Please critique my southern India itinerary
 

Before submitting my itinerary for our January 2013 trip to several travel agents for quotes I'd like to know your thoughts on the timing.. I feel I have too many one nighters, but do not know where to add nights to slow the trip down a bit. The trip I am contemplating is:
1 night Chenna
2 nights Mahalapurum
1 night Pondicherry
2 nights Madurai
1 night Munnar
3 nights Cochin
1 night Ooty or Connor
2 nights Mysore
1 night Hassan or a third night Mysore and do Hassan and Halibad as a day trip

. If i were to add nights, where would you suggest I do this? Time is not an issue, but we do not like Indian food, so we are not interested in prolonging our stay in India, but we do not want to do a trip at breakneck speed either.

Also, if we wanted to increase our time away by another week or 10 days , where would you suggest we do this-Udaipur and Jodpher, ), or Sri Lanka, or somewhere else?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

(Shelly, I have no advice for you as we haven't been to Southern India yet, but I think it might be our next India trip. I have a friend who is there right now, and I'm looking forward to talking with him about his experience and following your planning and eventual trip report!)

What transport were you planning on using? Is this your first trip to India? What kind of budget?

1. I would skip Chennai altogether. There's no point in driving into Chennai for just one night when Mamallapuram is so close.

2. If you don't like Indian food you should like Pondi, but read the TA reviews before deciding where to eat.

3. You really should add Trichy and Tanjore between Pondi and Madurai.

4. You could also consider stopping off in the Chettinad region, perhaps at http://thebangala.com/ which will also give you some relief from Indian food.

5. A lot of people go to Kochi to do a backwaters cruise. I really enjoyed it, but that was in 2001, and I gather there are now more than 700 boats. Maybe a day trip would be enough.

6. I don't see much point in only one night in Munnar and Coorg. Maybe pick one or the other? They are places to chill out and enjoy the quiet and the scenery.

7. You can definitely do Hassan and Halebid as a day trip, but it will be a long day. I got back after dark, and that's no time to be on an Indian road!

I did South India in the other direction recently. You may find my TR helpful. Start here: http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...omment-6944144

This is our second trip to India. Our first was to northern India for 15 days about 4 years ago. We will hire a car and driver through a travel agent for our time in southern India, except we want to do the short toy train ride out of Ooty. We usually travel mid price budget, 3 and 4 star hotels.

I included Chennai as our first night as this is where I plan to fly into, arriving at night, and plan to fly out of Bangalore.

thursdaysd-I read your trip report when you first posted it, but will re read it. Thanks for your suggestions.

Kathie-Please let me know what you find out from your friend.

"This is our second trip to India." - good! You know what you're getting into. Actually, the south is a bit cleaner than the north.

Yes, I figured you were flying into Chennai, but the airport is 16 km southwest of the center, and Mamallapuram is 59 km south of the center. I suppose you could look for an airport hotel, I just don't see any reason to head into Chennai itself, but then I don't care for Chennai.

I was a little concerned about the distance from Madurai to Munnar. The roads in Tamil Nadu weren't as bad as Karnataka, but still. However, google thinks you can do it in a bit over three hours. I'd check that with whichever agent you choose.

Three nights in Kochi is too much.

Belur (which is i assume what you meant) and Halebid are NOT a good idea for a day trip. But Hassan is not a very nice ,interesting, or scenic town. If you want to spend a night in the area, check out the hotels and homestays in Chikmagalur area. I didnt--stayed at hotel near Hasan--and regretted not having gone up a bit to the hills of then earby coffee country. Ther is also a narby farm honestay that i would consider if in the area again. (Not at home now--will check info later and get back on here.)

Havent been yet, but most everyone i know who has says TWO night in M'puram is one too many. However, JANUARY when you travel, is the time of the art/music festival based in the area. They have stuff like dance performances in front of the ruins. Depending on scehdule, might be worth the two nights.


I love Coonor area. Two nights there please!!

We stayed outsideof the town in an exquisite place in a sort of lush valley, which i will try to recall name of and post here later.

