Visiting Hampi during Summer/Monsoon - Is it worth?

When it comes to visiting a place like Hampi, you will find tons of guides, trip experiences online that you can rely on to make your own itinerary. I did the same too. I watched a lot of videos on YouTube and made my list. So, you may ask, why would you wanna read this one?

Well, this is my experience about the trip and I want to document it somewhere. So, why not Tripoto? Maybe, there will be someone like me, who reads these trip details just to gather some info or even for fun!

Before I start, let me tell you that, this was the second time we planned this after successfully failing the first one!

So, here it goes, my experience about the much anticipated Hampi trip!

The hotel we booked, was merely 1.5kms from the station. You would find a lot of autos standing just outside the station. Some of them will even approach you as soon as you get down. Luckily (or otherwise) there was not much rush in the morning. After bargaining with a couple of auto drivers, we found one who agreed to take us to our hotel for 40 bucks (you can bargain more and get it for 30 too, but we were too tired for that). On the way, he mentioned that he usually takes tourists for sightseeing also and he charges around 1200rs per day. We had already checked the pricing and it sounded reasonable. He agreed to come at 11AM to pick us up from the hotel.

After breakfast, we got ready and headed out for what it was going to be a looong day! The auto uncle, Krishna Nayak, was already waiting for us downstairs. I would share his contact number here (+91 8277354618) , in case anyone wants to have a relaxing and joyful sightseeing experience in Hampi.

Hampi is around 11-12kms from where the hotel. It took us around 30 mins to reach there. On the way, you would start getting the feeling that you have come to a place where history comes alive (see, how I added the Night at the Museum reference!). You would notice rocky terrains everywhere. There are so many references of this place in both history and mythology that I can't them all here. It's always good if you read about the place you are visiting, specially if it is a rich historical place like Hampi.

Our 1st stop was Virupaksha Temple.

You would be mistaken if you think of this just as a temple. I would suggest you take a guide to make the most of it. The guides here are mostly certified and they are very professional. As it was off-season, their rates were also quite reasonable. We took one guide who charged us 200 bucks (in peak season, winter, it can go as high as 700-800 too). I am not going to fill this space with all the different stories related to the temple, its best if you experience them first hand. However, people who are reading this just for having a feel of travel by reading, I would add some references here! Don't forget to meet Lakshmi, the famous elephant and take her blessing (please note, she gives blessing only of you give her a currency note, she doesn't mind the value of it though!) She has the most gentle touch I have ever seen.

When you come out of the temple, you can visit the nearest ghat to witness the mighty Tungabhadra river, a peaceful stream now. This is a good place to take some photos. You can climb top of the rocks to visit Hemakuta Hill Temple Complex too, but we did not as the scorching heat was too much to bear.

Our auto uncle was kind enough to take us to numerous not-so-famous nearby places after that. You would not read about those in most of the guides, but they are equally interesting. If I add details about every one of them, this would become a novel for sure. So, to save your time, I would just add some of the names and you can read/explore them on your own.

Monolithic Bull, Virupaksha Market (named after the Virupaksha temple, people from Middle East and Africa used to come here to trade their horses and elephants against jewels,precious stones. You will find sculptures about these in many temples), Hazararama Temple, Noblemen's Quarters, Lakshmi Narasimha Temple (Often told as Ugra Narasimha Temple), Bhojanshala (traces of stone plates what soldiers used to eat), Public Bath, Queen's Bath (you should notice inside ceilings, it has traces of Indo-Islamic architecture and 24 distinct designs), Underground Shiva Temple (not really underground now, but when it rains, the temple is submerged in water and hence the name), The Royal Enclosure, Mint Area (place where they used to mint currency), Saasivekalu Ganesha (statue of Lord Ganesha curved out of a single stone), Mahanavami Dibba (interesting fact, they used to use diamonds in the wall carvings so that they reflect the diya/candle light and hence the entire area lit up during Dushhera!) We had help from an wonderful guide, who used to work for the Archeological Survey of India, now retired.

To enjoy these places to the fullest, I suggest you have a guide with you along with your Umbrella, Water Bottle and Sunscreen as it gets really tough after a certain point.

For lunch, we were taken to the Hotel Varsha. Turned out, most of the tourists visiting Hampi are taken to this particular hotel. It's in Kamalapura. It's a vegetarian hotel (you will get Eggs though). You will get variety of foods.

The price is on the expensive side though. The hotel staff is very friendly (they remember you when you visit the next time) and their service is pretty quick. Most of the tourists make use of the washroom here and as you can imagine, its not that clean.

While coming back, our auto uncle took us to a very nice lake (I never read about this lake while prepping for this trip). The lake is in Kamalapura and its just beside the main road.

You can stop here for a while and rest on the benches alongside the roads. Its quite calm and peaceful. After spending some time there, we headed back to our hotel.

We reached at around 6PM. We thought of using the swimming pool. The pool was clean and there were different sections with varying depths so that kids can enjoy along with the adults.

After the pool session, we thought of heading towards the shopping area. We thought of walking first but our tired legs gave up. We hired an auto for 40 bucks to go to the shopping street. You will find many showrooms like Max, Reliance Trends etc. After shopping, we were searching for a good place to have dinner. Unfortunately, we did not find any there so we decided to have from nearby our hotel.

We went to Bellari Biryani Paradise hotel. The food was too spicy and heavy. The price was reasonable though. After dinner, we walked back to our hotel. The day came to an end with a comforting sleep.

