A day trip to Melukote

Bangalore has the best climate and since it was November the temperature had dropped down few more degrees which made us to think of a short trip or a day trip.

So me and my wife decided to drive down to Melukote. This was one of our pleasant trips that we had in the recent past. Melkote is one of the holy places of Karnataka. Wikipedia will give you more details about this place. So, i will go directly into the travel directions and my review about this place. 

Destination type : Pilgrim trip.

Directions : We stay close to Mysore road. So, driving to mysore is not a big problem for us. Below is the route map in case if somebody needs it. The total distance from bangalore is around 140KMs.

There is a deviation just after passing Mandya City. You need to take a right (sign boards have been put). It is about 35 kms from that point.

My review summary :

Overall, this is a good place for a day trip from bangalore. Family can enjoy the most. There are 2 temples located in this place. One is  Cheluvanarayana temple and the other Yoga narasimha temple. Yoga narasimha temple is located on a small hill top as shown in the following pictures.

First you need to visit Cheluvanarayana temple and then Yoga narasimha temple. One can drive to the Yoga narasimha temple directly.

Best time to visit is during Winter. I've heard from others that summer time would be very harsh and best avoided unless until it is a cloudy day.

Please note that these temples close by 1 PM (Cheluvanarayana temple) / 2 PM (Yoga narasimha temple) & open after 4. So make your plans accordingly.

Food : You can always have breakfast at Maddur or at Ramanagar (Kamat / coffee day). For lunch it is melukote. Melukote is famous for Iyengar's "Puliyogare". One should definitely not miss this. This is not a fully commercial place but still you get decent food here. There is a place called "Subbanna Mess". You get very good home food here. This is the must place to visit!!

These temples are just amazing and its surrounding is just beautiful as you can see here.

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Road enroute Melukote 

Yoga narasimha temple which is on a hill top - Just love this view

Some rituals being performed

Dominated by Sri Ramanujacharya followers (Iyengars)

If you carefully observe, there are 2 Kolas (Akka - Tangi Kola)

Few steps to climb to see Yoga narasimha temple

Landscape view from Yoga narasimha temple

Landscape view from Yoga narasimha temple - Timing is important

Just to show you how cold this place was - Chill breeze :)

Cheluvanarayana temple view from Yoga narasimha temple

Cheluvanarayana temple

Mesmerizing Nandi hills

Though my hometown is very close to Nandi hills (20kms), I've never been to that place in the recent past because of the bad crowd. However from past 6 months things have changed. They have made it plastic free and alchohol free zone. So, it is a decent picnic spot on a weekend.


Sunday 7th November - While returning back to Bangalore from my native, we decided to visit Nandi hills. It was a cloudy day and it started raining by 10 AM.
To try something new, we decided to see nandi hills before returning back to blore. Finished lunch by 2PM and headed towards hills. It was a pleasant surprise. It was raining heavily and it was very cold but we just loved it.
We couldn't see tippu drop or any other place because of rain, but we enjoyed the drive.
Had tea / cucumber / pop corn and returned back. We could visit only the temple.
Bought some grapes on our way back (near karahalli cross) and you should definitely try that. It was very good. Check out the pictures. It is a must visit place when it is a cloudy day. Make sure you take all the accessories.


Tip: The best time to visit nandhi hills will be a cloudy day.