Malenadu Travel Guide

Malenadu travel guide: how the region is laid out

Malenadu (ಮಲೆನಾಡು, “the land of hills”) is the long belt of Western Ghats hills and their wet eastern slopes that runs north to south through Karnataka. The easiest way to plan is to split it into three parts: north, centre and south.

If you want the meaning of the name and the full list of sights, start with our page on Malenadu in Karnataka and its tourist places. For taluk level detail, see the district by district map of Malenadu. This Malenadu travel guide sticks to the practical side: getting around and making the most of your days.

Part	Districts	What it feels like	Good bases
North	Uttara Kannada, Belagavi hills	Areca and pepper gardens, deep river valleys, quiet roads	Sirsi, Yellapur, Siddapur, Honnavar side ghats
Centre	Shivamogga, Chikkamagaluru	Rainforest at Agumbe, temple towns, coffee and the highest peaks	Sagara, Thirthahalli, Agumbe, Sringeri, Chikkamagaluru
South	Hassan (Sakleshpura side), Kodagu	Coffee and cardamom estates, misty ridges, Kodava homes	Sakleshpura, Madikeri

The hills are part of the Western Ghats, which are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for their forests and for the plants and animals found nowhere else. Many of the best walks in this Malenadu travel guide sit inside protected forest, so rules, permits and closures are part of every trip.

Malenadu travel guide to the main bases

The best way to see the hills is to pick one or two bases and make day trips from there. This Malenadu travel guide suggests these ten bases.

Base	District	Good for
Sirsi	Uttara Kannada	Marikamba temple, Unchalli and Shivaganga falls, areca and pepper gardens
Yellapur	Uttara Kannada	Magod and Sathodi falls, Jenukallu Gudda viewpoint, forest drives
Honnavar side ghats	Uttara Kannada	Sharavathi backwaters, Gerusoppa, easy access by Konkan Railway
Sagara	Shivamogga	Jog Falls, Keladi and Ikkeri temples, Linganamakki backwaters
Thirthahalli	Shivamogga	Tunga riverside town, Kuppalli (Kuvempu’s home), areca country
Agumbe	Shivamogga	Rainforest walks, the sunset point, falls reached on forest trails
Sringeri	Chikkamagaluru	Sharada Peetha on the Tunga, Sirimane falls, Kigga
Chikkamagaluru	Chikkamagaluru	Coffee estates, Mullayanagiri, Baba Budangiri, Kemmangundi
Sakleshpura	Hassan	Manjarabad fort, Bisle viewpoint, coffee and cardamom estates
Madikeri	Kodagu	Raja’s Seat, Abbey Falls, Talakaveri and Kodava food

Sirsi and Yellapur suit people who want quiet green roads and very few crowds. Sagara, Thirthahalli, Agumbe and Sringeri sit close together, so you can stay in one and see the others. Chikkamagaluru and Madikeri have the most hotels but also the most weekend traffic.

For a first visit, this Malenadu travel guide would pick Sagara or Sringeri in the centre. Both put Jog, Agumbe and the Tunga valley within easy reach.

How to reach Malenadu by air, rail and road

The short answer on how to reach Malenadu: fly to Mangaluru, Hubballi, Shivamogga or Bengaluru, then take a train or bus to the nearest hill town and hire a local taxi for the last stretch. No single airport covers the whole region. This Malenadu travel guide groups the options by the part you are visiting.

Nearest airports

• Mangaluru: the best choice for Agumbe, Sringeri, Kudremukh, Sakleshpura and Kodagu, since several ghat roads climb from the coast.
• Hubballi: the best choice for the north, including Sirsi, Yellapur and Dandeli.
• Shivamogga: the closest airport for Sagara, Jog, Thirthahalli and Agumbe. It has fewer flights, so check current schedules.
• Bengaluru: the most flights, with good roads to Chikkamagaluru, Hassan, Sakleshpura and Kodagu.

Rail heads

If you follow the northern route in this Malenadu travel guide, use the Konkan Railway, which stops at Karwar, Kumta, Honnavar and Bhatkal. Inland, Shivamogga Town and Talaguppa (the line end near Jog) serve the centre. Birur, Kadur and Chikkamagaluru stations serve the coffee hills, while Hassan and Sakleshpur sit on the Bengaluru to Mangaluru line. No railway reaches Madikeri, so most people take the train to Mysuru and continue by road.

