A day out of town - Nandi hills

Couple of weeks back, one fine sunday morning we planned a quick drive away from the city. After much internet research we zeroed on nandi hills.

To reach nandi hills , you have to drive towards airport and its about 40 km from airport, so from our place in bellandur it is about 90 kms, thankfully it was sunday morning hence the traffic was fairly ok and we reached there in about 2 hours. The drive is very smooth once you cross airport and quiet a pleasure once you reach the grape vineyard (Grover's vineyard) area. I guess we went during the grape season cause there were people standing on sides of road selling fresh grapes at half of bangalore prices :)

highway from airport 

As we turn from highway towards the vineyard 

The last trek of drive is slightly uphill with few hairpin bends, nothing difficult but definitely have a drive a bit carefully coz there are enough morons on bikes and cars who drive with half their mind even on such roads.

Once you reach nandi hills (about 5000 feet above sea level) , after 8 -10 km of uphill drive, there is a sort of a landing area where you have to buy a entrance ticket. Parking is a bit of a mess as there is not much of designated parking space for cars, so you park alongside the walk area.

Nandi hills,  famous for nandi temple arguably from around chola time , has now been developed into one big park area. I was quiet surprised to see how well maintained it is. its neat, garden area is well maintained and the best part, they have made these canopy sort of viewing areas all around the edge and it makes for a nice experience. There are sufficient seating area for people to sit and watch the beautiful  view.

Canopies for viewing area

view from top 

It being a sunday it was quiet crowded but somehow with enough dustbins and washrooms around, thankfully it was quiet clean ( yes i am little obsessive about that) and was pleasurable to walk around. There were lot of families with big picnic hampers and ideally it is great place for family picnic you just have to be a little wary of monkeys around ..yes there are few around ..not too much but if you have food on you be careful.( waise i don't get the association of monkey with hill station ..any idea why they are on every hill station ? don't think they are particularly cold loving creatures) and yes that brings me to the weather. Weather wise, even though its 5000 ft above ground level weather is a atleast 2-3 degrees hotter than bangalore, late 20s i guess.

In terms of things to do, its mostly about chilling out, beside the nandi temple there is kid play area with some swings etc. and a  small restaurant that serves decent food, not much option but decent food at reasonable prices.

Later i realized you can actually stay here ( details here) and actually i wont mind that. Can plan a trip so that you come early  sat morning , spend a day at vineyard stay the night at nandi hills and leave sunday evening ....

My recommendation , do visit this place even if you are not staying the night , nice place to spend time with family and considering its so close to bangalore, worth spending a day.