Friday-
We planned this 3 days' trip to this historic place of Vijayanagar empire Hampi from mumbai in the last weekend of February 2020. On Thursday evening we left office early and boarded our bus to hospet from Sion-Chembur at 6.15. It was a pleasant overnight journey in sleeper ac bus. Bus reached to hospet by 11 in the morning. From Hospet we took local auto for hampi which charged us Rs 300. We had prebooked for guest house near Virupaksha temple.
Hampi is very small town and most of the tourist places are nearby. I would recommend to book room near hampi bazar. There are plenty of home stays available which are accompanied by their own cafes. We stayed at padma guest house.
After reaching our guest house we got fresh and left our room to explore this beautiful city of bolders. But before that we were super hungry so directly went to the famous mango tree cafe to have south indian thali in lunch and banopee pie in desert.
We done with Pet Puja and its already 1.30 pm.Since most of the places in hampi are nearby, we had 2 options- either to rent auto for day which charges 800-1000 a day or rent cycles for Rs 70 per day. As half of the day was over we decided to save some money and rent cycles and cover nearby places.
On day 1 we covered Ganesha Temple,Krishna Temple,Ugra Narsinha, Pushkarni on cycle.In the evening we returned our cycles and headed to Hemakuta hills to witness sunset. All these places which we covered on day 1 are very close to each other and it was good decision to cover them on cycle. Most of hotels and cafes get close by 10 pm in hampi.
Saturday-
We planned a day 2 very early in the morning.We woke up at 5.30 and headed to matanga hills for sunrise. It took 30 min approx walk to reach at the top of matanga hills after leaving our rooms. Monolithic bull/Nandi and ruins of hampi are on the same route heading towards matanga hills and we explored them while returning. For further journey of a day we book an auto for 800 buks and explored all remaining parts of hampi.
Tip- During a season, plan your Viththala temple/Stone chariot visit as early in a day as possible as it becomes overcrowded after post 10 am.
In the evening we decided to leave hampi and took a boat to hippie island for night's stay.
We took a Boat to hippie island near virupaksha temple which charged us around 20Rs per person.They also charged extra for our bags.
Hippie Island- Hampi is known for temples and other archeological structures where as hippie is famous for rice farms, cafes and night life. There are certain places in hippie which can be covered by renting bikes or moped at Rs 250-300.
Sunday-
Last night we spent in our cafe and woke up late. Anjani Hills was near our cafe so we went there. We didn't explore hippie as such as we were tired and wanted to relax in the cafe. In the afternoon we left hippie island and return to hampi. After having lunch again at Mango tree we headed to Achyutaraya Temple for coracle ride. Coracle ride charges were 400 Rs for half and hr.In the evening we returned to hospet for our bus to mumbai.
Bus reached to Mumbai by 8 and same day we resume to our offices.
So that's it! It was a very great and successful short trip.
