Gateway at the foothills to the hilltop Muruga Temple of Palani.

Gateway at the foothills to the hilltop Muruga Temple of Palani.

Though Coorg is a relatively small district, it is still a large place for a quick tour.

You would have done enough research in traveling to Coorg. Traveling inside Coorg too has be given similar considerations, as the distance are quite large and the attractions are scattered in all directions.

So how to go about planing for travel within Coorg? It is not a big issue if you’ve though about this and made your travel and tour plan accordingly. Your itinerary and duration of stay plays an important role. So is your inward and outward travel route.

Visualize this – Coorg is about 100 km tall and 60 km wide. Though it varies distance from one attraction to another is about 20 to 30 km. On top of in traffic inside Coorg may not move the way you would expect. The towns, though smaller are crowded; and when you get out of a town, the roads are curvy, narrow , up(down)hill and often riddled with pot holes of assorted sizes; the rainy season makes it further difficult; thanks to the thick fog in the winter months, visibility is too short for a faster drive.

If you have a private vehicle (car or bike) things are a bit comfortable. To reach many places of attraction one need private vehicle as the public transport is either limited or not available. Assuming you stay close to Madikeri, accessing the local attractions like Raja’s Seat , Raja’s Tomb ( Gaddige ), Omkareshwar Temple or even the Madikeri Fort is a short travel between each of them. Take a local auto-rickshaw. A places like Abbey Falls is a bit off the town. Here again you can opt for an auto rickshaw (about Rs 150 both ways including a couple of hours waiting ).
Here again, it depends where you are based in Coorg.For example if you are staying at one of those homestays towards the west of Coorg, you need to take a cab to the Madikeri town.
Further popular places like Dubare (elephant camp), Nagarhole (safari), Iruppu Falls, Nisargadhama (Cauvery island), Bylakuppe (Tibetan settlement), Talakaveri (origin of Cauvery), Bhagamandala (temple) etc require some good travel from (1 hour average ) Madikeri. You need to hire a taxi.

If you are staying at a home stay or hotel, they can arrange for a car for the day’s tour. And tell the specific interests up front so that the route can be planned properly to save time.
For budget travelers, Madikeri town is well connected with rest of the towns in Coorg by private and KSRTC buses. Madikeri, Virajpet, Somwarpet, Kushalnagar and many other places in Coorg have local bus stands.
Typically there are separate stands for private and the state run (KSRTC) buses. For smaller places they are operated from the same bus stop. As a thumb rule, the places located on the radial roads that connects Coorg with neighboring towns are with frequent bus services.
For some areas, especially towards the hilly sides you can get a shared jeep service. A jeep leaves the jeep stand as one gets jam packed. The frequency varies. For some places you may even have to hop from one bus services to another or a combination of local bus and jeep services. Check locally at your lodge for the bus timing.
Lastly, assume that touring Coorg involves a good deal of walk and possibly some trek.