Wayanad 2026: Everything We Planned, Everything We Missed, and Why It Was Still Worth It

We left Bangalore at 9:30 in the morning — about an hour and a half later than planned. Nobody was in a rush. It was a Thursday before a long weekend, and somehow the expressway was empty. The kind of empty that makes you feel like you made a smart decision, even if you didn't plan for it.

The Drive: Bangalore → Mysore → Kabini → Wayanad

The Mysore Expressway does what it does — smooth, fast, forgettable in the best way. You stop thinking about Bangalore the moment you're on it.

We got off at Mysore by noon, which was exactly right for our first stop.

Poojari's Fish Land is not a discovery. If you've driven the Bangalore–Mysore route more than twice, you've either been or you've been told to go. We ordered what we always order: prawn ghee roast, neer dosa, kori roti with chicken curry. The ghee roast was the reason we stopped. It always is.

From Mysore, the route changes character. You take the HD Kote road north out of the city — locally called the Mananthavady road — and within 40 minutes the traffic dissolves and the road narrows. This is the Kabini corridor. It's not the dramatic forest drive you might be picturing — single double-lane stretch, decent condition, short forest section. But the forest delivers in a different way: we saw bison standing at the treeline, a herd of spotted deer crossing the road unhurried, and elephants in the distance through the canopy. The kind of sightings you usually pay a safari fee for, except here they come free with the drive. The forest cover is decent — not the thick unbroken canopy of Sultan Batheri, which I've liked more on other trips and we took on the return leg — but enough that you feel the shift from the Karnataka plains into something wilder.

A practical note: the forest gate at Udbur opens at 6 AM and closes at 6 PM. We passed through with no issues in the afternoon, but leave Bangalore by 7:30 AM if you want to be safe. The Kerala border check was smooth — no stopping, no inspection. One of those small reliefs you note and then forget.

We saw Banasura Hill the moment we crossed into Wayanad. It just appeared, sitting behind the treeline like it had been waiting.

The Stay: Banasura Hill Resort

The first thing you see when you walk into reception is the hill. Not a framed photo of it. The actual hill, right behind the building, clouds sitting on the peak. It's one of those arrival moments that requires no setup.

The rooms are rammed earth — a building material made from compacted raw soil, built without concrete. It sounds like a design statement until you're actually inside, running your hand along the wall. The texture is specific. Grainy, warm, slightly rough. It doesn't feel like a hotel room and that's exactly the point.

WiFi works across the property. Cell signal is a different story — patchy at best, gone at worst. The resort sits on 35 acres at around 3,500 feet, and the isolation is part of what you're paying for. The buffet is ₹750 + GST — decent, not remarkable. But you're not really here for the food.

On our last morning we did the nature walk trail and a short hike to a viewpoint within the property. No guide — there's a guided tour available which we missed, worth asking about at check-in. The trail gives you Banasura Hill from within the grounds, close and fully framed, without the jeep or the crowd. On the trail we spotted a giant Malabar squirrel — the large, vivid red one that looks almost cartoonishly oversized until you realise it's just the actual animal. If you haven't seen one before, you'll stop walking.

At night the property has fireflies. Not one or two. A proper, silent light show in the dark between the trees. No explanation needed for that one.

One thing nobody mentions: ask the staff about the waterfall trail. There's a hidden waterfall on the property grounds — audible from some rooms but not visible. Twenty to twenty-five minutes on a muddy trail. Worth it, leeches permissible.

What Wayanad Is Actually Like (And What It Isn't)

Here's the thing about Wayanad that the highlight reels don't tell you: it's big. Bigger than it looks on a map and bigger than a long weekend can hold.

The district stretches across three distinct zones — Mananthavady in the northeast, Kalpetta in the centre, Sultan Batheri in the southeast — and driving between them takes time. Real time. The kind that eats your afternoon before you realise it. We lost a full day's worth of "plans" just in transit between spots, and we weren't even being ambitious.

Wayanad needs planning. It gives you a lot if you plan it. If you don't — and we didn't entirely — you end up with a looser, more honest trip. Less itinerary, more driving through paddy fields at golden hour wondering where lunch was supposed to happen.

Both versions are valid. Just know which one you're getting.

The Places We Actually Got To

Kurumbala Kota Mala

Nobody told us about this one. We ended up here after a late lunch, not entirely sure what we were walking into.

You can't drive up. You hire a jeep from the base — the road is steep enough that your own vehicle isn't an option. The ride up is short but memorable. At the top, 360 degrees of Wayanad opens up below you. The town sits at the bottom of the valley. The surrounding ranges do that thing where they dissolve into the haze on the horizon — not sharp mountain peaks but soft, liquidy ridges that look like they're melting into the sky. Photographs get about 60% of it.

Go early morning or late evening. We went at around 3:30 PM and it was hot enough to matter. The view doesn't change, but your experience of it does.

Pazhassi Raja Tomb, Mananthavady

We ended up here because Kuruva Dweep was fully booked (more on that shortly). It was nearly empty on a Saturday afternoon, which immediately made it better than wherever else the crowds were.