YOur driver will drop y uat the Nilgiri Express train (well worth it!!!) and meet you wherever you decide to end the segment. We took the train from Coonoor to Ooty and then stayed overnight(Ooty) and then proceeded north the next day to Mysore.

NO mention of wildlife. If interested, the route from Ooty to Mysore has you passing some wildlife sanctuary areas.

I agree that Mamallapuram is usually not worth two nights, but if you go direct from Chennai airport it would be worth two to recover from jet lag.

I thought the trip might lay out something like this. Thursdaysd, I did include one night in Tanjore but neglected to put that night in my original post.

Day 1-Arrive at night to Chennai. (Since we will be at the hotel to just sleep and leave in the morning, is there any decent place with a/c that would be less expensive than Regency Towers?)



Day 2- See the historic parts of Chennai and drive via the East Coast road to Mahabalipuram, stopping on the way at Dakshina Chitra.



Day 3-Visit Kalashnata Temple and Ekemimbshwara Temple in Kanchipuram in the morning. Tour Mahabalipuram in the afternoon.

Day 4-Drive to Pondicherry.



Day5-Travel to Tanjore stopping to visit Chidambaram and Darashuran. Visit Bridhadisvara temple in Tanjore. Is it worth spending a second night in Tanjore to see the fort and temples in Trichy. Or could we visit Trichy on the way to Maderai on Day 6? Do you think this would be temple overload?



Day6-Revisit the Big Temple, Llibrary, and art gallery.Drive to Madurai. En route visit ChettinaduPalace.



Day7-Visit Meenakshi Temple, Therlimalai Naiker Palace and see the night ceremony at Meenakshi temple.



Day 8-Drive to Munnar. On the way, visit a spice plantation and perhaps a rubber plantation. While in this area I want to visit a spice plantation, a rubber plantation and a tea plantation,.Where would each would fit into either Day 8 or 9?.



Day 9-Visit a tea plantation, rubber plantation and spice plantation on the way to Cochin. I would like to travel through and visit some backwater villages seeing village life activities and people working in the fields and rice paddies.. I do not know if we need to add an extra day to do this.



Day10-Backwater day cruise and possibly a sunset cruise of Cochin harbor. At some point, while in the area I would want to walk through a backwater village.



Day11-See Fort Cochin and attend the dance performance at night.



Day 12-Drive to Coonor taking the toy train (first class) part of the way . I think I would prefer spending the night in Coonor rather than Ooty, but don't know how this would affect the schedule. I would like to see the scenery there for a short while on the morning of Day13 before the mist rolls in and maybe do a short 1 hour walk. The only things I would like to see in Ooty are Dolphin's Nose and Lamb's Rock view points.



Day 13-Drive to Mysore, Is there something we could stop and do along the way?, . I have decided not to spend the night in the national park as I am not that interested in going on the safaris..



Day 14-Tour Mysore, Somnathpur,etc.



Day 15- tour Halibid and Belur either as a day trip from Mysore or sleep in in coffee country (where Cali mentioned).


Day16-Drive to Bangalore stopping at Brinlava Gardens (or should we do this on Day 14) and Srirangapatum.

Any thoughts on modifications, additions or subtractions? Thanks.

　

Well, there is no way I'd sign up for that. If you were India newbies I'd strongly urge you to slow down, but since it's your second trip I assume you know your own stamina (I didn't see a TR for your first trip). Still, aside from having a car and driver instead of a coach, it looks a lot like "this is Tuesday it must be Belgium".

I would add time everywhere except Chennai and Mamallapuram, and did so when I was in south India. About the only useful thing I can say is that you need to book tickets ahead of time for the train.

Do you have any idea just how much driving this trip entails? Have you researched distances and actual driving times?

For example, you day cruise of the backwaters from Kochi can be 2-3 hours driving each way Kochi to Alleppey, let alone the miniscule crappy bit of the backwaters you'll actually see. Then add a sunset cruise in Kochi?

Driving time Munnar to Kochi can be five or six hours. Added to that 'Visit a tea plantation, rubber plantation and spice plantation... travel through and visit some backwater villages seeing village life activities and people working in the fields and rice paddies...'

Lordy. I'll have to lie down.

