I stay in Hyderabad, and Hampi is around 380 km from here. One of my friends asked me if I wanted to explore Hampi for a very short 2-day trip over the weekend, Saturday and Sunday, 8th and 9th August.
I had seen quite a few videos of Hampi on the internet, and it always looked very crowded and touristy. Because of that, I was never really that interested in visiting.
But I remembered talking to my elder brother once. He had visited Hampi sometime around 2018 or 2019, and his experience was pretty good.
So I thought, maybe I should just go and see the place myself before coming to any conclusion.
Since it was only a 2-day trip, time was important. There is a direct train from Hyderabad to Hospet, but we decided to take an overnight bus from Hyderabad on Friday, 7th August.
We had already booked a homestay in Anegundi village for 2 days. The bus dropped us near Anegundi Bridge. It’s a famous bus stopping place.
Our stay host had shared the contact number of an auto driver, so we called him and he picked us up from there and dropped us near the homestay.
You can also find quite a few auto drivers around the bus stop.
Day 1
We reached quite early, somewhere around 7 to 8 AM.
Check-in wasn’t available yet, so after getting fresh, we decided to go out for breakfast.
We rented a scooty for 2 days. It cost us ₹1,000 in total, around ₹500 per day.
We searched for some nearby places and found Firangi Cafe Hampi.
The place had a really nice vibe, and the breakfast was very good. I would definitely recommend trying it.
After breakfast, we came back to the homestay and rested for an hour or so.
Then we decided to visit the other side of Hampi, which is South Hampi. We were staying in North Hampi, also known as Hippie Island.
North Hampi felt quite different. It was calmer, greener, and generally more relaxed.
To travel from North Hampi to South Hampi, you either have to take the road and cross the bridge or cross the river if you want a quicker route.
We went to a place where they were taking people, along with their bikes, across the river.
The boat ride took around 10 minutes, and I think it was about ₹30 per person. A lot of people were using the same route.
Once we reached the other side, we just started exploring.
We visited quite a few historical places and temples. The whole experience was good, but the afternoon sun made it tiring. Even though it was August, it was still quite hot while walking around.
At some point, we found a small water body and just stopped there for a while to relax.
Some of the main places you can visit around this side are:
- Vijaya Vitthala Temple
- Lotus Mahal
- Elephant Stables
- Watch Tower
- Pushkarni, or the Stepped Tank
- Queen’s Bath
- Underground Shiva Temple
We kept exploring for a while and eventually started looking for a place to eat. So we had lunch at Hampi Paradise Resturant
By then, we were already quite tired and wanted to rest for a bit, but our stay was on the other side and pretty far from where we were.
It also started raining.
Luckily, we were near Kamlapur Lake, so we sat there for some time and waited.
We finally found a place to eat at around 4:30 PM. It was Lee Cafe.
After that, we returned to our stay and rested for a while.
For dinner, we went to Dream Mango Hampi. The food was okay, but I personally didn’t find it that good.
That was pretty much Day 1.
Day 2
We started early again, around 7:30 to 8 AM.
For breakfast, we found a place called 3Season Cafe Hampi.
The breakfast and tea were really good, and the place itself was nice too.
After that, we started exploring around Sanapur Waterfall and found a really good spot nearby. You can check the location here.
It was quiet, had nice views, and was good for photos. I think people also do cliff jumping around that area.
After that, we didn’t really have a proper plan.
So we just started riding around and exploring.
This was probably one of my favourite parts of the trip.
The roads were beautiful, the weather was much better, and we just kept going through random nearby villages and places without really knowing where we were heading.
We stopped at different places whenever something looked interesting.
At one point, we reached the Tungabhadra Left Canal.
The place had nice views, but there was almost nobody around. I would probably suggest going there only if you’re in a group and not alone.
After riding around for some time, we went back to Firangi Cafe for lunch because we had liked the food there on the first day.
Then we returned to our stay and rested for a while.
At around 3:30 PM, we started roaming around again.
We stopped at a banana fibre workshop where they make local natural handicrafts.
After that, we went for a coracle ride. It cost somewhere around ₹500 to ₹600 per person.
Then we stopped at Mykonos Cafe to eat something and continued exploring around Sanapur Waterfall and a few random places nearby.
Later in the evening, we stopped at Pampa Sarovar Laxmi Temple.
It started raining again, so we stayed there for some time. By then, it was already around 6:30 PM.
Once the rain stopped, we went back to Firangi Cafe again for dinner.
Our bus back to Hyderabad was at around 9:30 PM, so after dinner we went back to the homestay, packed everything, rested for a bit, and then headed towards the bus stop near Anegundi Bridge.
And that was pretty much the end of our second day.
Overall Experience
I was quite hesitant about visiting Hampi in the beginning.
From the videos I had seen online, I thought it would mostly be crowded tourist spots and not something I would enjoy that much.
But after visiting it myself, my opinion changed.
We couldn’t explore everything because we only had 2 days, but I really liked the overall experience and would definitely visit again.
For me, Hampi wasn’t only about the famous temples or historical places.
I actually enjoyed the random parts more.
Riding around with no proper plan, finding quiet roads, stopping near lakes and canals, visiting small villages, sitting at cafes, and just exploring wherever the road took us.
I think if you go to Hampi more like a traveller and less like a tourist, you might enjoy it more.
Thanks for reading.
