My Journeys In India: Hampi

Note: Scroll down a lot, if you are in a hurry to see just photos before reading these....

About Hampi, History and Best time to visit

Hampi is full of boulders, huge rocks, hills and ruins. Located on banks of river Tungabhadra in North Karnataka, this is one of the very famous UNESCO World heritage site. There are lots of visitors from other countries here. In olden days this was believed to be called as "Kishkinda"

Numerous kings belonging to Sangama, Saluva, Tuluva dynasty ruled Vijayanagara for more than two hundred years till its fall in 1565 AD. The battle at Rakkasa-Tangadi (Talikota) was a disaster to the city and empire. Harihara and Bukka played the crucial role in establishing Vijayanagara empire. Praudha Devaraya, Krishna Devaraya, Achyutaraya were the well known rulers of this empire. Hampi was one of the best areas of the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1343 to 1565, when it was besieged by the Deccan Muslim confederacy. Hampi was chosen because of its strategic location, bounded by the torrential Tungabhadra river on one side and surrounded by defensible hills on the other three sides. Read more in Wiki here

Very hot in Summer (April to June) and you may want to avoid or carry an umbrella if you visit in summer. Except for summer and rainy time (July,August) you can visit this place in all other months. We got to visit in end March and it was very hot as well. Carry your sun glasses as well.

Stay options

I suggest Shiva Vilas Palace at Sandur as an option to consider and this is just 40Kms from here. Wonderful place to relax and enjoy. Read my tripadvisor review. (Shiva Vilas Palace.) . We just loved this Palace than anything else around and for sure will choose this for our next trip. Suggest the same to readers as well.

Around Hampi Bus stop there are few basic options like Padma guest house, Gopi guest house. Always refer to review sites like Tripadvisor/HolidayIQ to decide. Near Queen's bath spot, there is a KSTDC's (Karnataka State Transport Development Corporation) Mayura Bhuvaneshwari. If you know of Jungle Lodges and Resorts in Karnatka, then there is one here as well at Kamalapura called Jungle lodges Sloth bear resort.

Though there are few options in Hampi itself, many prefers Hospet which is just 12Kms and has many options. We stayed in Hotel Malligi but it was too expensive for a very basic room .Check all options and decide. See the room first before you commit and pay. Here are my reviews of Hotel Malligi and Shiva Vilas Palace.

Food options

Once you start your tour around places in Hampi, you will find very few places to have decent food. You will get Tender coconut in many places, drink it instead of any cool drinks. Try having Banana, both green and yellow which will give instant energy. Water melons were also available. Carry or buy bottled water. Carry other snacks of your choice. Toilets (not so clean but for urgency this is only option) are available at many of the spots. We had powerful and heavy breakfast so managed with Bananans and Tender coconut and few snacks till late evening. Heard MangoTree restaurant behind the river is an good option but we have not gone there. Venkateshvara in Hampi Bazaar is good option. For authentic food try Shankar hotel in main road. Ask for these to get the directions.

Hiring Local Guides and Guide Books

I suggest you to buy the ASI (Archaeological Survey of India) publications booklet on Hampi that costs just Rs.100/= and start exploring. Once you reach the site, you will see many small boys selling these. Unfortunately the local guides are demanding too much and there is no proper or formal way to hire an approved guide. I have seen very formal and official way to hire guides at Belur and Halebidu sites. Guides at Belur and Halebidu are very organized and take nominal approved and common rates, I really appreciate them. But unfortunately that option is not there in Hampi. Use the book I mentioned above. No Audio guides as well, like in Jaipur. Still if you could hire a good guide, go ahead and hire him for the whole day and take him along to see all places around.

There are too many places to see in Hampi and any books/guide will talk about around 65+ places. We reached the Hampi entrance by 11:15AM and it was so hot. We thought we could hire a guide at Virupaksha Temple. We parked the car and started walking towards the temple entrance, looking for the counter where we can ask for guide. But they said guides are available elsewhere, you talk to them and hire yourself. It was then we decided to visit by ourselves.

Planning your Hampi and Nearby places visit

There are plenty of places to see around Hampi. We have covered the most important ones as listed below.

Hampi and all places in Hampi (This Blog covers all these)
Sandur Shiva Vilas Palace Hotel and Kumaraswamy Temple
Badami and Banashankari
Pattadakal, Aihole, Mahakuta and Kudala Sangama

Distance details for the above places

Hampi to Sandur - 40 Kms
Hampi to Badami - 149 Kms
Badami to Kudalasangama - 70 Kms
Badami to Pattadakal, Aihole and Mahakuta - All within 40 to 50 Kms on same route

1. Plan 1 including all places (4 days): (Check my blogs for photos/details and decide)

Stay at Hampi or Sandur for two (minimum) or more days. Start early morning to visit all places in Hampi and complete in one day.