Better still, read this:
http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...p-jan-2012.cfm

Frankly, you might be able to get through it all, but you'll see nothing, feel nothing, experience nothing but the inside of your car.

And you'll be eating Indian food almost all the time, whether you like it or not.

So is the best solution to add days at each stop or to add days between stops? For us, time is not an issue. But that darn Indian food is. So dogster, everything you say may be true except "You'll be eating Indian food almost all the time". Substitute "granola bars" for "Indian food" and you'd be correct. lol

That all sounds very negative, I know, but the troubles with your itinerary are actually in your assumptions. Maybe you are 20 years old and actually like this style of traveling. I dunno.

Have a look at this and compare:
http://www.legendsandpalaces.com/16-...ndia.html#tour

Then google 'South India tours' and check out some more itineraries - compare.

You don't mention what hotels you are considering. Unless you factor those in, you really can't make an itinerary. Their websites will also give you ideas of what's around.

We were posting at the same time.

You do know that South Indian food is rather different from North Indian? People are very proud of their cuisine down there. Surely you can find a way through this situation. The clue may be in careful choice of accomodation - but I doubt it a lot of the time.

Eating granola bars is just a horrible solution. Really. Kinda silly, too IMHO.

You know, there is a lot of variety in Indian food. And as dogster says, south Indian is quite different to north - enough that some northerners I encountered claimed they didn't like it.

What is it you don't like about Indian food? And what is it you like about India? You know, I got the feeling from that itinerary that you were just rushing through, crossing sights off a list, so you could leave as quickly as possible.

What I most enjoyed about northern India were the sites. I loved the interesting architecture and the history associated with the sites. I also liked the colorful street scenes and markets. What i did not like was the poverty and the food, but I got past both and enjoyed my trip.

Many of the sights I want to see in southern India are because I've read about them or seen photos of them and they look architecturally interesting. On the one hand, I really do not want to spend more time than necessary in India. On the other hand, I do not want to rush through the trip merely checking off sites. I'm trying to find a happy medium.

What my DH and I do not like about most Indian food, and we've tried it several times in both India and in several Indian restaurants in the states, is the spices used. It is the only type of ethnic cuisine we just do not care for. The only dish we actually did enjoy was tandoori chicken, but in our 15 days in northern India we did not find it on any menu.

We do love vegtables though, and I actually was planning to supplement our granola bars with steamed vegtables, requesting they steam them using no spices.

I DON'T LIKE IT ONE BIT, as i am unable to go along!!

There are a lot of different spices in Indian food, it's a pity you can't identify the one(s) you don't like, but you can always ask that your food be made with no spices. I think you will do better in the south, where the idlis and plain dosas and some vadas won't be spicy unless you add condiments (the coconut chutney should be fine, avoid the orange sambar). Subsisting on dhal and rice would have to be better than granola bars, too! South India is more vegetarian than the north, so lots of veggies around, but I've never seen them steamed, you might have to settle for boiled. Unfortunately, when south Indian food is spicy, it's usually hotter than north India, but with different spices.

Yes, there is some great architecture in the south, and some good scenery too. I'd suggest that you limit your time in places like Madurai and Tanjore, but increase it in Pondy, Munnar and Coonoor. Again, I'd suggest stopping off in the Chettinad region. Note that you can get western food in Pondy (French influence) and possibly in Coonoor (British influence).

You asked for an alternative to the Regency Towers in Chennai, but I can't find any such hotel. If I were going back to Chennai I'd stay in the Keys - http://www.keyshotels.com/LocationChennai.aspx - because I really enjoyed the Keys in Trivandrum. (Note, it had great french fries, so there were probably other western dishes on the menu, too.) But I'd suggest that you look into the Radisson at the airport, given you're coming off a long flight - http://www.radissonblu.com/hotel-chennai - certainly seems to serve western dishes.

dogster and thursdaysd, thanks for your input and links. I'll do some further research. The website for the Keys Hotels in Chennai looks interesting.

Cali or anyone else, any other suggestions to make the trip efficient though not rushed. Any mid priced hotel recommendations (around $100-$150 plus or minus a bit) would be appreciated.

