Granite boulders, a shallow river, red sandstone cliffs
Two rock types, one road: reserve the ten night Deccan stone route in Karnataka
From $2,350 per person, two sharing a double room, for ten nights in northern Karnataka: five in the boulder country on the Tungabhadra, five among the cave temples cut into red sandstone. The route runs November to February, when the granite cools overnight. From March the same stone holds the day's heat until well after dark.
Reserve this with the officeNothing is charged here. The form stays open at any hour and a person writes back inside one working day.
Segment by segment, in the order they are taken
Hampi and the Tungabhadra
move in: a full day5 nights, from $1,260a granite boulder landscape holding the remains of a very large medieval city
Badami, Aihole and Pattadakal
move in: under two hours5 nights, from $1,090cave temples cut into a red sandstone gorge and the villages where the form was worked out
$2,350 per person for the whole line, which is what the 2 segments come to added together. The office takes nothing off for buying the chain and adds nothing for buying one piece, so the arithmetic is the whole story and neither way is put above the other.
What the whole route covers
Ten nights in northern Karnataka, spent in two places that solved the same problem in different rock. The first half sits in a boulder field on the south bank of a wide, shallow river: pale granite stacked in shapes no mason arranged, and inside it the remains of a medieval city large enough that walking it takes days rather than hours. The second half moves to red sandstone, where builders cut rooms into a cliff instead of stacking blocks, then spent two centuries in the villages nearby working out what a temple roof should be. You do not have to care about architecture to see the difference. One place is a city that lost its people. The other is a workshop that kept its drafts.
How the two halves join
Both halves are held as one continuous stay, and the move between them is the shortest on the route: a morning transfer of under two hours, with the afternoon free at the cliff. That day carries no other plan. The long move is the one before it, getting from your arrival city into the boulder country, which takes a full day of ground travel and is why the first stretch carries a move mark of three. You sleep in one place for five nights, then in a second place for five more. Bags travel with you in the vehicle. Nobody is asked to repack in the middle of a day, and no night on this route is spent moving.
Buying one half on its own
Either half is a product in its own right. Five nights in the boulder country and the ruined city is from $1,260 per person. Five nights among the cave temples and the village workshops is from $1,090 per person. Neither half is ranked above the other on this page, because the choice turns on whether you would rather walk a dead city or follow a two hundred year argument about roofs, and this office cannot know that about you. One thing does change if you take the sandstone half alone: the short move stops being short. You arrive from further off, and the day you would have spent driving between the halves becomes the day you spend getting in.
Where the figure comes from
$1,260 for the first half and $1,090 for the second come to $2,350, and the whole route is from $2,350 per person, two sharing a double room. Nothing is taken off for buying both halves together, and nothing is added for splitting them. The figure holds ten nights of rooms, ground transport with a driver throughout including the transfer between the halves, entry to the sites named on your itinerary, and a local guide on the days marked for one. It does not hold getting to India or home again, anything that moves by air, meals beyond breakfast, drinks, tips or personal spending. Cover for illness and cancellation sits outside it too, and this office does not sell it. The operating company bills you directly, in its own name; this office holds no card details and takes no payment.
| The line | Hampi to Pattadakal |
|---|---|
| Segments | 2, each sellable on its own |
| Nights end to end | 10 |
| From | $2,350 per person, two sharing |
| How the figure is built | The sum of the segments, with nothing taken off for the chain and nothing added for a single piece. |
| Getting to the country | Your own booking. This office arranges nothing aboard aircraft or ships, and no carrier is under contract to it. |
| Who invoices you | The company that runs each segment, in its own name. |
Asked before people commit
Can you book my flights into India as well?
No. This office arranges nothing that moves aboard aircraft or ships, and no carrier is under contract to it, so getting to the country and home again is your own booking, made with whoever you like. What we will do is tell you which city the route starts from, the hour your ground transport leaves it, and how much slack to leave on either side so that a late arrival costs you nothing on the first day.
Who charges my card, and when?
The company that operates the route does, directly and in its own name, on its own dates and terms. This office never takes payment, never asks for card numbers and never holds them. We place the reservation, send you that company's written confirmation to read before you commit, and are paid a commission by it afterwards. Where a figure on the confirmation differs from a figure here, the confirmation is the one that binds you.
Will the river be full when I am there?
Nobody can promise that. The Tungabhadra runs low in the dry months and the water upstream is held back for irrigation rather than for the view, so some visitors see a broad sheet and some see channels and sandbars. On a low day the boulders and the ruined city are exactly as they were, and the walking across the bed is easier. We will tell you what the water usually does in your month, without dressing it up.
Reserve one segment, or a whole line
This form is open at any hour, and whatever reaches it is read by a person who answers inside one working day. Nothing you send commits you, and no figure is charged at this end at any point.