Vishakapatnam - Araku Valley Trip

Vishakapatnam - Araku

My Trip Map

I have passed through vizag via Train many number of times since my childhood while staying at my second home (Bangalore) but never consider Vizag as a tourist destination in my list of places to visit. Other than the mountains all around a heat wave all the times, it was my friend who suggested our next destination as Vizag. It was a long time since we went for any long trip so as soon as the idea of vizag trip prompted I readily agreed before the mood starts to swing and gets canceled. Unknowingly what is there for us at vizag our plan started….

So the First hurdle was to arrange long holidays... now with a big fight with the manager it was agreed that I can opt for 2 leaves along with Sat, sun and Monday being makar sankrati…. So be it…  Did my reservation at the last moment and found it to be in waitlisted... And hope to be REC by the time we start our journey..

Being unaware of vizag, I started googling & found it to be one of the finest tourist destinations with so many beaches, breath taking views, Heritage places & off course the beautiful beach road. As I was knowing about the place my excitement was growing…

Day 0 – 15 Feb 2012 – Wednesday – Kolkata

I checked my wrist watch to check time and found it is already 6.30 PM and am still stuck at office… no no I can’t miss it… I rushed quickly out of the office to reach my room. Took my bag and rush to catch a bus for howrah, where my friend was already waiting for me... I reached Howrah at 8.10 PM and to my surprise still there was no sign of the train. Checked my ticket and found to be confirmed… Hurray… Within few minutes train arrived.  We took our seats and relaxed.

Our train started from Howrah @ 8:45 PM and the trip started. We had dinner and after chit-chatting for some time we went for a nap.

12863 HWH YPR EXPRESS P HWH 20.35 VSKP 10.40 14.05

Day 1 – 16 Feb 2012 – Thursday – Vizag

The train was running late by 1 hour and we reached vishakapatnam @ 11.30 AM. The Sun was glazing in his full glory at that moment and it looked like a midsummer in the month of Feb. Took an auto and asked him to take us to a hotel near to R.K beach. As the Auto started moving towards the beach the heat started to cool and a cold breeze started to blow… we can sense that we are nearer to the sea. After a while the sea started to appear and wohh… the look was awesome…

 The driver took us to “The Beach” hotel, which was really a clean & economical hotel with an excellent view of sea from the room window, was lucky to get a hotel in such a location. We checked in and after freshening up went directly to the sea.

At the moment there were not much of people around due to the heat but that didn’t stop us… who cares when jannat (heaven) is here. We went to the sea shore and started walking over the sand... the feeling was amazing… you can feel the water taking away the sand under your feet’s…  

You can see the dolphin nose over one side and the long stretch of sea the other side… Also at a distance towards the sea a long trail of ship’s…

Had our lunch at a open air restaurant, it was almost 4 PM when we went back to the hotel, planned to take rest for an hour and then conquer vizag. But don’t know what happened… when we woke up it was already 7 PM. We looked out of the window and the sea was invisible in the dark… I thought man... we missed the sunset… but latter came to know that sun set’s the other side of sea.

INS Kurusura The Submarine Musuem* (Beach Road) - Submarine museum opens at 3pm.

Matsya dharani (Aqurium)* (Above- The Choclate Room)

Ramakrishna Beach* (R K Beach - Beach Road)

Beach Road* - sukh Sagar’.try fruit juice milk shakes..

Kali Temple* (Beach Road).

We had dinner in one of the beach side restaurant and concluded the day early as we need to catch the morning train for aaraku.

Day 2 – 17 Feb 2012 – Friday – Aaraku

The morning was so refreshing that we wanted to wait for some time but couldn’t as we needed to catch the train for Aaraku at 6:30 AM. I have already done the reservation for this. We reached vizag station and took our seats. The train started to move and after some time the hills started to appear but was too far from the train line and still the train was not climbing up…

We reached Araku @ 11, we hired a vehicle for the sightseeing & drop at Tyda at the end.  It is always feasible to take the government trip for aaraku trip.

Araku Valley

Padmapuram Botanical Gardens (2 kms.) - Early hours to get mesmerized with the mist between eucalyptus trees.