Look at Lemon Tree in Chennai. I've spent several days there. It's a great mid-range chain.

http://www.lemontreehotels.com/chennai/resorts.aspx

Reccos based on 14 nights in the South, right?

First, good for your decision on timing!!! january is an excellent time to go. I went in December (lovely weather everywhere. The travel planner I I use to help lives in TN (Trichy) and says Jan is a great time to visit. i totally trust her!!

Are your priorities are interesting architecture (vs wildlife, beautiful natural scenery, etc) Knowing this will help.

The relatively new (3 yrs old?) Courtyard Marriott in Chennai is about $150 at the prebooking no-cancellation rate. But as the trip is a year away, better to wait to set it in stone.

Check the Priceline site for hotels (in Chennai or other cities in India) I dont know if the bidding option is available, but there are good set rates.

p.s. The travel planner I use is Mrs. Faith Pandian at Indianpanorama.in

The company was "born" in South India, its HQ is still in Trichy, and Faith, a resdient, is very knowledgeable about the area.

At the very least, have a look at the company's site. All their itins are of course flexible, but the ones listed will give you ideas. Also check th esite's"newslettters" for ideas--I think a few specifically are about the South.

another question: are you leaving from BLR airport (i notice you end the itin with a trip to Bangalore) and are uyour flts already booked/set in stone ?

I woudl guess it's cumin you dpn't like.It has that sweaty-armpits aroma or is it the other way 'round?) The food in Kerala is often fish and coconut based and tastes quite different--lighter, IMHO--than in the North.

Hi Cali- Thanks for getting back to me.

Yes interesting architecture is my number one priority.

Second priority is good scenery, like the backwaters of Kerala, the hills of Munnar, ect. However, I do not think I want to do an overnight on a houseboat as I'd prefer to sleep in an air conditioned hotel room minus mosquitos at night.

I am not buying plane tickets until I plan my itinerary and figure out how many days i need to cover my itinerary. I'm guessing I will be flying into Chennai and out of Bangalore, or the reverse, because of the cities I want to cover.

I was going to ask Indian Panarama, as well as several other Indian TAs for a quote once I settle on an itinerary and hotels. Unfortunately, that seems like it won't be any time soon.

Planning is usually half the fun, but in the case of southern India, it is becoming a little frustrating. I wish i had a better handle on not only distances but also how long it takes to get from one place to another. I really do not want to spend most of the trip in a car.

Lonely Planet "South India" will have the bus times between most cities. You can figure it won't take longer by car and should be less. (Assuming your driver doesn't take the long way, make sure you're not paying by distance.)

note problems with kingfisher

Don't settle on an itinerrary YET...why not ASK the different travel agents of whom you enquire, for THEIR feedback.

If you wait and plan all the itin and hotels yourself, the work is done. A good TA can give advice.

Tell them how many days you have, a GENERAL idea of where you want to go, what you want to see, your desired AVERAGE budget limit on hotels or homestays some great ones might be less $ than you are expecting--some might be way morer--it'll all balance out)

That is what a good travel planner can do for you--and it is especially helpful for your first tim in an area (as it is for you in So India)

http://indianpanorama.in/222s_india_explorer.html

Have you seen this itin? it matches your # of days , your arrival and departure cities, and most of what you wanted to see. BUT note, that to see as much as you want in the time you have, you WILL be doing lots of one-nighters. i am not saying this is ideal--it is for someone who wants to see a lot with limited time.
it is JUST an idea.

Like you, I would skip the overnight houseboat ( agree with your reasons)--you can do several-hours long country boat rides in back waters and see lots more actually since the boats are narrower) and use the extra day DIVIDE the long trip from Cochin to Coonoor, perhaps with a stop at Palakkad (Palghat). Somewhere i read somethinh nice about Ambat Farmstay, There is another place NEAR Palakkad but quite a few miles off the route you'll be taking.

Or you could stop at Thrissur--which is where we broke up the trip--and stay at River Retreat hotel--not luxurious, but clean and sweet staff, a typical 3 star Indian heritage hotel , which feels a world away from Kochi. This is also a good place to stay if you are interested in the Keralan culture, as the Kathakali Dance training instituye is about 5 minutes from there and allows visits at certain times.

