Trip to Lush Green Coorg, Kabini, and Clean Mysore

With two boys (5yrs and almost 3yrs old) running around all the time we wanted to go for a kid friendly vacation. We zeroed down to the state of Karnataka- birth place of Carnatic Music. Specifically to Coorg (Birth place of river Cauvery). Kabini ( Nagarhole Tiger Reserve) and Mysore (rated the number one clean city of India) for the popular zoo and palaces.
We flew to Banglore as there are no direct flights from Bombay to Mysore. Self-driving a rented car is fairly a new concept in India; we booked a sedan via Zoom car. They picked us at the airport and were quick in completing the paper work at their office. Google maps was our best friend guiding us in a new territory.

Day 1,2,3- Drove from Banglore to Coorg; long drive of 5 hours. Part of the journey was through narrow roads of beautiful country side; coconut trees, local grain fields; breathtaking views. We had booked Mahindra resort at Madikeri, Coorg. They also have another property 45 mins further away on the hills but I was glad we were here as it did not make our journey any longer.

We are in awe of Mahindra resort and the activities they offer, customer service they offered. This is the first time we have stayed at Mahindra resort. Beautiful flower Rangoli adorned the reception area. They had 2 pools, play area with sand where kids spent hours at both places. Zip lining, rock climbing etc type of activities available with extra cost. They have a specific entertainment team who focus on keeping the guests busy with games, performances and much more. Every night there were different dance performances by the team. We played housie and one minute games between teams. They have indoor play area with chess, carom, tt, a library, an indoor play area for toddlers with an attendant there to take care of kids.
The room we got was spacious with a kitchenette; microwave and refrigerator. We got roasted upma, modak, thelpa and suitcase full of food so, were using a lot of the microwave. TV with kid/cartoon channels was a savior as when kids were tired.
The A la carte restaurant’s food was B-. We did not try their buffet so cannot rate.
Sightseeing around Coorg-
https://www.tripadvisor.in/Attractions-g503697-Activities-Kodagu_Coorg_Karnataka.html
1. Dubare Elephant Camp where we get to feed and bath elephant. Kids LOVED it thoroughly. Its an hour away from the resort and must reach by 9:30am. We had to cross the wide lake to get to the camp. Kids loved waling on rock and putting feet in tiny steams of water.
2. Visited downtown Madikeri city and sopped for famous spices.
3. Cauvery Nisarg Dham on our way to Kabini; it’s kind of a trail you walk and at the end there are deers and rabbits to feed.
4. Did not do Abbey Falls and Namdroling monastery as not sure how much the kids would enjoy that and they were happy doing things in the resort. Raja Seat has a mini train ride but we passed.

Day 4,5- We started driving early morning to Kabini; it was a 3hour journey.
On our way went to a Nescafe Coffee plantation and training center for farmers. It’s not open to public; the main gate was open and we took a chance and entered. The manager was kind enough to show the property. Children enjoyed seeing the coffee pods and the banana trees in the plantation.

We stayed at The Red Earth resort. The property is in close proximity to the lagoon. There were several farm birds which the kids enjoyed chasing and sometimes getting scared if the turkey or rooster came too close. There were several huge ant hills inside and outside the property. Kids had seen the miniature ones but were awe struck looking at huge version. The resort provides a complimentary bullock ride on the beach of the lagoon which again the kids liked. There was a magic show one evening and the next day was a local dance Puja Kunitha- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUZlXElEqbE
The men in the dance are balancing the idol of a goddess weighing 40kgs and dancing and jumping….WOW amazing.
We did the safari at Nagarhole Tiger Reserve; we choose the late afternoon/evening timeslot as chances of seeing the animals at the lake quenching their thirst after a long day are better. We were in a bus with a group of 16 people. You can also go in a jeep with a smaller group. We spotted a leopard, elephants, red tailed squirrel, barking deer, mongoose, monkey, fox and, a few birds. We did not get lucky seeing a tiger. Kids followed the instructions of being quiet on the bus as they were excited to see the animals.
They served buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner at the resort; it was inclusive in our package. It was good with a variety of Indian and non-Indian options.
We also visited a 120 year old Digambar temple 27 kms away from Kabini in the city of Surur.

Day 6,7- We started driving late morning to Mysore; it was 1.5 hr short journey.
We choose to stay at Radisson in Mysore which is stone throw away from the Zoo and 2 kms from the Palace.
We walked to the zoo; we booked our tickets online to avoid long queues. We walked around the zoo and it took us 2 hours to complete the stretch of 3 kms with kids. A buggy facility is also available. The zoo has excellent reviews and the top zoo of India and I completely agree after visiting it. Its clean, the animals are in good condition and the facility is developed very well. We took prints of few animals and kids enjoyed ticking the animals they saw.
Next day we visited two Swetamber Jain temples, again close to the palace. One of the temples has idols dating back to the 13th century. Both temples are close by so, can be done at the same time.
Then we went to the palace; Naman (5) admired the palace and enjoyed it more than Rivaan (3). We did the elephant ride at the palace.

Later in the evening we visited the Vrindavan garden so kids could play in the sun and at sunset we could see the fountain show. Kids enjoyed playing around the fountains. We did a boat ride in the lake behind the dam in the garden. We saw the light fountain show; its for 45 mins. We saw it for 15 mins and kids were done.

On, our last day of the holiday we decided to visit Srirangapatnam, the city where Tipu Sultan built his summer palace, fort and died fighting with the Britishers. It was not in our itirenary but was on our way to Bangalore airport and we had the time so we did it. Again we spotted a Jain temple on the Mysore highway, we could not go.

We came back with wonderful memories. The elephant bathing and zoo were the highlights of the trip for the kids.