A road trip to Coastal Karnataka is an invigorating experience. A Coastal Karnataka tour from Bangalore by road makes you experience gorgeous beaches, rivers, backwaters, temples, and heritage spots. The first few days spent in Mangalore and Udupi were special. Soon, we proceeded towards the latter half of our coastal Karnataka roadtrip that included Murudeshwar and Jog Falls and finally ended at Davanagere.
A quick recap of our Coastal Karnataka trip for fellow travellers: (A tad less than 1300 Km’s for the entire trip)
Day 1 – Bangalore to Mangalore & explore Mangalore (Night stay)
Day 2 & 3 – Mangalore to Udupi & explore Udupi (Night stay)
Day 4 – Udupi to Murudeshwar & Jog Falls to Davanagere (Night stay)
Day 5 & 6 – Davanagere to Hampi & explore Hampi (Night stay)
Day 7 – Back to Bangalore exploring Chitradurga on the way
After our overnight stay at Udupi, we had a quick breakfast and headed towards Murudeshwar. We started as early as possible as this was going to be an action packed day. From Udupi to Murudeshwar is a beautiful drive of a little over 2 hours that will take you through some winding hills and some beautiful beaches. The views of Western Ghats on this stretch of road trip from Udupi to Murudeshwar is breathtaking.
Once you arrive in Murudeshwar, the Murudeshwar Temple is the main attraction. It is a temple particularly famous for its Shiva statue on the bank of the sea, which is the third largest Shiva statue in the world. Also, the temple itself is vast and beautiful, constructed on the slope of a hill. The temple is located beside beautiful Murudeshwar beach. So, one can visit the beach as well after visiting the temple. The water color of this part of the sea appeared most beautiful to me among all the beaches that I visited on my coastal Karnataka road trip. It was a beautiful shade of turquoise blue, indigo blue and aqua – something I have only seen in Dhanushkodi or during my trip to the Andaman Islands, particularly at Vijayanagara Beach and in Port Blair.
The towering Shiva statue at Murudeshwar surrounded by the deep blue hues of the Arabian Sea was a brilliant spectacle. It is an add-on beauty to this location. There are other large-sized statues of God and demons along with the statue of Shiva. This place has the sculptures depicting the historical importance of the Lord Ganesha receiving the Atma Linga from the popular Ravana. The sculpture of Geetopadesha and Sun Chariot is observed. The Statue is designed in such a way that when the sunlight falls on it, the entire stature appears to be sparkling. The temple timings are 3 AM - 1 PM and 3 PM - 8 PM and would easily take around 2-3 hours for visit.
Post our Murudeshwar visit, we headed straight towards Jog falls. Located at a distance of around 90 KMs from Murudeshwar, the Jog Falls viewpoint takes around 2 hours on road. Being the ghat section, roads are pretty narrow and dizzying.
Formed over the river Sharavathi, the Jog falls is one of the most beautiful and top waterfalls in India. Jog Falls is also known as Gerosappa falls which is one of the largest waterfall attractions in South India. It takes around 1 - 2 days to completely explore the wonderful Jog falls. The water gushes out of the mountain and flows in four notable districts namely, Rover, Raja, Rocket, and Rani. The Raja falls simply drop down from a column which is of a depth of 830 feet high. It is halfway encountering the river Rover on its fall. The water rushes down faster and meets the river Raja at the base. The river Rocket further shoots downward to form a lot of jets. The river Rani is a simple quite waterfall near the side of the mountain. This mesmeric view of the Jog falls attracts a lot of tourists to visit from time to time. The uneven showering of the falls creates a must-witness view to cherish throughout your life. The construction of the Linganamakki Dam for generating hydroelectricity plant is made on this area. This restricts the flow of the waterfall during the monsoon seasons.
Jog Falls during December doesn't really provide the awesome view as during monsoons. However, we still managed to get a view of the beauty from the different view points. Going to the foot of the waterfalls involves nearly 1400 steps and can be done in around an hour (depends on fitness levels). However, since we had the extended part of our journey to Davanagere, we decided to skip the same. After gorging on some delicious food at Jog Falls, we continued our onward journey to Davanagere.
The journey to Davanagere from Jog Falls is roughly 160 KMs and can be completed in around 3.5 hours. We took the route via Bhatkal & Siddapur. Most of the roadways are excellent to drive in. However, since majority of the driving is still on the western ghats, one does need to be careful. We reached our hotel by evening and had an early dinner before crashing for the night. The next morning we left for Hampi.
Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in India located near Hospet town in the Karnataka state. Hampi is charismatic even in its ruined state, attracting thousands of visitors every year. Vast stretches of boulder-strewn hills make the backdrop of Hampi unique. Dotted around the hills and valleys are 500 plus monuments. Among them are beautiful temples, ruins of palaces, remains of aquatic structures, ancient market streets, royal pavilions, bastions, royal platforms, treasury. Hampi is a backpacker's paradise, the same way a pilgrim's delight. Hampi is inhabited by both locals and tourists, all throughout the year who love to visit Hampi tourist places. The journey from Davanagere to Hampi via Chitradurga on the NH48 and NH50 took us roughly 3 hours (for a distance of 196 KMs). The roadways are beyond excellent and superb - making us travel with very little exhaustion. However, do exercise caution and don't overspeed.
Having had an early breakfast and start from Davanagere, we reached Hampi by 10:00 AM and directly checked into the Mayura Bhuvaneshwari hotel in Hampi. Being the Karnataka State Tourism hotel and located within the World Heritage site area, it provided us great access to all the different sites of Hampi over the next couple of days.
2 day itinerary of Hampi: Hampi has lots to offer. Hence, to cover maximum places needs some immaculate planning.
This 2 day itinerary is a humble effort to help discover Hampi:
Day 1: Start with the Vijay Vittala Temple, Hemakuta Hills, Krishna Temple and add the Virupaksha Temple in the second half to have a fulfulling day!
Day 2: Start with the Queen's bath, Zenana Enclosure, Lotus Mahal, Elephant Stables and finish off with sunset at Matanga Hills!
For a more detailed itinerary of Hampi, look no further as we've got you covered.
Next Up: Exploring the Chitradurga fort on the way back to Bangalore. Stay tuned!
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