Kothavalasa Agriculture Farms (2 kms.)

Ranagellada Water Falls ( 7 kms.)

Tribal Museum

Coffee Museum

Galikonda view point

Anantagiri- Several swift streams flow through Anantagiri though it is the river Musi or Muchkunda that originates from Anantagiri. The coffee plantation offers an enthralling sight at Anantagiri. The wonderful waterfalls (need to go offroad), ravishing ravines and the gorgeous gorges that dot Anantagiri add to the unforgettable memories of the tourists. There are many mango groves and orchades which wrap Anantagiri in their shade.

Borra caves* - there is a “Shivalingam”, over which there is an idol of a cow “Kamdhenu”, and the river Gosthani takes its origin from the udder of this cow. The mercury and halogen lamps lit inside, make the interior of the caves colourful and spectacular.

Tyda* (Jungle Bells)

Padmapuram Botanical Gardens

Tribal Museum

Galikonda view point

coffee plantation 

Borra caves

Tyda* (Jungle Bells)

Day 3 – 18 Feb 2012 – Saturday – Vizag

Next day in the early morning we took the first bus from tyda for vizag. we were at vizag at around 9 am. We took an auto and asked him to drop us at a hotel at dabbagardens as we needed to stay nearer to rail station this time. We got freshened up had breakfast and then hired a vehicle around 11 am for one side of the vizag.

YARADA beach*. it is a private beach. The tip of the island known as Dolphins nose The beach closes at 5 PM-- Bath over yarada beach  and have lunch.

Light house* at Dolphin Nose on the way to Yarada beach. it is open 3-5pm only. the view from the light house is mind blowing

Dolphin Nose

Ross Hill*,

Sri Venkateswara Swamy Konda

Darga Konda,

Fishing Harbour

Ramakrishna Beach* (R K Beach - Beach Road)

YARADA beach

Light house* at Dolphin Nose 

Sri Venkateswara Swamy Konda

Fishing Harbour

Day 4 – 19 Feb 2012 – Sunday – Vizag

Morning trip to Simhachalam (temple is good - but heavy rush. there are different Q - free, 20Rs, 100Rs. Inside temple - if u pay 200Rs , u get spl darshan - which we didnt opt for. 20Rs line would have taken 2-3hrs for us. in 100Rs Q we had darshan in 45minutes.

Kambla konda Nature Park

Indira Gandhi Zoological Park

Kailashgiri* (Shiva Parvathi,Titanic View Point,go By Ropeway)Kailasgiri - ok place. gr8 view. but gets crowded in evening. 65Rs to-and -fro ropeway ticket . Kailasgiri ropeway closed 1-2pm.

Tenneti Beach Park

Lawson's Bay (Pedawaltair Beach)

Rushikonda Beach* One of the most beautiful virgin beaches in India (Sarva Rusheeswara Temple, Lord Shiva and Bala Tripura Sundari)

Thotlakonda Budhist Complex* (Thotlakonda,Bavikonda)

Red Sand Hills

onwards to Bheemli Beach*(Visit Beemli Beach see the confluence of Bay of Bengal and Gosthani River)

Bheemli(Bheemli Beach, Dutch Cemetery, Silver Sands)

VUDA Park* : This park is a heavy crowd puller and has a Dancing Musical Fountain, Boating facility, Skating Ring, Horse and Camel Riding

War Memorial,

Visakha Museum*(Situated on the shores of the R.K beach, this museum gives historic insights of the past)

Visaka & Sub Marine Museum Closed on Monday

Simhachalam 

Kambla konda Nature Park

Indira Gandhi Zoological Park

Bheemli Beach

Thotlakonda Budhist Complex

Rushikonda Beach

Kailasgiri ropeway 

Kailashgiri

Day 5 – 20 Feb 2012 – Monday - Kolkata

12840 HOWRAH MAIL P VSKP 13.20 HWH 04.10 14.50   Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

Day 6 – 21 Feb 2012 – Tuesday - Kolkata

Reached Kolkata early morning.