By road

State-run overnight buses go from Bengaluru to most hill towns, including Sirsi, Sagara, Thirthahalli, Sringeri, Chikkamagaluru, Kalasa and Madikeri. For a Malenadu road trip in your own car, expect narrow ghat roads with steep hairpin bends. In heavy rain some of them close for landslides or repairs. The drives in this Malenadu travel guide assume you check local news before setting out.

How many days do you need for a Malenadu trip?

For a first Malenadu trip, this Malenadu travel guide suggests at least three full days in one part of the hills. Allow five days for two parts and a week if you want to go from the centre to the south. Distances look small on a map but ghat roads are slow.

• Two or three days: one base, such as Sirsi, Sagara or Chikkamagaluru, with day trips.
• Five days: two bases in the centre, for example Sagara and Sringeri.
• Seven days: a loop through Chikkamagaluru, Sakleshpura and Kodagu. A north to centre run from Sirsi to Agumbe also works.

Keep one evening free on any route in this Malenadu travel guide, because rain or a long lunch will eat time.

Sample Malenadu road trip routes for 3, 5 and 7 days

These are three easy shapes for a Malenadu road trip. Each starts from a town with good bus or rail links. You can run any of them in reverse.

3 day loop: Sirsi, Siddapur and Yellapur

1. Day 1, Sirsi: visit the Marikamba temple, then spend the afternoon walking an areca and pepper garden with your homestay family.
2. Day 2, Siddapur side: drive out to Unchalli Falls (the last kilometre is on foot) and add Burude Falls if you are fit for a steep forest walk.
3. Day 3, Yellapur: see Magod Falls from the railed walkway and Jenukallu Gudda for the valley view. Then head to Hubballi for the train or flight home.

5 day loop: Jog, Agumbe and Sringeri

1. Day 1, Sagara: Jog Falls in the afternoon, when the light is good on the gorge.
2. Day 2, Keladi and Ikkeri: two old temple towns of the Keladi Nayakas, then on to Thirthahalli by evening.
3. Day 3, Thirthahalli and Agumbe: visit Kuppalli in the morning and reach Agumbe for the sunset point.
4. Day 4, Sringeri: the Sharada Peetha on the Tunga, then Sirimane Falls near Kigga.
5. Day 5, Kudremukh road: roadside falls and grassland views on the way down to Mangaluru.

7 day loop: Chikkamagaluru, Sakleshpura and Kodagu

1. Days 1 and 2, Chikkamagaluru: an early drive to Mullayanagiri, Baba Budangiri and a coffee estate walk.
2. Day 3, Kemmangundi: Kalhatti Falls by the road and Hebbe Falls with a jeep and a walk.
3. Day 4, Belur and Halebidu: the Hoysala temples on the way to Sakleshpura.
4. Day 5, Sakleshpura: Manjarabad fort in the morning and the Bisle viewpoint later.
5. Day 6, Madikeri: Raja’s Seat at sunset and Abbey Falls nearby.
6. Day 7, Talakaveri and Bhagamandala: the source of the Kaveri, then down to Mysuru or Mangaluru.

Every route in this Malenadu travel guide can be stretched. If a place pulls you in, drop the next stop and stay another night.

Places to stay in Malenadu: homestays, estates and forest camps

The best places to stay in Malenadu are family homestays, followed by estate stays and forest camps. Hotels exist in the bigger towns, but you only really see the hills when you sleep in them. Any honest Malenadu travel guide will send you to a homestay first.

Homestays

A homestay here is usually a working farm family’s house, with an areca, pepper or coffee garden around it. Meals are home cooked and shared, often on banana leaf. Karnataka Tourism has revised guidelines for registered homestays, so ask your host if they are registered before you pay.

Estate stays

Coffee and cardamom estates in Chikkamagaluru, Sakleshpura and Kodagu offer larger rooms and plantation walks. They cost more than homestays and are often far from town. In this Malenadu travel guide, estates suit families who want space.

Forest department and government camps

The state runs nature camps inside some forests, such as Bhagavathi inside Kudremukh. They are simple and close to the forest. They book out early on long weekends. State tourism also runs simple hotels at places such as Jog.

Temple town lodges

Sringeri, Horanadu and Kollur have temple guesthouses and simple lodges for pilgrims. They are clean and cheap, though food and timings follow temple rules.

What to eat on your Malenadu trip

Malenadu meals are built on rice, coconut, sour fruits and fresh greens. The best of them happen in homes, not restaurants, so this Malenadu travel guide has one food rule: say yes when a host offers lunch.

