[07CR]

Hi all, my first marriage anniversary will be approaching in this May 2022. I intend to have a great staycation at Ooty.

Travel duration -
1) If going by flight- 19-23 May.
2) If going by car- 19- 25 May.

Cars that I own Ecosport S diesel manual, Kia Sonet iMT HTX turbo petrol.

Dilemma - I am confused whether I should travel by car or by flight. If I need to travel by car the one way distance is 1064 kms or 18-20 hour drive. If it's driving, I would need to halt for 2 more days (one on onward journey one on return journey).

Advantages of travel by car-
1) Savings of about 20-30%, since the one way flight costs 4000 per head, and my one way drive cost would be about 4956 (Ecosport- assumed FE 20 kmpl) or 7518 (Sonet assumed FE 15 kmpl).I won't need to pay extra for the cab aggregators in flight transfers and sightseeing around ooty.

2) The fun of a road trip. Assuming roads are great for majority duration. How are they in ooty region, are expert drivers required?

3) Convenience of personal vehicle means we don't need to rush at different spots or can start the day later or return an hour later than scheduled cabs.

Advantages of travel by Air-
1) Travel by flight is just 2 hours. Airport is just 15 mins from my place in Pune. Coimbatore to ooty transfer will take around 2.5 hours. Entire journey of about 7~ hours ( including airport formalities). This means I can cut short stay period by 2 days.
2) More relaxed staycation. Since I won't be driving I would be way more relaxed and can deviate my energy for other activities.
3) Feel more relaxed when we return and start office chores.

Alternative destination Coorg
Me and wife can't tolerate heat and would like to visit cool places during this summer staycation. Coorg is little nearer destination (16 hour drive) and the flight travel and time costs same as ooty. Dilemma is Coorg as cool as Ooty in May month ?

Help needed on these points
1) Should I travel to Coorg or Ooty?
2) Should I travel by car or Air?
3) Should 3-4 days be enough to cover either of the two destinations?

Any inputs on these would be highly appreciated.

@Mods please move this to some other section if it's more relevant.

[Shreyans_Jain]

It all boils down to one simple question. How comfortable is your spouse with the idea of such a long road trip? If she is genuinely OK with it, great. But think over this carefully, she might be saying yes because she knows you like road tripping.

[shankar.balan]

Answering considering that it is your first Anniversary. Also bearing in mind your choice of holiday destinations and the fact that May is bang in the middle of the peak season.

1. For peace of mind in unfamiliar territory and terrain and to avoid the unforeseen, I say take a flight and rent a cab and sit back and enjoy.

2. Coorg is crowded and hot in May. Ooty is also pretty crowded and day time temperatures are high. Being Summer there will be a great deal of irritating traffic and bad drivers.

If you want to drive and enjoy and you dont like heat, then you may want to consider a cool destination much closer to you such as Nashik or similar.

[EV NXT]

Avoid Ooty like the plague in May. Traffic jams on almost every road, queues even in ordinary restaurants, parking not available close to destination, bad service in most places would make it a miserable experience.

Don't know if Coorg would be similar. I travel often to Coonoor / Ooty but avoid going there in the months of April and May.

Somewhere closer home would be better. Your spouse may not appreciate traveling for 2 days to land up at a messy destination and a bad experience.

[CArspeed]

Originally Posted by 07CR

Help needed on these points
1) Should I travel to Coorg or Ooty?
2) Should I travel by car or Air?
3) Should 3-4 days be enough to cover either of the two destinations?
.

1) Coorg is certainly hotter(some days when it does not rain it is unpleasant) than Ooty

2) Car any day if you both like long trips and you can combine other site seeing locations en route as well. Plan a different route on both ways and make the whole trip memorable.

3) I used to do 800 kms a day easily, so with one stop as you have planned, it is certainly easy to cover.

Even in Ooty plan for a stay outside of Ooty without touching the centre, like places near Pykara etc…

[Rajeevraj]

If you plan to do lot of touristy stuff, then both are bad places to be end of May. Will be massively crowded and you can hardly move around. One suggestion is to push your trip by one week and do it the first week of June. The summer crowd will be much less, monsoon hopefully will kick in and will be much cooler. Understand the dates are fixed around the anniversary, but delaying the celebration a bit can result in a much more enjoyable celebration..

If you majorly just intend to laze around in a good resort, then it still would still be ok.

I would suggest to fly. 80% of your drive would be boring 4/6 lane highways in the heat of May. Won't be very enjoyable. Fly to Coimbatore and try to book a package cab for the duration of your stay. Or you can do a self drive from Coimbatore also if you are keen to drive the hills.

