Bangalore - Wayanad Weekend Trip

( Updated on June 20, 2009 - Recommended Homestay in Wayanad

After this blog post, there were so many mails which i received asking for recommendation on affordable stay in Wayand. I strongly recommend opting for a homestay accommodation as wayanad has plenty of them. So if you are going as a group, staying in a house rather in hotel in wayanad will be a wonderful experience.

TravelGoogy.com has such an option avaialable in their offerings.  have a look at

http://www.travelgoogy.com/tg/hotdeal/hotdealsWayanad.php

You will get a house at your disposal ! If you are going as part of a group of six, you will be only paying Rs. 650 per head per day and breakfast is included. The homestay is located in walkaway distance from Soochipara waterfalls. Even if you are just a couple, i strongly recommend this option as it will cost you only Rs 2000/- but you get a full house for you and your loved one. )

Wayanad, misty hill-station in kerala always was my favourite destination. I specially love the drive from bangalore to wayanad for its good roads and beautiful Scenaries. so when my friend asked me to join him for a trip to wayanad as he has to meet somebody in a place called meppadi in wayanad, i happily jumped in. We decided to drive my Tata Indigo this time. We decided to start on a saturday morning from my home at banshankari.

We both woke-up at 4.30 AM and get ready and started the journey by 5 AM. We took Uttrahalli-kengeri road to catch bangalore-mysore highway at kengeri. It was a easy ride as traffic was very less in early morning and road in super condition. If anyone driving to wayanad, i recommend to start early so that you can reach mysore in no time. Only point to note is there are so many humps in this expressway to kill your joy of driving. most of them are put by nearby villagers and none of them have white lines or reflectors on it.. so beware of humps while you are driving in nights !

We decided to have a tea and naturally our choice was Kamat Madhuvan on the mysore - calicut/ooty road. Its a nice place, in the evenings they always have live music performances of classical musics. I liked their Tea in the early morning, impact if i ever drive to wayanad in the early morning from bangalore.. i always have a small tea from kamat madhuvan and my breakfast from Jubilee, Sultan Bathery, Waynad which i like for their typical kerala non-veg breakfast !!

Started from kamat madhuvan after a quick tea, and drive through Njangode, Gundalpet and Bandipur forest. from Gundalpet you need to take calicut route to reach wayanad and road is very good now sparing few areas. The good thing about this road is you are going through forest for almost 13-15 kilometers 90% of the forest area belongs to karnataka and reamining belongs to Kerala. I always love to drive through this part as its a pleasure to see all those greenaries, elephents, monkys etc. But………… this time i am hugely disappointed as the rise in temperature hardly hit this forest area and all those greenaries which i adore were missing….. insted i saw only trees without any leaves… an un forgottable sight…

Moreover we didnt seen any animals on the way, looks like again becasue of rising mercury ! (i read it in today’s news paper (28-Feb-2009) that wayand wildlife santury is closed for another one month becasue of rise in heat !!) The only thing which we saw was some monkys…And one happy monkey family got my camara’s attention.

By 9.30 we reached kerala border, the blue board welcomes us to God’s own country - Kerala. they also has a board which details about the main tourist attractions in wayanad. Kerala tourism board is one of best managed tourism bodies in india. They really market kerala in all sense…

Its only 13 KM from kerala border to nearest town Sultan Batheri, biggest town in Wayanad district. We reached Batheri by 9.30 AM, drove straight to Jubilee Restaurant and had our breakfast. So that means if anybody starts driving from bangalore early morning hours, you are in wayanad by mere 4 hours 30 minutes!!!. After breakfast we took Ambalavayal-vaduvanchal route to go to Meppadi. We choose that route becasue of its beauty, most of the vaduvanchal-meppadi stretch is going through Harison malayalam team plantation….. we know that eventhough its summer, the tea plantations will look green ! . we were not wrong… see some exotic pictures below…. ( click on the image to view in full size)

We were in meppadi by 10.45 AM. We spend entire day over there as my friend has to finish all his work. We started back from meppadi by 5 PM and reached Sultan batheri by 5.45 PM. We decided to have our dinner early for two reasons, one, we can drive non-stop to bangalore without stopping for dinner, second, ofcourse dont want to miss another chance to eat at Jubilee . After dinner we started from Batheri around 6.10 PM, eventhough roads were very busy compared to our morning drive, we managed to reach back bangalore by 10.45 PM.

Following are the recommendation for people who wants to visit wayanad and would like to drive through…

• Start early, say around 4.30-5 AM to have a easy drive.
• Plan it on a weekend, start either friday or saturday morning based on your choice.
• Wayanad has some very good homestays and resorts, book your accomadation well in advance. Weekends are usually sold-outs in entire wayanad due to crowd from bangalore and mysore. You can contact www.TravelGoogy.com to do the same with very attractive prices.
• Plan your days well to cover all main tourist places in wayanad or you can leave that job to your tour operator. the main attractions in wayanad are Edakkal Caves , Wayanad wild life sanctuary, Muthanga , Chembra peak , Meenmutty falls , Soochipara Waterfalls , Banasura sagar project , Pookot lake , Pakshipathalam , Kuruva Island , Pazhassi Tomb , Thirunelly temple , Jain Temple.
• Plan for 2 days to cover all these, preferably 3 days to cover evething in a relax mode.
• start the return journey by 4 PM from wayanad and you will be in your bangalore home by not later than 10 PM including dinner time.
• Banalore - wayanad round trip will be approximately 520 - 550 KM based on where you start from bangalore excluding local sight seeing.  so if you driving a decent mileage giving Diesel car, it will cost your purse just Rs 1300/- and Rs. 2200-2500 with a petrol car.

Bangalore - Wayanad Driving Route

You can follow the below route to reach wayanad. Sultan batheri is one of the big city in Wayanad and from there you can proceed to other tourist destinations

Bangalore - Mysore - Najangode - Gundalpet - Sultan Batheri

Plan a trip to wayanad and Enjoy !

Tags: bangalore hill stations, Bangalore Weekend driving destinations, Bangalore weekends, Banglaore - Wayanad Driving, Gundalpet, hill station kerala, Meppadi, Mysore, Njangode, Soochipara, Sulthan Batheri, Wayanad, Weekend holidays from bangalore