• Akki rotti and kadubu: rice flour flatbreads and steamed rice dumplings for breakfast.
• Tambuli: a cool curd dish with herbs or roasted spices, eaten with rice at the start of a meal.
• Saaru and huli: thin peppery rasam and thicker sambar style curries, often soured with kokum (murugalu).
• Appe midi pickle: made from small, sharply sour wild mangoes and prized in every home.
• Kodava food in Kodagu: pandi curry (pork) with kadambuttu (steamed rice balls).
• Filter coffee: in Chikkamagaluru and Kodagu it often comes from the estate around you.

In Uttara Kannada and on the Honnavar side, fish curries are soured with kokum and eaten with red rice. In the monsoon, a Malenadu travel guide would point you to dishes made with jackfruit, colocasia leaves and bamboo shoot.

What to buy and carry home from the hills

The most useful things to carry home are spices, sweets and kitchen staples grown in the same hills you just drove through. They travel well, last for months and taste of the place. Most trips in this Malenadu travel guide end at a farmer’s stall for that reason.

Pepper is the big one. The vines climb the areca and silver oak trees in almost every garden you will see in Sirsi, Sringeri and Sakleshpura.

Cardamom grows under shade in the wetter estates. Honey is sold by small beekeepers at roadside stalls. Kokum rind, the dried red fruit used in saaru and kokum juice, is in every Malenadu kitchen.

For sweets, look for coconut and jaggery burfi, which every bakery and home kitchen in the region makes in its own way. Sagara is also known for fine sandalwood carving. Chikkamagaluru is the place for estate coffee.

You can also order Malenadu honey and our other farm goods online, so you do not need to carry heavy bags down the ghats.

Responsible travel in the hills

Responsible travel in Malenadu means leaving the forest, the water and the village exactly as you found them. These hills feed several rivers and the people who live here drink from them. If this Malenadu travel guide could ask one thing of you, it would be this list.

• Carry a cloth or jute bag and a steel bottle. Many forest gates now check for plastic.
• Stay on marked trails and walk only with permits where they are needed.
• Do not play loud music, shout at falls or feed monkeys.
• Coffee and areca estates are private farms. Ask before you walk in or pick anything.
• Do not swim at falls unless locals say it is safe. Calm looking pools can hide strong currents.
• Spend your money locally: homestays, local guides, small shops and farmer stalls.

Malenadu travel guide to the seasons

October to February is the best time for most travellers: falls are still full, trails are open and mornings are cool. Still, this Malenadu travel guide finds a reason to visit in every season.

Season	Months	What to expect
Post monsoon	October to November	Full falls, green hills, most treks reopen
Winter	December to February	Cool clear mornings, mist in valleys, busy weekends
Summer	March to May	Hot in valleys, pleasant on heights, many treks closed for fire risk
Monsoon	June to September	Heavy rain, falls at their biggest, leeches, road and trail closures

The rains are the reason Malenadu exists. Many locals love the hills most in July. If you plan to travel then, read our Malenadu monsoon and rainfall guide first.

Waterfalls, peaks and wildlife: where to go next

This Malenadu travel guide is the hub. Each of the pages below goes deeper into one kind of trip, so pick the one that matches what you want from the hills.

Waterfalls

Falls are the main reason many readers open a Malenadu travel guide. From Jog on the Sharavathi to small forest falls near Agumbe, the region has dozens of them. Our guide to Malenadu waterfalls lists them district by district, with access and the best season for each.

Peaks and treks

Mullayanagiri, Kudremukh, Kodachadri and Kumara Parvatha draw trekkers from all over South India. The Malenadu trekking guide explains permits, difficulty and what to pack.

Wildlife

These forests hold elephants, gaur, king cobras, hornbills and a great many frogs and birds. Our page on Malenadu wildlife and where to see it covers sanctuaries, safaris and how to behave in the forest.

Monsoon

The rain shapes everything here, from the food to the crops to the roads. The monsoon page linked above is the rainy season companion to this Malenadu travel guide, with timing, safety and the wettest spots.

Plan the rest of your trip

For the full list of sights by district, see our page on Malenadu in Karnataka. Keep this Malenadu travel guide open while you book. When you are back home and missing the hills, our farm products bring a little of Malenadu to your kitchen.

Frequently asked questions: Malenadu travel guide