South India Motorcycle Tour

Upon arrival at Chennai, you will be picked up from the airport and checked in to the hotel. After taking enough rest we will meet in the evening for Briefing and then followed by a welcome dinner. 

This will be the first day of riding, we will pick our Royal Enfield Motorcycles and kick start to explore Southern India. After breakfast, we will ride towards East Coast road to Mahabalipuram or Malappuram. Mahabalipuram is an ancient town and UNESCO world heritage site in Tamil Nadu, upon arrival we will visit Shore Temple. The Shore temple is located on the beach, it is built during the 7th century by the Pallava dynasty. Also, we will visit “Five Rathas” & Arjuna’s Penance. After exploring the town we will have lunch en route and start riding towards Puducherry. By evening we will reach Puducherry. 

After breakfast we will start our day by exploring the French colony, Puducherry was once ruled by French and we can see a lot of French Architecture. To begin with, we will visit Sri Aurobindo Ashram, this is one of the most visited places in Puducherry, the ashram is a retreat for your spiritual needs. After that we will visit “Eglise de Notre Dame des Anges”, also known as Our Lady of Angels Church is one of the most popular places in Pondy. We also visit Puducherry Museum, we can explore the collections of French roots, Arikamedu Roman settlement and stone carved statues. In the evening we will also visit a few beaches in & around Puducherry. 

After exploring Puducherry, we will proceed with our ride towards Kolli Hills. Kolli Hills or Kolli Malai is situated in Namakkal district of Tamil Nadu at the height of 1350 Mtrs. Kolli Hills is a remote hill station without much commercialized and untouched. The road to Kolli Hills is full of hairpin bends and country roads of Southern India, on the way we will ride through the villages, meet the locals and enjoy some authentic south Indian cuisine. The last stretch will be little off-road and we may enjoy riding through red sands and spice plantations. By early evening we will reach Kolli Hills. 

On day 5 of South India motorcycle tour, we will be riding to “Coonoor/Ooty”, officially called Queen of Hills and famous for one of the best Tea Plantations in Southern India. First, we will ride down to the Namakkal district by navigating mighty 70 Hairpin curves from Kolli Hills. Ooty is a hill station situated at the height of 2240 Mtrs, Ooty is the place where Western & Eastern Ghats meet. Before reaching Ooty we will ride through some of the beautiful roads of Southern India, again we will try to avoid taking highways and explore our journey through back roads of South India. After navigating about 30 hairpin curves we will reach Ooty by early evening. Weather will be pleasant all year, so better to wear winter wear to protect yourself. 

After exploring the Queen of Hills – Ooty, we will start our day riding towards Masinagudi. Masinagudi is situated at the heart of the Madumalai tiger reserve. We will start ascending down towards Madumalai via beautiful tea plantations and some amazing sceneries of Southern India. The ride is very easy for today and we may reach Masinagudi early by noon, after taking some rest we will head towards Jungle Safari in the evening. Bandipur tiger reserve is established in 1974 under project tiger, is a national park in the state of Karnataka in south India. Currently, Bandipur is the home of more than 120 Tigers and Asiatic elephants as well. 

After exploring 2 tiger reserves, we will start our ride towards Coorg. Today most of the roads will be riding through Tiger Reserves, to begin with, will ride from Madumalai tiger reserve to Bandipur tiger reserve and enter Karnataka state from Tamil Nadu. After that again will ride from Bandipur tiger reserve to Muthanga Tiger reserve and Wayanad Tiger reserve and then we enter Tholpetty tiger reserve which is also a part of Wayanad Tiger reserve, in a nutshell, we will be riding through 5 tiger reserve and 3 states of Southern India. I am sure you will enjoy riding through these national parks rather than riding in the highways. After this we will enter Coorg district of Karnataka, Coorg is located amidst mountains of western ghats of Karnataka. Famous for its misty landscape, coffee plantations, amazing hospitality and not to forget its amazing cuisine. By evening we will reach the Virajpet district of Coorg. 

After exploring some of the prominent Tiger Reserves of Southern India our South India Motorcycle Tour will proceed further, today we will ride towards Bababudangiri hills. Bababudangiri hills is a mountain range in the Western Ghats region of Chikkamagalur District of  Karnataka State. It is situated at the height of 1895 Mtrs and covered with full of Lush green forest and coffee plantations, The first record of coffee growing in India is following the introduction of coffee beans from Yemen by Baba Budan to the hills of Chikmagalur, Karnataka in 1670. Since then coffee plantations have become established in the region, extending south to Kodagu. Enroute we will also explore Belur town, Belur is famous for its ancient temple called “The Channakeshava Temple”  built-in 12th Century, The temple was built over three generations and took 103 years to finish. By evening we will reach Bababudangiri and stay at the height of 1800Mtrs. 

Probably the longest day in our South India Motorcycle Tour, today we are going to cover closely 200 miles. Also, we will ride from Wetlands to Drylands, after having early breakfast we will hit the road ascending towards Tarikere district and ride further down towards drylands of northern Karnataka. Today we most of the time will be riding with minimalist pitstops and ride between beautiful countrysides of Northern Karnataka via Chitradurga, Kudigi and reach Hospet by evening. 

After riding 200 Miles today will leave our motorcycles at Hospet and explore Hampi via four wheels, after breakfast, we will meet our local guide who will take us to some important places in Hampi. Hampi is a UNESCO world heritage site situated at the banks of  Tungabadra River. Once upon a time, Hampi is the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire, which is also called as one of the richest dynasties in ancient times. We will visit Vijaya Vittala Temple, this 15th-century temple considered one of the largest historical structures in Hampi. Then Virupaksha Temple, which is built during the 7th century and one of the oldest functional temples in India. After exploring some important temples we also visit  Lotus temple, Hampi Bazar and other important ancient ruins of Hampi. 

After exploring “The City of Ruins – Hampi”, we will start our ride towards Dandeli National Park. Dandeli National Park is situated in the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka state in South India. This national park is also declared as a tiger reserve under project tiger in 2006. Dandeli Tiger Reserve is famous for Black Panther and other wild animals like tigers, Elephants, Indian Gaur, etc.  Most of today’s ride will be through small villages and forests, by evening we will reach Dandeli and we will be staying in the heart of tiger reserve in jungle cottages. 

We will start our last day of South India Motorcycle Tour by riding from Dandeli to Goa, after breakfast we will ride towards Anshi national park and enter Goa state. We will be riding through the dense forest between the buffer zone of Tiger Reserve for about 50Miles, there are only a few human settlements in between this stretch and we can expect some amazing single lane forest tracks. After riding for about 80Miles we will enter Goa state and ride further towards Panjim, which is the capital of Goa State, by evening we will reach Panjim. 

After reaching Panjim, we will leave our Royal Enfield Motorcycles here and set ourselves to explore the city of Goa by four wheels. We will start our day after having breakfast, to begin with, we will visit “Basilica Of Bom Jesus” then “Fort Aguada” and also some magnificent Hindu Temples. In the evening you will be free to explore on your own, so that you can do some shopping, grab some beer in the shacks or just sit facing the sea and get some vitamin D. We will meet again for farewell dinner and share photos or videos of the entire South India Motorcycle Tour. 

Today we will bid goodbye to Panjim and end our South India Motorcycle tour on Royal Enfield. After Breakfast, we will drop you to the airport with the hope of meeting again soon on the “Roads Less Travelled”, Bon Voyage.