The next day started a bit early. We had decided to leave at around 10AM to avoid the scorching heat as much as possible. We had breakfast from the buffet area. The food choices were almost the same as the previous day. The quality was no different. However, we did not have much time to crib over it. We got ready and left the hotel in our auto at around 10.15AM.

As we had completed almost everything the previous day, the itinerary was a little small. We first visited the famous Vijaya Vitthala Temple.

When you are planning your Hampi trip and start reading anything, this place is the first thing that comes to mind. Apart from its breathtaking architecture, it has the well-known Stone Chariot (you will find its photo on the back of the 50 rupees currency note). Before visiting the temple, we visited the Bhima’s Gateway on the way. This place would surely remind you of the famous Stonehenge in England.

You will find Talarigatta Gate on your way towards the Vitthala temple. This used to be a toll collection point at that time.

Once you reach the Vitthala temple premises, you will find a queue for tickets. You will see guides roaming around the queue too. Again, depending on your bargaining skills, you can get some good guides. Guides are actually necessary while visiting these places. Or else, as they say, these are ‘just stone temples’. You can get a guide for just the temple or the surrounding areas too. We got one for just the temple for 300 bucks. There is a golf cart service (20 bucks for return) that takes you to the main temple. The interesting thing about those is , they are driven by female drivers. You can take a walk as well. The main temple is around 1.4Kms from the booking counter. Earlier, you were allowed to take your vehicles till the main temple premise but over the years, the vibration caused by the heavy vehicles made cracks in the temple gate. So, they have introduced battery operated golf carts that make no vibration.

The tour around the temple takes around an hour and a half. Once that was done, we went to nearby places like Sugriva Cave, Stone bridge, Wish tree etc. You need to walk for some distance to visit all these places. You get a good view of the Tungabhadra River too from here.

We went back to the Varsha hotel for our lunch. As I said earlier, the staff remembers you if you visit again and the same happened with me too. We had food and then left for the pending places.

Next we visited the Zanana Enclosure. The places here, as the name suggests, were for the women of the royal family. We visited the Queen’s Palace (unfortunately , only the basement is remaining, the other parts are demolished by the intruders), Lotus Mahal ( a place where one of the queens used to practice dance. It looks like a lotus if you see from top), Elephant Stable (the king had a fleet of around 20 elephants, this place was used as their shelter. You will be amazed by the sheer size of the halls). There is a lawn outside the stables. We rested there for a while before going back.

After that, we visited the museum. The museum has the stuff that was found during the excavation. If you are someone who is interested to know more about those, please go through each of the artifacts as it is quite nicely described.

On our way back, we stopped at the Hampi Bazaar. Usually, this is a place where you can get some memento from but we did not find it exciting. They have the items you will get anywhere outside too. You should try the different fragrances/perfumes though if you are into those things.

We came back to the hotel at around 5.30PM. We were too tired to go out and spent the evening in the hotel itself. We ordered room service for dinner. The food was good but a bit expensive. They would carry your food to your room and serve too.

We had to check out on the 3rd day. Now, here are a few things you need to keep in mind. This hotel offers you 24 hours check-in/check-out option. Hence, as we checked-in at around 8AM , we were supposed to check-out at around 8AM. Also, the complimentary breakfast is for 2 days and we had already availed both of them. So, we could not have breakfast the day we checked out (I mean, you can surely have, just not at the hotel for free). We had requested the manager to allow us some extension if possible as checking out at 8AM can be a bit difficult. After a little bit of request/negotiation, he agreed and allowed us till 10AM. After checking out from our room, we waited in the reception hall. You can use the washroom here too if needed.

We did not have any plan for sightseeing that day. We decided to visit a relative who stayed nearby. We left hotel and got into an auto that took us to our destination, well, almost! But, that's a story for another day.

We had some food and planned to visit the Tungabhadra Dam as to kill some time. Our return train was in the evening. We got into a running auto (shared one). It costed us 20 rs per head. It dropped us right outside the gate of the dam. There was not much rush at all. You need to take an entry ticket of 10 rs each. The main dam is little further from the gate. You can either walk the entire 1.5-2KMs or you can avail a shuttle bus service that would charge you 20 bucks return. The benefit of taking the bus is , it takes you to some other places, higher than the dam view point. You can cover that by walk too but its quite tiresome.

We walked till the view point. It gives you a good view of the Tungabhadra River and if you are lucky , you can see the open dam from where the water is coming with enormous force! There is some Japanese Park too (good for Instagram Reels) but we were not much impressed. While going back, we had to wait for some time to get an auto that would go the other way. You will find some autos standing there and they may try to convince you to book the auto for 150 rs but don't get into that trap. Wait for sometime and you will get a running one.

We came back, took some rest and then got ready in the evening to finally leave Hampi. We just prayed that we have water in the train, yeah, that was our main concern then!

The train was coming from Hubbali [Hampi Express (16591)]. Thankfully, it reached Hosapete on time and there was no trouble boarding the train. And yes, it had water! The journey back home was not that eventful. We reached Bangalore on time too.

As I mentioned in the very beginning, this trip was a long pending one and I am glad that, in spite of some occasional troubles, the journey was good! A short trip to these historical places teaches you so many things - about history, culture or life in general!

I know it's quite a lengthy one. But, I hope you enjoyed reading it. If you did, I would love to know that. And, for that, you need to drop a comment, saying "I liked it!". That's all I ask from you.

Until next time, thank you!