An alternative suggestion is that since you have 6 days and can extend a couple of days, to do both Coorg and Ooty. Fly to Bangalore, take cab or self drive to Coorg ( ~5 hrs depending on where in Coorg) , spend 2 or 3 days there, drive to Ooty via Bandipur - Mudumalai( again ~5 hrs)couple of days there and then flyout again from Bangalore.

[GTO]

Depends on what your to-do list & workload looks like. I've always been a lover of Bombay - Goa road trips, but the last 2 times I went for a holiday, I took the flight. Net result = I got 2 extra working days. I'm the kind of guy you'll see on the laptop at the boarding gate (while we wait) and in the flight.

If you have the spare time = drive. If you have work to do = fly.

[androdev]

Originally Posted by 07CR

Advantages of travel by car-
1) Savings of about 20-30%, since the one way flight costs 4000 per head, and my one way drive cost would be about 4956 (Ecosport- assumed FE 20 kmpl) or 7518 (Sonet assumed FE 15 kmpl).I won't need to pay extra for the cab aggregators in flight transfers and sightseeing around ooty.

...

3) Convenience of personal vehicle means we don't need to rush at different spots or can start the day later or return an hour later than scheduled cabs.

Not really.

Cost: The cost of car travel can't be just fuel cost. You should use cost per km of an equivalent taxi to find the total cost. Plus the costs of overnight stay, etc. Flight always works out cheaper in my opinion unless you are a family of 8 going by Innova.

Convenience: Yes, door-to-door convenience is there but in a touristy place you will be better served by a local taxi so you don't have to deal with the headache of finding the places, parking and so on.

Flying would be the way to go if you are looking at optimising costs and travel time, etc. Going by car only makes sense if you both love roads trips and hate flying. Honestly, I don't think Ooty is a worthy destination to drive for four days.

[true_sedan]

I can only speak for ooty as I’m a frequent visitor going there atleast once in two months. And yes the daytime temperatures will be hot but not uncomfortable as the high altitude means the air will always be chilly.

I would suggest you to avoid travelling by car for the following reasons:
1) The last leg is a 50 km drive through winding hills which can be extremely tiresome for the passengers facing an 18 hour journey.
2) You have not taken tolls into your calculation which could run you 1000s of rupees on top of fuel costs.
3) The stress of travelling for 18+ hours will throw you into a jet lag effect (20 hours all breaks and unknowns included)

But if you go by car I would suggest you a different plan:
1) Halt at Mysore and spend a day there. As a Coimbatorean I can say Ooty has nothing for 4 days.
2) Afterwards enjoy the drive from Mysore to Ooty. It goes through some of the most scenic places in the western ghats. The road goes through a reserve forest and the hills are dotted with amazing sunset points and lush nature on both sides.

If you decide to take a flight to Coimbatore and onwards by a cab to Ooty - There are two routes to Ooty from Coimbatore. One is via Connoor and the other via Kotagiri. Advise the cab driver to take the Kotagiri route. Roads via connoor are going through some major repair and construction work.

Some great food places in Ooty:
1) Angaara - Has great chicken biryani and dalcha.
2) Earls secret - Great food and ambience for a dinner date with your wife. Quite expensive though.
3) A2B Veg - it’s a cliche to visit a2b in Tamil Nadu but it’s still a great spot for breakfast.
4) Shinkows - good for Chinese.

Places to visit:
1) Botanical garden
2) Rose garden
3) Pykara
4) Avalanche lake
5) Doddabetta peak

People come to Ooty generally for the climate hence there are not many places to visit. Finally plan a trip that will relax you in the end. May the travel gods be with you.

[Axe77]

My generic inputs:

1. How keen is your wife on a road trip. Its your first anniversary - best to make sure you’re doing something she’s happy with - whether its the destination or how you get there.

2. May is HOT around the western ghats. If you want a cool destination because you particularly don’t like heat, a long driving trip doesn’t sound like the way to go.

3. My overall suggestion is pick the best destination given the time of year and choose the most comfortable way to get there. I’d say if possible, keep cost as the lowest criteria when it comes to “mode of travel”. Balance that out with choice of destination if needed.

4. As an outlier suggestion, given May is not an easy month to travel in, why don’t you consider a fancy weekend staycation in your city in a nice hotel with a nice dinner to celebrate the occasion. Push the holiday out by a few months when the travel will actually be nicer to undertake. There’s not point forcing a traveling holiday for a particular date / time of year if all other factors make it sub - optimal.

