Chikmagalur in Three Nights — Coffee Hills, Mullayanagiri and the Hoysala Temples

West out of Bengaluru on the Hassan road, about 240 km and five hours with a stop, the plateau giving way to areca and then to coffee in the last hour. The estate is the point of the trip, so the afternoon is left to it: the walk to the pulping house, the drying yard if the season has fruit in it, and the first cup of the estate's own arabica on the verandah. Chikmagalur town, twenty minutes away, is there for the evening if you want it, but most guests do not.

Mullayanagiri first, while the ridge is clear: the road climbs to within 464 steps of the summit at 1,925 m, the highest ground in Karnataka, and on a clear morning the view runs west to the coast. Along the Chandra Drona range to Baba Budangiri, the shrine in the cave where Baba Budan is said to have brought the first seven coffee beans from Yemen. Then the Kemmangundi road and, where the forest department runs the route — it is a monsoon and post-monsoon waterfall — the jeep down to Hebbe Falls. Back to the estate by evening, which after this day is the only reasonable plan.

The two great Hoysala temples are an hour from the estate and 16 km from each other, and they take a full day. Belur first: the Chennakeshava temple of 1117, still in worship, with the bracket figures under the eaves and the star-shaped platform you walk around before you enter. Then Halebidu and the Hoysaleswara temple of 1160, which the ASI keeps as a monument — the outer walls carry friezes of elephants, horsemen and the whole of the epics in soapstone, and a guide is worth every rupee here. Both were inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2023 and neither is yet crowded.

A last estate morning — the early light on the coffee is the best of the day — and then the road east, five hours to Bengaluru with lunch in Hassan, for an evening flight or train. Your Live Traveller journey ends at the airport or the station. If the departure is from Mangaluru instead, the coast is 150 km west through the Charmadi ghat, three and a half hours, and we can route the trip that way when you book.