Kodaikanal
Date: 11-Apr-2015 to 13-Apr-2015
We wanted to celebrate our first wedding anniversary (Apr 13th) somewhere far from Bangalore. Hill station was our first preference as the summer in Bangalore this year is intolerable. Since April 14th was Thilak’s birthday, both of us decided to take leave on that day as well. So, we decided to go for a three days trip.
Stay Plan
After discussing, we chose to celebrate our anniversary in Kodaikanal. Kodaikanal, princess of hill stations, is a famous hill station in the Dindigul district of Tamil Nadu and is around 465 km from Bangalore. Since I did not have much work, I researched a lot about the tourist attractions in Kodaikanal, went through many travelogues on Kodaikanal. Thilak told me that I would be the guide for this trip and we would be going to the places as per my plan. I took his words seriously and studied the place and made a plan about the places to cover in this trip. The next thing we planned was the hotel booking for our stay. As usual, we did not want to go to costly resorts because visiting the places was our main agenda instead of relaxing at the hotel. So, we searched for good budget hotels and Spring Valley Residency met our criteria and we booked the same cottage for two nights and three days.
Route Plan
Our next big thing to plan was the route to travel. Though Bangalore to Kodaikanal has a very good, simple route via a well maintained NH7, we wanted to try a different route, at least once during our trip (either during onward journey or during return journey). This was Thilak’s idea. Wherever possible, he wants to try different routes during a journey instead of repeating the routes. Other than the usual NH7 route, there are two more routes to go to Kodaikanal. One is through Mysore > Bandipur > Ooty > Coimbatore > Kodaikanal. The other one through Chamarajanagar > Sathyamangalam (NH209) > Avinashi > Palani > Kodaikanal. The first route is bit far from the second one. So, we chose the latter one. Since this route goes through Sathyamngalam forest where the road is open only between 7 AM to 7 PM, we decided not to take this route during night. As we were returning during evening time, we had to make this route for our onward journey and NH7 for our return journey. Though this route takes longer time than the common NH7 route, we assumed the route to be highly scenic and interesting.
Route Travelled:
- Onward: BTM Layout > Kanakpura > Malavalli > Chamarajanagar > Sathyamangalam > Avinashi > Palani > Kodaikanal
Return: Kodaikanal > Batlagundu > Dindigul > Karur > Namakkal > Salem > Dharmapuri > Krishnagiri > Hosur > Electronic City > BTM Layout - Total distance (To & Fro): 1012 km
- Mileage (Car): 23 km/l
- Fuel expense: 2904 Rs
- Total expense: 8120 Rs
- Photos: Day 1 at Kodaikanal, Day 2 at Kodaikanal, and Day 3 at Kodaikanal
The detailed day-wise travel journal of our trip is in the following links:
- Day – Beautiful Drive to a Beautiful Place
- Day 2 – Journey on Clouds
- Day 3 – Nature Trek to Dolphin’s Nose
Route Map:
Ranju – Hope you both had a very good trip…. The expense was also under budget 🙂
Keep writing such blogs so that it will help me and Shakti in future 🙂
Thanks dear.. 😉
Such tempting pics…I feel like going right away
Yeah.. the place is beautiful.. You can find more pics in the Gallery page..
Nice post. Have never been to Kodaikanal..will definitely plan now:)
Glad that you liked the post.. Kodaikanal is a beautiful place.. definitely a “must visit” spot..
Ranjani,
I always feel jealous after reading your post. I wonder how you people have so much of patience to cover all possible places when you go for a trip.
In this kodaikanal travel blog as well as the other blog, you provide all the information starting from the hotel stay, fuel price, entrance fee to everything which is really very helpful. The pictures that you have posted are mesmerizing and compels the reader to visit that place.
We are visiting to kodai next week and your blog has given us a rough idea about the places to visit in kodai as well as the cost and time incurred in it. Thanks to you.
I wish your “steps together”journey covers all the countries in the world and you give us the pleasure of experiencing the places through you blogs.
Thanks a lot Lavanya for your kind words.. It means a lot.. Very glad to know that our post has helped in a way to plan your trip.. 🙂 Keep visiting..