I got married in mid March - for our honeymoon we went to SE Asia for a week or so and planned a much nicer holiday to Europe in the summer. I’m suggesting some sort of a version of that I guess. Staycation now and a nicer holiday a little later.

[07CR]

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

But think over this carefully, she might be saying yes because she knows you like road tripping.

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

If you want to drive and enjoy and you dont like heat, then you may want to consider a cool destination much closer to you such as Nashik or similar.

Originally Posted by EV NXT

Avoid Ooty like the plague in May.

Originally Posted by CArspeed

Even in Ooty plan for a stay outside of Ooty without touching the centre, like places near Pykara etc…

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

If you plan to do lot of touristy stuff, then both are bad places to be end of May. Will be massively crowded and you can hardly move around.

Originally Posted by GTO

Depends on what your to-do list & workload looks like.

Originally Posted by androdev

Honestly, I don't think Ooty is a worthy destination to drive for four days.

Originally Posted by true_sedan

People come to Ooty generally for the climate hence there are not many places to visit. Finally plan a trip that will relax you in the end. May the travel gods be with you.

Originally Posted by Axe77

My generic inputs:

1. How keen is your wife on a road trip.

Thank you all for your opinions. I have concluded two things-

1) It's not a good idea to drive such long distance in MAY month at this point of time(first anniversary)
2) Ooty and Coorg aren't the best destinations in May (read:crowded).

Can you all in this case help me decide-

Do I need to Change destination. If yes, which one. Been to North East (Sikkim and Darjeeling), so would avoid it. Kashmir, plan to visit later this year. Any other destination?

[Shreyans_Jain]

Originally Posted by 07CR

Do I need to Change destination. If yes, which one. Been to North East (Sikkim and Darjeeling), so would avoid it. Kashmir, plan to visit later this year. Any other destination?

Any and every mainstream place is going to be PACKED in May. May is a very tough month to travel in with the heat + vacations combo. There is no easy solution here. My suggestion would be to let go of your apprehensions and think differently. Consider Rajasthan. I am talking Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Bikaner side. Or Saurashtra and Kutch side of Gujarat. Not many are brave enough to venture here in 49-50 degree heat. Meaning, the places won’t be crowded and you’ll have great deals at fancy resorts. You will get a much more authentic experience. This is something I would do as I hate crowds.

Else, go out of India. It’s your first anniversary anyway.

[ike]

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

Consider Rajasthan. I am talking Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Bikaner side. Or Saurashtra and Kutch side of Gujarat. Not many are brave enough to venture here in 49-50 degree heat. Meaning, the places won’t be crowded and you’ll have great deals at fancy resorts.

Specifically hates heat so this may not perhaps work out. Unfortunately most popular destinations in the country are crowded during May and it is hot too.

[alpha1]

As an alternative, I may suggest traveling towards the Konkan coast (Alibag to Ratnagiri stretch).

Drivable distance from Pune (most places within 4-6 hours) - that will satisfy your craving for road journey, should be less crowded, and perhaps you may get a great off-season pricing on resorts.

The heat will be real, but in my opinion and experience, it will be less severe compared to Pune (due to proximity to sea). Besides, any place in India (which is not in Himalayas) will be HOT during the day-time in May. Therefore, just factor out the 11 am to 5 pm for any "exposed to sun" sight seeing and you will do good (which you would have to do in any other place also).

{edit: speaking from experience of staying in Pune and going to such areas in April}

Which reminds me, another option that you may try: Andaman. Beautiful turquoise waters. Is usually even more cool compared to rest of India. Just check the onset of monsoon, happens earlier in Andaman compared to rest of India, and may ruin the experience.

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by 07CR

I am confused whether I should travel by car or by flight.

Depends on the both of you. Do the both of you enjoy road trips - enjoying the journey and each other's company? Road travel can be terrific if you do. It's a great way to spend time with someone.

Between Ooty and Coorg, I'd recommend Coorg any day.

Originally Posted by 07CR

1) It's not a good idea to drive such long distance in MAY month at this point of time(first anniversary)
2) Ooty and Coorg aren't the best destinations in May (read:crowded).

It's going to be crowded everywhere! Don't read too much into it. Also, not sure why long distances should be a problem in May. Both your cars have air-conditioning. Plus you're doing a staycation - so both apprehensions are moot.

Another option can be Mussoorie; but travel cost will escalate a bit.

Andaman in May is a terrible idea - weather wise.