Notr too that this Indianpanorama itin gives you expected travel times, including "warnings" of the LONG trips.

I also recommend that whomever you use to book your trip, price or request an upgrade to an Innova for comfort o those long journeys, and that you are very clear you want a driver who speaks a decent amount of English (which you are more likely to get with an Innova driver).

i meant the River Retreat HOTEL is clean and the STAFF are sweet (-:

Cali-Thanks so much for your suggestions. I'll look into them and will probably be back for more advice. If you think of anything else that might be helpful, please let me know.

The beautiful place where we stayed near Coonoor is Kurumba Village. The web site pix dont do it justice. Rooms are as showm, but the beauty of the scenery in the valley location cannot be captured. If you go, ask for cottage next to the waterfall!

The place we stayed just outside Hassan is Hoysala Vilage. It was ok, basic, but with lovely gardens. This was more than 3 yrs ago. If the website is accurate, it looks as if room interiors have been updated although pix can be deceiving--esp'lly on hotel websites!! (-:

I would not stay here again though, because there is nothing around the hotel. it's along a highway. The town of Hassan is pretty awful, or was then. THis place fortunately is out of town, but i would stay at a prettier countryside location next time , as mentioned above, somewhere near coffee country in Chikmagalur. (Belur, which you will want to see if in the ara, is about halfway between there and Hassan).

YOu are lucky Shelly, you have almost a year to dream and plan. Have fun with it!!

Heres a link for the roadmap and shortest route calculator for you know what kind of distances we are talking about.
http://www.travelindia-guide.com/rou...a_roadmap.html
Click in sequence your intended route.The 'shortest' route(as the crow flies) works out to around 1750km approx.We sure can't travel like the feathered kind.So in my approximation its around 2500km,starting in Chennai ending in Bangalore.Consider travel time.More than a third is mountainous region and close to three quarters is State roads(unpredictable/undesirable/unmotorable).In other words simply exhausting.All in 2 weeks.Phew.Give it a re-thought.
Use Chennai,Kochi & Bangalore as bases & fly in between.

So glad to get your mileage calculation link. My DH is so releived that you and other Fodorites are forcing me to rethink this trip.

Well, I told you that a week ago.

The roads in Tamil Nadu are actually fine. Once you hit the hills your time will slow dramatically. Work on 25 miles an hour and allow more time. Actually, using a mileage calculator is fairly useless on Indian roads - as is listening to anybody else's approximations. I've been on three hour drives that took <i>ten</i>.

Have you ever been on a 10 hour drive that took three? Considering what I've read about some Indian drivers, it's conceivable.

Seriously though, any concrete suggestions on how to tackle this itinerary? If I want to do all that I mention in my 'dream itinerary", what's the minimum number of days I need to do it at a reasonable for India speed? And would you use the car to cover all of it, or fly to some of the places, as inquest suggests?

Planning my 3 week trip to Myanmar was a piece of cake compared to this.

lol. Never.

Now, I can sense your frustration. The reason I'm not offering you the suggestions you want is that, frankly, it's a big job and I ain't your travel agent. He/she gets paid for it. Your dream itinerary is flawed and you seem kinda locked in on it - that's why you're having problems. It reads like you've read through a guide book and ticked off stuff that interests you, ignoring everything else. Of course, the stuff you've ignored is the good stuff.

Neither Tamil Nadu nor Kerala are particularly thrilling destinations unless you've never seen a palm tree, a beach or a hill. Thousands will, of course, disagree. The clue is in the culture.

Also, the food issue is just doing my head in. I'm not going to suggest an itinerary that has you munching granola bars and steamed vegetables for a month - which is about the minimum time you need. In one swoop you've wiped out every interesting [and cheaper] accomodation option.

You need to know that 90% of tourism in Kerala is Indian tourists. [That fact from the General Manager of the Zuri resort Kumarakom where I stayed two months ago - a swizz place with precisely four western dishes on a menu with two hundred different options.]

You have barely mentioned a single hotel other than Chennai. That planning is the wrong way round. Your trip will be made or spoilt by your choice of accomodation.

