Route Bangalore → Mysore → Madikeri → Bhagamandala → Talakaveri → Kakkabe → Nagarhole → Mysore → Bangalore Distance 660 km Duration 3 days, ~15 hours at the wheel
2 overnight stops Best Months October to March
Coorg is beautiful in the rain and no fun to drive in it Signature Roads The Madikeri → Bhagamandala → Talakaveri road
The Kakkabe and Nalknad estate roads World Heritage Western Ghats — the Brahmagiri range falls inside the serial site Parks & Protected Areas Nagarhole Tiger Reserve
Brahmagiri Wildlife Sanctuary
Talakaveri Wildlife Sanctuary

Route Map

Open in Google Maps The Plan

The shortest of the three and the easiest on a car. Coorg has the best surfaces in the region, the gradients are gentler than the Nilgiris or the Malnad, and the roads run through coffee under shade trees for most of their length.

The driving is the Bhagamandala and Talakaveri road on day two. It climbs to the source of the Kaveri, with the Brahmagiri ridge on one side and, on a clear morning, the coast somewhere out beyond it.

This is the loop for a good day out rather than a hard one. Two hundred and sixty kilometres in, a hundred and twenty of pottering, and home.

Notes

Best months October to March. Coorg takes a great deal of rain and the estate roads turn greasy under leaf litter.

This is the gentlest of the three loops for a low car: the best surfaces, the widest roads and the least severe gradients. The estate lanes around Kakkabe narrow and are the only place clearance becomes a question.

Nagarhole on day 3 carries the usual reserve rules — speed limits, no stopping, and closure overnight.

The shortest of the three by 75 km, which leaves room to take day 2 slowly and drive the Talakaveri road twice, which is not a silly idea.