Hyderabad Weekend Getaway: Chirala Beach and Amravathi

This was one of my most exciting trips. When you search for nearest beach to Hyderabad, you would find lot of information on Suryalanka Beach. However, I was interested in exploring beaches that are not that famous. After bit of research, I found that, there is a beach 10 kms away from Chirala.

So, I planned the journey for the following route:

Hyderabad – Vijaywada – Guntur – Chirala – Guntur – Amravathi – Miryalaguda – Hyderabad.

Hyderabad to Vijaywada route was a nightmare.. it was so full of traffic and there were portions of road that were under-construction. We started from Hyderabad at about 9:00 AM in the morning. By the time we reached Vijaywada it was around 5:00 PM. After a bit of looking around Vijaywada, we started for Chirala at around 6:00 PM. Reached Chirala by 9:30 PM. Checked-in at a lodge at Chirala. The price per room varies from Rs.800 to Rs.1500 depending on AC/Non-AC.

Next day, we started early morning… at around 4:30 Pm towards Chirala Beach. The beach is around 10 KM away. Reached the beach before sun-rise at around 4:45 AM. Sunrise took place at around 6:00 AM. Stayed at the beach till 9:30 AM. The best part about this beach was… at around 7:00, there is a fish market on the beach. You would hundreds of different fishes being sold in wholesale. I had great time holding each of these fishes…

Had breakfast at Chirala Town.. there is a good vegetarian hotel near railway station. Our next destination was the historic town Amravati. Started at 10:00 Am… reached Amravati by 1:00 PM.

There is an excellent AP Tourism hotel at Amravati. Had lunch there and started returned journey at around 4:00 PM.

Reached Hyderabad at about 11:30 PM.

Hyderabad Weekend Getaway: Hampi

On one of the extended weekends, I decided to plan a trip to Hampi.
Trip Route: Hyderabad – Kurnool – Bellary – Hospet – Hampi – Hospet – Bellary –Guntakal- Gooty - Kurnool – Hyderabad.
Duration of trip: 3 days

I had to include ‘Bellary’ in the trip because, I have some relatives there and my parents wanted to do the night halt at their place. On day, we reached Bellary by early evening… met with my relatives and tasted some really good food at Bellary. Next day early morning, we started from Bellary towards Hampi. Hampi is around 90 KM away and is reachable in 2 hours. Reached Hampi by 10 AM.

It takes one full day to visit all the sites in Hampi. Plan your trip in winter or rainy reason to avoid the heat. It become virtually impossible to roam around Hampi in summer season. We finished visiting all the sites by 6:00 PM. Somebody suggested us to visit the fish museum at Hospet (Hospet is 5KM away from Hampi and it’s a large city with lot of restaurants/lodges) . At around 7 PM, we visited the Fish Museum at Hospet… it wasn’t worth the hype. Around 30 fishes in different aquariums were on display. At 8:00 PM, had dinner at Hospet and returned to Bellary.

Hyderabad Weekend Getaway: Bijapur

This was one of my first two day trips. About 380 KM away from Hyderabad, Bijapur is a city of historic importance. Check out the Wikipedia article about Bijapur to know more about the historic monuments located in this city.

Route: Hyderabad – Pathancheru – Humnabad – Gulbarga – Bijapur

We started at around 8:00 AM on a Saturday morning. Had Breakfast at Pathancheru and reached Gulbarga by 1:00 PM. Had lunch at Gulbarga. There are excellent vegetarian and non-vegetarian hotels in Gulbarga.  Gulbarga is another historic city, however my plan didn’t include visiting historic monuments of Gulbarga. At around 2:00 PM, we started the journey towards Bijapur. Reached Bijapur at about 5:30 PM. Checked-in into a decent hotel. There are several hotels/lodges in Bijapur… as such I didn’t find the necessity to book the hotel online prior to travel.  The price per room ranges from Rs.500 to Rs.2000 depending on facilities in the room.

Spend the evening visiting couple of monuments. On Sunday morning,  visited Gol Gumaz, Bijapur fort, etc.

Started return journey to Hyderabad at around 12:00 noon … reached Hyderabad by 9:00 PM in the evening.

Hyderabad Weekend Getaway: Anantagiri Hills, Vikarabad

I never expected that, just around 100 km away from Hyderabad, there is something as beautiful as Anantagiri Hills. Best time to visit Anantagiri Hills is rainy reason. You would find the valley glowing with greenery and at around 4 PM in the evening, the valley would be covered in the clouds. The road to Anantagiri Hills is well laid and you would be able to cover the journey of 100 KMs in less than 2 hours.

Route: Hyderabad – Nehru Ring road from Gachibowli – Take Vikarabad Exit – Moinabad – Vikarabad – Anantagiri Hills

Started from Hyderabad at around 11 AM. Reached Vikarabad around 1:30PM. Anantagiri Hills are about 10 KM away from Vikarabad towards Tandoor. We roamed around the hills for a while … the real fun started when my driver took my black beast (Safari) off the road. Though, it is a hilly region, but the hill is fairly smooth and driving is possible. Alternately, you can park the vehicle road side (there is a large plain areas next to road where I did find couple of vehicles parked).  Spend two hours trekking and it was totally worth it. My biggest regret was not carrying a metal detector. I found several stones which appeared like meteorites.  Highly recommend this place for trekking. A word of caution though, the region is unprotected and in case of any emergency, it’s difficult to find help.  If you plan to go deep inside the jungle, then go in a large group.

Food: Good hotels available at Vikarabad. There is a good resort near Anantagiri Hills (5 KM away from Vikarabad). At Tandoor (40 KM away from Vikarabad), there is an excellent Hotel called ‘Alishaan’ that servers Hyderabadi Biryani, Haleem, Irani Chai, etc. 

Hyderabad Weekend Getaway: Raichur

Raichur is about 220 KMs away from Hyderabad. When I was doing the planning for the trip, I didn’t find much interesting about this town. However, one thing that really interested me was the Power Plant situated near Raichur. Since, I had never seen a power plant, I decided to visit this town.

Places of Interest: Raichur Power Station, Raichur Fort, Tungabadra River

Route Map: Hyderabad – Jadcharla (NH7) – Mahboobnagar – Raichur

We started the journey at 8:00 AM, reached Jadcharla at around 9:30 AM. Had breakfast at a Munawar dhaba outside of Jadcharla. It’s a good place for non-veg food. This dhaba also has well maintained ladies toilets. Started at 10:00 AM after having breakfast… reach Raichur at 12:30 PM.

Raichur Power Station: After reaching the power plant, I found that outsiders/tourists are not allowed inside the plant.

Ruins of 13th century Raichur fort: Actually, there is nothing left to see in this fort. In fact, when I asked the people in the town about the fort, they were surprised that I have come all the way from Hyderabad to see this fort. Anyhow, after a bit of searching the route to the fort, I was able to find the few ruins of once a large fort.



Tungabadra River: This was completely unplanned activity. There was a small passage from the main road that led to the river. You would find lot of kids catching fishes at this river. Fortunately, the flow of the river was pretty smooth… so spent sometime playing with the river water.




After relaxing for a while at the banks of Tungabadra river, we started the return journey to Hyderabad at 6:30 PM. Reached Hyderabad by 9:30 PM.