Entire Karnataka By Road In 10 Days

Bijapur - Belgaum

Since it was only 4 or 5 PM and we were done seeing all the notable places in Bijapur, we decided to drive ahead to Belgaum. The 214 km drive from Bijapur to Belgaum took us about 4 hours to make it. By the time reached, it had become dark and we decided to do all our sightseeing the next day.

We stayed at Belgaum for 2 nights since we wanted to try out the evening street food spots. The next morning, we got ready quickly and decided to head to the proper UNESCO spots in Karnataka: Badami, Pattadakal, and Aihole. However, eventually, we ended up skipping Aihole since we it was getting dark and we had to reach Dandeli quickly. We originally considered going directly from Belgaum to Dandeli but it's a good thing we didn't because we would've missed everything you're about to see below.

Belgaum to Badami is roughly 150 km and we reached pretty quickly. Since it's a small town with just many UNESCO sites, we took half a day to explore Badami. We ended up losing a lot of time here. But, we did manage to drive another 22 km to Pattadkal since it was nearby and had just one important spot. It was nearing 5 PM and that's how we ended up skipping Aihole. One interesting thing to do at Badami is to just take a stroll through the heritage sites. It's beautiful and you instantly know what it felt like to be here in the times of kings. Here are some of the amazing things we got to see:

The drive is about 180 km and the roads begin to wind as you near Dandeli. We skipped Hampi since I've been there too many times. I've written about one of my trips to Hampi here.

Dandeli is one of the hotspots in Karnataka to get some adventure experiences. You have white water rafting, zipline, river rafting, and a whole lot of other water based experiences. We reached late in the night, and since there aren't many great budget stays in Dandeli, we decided to stay in a homestay that set up tents. It was super comfortable and we had access to electricity and washrooms.

We woke up early the next morning to begin our day of adventure. Here's a quick look at what we managed to do in half a day:

Having finished early, we drove directly from the adventure camp to Karwar. It was time to hit the coast after all that fun! Karwar is about 100 km from Dandeli and we knew we would reach pretty quickly. We had no idea what to expect at Karwar - what we wanted was a nice continuous drive along the coast. We reached Karwar exactly during sunset time and managed to grab a few shots of the sun and a few pieces of rava fried fish!

Yana caves is only about 50 km away and we went there first thing next morning. We went prepared with hiking shoes and attire. The climb to the caves itself is through a muddy track with a constant stream flowing beside you. As you near the caves, it gets rocky, and you can smell bat crap. Since it's a holy place, you're expected to remove your footwear and proceed inside. As you near the rocky bits, there are flights of stairs and it's family friendly to get to the caves.

We drove back to Gokarna from the caves to relax at our stay. Zostel has an attached cafe and they make some incredible butter garlic prawns! That with the backdrop of the beach was extremely relaxing.

The next day, we relaxed the entire day. We went to the beach and did some local shopping in the area. You can practically walk through the small streets of Gokarna and buy colourful small trinkets to bring back home. We enjoyed a late dinner and then slept early to leave from Gokarna the next day.

Gokarna - Mangalore

The route is a beautiful and scenic drive. We had several pit stops along the way - we stopped at Murudeshwara, Maravanthe Beach, and Kundapura (for a yummy coastal lunch). We stopped at these places for an hour or less only because they have single points of interest and we had a long way to go to reach Mangalore. We didn't stop at Udupi on the way either since we were not really doing temple hopping. However, you can enjoy a stay here by visiting the famous Udupi Krishna Temple.

And we finally reached Mangalore! Mangalore is another big city like Bangalore and we have several friends who live there. We spent the evening with them and went to watch a night-show movie. Since I've visited the city several times, we didn't do any sightseeing. However, I've written about one of my travels to Mangalore here and you can take a look at the places I had gone to in the city if you're going to visit Mangalore.

We booked a beautiful homestay built right on the beach! We stayed in Mangalore for 2 nights and mostly just took in the fantastic beach weather. Take a look for yourself:

From here, we decided to head towards Chikmagalur because that's my hometown. I wanted to see my family, eat incredible home cooked food and relax on the drive back. We left early next morning for a 150 km drive and reached before mid-day. From here, we ate a scrumptious meal and stayed for a night. There are several points of interest in Chikmagalur and I've covered them here during one of my earlier visits. An alternate route is to go through Coorg - and I highly recommend that as well - and then get home.

Route Map

Here's the complete route map for the locations we visited from day 1.

Bangalore - Bidar

We checked out the next morning to drive towards Bijapur. Bidar to Bijapur is about 275 km and we reached pretty quickly since the roads were amazing! We often associate bad roads with north Karnataka but having going there, we saw that it was just amazing. My friend was extremely happy about the good roads since we were practically gliding on the road the whole way. Since we left early from Bidar, we reached Bijapur quickly and after a few hours, we pretty much covered almost everything Bijapur has to offer. Some of them are: