mysore take the bye pass to Calicut (Kozhikode) and from Gundlupet take right to Kalpetta, district head quarters of Wayanad. Start early, after Gudlupet, the roads are closed during night from Berambadi to Sultanbathery through the reserved forests. Drive very slow there, you may find speed breakers frequently.

The route from Kalpetta to Madikeri is via Mananthavady-Thirunelly-Gonikoppal-Virajpet. after Thirunelly till Madekei roads are not is good condition, but you may enjoy the drive through the coffee plantations on both the sides of the road.

From Medikeri to Mysore the roads are in great condition. If time permits you can cover Mysore also on the way back.

You can get excellent discounts on hotel bookings made through Cleartrip.com.

Drive safe

 

[Highway Ranger]

Looks like you will have half a day in Mysore, half a day in Coorg and half a day in Waynad. The rest of the time will be spent driving from one place to another.

Of course it is doable. If that is what you want.

If I were you, I would select just one place, Coorg or Waynad, and enjoy what the place has to offer in a relaxed way and take back pleasant memories. After all it is a vacation.

For example, there are 4 to 5 places of interest in Waynad that you might want to explore. Half a day? I would need at least 2 full days, (translates to 4D 3N including to and fro), just to do Waynad in a hurry.

 

[Karthikkrish]

Road conditions are fantastic between Bangalore-Mysore-Coorg. Bangalore-Mysore is 4 lane but has a lot of humps which are unmarked - be careful. In this stretch, villages abound and locals care two hoots about road manners. I'd advise you to be double careful and accommodate their whims. Mysore-Coorg is 2-lane and needs careful driving on twisties and ghats - since you are a new driver. One good thing is that the twisties in Coorg district are clearly marked with yellow line where overtaking is dangerous. I strongly recommend you to not overtake on bends which have a yellow line - even if 90% of other drivers are doing it. One good tourist spot on this route is Bylakuppe Tibetan monastery where you can sample Tibetan food and handicrafts and visit a Tibetan temple.

If you can plan and earmark some good Petrol Bunks in your route, it will be very convenient. I'm sure you can find good ones in Bangalore. And I can recommend few good places to fuel up further in this route:

1. Chennapatna - BP COCO adjoining McDonalds and Kamath
2. Mysore (HP COCO Nandi Petrol Pump on intersection of Hunsur Road with Valmiki Road)
3. Mysore (Shell on Hunsur Road)
4. Mysore (IOC Belwadi, Ilavala, Hunsur Road)

The Mysore-Bangalore route can get very crowded on Sunday afternoons. On those days, you can save travel time and have a easier drive if you skip the state highway and instead use NH 209 which is 2-lane and goes via Malavalli-Kanakpura and is mostly hump-free.

Unfortunately, I have rarely stayed in Hotels in these towns as I have relatives there, so not much idea on hotels. Only know about Hotel Hilltown in Coorg - quite clean and neat at reasonable rates. Hotel Dasaprakash in Mysore is quaint old style but no-nonsense and clean. Better to book ahead as I know Hotels were heavily occupied during new year period.

If you are a pure vegetarian, then Coorg town has fewer choices compared to Sakleshpur which precedes it on your route.

Thank you Bopanna, you have not even allowed a stranger to unknown petrol bunks.

 

[Karthikkrish]

Congrats for your upcoming trip

Since your car is new, you need not worry much. Check the air pressure on all wheels including spare wheel. Keep the jack and wheel spanner, check the engine oil level, coolant, windshield washer tank. Weather in Wayanad and Coorg will be cold during nights, so carry woolen clothing.

The route you planned is perfect. You can take Nice road to Mysore bypassing Bangalore city, and before reaching Mysore take the bye pass to Calicut (Kozhikode) and from Gundlupet take right to Kalpetta, district head quarters of Wayanad. Start early, after Gudlupet, the roads are closed during night from Berambadi to Sultanbathery through the reserved forests. Drive very slow there, you may find speed breakers frequently.

The route from Kalpetta to Madikeri is via Mananthavady-Thirunelly-Gonikoppal-Virajpet. after Thirunelly till Madekei roads are not is good condition, but you may enjoy the drive through the coffee plantations on both the sides of the road.

From Medikeri to Mysore the roads are in great condition. If time permits you can cover Mysore also on the way back.

You can get excellent discounts on hotel bookings made through Cleartrip.com.

Drive safe

Thank you Sir for the caring advice. BTW, all the places you mentioned sounds like Chinese to me, need to get used to it before I start.

 

[Karthikkrish]

Looks like you will have half a day in Mysore, half a day in Coorg and half a day in Waynad. The rest of the time will be spent driving from one place to another.

Of course it is doable. If that is what you want.

If I were you, I would select just one place, Coorg or Waynad, and enjoy what the place has to offer in a relaxed way and take back pleasant memories. After all it is a vacation.

For example, there are 4 to 5 places of interest in Waynad that you might want to explore. Half a day? I would need at least 2 full days, (translates to 4D 3N including to and fro), just to do Waynad in a hurry.

Oh yes, I understood your point, bit of a driver than a tourist.

