Trip Plan: Badami, Aihole, Pattadakal, Bijapur, Almatti, Kudala Sangama

This was AR and AM's first trip with family. The whole tour was planned after lot of permutation and combination. Well I prefer trips that are lucid where depending on each member's interest we can change the plans accordingly.

The idea was to leave from Bangalore on Friday evening by train, reach Badami in the morning. Visit Badami, Aihole, Pattadakkal till evening. Take a train to Bijapur and reach by dinner time. Rest!!! Morning start with local sight seeing in Bijapur. Leave for Kudala Sangama. Take train from Almatti to Bangalore in the evening to conclude the trip.

This was our first cut trip plan. If you are in real short of time then cover all places, but if you are someone who wants to travel in leisure, then leave out Bijapur, Kudala Sangama and Almatti Dam. This could be another weekend plan. Badami, Aihole and Pattadakal can easily take 2 days, esp if you are interested in historic architecture.

Spoiler Alert: This trip plan changed quite a bit as trip progressed but on the high side - it turned out to be a budget trip compared to what was planned.

The way we actually executed the trip:

Train Details:

Took Gol Gumbaz express for the to and fro as it starts on Friday evening at around 7 and reaches Bangalore on Monday morning 8 am.

In our case, as we included Bijapur, also booked Hubli Solapur express for the saturday evening 5 30 which reaches Bijapur for dinner at 8 30.

Local Sightseeing:

Phatphati or Tuktuk works perfect. These are optimal budgetory options for people upto 8 people. Else go for a Trax. 

At Badami we paid Rs 800 for Badami, Aihole and Patadakkal to be covered in a day. At Bijapur, we paid Rs 350 - 500 depending on no of places you want to cover in Bijapur. These drivers are pretty well versed with the place and do tell many importance or location. Tell them your requirement and they can plan the local sightseeing for you.

Guide:

At Badami, Pattadakal and Aihole do employ a guide. Else you will just be seeing the caves or ancient temples from photogrphy perspective. If you are there in Badami circuit, i assume you would be interested in the history behind these visuals. 

At Badami we paid Rs 400 ( Dec - Jan being the tourist season of all and on a weekend) You also get guides who can explain in Kannada ( Local Language), Marathi, Hindi and English. It is possible that there is a premium for other than local language but it all boil down to how much you can bargain. Trust me even if you dont bargain much, once you are done with the tour you will feel enriched. 

At Pattadakal, we paid about Rs 350. Highlight was the stories behind all carvings.There was shortage of guides here as there were thousands of school children who had come for picnic/educational tours. In our case, we spent too much time in these 2 places to cover Aihole which has 110+ temple complex and just covered the main complex - Durga temple.

I dont want to keep each blog too long. Hence would split the posts into Trip Planning and importance of each locations.