Route Bangalore → Hassan → Belur → Chikmagalur → Kemmanagundi → Kalasa → Sringeri → Agumbe → Shivamogga → Bangalore Distance 820 km Duration 3 days, ~18 hours at the wheel
2 overnight stops Best Months November to February
Agumbe is the wettest place in the south and shuts down in the monsoon Signature Roads The Mullayanagiri and Kemmanagundi climbs
Agumbe ghat, 14 hairpins to the coast World Heritage Western Ghats — Kudremukh and Agumbe fall inside the serial site Parks & Protected Areas Kudremukh National Park
Bhadra Tiger Reserve
Someshwara Wildlife Sanctuary

Route Map

Open in Google Maps The Plan

The most sustained driving of the three. Coffee country out of Chikmagalur, up to the highest point in Karnataka, then west through Kalasa and Sringeri and down the Agumbe ghat towards the coast.

What makes it work is the traffic — there isn't any. The Malnad roads carry a fraction of what the Nilgiris do, and the corners are longer and more open — sweepers rather than the tight first-gear hairpins that make Indian ghats hard work in a wide car.

The Hoysala temples at Belur and Halebidu sit on the way out, which gives the loop something to do besides drive.

Notes

Best months November to February. Agumbe records some of the heaviest rainfall in India and the ghat is no place to be in June.

Surface quality is the variable here. The Chikmagalur and Sringeri roads are generally good; the Kemmanagundi climb and some Kalasa stretches are patched and can be poor after a hard monsoon. Worth checking locally the week before rather than trusting a map.

Day 3 is the long one at 380 km, almost all of it highway once the ghat is behind you.

Of the three loops this is the best driving and the second-best surface. In a low car take the Kemmanagundi spur cautiously and be ready to turn back if it has broken up.