The structure is a 1910 memorial to Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja — the "Lion of Kerala," who led resistance against British rule in the late 18th century. There's an underground museum with ancient murals that you access via a small staircase. Quiet, cool, worth the few minutes.

But the best thing here isn't on any signboard.

We were standing near the memorial when the attendant mentioned it almost in passing: there used to be a tree here. A large tree. In 1990 it fell — termite infection. When it fell, it revealed the tomb underneath. The whole memorial was built after the discovery. The tomb wasn't lost to time exactly; it was just hidden under a tree that died because of insects.

I hadn't read that anywhere in two days of pre-trip research. You get it by being there and listening.

Entry is ₹20. Parking inside the compound. There's a small park with shade — useful if you're visiting in the morning heat. Arrive before 10 AM or after 4 PM.

The Jain Temple Detour

We were driving somewhere else when we spotted a small Jain temple off the road. Partially in ruins, completely empty. We stopped because it looked interesting. It was interesting.

Directly opposite: a juice shop. Mango juice, ₹70. After an hour of walking around sun-baked ruins, cold mango juice from a roadside shop is, without exaggeration, one of the best things you can drink in this country. No further commentary needed.

Edakkal Caves — Or Rather, The Attempt

We drove to Edakkal. We parked. We walked 500 metres to the main road. We trekked 1 kilometre up a steep incline in the afternoon heat. We reached the ticket counter and found a queue that would have taken another 30 minutes.

We turned around.

The caves contain petroglyphs that date back over 6,000 years. By all accounts they're worth seeing. We are not the right people to tell you that from firsthand experience.

What we can tell you: don't go on a long weekend afternoon. The initial steep section — the first 10–15 minutes of the climb — is the part that makes people turn back. Don't let it. Push through it and the rest is manageable. Unlike us.

Book tickets in advance if you can. Arrive early morning.

The Food Trail

Wayanad surprised us with its food, and the surprise was Arabic.

Musa's Restaurant — mandi, Al Fahm (coal-roasted chicken), dragon chicken. Good mandi in the hills of Kerala is not something you plan for. The Malabar coast's historical connection to Arab traders runs deeper than the coastline; you find it in the food all the way up into the ghats.

Cuscus Restaurant — close to Banasura resort, small, local. Al Fahm again, Kubus bread. The kind of place you find by proximity and end up grateful for.

Travelicious Restaurant (near Edakkal) — pizza and wings after the abandoned cave trek. Decent. Not why you go to Wayanad, but functional when you need it.

Old House Cafe, Mysuru — this one was on the return leg. Watermelon salad, burrata salad, guac toast, San Sebastián cheesecake. After four days of mandi and Al Fahm and roadside juice, eating cold, fresh food in a quiet cafe felt like a specific kind of luxury. The contrast was the point. Worth stopping on your way back.

What We Didn't Do (And What You Should Know)

Kuruva Dweep (Kuruva Island): Pre-booking required. Entry is capped at 240 people per day. We discovered this on the day we wanted to go — already fully booked. There is no walk-in option on weekends or holidays. Book before you leave Bangalore, not from the parking lot.

Banasura Sagar Dam: We tried three times across four days. Closing time is 5:30–6:00 PM and we kept arriving in the window where it was already shut. The dam is a 15-minute drive from the resort. Do it first, on your first morning. Not as a "we'll get to it" item — it will stay on the list until you leave.

Karapuzha Dam: On the list, didn't make it. Good for a sunset and has a zipline over the reservoir. Add it if you have a spare afternoon in Kalpetta.

The Drives

The roads around Wayanad are often better than the destinations. We drove past paddy fields that stretched flat between forested hills, sudden open patches of agricultural land, coconut trees that appeared without warning. The drive back through Agrahara and Nagarhole was clean and fast.

One evening we were heading back to the resort and lightning was coming in from the west. Banasura Hill sat on the horizon, the storm building behind it. It never rained. The sky stayed charged for an hour and then the clouds moved on. We drove back in that air — the kind that smells like rain that didn't arrive.

That's a Wayanad thing. The weather threatens more than it delivers, at least in May.

Quick Reference

Final Thought

Wayanad is not a place you can exhaust in a long weekend. We didn't see the dam. We didn't make it to Kuruva Island. We turned back at Edakkal. We covered maybe half of what we planned.

And still — the rammed earth walls at the resort, the liquidy mountains from the peak, a termite-discovered tomb in an empty compound, cold mango juice at ₹70 opposite a ruined temple, lightning over a hill that never broke into rain.

It's worth planning well. It's worth coming back to. Probably more than once.

If you're mapping out Karnataka escapes, Coorg pairs naturally with Wayanad — same Mysore Expressway start, adjacent forest landscapes, and the two together make a proper week-long circuit.

Before You Go — Watch This

Before this trip I came across this comprehensive video guide to Wayanad — covers 35 places across all four zones of the district, best properties, food, local commute, budget, and FAQs. The kind of pre-trip overview that would have saved us at least one wrong turn.

Watch: Wayanad Complete Travel Guide — Xplore The Earth

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