Kudroli Gokarnath, Tannirbavi Beach, and Pilikula Nisargadhama - 2 Days in Mangalore [2017]

Having arrived from Bangalore via overnight sleeper bus (1,824/- for two), we checked in our Hotel Poonja International (3,878/- for 2 nights) for freshening up. Hotel is located near main bus stand, and is good but basic in facilities. Breakfast was included in price, and hotel had good selection of idly, upma, fruit, milk, juice, toast, etc. After bathing, first thing we did was to head off to Panambur beach. There is a direct bus (highway 66 towards Udupi, need to ask for bus number) which drops on main road beside beach. From the drop point, there is about a kilometer walk (auto-rickshaws available too). It was 11 am by this time, and we found beach desolated. Sun was scorching and after wasting about an hour, we decided to call it off and return back to hotel.

After taking nap and resting, we headed off to Milagres church. It's walkable distance from bus stand. It's small pretty place, and you can spend about 30 min there.

Next day, we visited Pilikula Nisarga Dhama which has a zoo, boating lake, science museum and activity park, and water themed amusement park. Zoo was good, and science museum/park was great for kids to learn. We skipped amusement park as that would have taken half a day and we hadn't prepared for it with suitable clothes.

Last day we slotted for Udupi, and took a direct local bus (60 km) to reach. There is famous Krishna Temple (5 am - 9:30 pm) there which we wanted to visit for Krishna Janmashthami. Well, turns out, temple was really-really crowded, with queue for entering going on for more than half a kilometer, and waiting time of more than 2 hours. We didn't feel like waiting that long and decided to shelve the plan.

We had also heard of St. Mary's Island in Udupi, for which ferries have to be taken from Malpe beach. Turns out that ferries only run during October to February, and no reviews I read seem to know about this or inform of this. Not to mention that Malpe beach is pure commercial beach with muddy paths littered with garbage, trucks filled to brim with fishes, crabs, and ice, and nothing beach worthy at all!

Thus, we ended up doing nothing in Udupi. We took return bus to Bangalore (1,784/- for two) in the late evening on 14th August. Apart from bus and hotel, we spent about 6,000/- for food and other expenses, totally 14,000/- for three days trip for two adults.