Next head towards Badami from Hampi which is 149 Kms. Stay at Badami for next two days. Same day of arrival, visit places in Badami and Banashankari. This takes about 4 hours in all. May be after lunch.

Next day have breakfast and start to Pattadakal, Aihole and Mahakuta. If interested visit Kudala Sangama.

2. Plan only Hampi (Check my blogs for photos/details and decide)

Refer this blog for all details.

If you are driving from Bangalore, it takes about 6.5 to 7 hours and it is 350+ kms.

Over weekend you can cover and return back to Bangalore on Monday. You need to take off on Friday or Monday as well for sure to avoid getting very tired of walking around.

Note: Click them images or the Place titles to visit the respective Blogs

Badami	Sandur

Pattadakal	Aihole

Makakuta, Kudala Sangama and Banashankari

Reaching Hampi options

Train: From Bangalore, there is a Hampi Express leaves bangalore by 9PM daily and reaches Hospet at 7AM morning.

Bus: KSRTC buses ply from Bangalore.

Driving: Follow NH4 to Tumkur and Chitradurga, stay on NH4 Chitradurga bypass. Stay below the flyover intersection and take right below to NH13 for Hospet via Hosahalliu. I suggest to avoid night driving for safety reasons.

Most important places to visit and Tips/Guide/Plan to see places around

Start early in morning after having breakfast at your hotel. You can hire a cycle or auto-rickshaw/Taxi or drive your own car to see around the places. You need the whole day to see many of the important places I have listed below and follow the instructions. You can cover these places in the same order. I suggest reach Virupaksha Temple first and see around the places. Park your car in parking area opposite to temple and walk a little.

1. Virupaksha Temple - Visit this first.
2. Hemakuta hill temples - beside Virupaksha temple
3. Kadalekalu Ganesha - very close to Hemakuta hill temples

After all these, walk straight opposite to the Virupaksha Temple tower, you see Hampi Bazaar on both sides. Incase if you want to do shopping, check the shops. Keep walking till dead end and you will see..

4. Eduru Basavanna - Big Monolithic Nandi right opposite to Virupaksha Temple
5. Matanga Parvatha (you may need to climb a little)
6. Achyutaraya Temple
7. Kodanda Rama Temple
8. Varaha Temple

9. Tungabadra River - After seeing all the above places, from Nandi walk little further and take right and go inside the small lane and you will see the banks of river Tungabhadra.(ask for it if you get a doubt)

After the above come back to Hampi Bus stop road where you parked your vehicle. Start your vehicle and you can see other places as listed below.

10. Sasivekalu (Mustard Seed) Ganesha
11. Krishna Temple (ruined and not much to see, yet if you like you can visit)
12&13. Narasimha shrine and Badavi Linga (you need to stop the car on main road and walk little inside, both are just right next to each other).

14. Prasanna Virupaksha Temple (or) Underground Shiva Temple.

From the Prasanna Virupaksha temple, go inside (ask for Lotus Mahal, Elephants Stable etc). You will get a parking area where you park and walk a little to see below places

15. Lotus Mahal
16. Elephants Stable

From here, again come on the same road further and see the below place

17. Hazara Ramachandra Temple

From the Hazara Rama temple, again drive straight further and you will see

18. Queens Bath

There are many other places on this above route and I did not mention and I did not visit as well. They are all ruined and nothing much to see there.Anyway there are many boards that shows directions.

19. Vitthala Temple and world famous Stone chariot

All the above places takes around 3 to 4 hours to cover. Once after all these, you come back to the "Hampi entrance" where you see "Welcome to Hampi" board and take left towards Vitthala Temple. You will find a huge car parking area and a place where battery operated cars are taking visitors to Vitthala Temple.

Join the queue and take a ticket to Vitthala Temple and board the battery car. They stop at Vitthala temple only. In between on the way you will see many places. If interested you better walk instead of taking this car. I would say nothing much to see as they are ruined.

Vitthala Temple, World famous Stone Chariot, Kudre Gombe (toy horse) Mandapa, Utsava Mandapa, Kalyana Mandapa all are in same place.

All the above can be covered in a day's time from morning till evening. Apart from the above, there few hill temples and if you have time and interest climb. You will get a nice Arial view of things.