Coorg Short Break — Two Nights in Coffee Country

West out of Bangalore on the Mysuru road and then south-west into Kodagu — around 260 km and the better part of six hours, with the landscape turning from dry plateau to coffee the moment you pass Kushalnagar. Bylakuppe is the obvious break: Namdroling Monastery's golden Buddhas are startling in the middle of Karnataka, and the settlement around it has been home to Tibetan refugees since 1961. Into Madikeri by late afternoon, with the evening free.

The estate walk goes first, in the cool. Kodagu grows most of India's arabica and grows it under a canopy, so what you walk through is closer to woodland than plantation — pepper vines spiralling up the shade trees, cardamom in the damp corners, and the fruit picked by hand between November and February. Abbey Falls afterwards, which is a short walk down a plantation path and is at its best with water behind it. The afternoon climbs to Talacauvery and Bhagamandala at the head of the valley, where the Kaveri is held to rise, and finishes at Raja's Seat for the sunset the town is built around.

Down to the Kaveri at Dubare on the way out, where the forest department's elephant camp sits on the riverbank and the morning is the time the animals are at the water. Nisargadhama's bamboo island is five minutes further on if you want a last walk before the drive. Then east through Kushalnagar and back to Bangalore for the evening. Elephant interaction at Dubare is controlled by the forest department and what is permitted changes; your specialist confirms the current arrangement rather than promising a particular activity.