So why not approach it this way - go looking for hotels.
Here are sixty good options:
http://www.i-escape.com/india/boutique-hotels

link them together into an itinerary.

then look here:
http://mahindrahomestays.com/homestays/map
just to see what you're missing - the food issue wipes all of them out.

Learn about Google maps. For example: Type in Madurai. Click on 'get directions'. type in Cochin in the new box. Click. then add another destination. Type in Coonoor in the new box. Click.

You'll need to lie down about this point.

Stare at the map for a very long time. When you've finished sobbing think about this:

Lose Munnar.

Fly out of Madurai to Bangalore. Go to Mysore. Think very carefully about Hassan and Belur. The temples are wonderful. I've been to all of them. The time taken to get there and back may not be worth it.

Go back to Bangalore.

Look here:
http://www.jetairways.com/EN/IN/PopU...eMapFlash.aspx

Fly Bangalore to Kochi.

End your trip in Kochi.

You could, of course, just do this:
http://www.theluxurytrains.com/the-g...riot/index.php
followed by this;
http://www.theluxurytrains.com/splen...outh/index.php

Your dream plan ignores every practicality about distance, as people have been trying politely to tell you. It also ignores everything but the most obvious tourist sites. That's not where you'll find Tamil Nadu or Kerala.

Look here:
http://www.theblueyonder.com/rivernila.htm
or here:
http://www.theblueyonder.com/kerala/keralapackage.htm
and here:
http://www.theblueyonder.com/karnata...akapackage.htm

Of course, you'll be so busy traveling from place to place you won't even know what you're missing.

And that's all I'm going to offer.

Thank you very much for your guidance. I truly appreciate your advice.

I might decide to do this trip in 2014 as it will probably take me that long to research it.

As dogster points out, you have two huge problems, distance and food. You can tackle the first by taking longer, possibly by flying (although I'm a big proponent of on-the-ground travel), and adjusting the places you're going. Or maybe do either Tamil Nadu or Kerala/Karnataka on this trip.

For the food, I'd suggest some careful experimentation. It's almost criminal to go to India and subsist on granola bars and veggies. Your profile says you live in Boston. I don't know about Boston, but you're not far from New York, which has a reasonable number of Indian restaurants. Not necessarily very good ones, but no shortage. Visit some south (not north) Indian restaurants and try to work out some things you can eat. Maybe do some cooking yourself - there are loads of good Indian cookbooks - that will let you figure out which spices are causing the problem.

Shelley, this thread has attracted so much great information. Coincidently, I have been browsing an India guidebook, looking at destinations in southern India but also getting sidetracked by other areas. I have had the same problem you have - the places I want to visit are often far apart and there isn't an easy way to get from one to another. I had finally concluded that I need to break this up into a series of trips, choosing just one area at a time to explore. For instance, I started reading about Orissia and found so much I wanted to do and see.

Anyway, I have to put down the India book and get to work on the logistics for this year's trip instead.

Following up on thursday's second point.

Google 'Thali'. Go to Images.

How to eat spicy Indian food?
Learn about Raita.
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/cucumber_mint_raita/
Problem solved.

Shelly or anyone else--dunno what your budget is, but the vast majority of the places on the i-escpe site are wayyy beyond my budget , except for the occasional splurge. (Also, nix Gramam Homestay, which they "recommend") I suspect it's another of these "objective" hotel recco sites that charge "recommended"places to appear in their "approved" places. Same with the homestays on teh Mahindra site. it's a start, but I'd read the visitors' feedback very carefully, and also tripadvisor reviews (esp'lly from folks who post more than one review).

I also don't think it necessary to stay in $200/night places, whether or not there are majority of Indian tourists, except as an occasional splurge. However, this does seem to be changing (i.e. prices ain't what they used to be--all over the world).

Just as Dog predicted (-: many would disagree about his assessment of TN and Kerala. I do, based on my admittedly limited experience . I want to get to places like Madurai (where The Heritage is supposed to be fantastic, but in the upper end price range ) and the countryside and villages of TN. I aldo disagree with Dogster's recco stated elsewhere,to avoid Indian trains. You take at least Nilgiri Mt train as in your itin, and if brave (another smiley) one into a city RR station