Is it possible to drive Wayanad directly from Chennai and stay for 2 days (Day 1 and Day 2) and then drive to Coorg and stay for another 2 days (Day 3 and Day 4) and drive back to Chennai directly?

Can someone clarify?

 

[pravin1987]

I heard that in ooty 2 days back it was 0 degree. pack your wollen stuff and sweaters.

the journey can be split into 2 parts:
1. chennai- bangalore-mysore-gudulpet-bandipur-mudumalai- gudalur-ooty or in the same route go upto mudumalai-masingaudi-ooty( famous 36 bend route).

places to see:
1. mysore palace- never miss this.
2. gopalsamy betta
3. bandipur safari.
4. mudumalai safari.
5. moyar: 12 kms from masingaudi
6. sincara: 12 kms, kalhatty waterfalls, bison valley view
7. mavanalla banyan forest.
8. ooty attractions like botanical garden, lake, museum, tea estate.
9. if you are natural lover drive to upper bhavani, avalance,emrald,kodanadu view point.

ooty-gudalur-sulthan bathery-wayanad-coorg.
1. memumutty waterfalls.
2. kuruva island
3. thirunelli temple.
4. muthanga safari ride.
5. coorg.

the road stretches from gundulept and inside the bandipur and mudumalai are very worst. there are some places which can test the ground clearance of a sedan and hatch back.

the route from gudalur to pandalur is okay and from there on to sultan bathery is bad.

a word of caution while you are in the hills start your drive after 7am and reach the hotel back within 6pm. don't drive in the nights. be aware of the maniac state bus drivers.

your whole plan covers the entire western ghats. it's a bit of overload on a single driver that too a new one to do this in 5 days taking the current weather and road conditions.

places of stay: TTDC hotel mudumlai, TTDC hotel ooty, nature resort- located on the way to kuruva island from sultan bathery. I can gurantee you top class service in all the above mentioned places

 

[Highway Ranger]

Oh yes, I understood your point, bit of a driver than a tourist.

Is it possible to drive Wayanad directly from Chennai and stay for 2 days (Day 1 and Day 2) and then drive to Coorg and stay for another 2 days (Day 3 and Day 4) and drive back to Chennai directly?

Can someone clarify?

It will take a full day's drive from Chennai to Waynad and another day for Coorg to Chennai. So you will have 3 days in between. You can do a guided tour type of visits (30 mins max ) to all the places in Waynad on day 2 and drive to Coorg on day 3. You can cover some attractions that are on the way, like the kuruva island, thirunelly temple. Do another quick visit to all the tourist spots in Coorg on day 4 and drive back on day 5.

Drive from Chennai to Waynad should take you around 11 to 12 hours. I suppose the same for your return journey.

 

[Karthikkrish]

I heard that in ooty 2 days back it was 0 degree. pack your wollen stuff and sweaters.

the journey can be split into 2 parts:
1. chennai- bangalore-mysore-gudulpet-bandipur-mudumalai- gudalur-ooty or in the same route go upto mudumalai-masingaudi-ooty( famous 36 bend route).

places to see:
1. mysore palace- never miss this.
2. gopalsamy betta
3. bandipur safari.
4. mudumalai safari.
5. moyar: 12 kms from masingaudi
6. sincara: 12 kms, kalhatty waterfalls, bison valley view
7. mavanalla banyan forest.
8. ooty attractions like botanical garden, lake, museum, tea estate.
9. if you are natural lover drive to upper bhavani, avalance,emrald,kodanadu view point.

ooty-gudalur-sulthan bathery-wayanad-coorg.
1. memumutty waterfalls.
2. kuruva island
3. thirunelli temple.
4. muthanga safari ride.
5. coorg.

the road stretches from gundulept and inside the bandipur and mudumalai are very worst. there are some places which can test the ground clearance of a sedan and hatch back.

the route from gudalur to pandalur is okay and from there on to sultan bathery is bad.

a word of caution while you are in the hills start your drive after 7am and reach the hotel back within 6pm. don't drive in the nights. be aware of the maniac state bus drivers.

your whole plan covers the entire western ghats. it's a bit of overload on a single driver that too a new one to do this in 5 days taking the current weather and road conditions.

places of stay: TTDC hotel mudumlai, TTDC hotel ooty, nature resort- located on the way to kuruva island from sultan bathery. I can gurantee you top class service in all the above mentioned places

Buddy, am not planning to go to Ooty, planning to go to Coorg and Wayanad.

BTW, thanks for your concern will try Ooty another time.

 

[AR Ram]

Oh yes, I understood your point, bit of a driver than a tourist.

Is it possible to drive Wayanad directly from Chennai and stay for 2 days (Day 1 and Day 2) and then drive to Coorg and stay for another 2 days (Day 3 and Day 4) and drive back to Chennai directly?

Can someone clarify?

Yes you can. If you start at 5 am from Chennai you can reach Kalpetta (Wayanad) by 4 pm, under normal driving conditions and with minimum breaks.

Kalpetta to Madikeri will take more time though the distance is less because of poor roads, a minimum of 2 to 4 hours.

And from Coorg to Chennai - 10 hours.