Trip to Pollibetta, Coorg

A week ago, we went on a much-needed vacation to Pollibetta in Coorg, Karnataka. Pollibetta is around 250 kms from Bangalore and famous for its coffee plantations.  Tata Coffee Estates are head-quartered here and Tata has around 10,000 acres of plantation land – primarily growing coffee interspersed with pepper, cardamom and vanilla crops.  Tata Estates provide ‘heritage’ bungalow accommodation (called ‘Plantation Trails’) to guests within these lush green plantations.

Route to Pollibetta:

Pollibetta is located about 130 kms from Mysore. From Bangalore, take the Bangalore-Mysore state highway SH17 while crossing Ramanagaram, Mandya, Maddur and Srirangapatna. (On this route, we stopped at Kamat Lokaruchi just after Ramanagaram for breakfast since we had started real early from Bangalore). After Srirangapatna, you can either take the deviation through Ranganathittu and join Yelwal (I guess this is shorter), or continue on SH-17 and take the ring road to avoid the city and then join the highway again before Yelwal. We took the former route, but I would advise against it since the road is very bumpy and uncomfortable to drive on. The straight SH-17 route, though longer, is much more comfortable. From Yelwal, the straight route leads to Hunsur. Cafe Coorg in Hunsur is a must stop-over – I loved their cold coffee. From Hunsur, drive towards Tithimathi. At Tithimathi, you will see a big Plantation Trails billboard at a Y-fork. Take the right at this junction and keep going straight for around 9 kms to reach Pollibetta.

Stay:

The bungalows at Plantation Trails are scattered over the coffee estate at some distance from each other. We were staying at the Taneerhulla Cottage. The Taneerhulla bungalow and cottage are adjacent to each other. The bungalow is much bigger and shares the premises with the cottage. The cottage has 3 rooms, a dining space, a big living space, a kitchen and a front and back lawn. The cook Palani and the caretaker Lokesh look after the guests of this cottage. The room was quite big, comfortable and clean (not modern though, these bungalows are old).

A view of the Taneerhulla cottage

If your budget permits, it would probably be even better to stay at one of the bungalows – they look much bigger and better-furnished. The cottage did prove to be pretty comfortable for us and the hospitality of the cook and the caretaker was outstanding. They made us feel completely at home – it was as if we were staying in a house with a superb cook and everything else taken care of. A much better experience than a stay in a hotel.

Food:

Food, as always, has to be one of the highlights of any relaxing vacation. In a guest-house kind of accommodation, one obviously cannot choose the menu as one would do in a restaurant – but then that’s what I liked about this vacation. No choices to be made. Everything is presented before you – ready for your consumption (yes, I can hit such levels of laziness).  So the breakfast and dinners were mostly at the cottage, but our lunches were outside. A special mention of the lunch we had at Orange County in Siddapur. It was outstanding. If you are holidaying anywhere in Coorg, buffet lunch at Orange County must not be missed. Though a little pricey (Rs 500 per head), it is worth the money and the extra little detour.

Lunch buffet at Orange County

Places to visit:

Well, who needs to visit any other place if you’re staying within a coffee estate – surrounded by trees and spices and coffee blossoms. But if the serene bores you after a while, do not miss to visit the Bylakuppe monastery (Golden Temple) at Kushalnagar – around 45 kms from Pollibetta. The memories of the beautiful temple and the huge golden idols will remain with you for sometime. I had seen the monastery before, but this time I had the good fortune of seeing the prayer ceremony as well where scores of devotees were praying in unison. You can shop at the small shopping market just outside the monastery and try out momos at the little restaurant there (we were not too impressed with the momos, though).

Inside the Golden Temple

Prayer ceremony at Bylakuppe monastery

We skipped the routine ‘must-visit’ places, the only ones we did go to were the Elephant Camp at Dubbare and Nisargadhama. If you’re running short of time, you can give Nisargadhama a skip. The elephant camp is good for one-time visit. There was a big crowd there though and I’m quite sure that weekends would be much worse.

Tusker enjoying the water at Dubbare

If the weather is agreeable, I would recommend exploring the coffee plantations at Tata estate by foot instead. The Abbey and Irupu falls near Madikeri are supposed to be worth visiting after the rains – the summers are not a good time to expect anything great at these waterfalls.

If you don’t mind spending a fortune on your vacation, you can stay at Orange County in Siddapur. The place is very aesthetically done and extremely pretty. The tariffs, however, were too steep for us.

Orange County at Siddapur, Coorg

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