Mysore - Places to visit and Things to do

This Mysore trip is part of our Coorg trip. I will start from where I left off in earlier post which covered the first two days Coorg trip  - Coorg : Places to visit and Things to do.

Day 3 : Jaganmohan palace, Mysore Maharaja Palace, St. Philomena's church, Chammundi Hills, Chamundeshwari Temple, Brindavan Gardens


We checked out from Palm Era resorts in Coorg and started to Mysore around 9 AM. We decided to visit few places before checking in to hotel in Mysore. It took two hours to reach Mysore and we reached Jaganmohan palace by 11.

Timings : 10 AM to 5.30 PM
Ticket : Rs.20 per person

Jaganmohan palce has Jayachamarajendra art museum inside, which hosts Ravi Varma paintings among many others. It was great to see the originals for the first time.




Jaganmohan Palace
Jaganmohan Palace


From Jaganmohan palace, we went to Mysore Maharaja palace. We totally underestimated the amount of time we will spend there. It takes 2+ hours to cover everything even if you hurry. It's very huge and has lot of other monuments within. We took tickets and entered the palace.

Timings : 10 AM to 5.30 PM
Ticket : Rs.40 per person

Within the palace, you can see the royal Darbars, antique furniture,lot of beautiful pillars and of course amazing art and carvings on ceiling.



Mysore Palace
Mysore Palace
Mysore Palace view
Mysore Palace View
Mysore Palace side view
Mysore Palace Side view



Mysore Palace Public Darbar
Mysore Palace Public Darbar

Mysore Palace Interior
Mysore Palace Interior

Mysore Palace Royal Darbar
Mysore Palace Royal Darbar

Mysore Palace Monuments
Mysore Palace Monuments




Both Jaganmohan and Maharaja palaces have a lot of Wadiyar Kings heritage.

We took a break to have lunch, where I had Bonda - thinking that it's the famous Mysore bonda/bajji - only to realize that it's just a solid spherical vada :-/

We started off again with St.Phelomena's Church. It looks as if it came straight out of the Victorian era. Nothing much inside except for a long tunnel with plaques of donators' names.


St. Phelomena's Church
St. Phelomena's Church
St. Phelomena
St. Phelomena


After this, we checked into our hotel Rio Meredian which is in the core of the Mysore city. Almost every tourism place was nearby. Room was good with basic amenities - tea/coffee, kettle, soap, lotion, shampoo etc.


Nataraj at Rio Meredian
Nataraj at Rio Meredian



We resumed our exploring with Chamundi Hills. You can see almost the entire city from the Hills. We took special darshan(Rs. 30) at Chamundeshwari Temple to skip very long queues. It didn't take too much time and we even managed to buy laddu prasadam.

Chamundeswari temple
Chamundeswari temple

Mahishasura Statue
Mahishasura Statue

While coming down from the Chamunid Hills, we got down at a view point which had these binoculars(Rs.20 to view for about 2-3 minute view).

View from Chamundi Hills
View from Chamundi Hills


We then went to Brindavan gardens which is little far away compared to other places from the core of Mysore city. There's a lot of street food outside the gardens.

Brindavan Gardens
Brindavan Gardens


Ticket: Rs.15 + extra charge for Camera.
Timings: 6.30 AM to 9 PM.

It's full of greenery and fountains. There's a dam with Goddess Kaveri statue in the middle of Kaveri water. We expected a lot from the famous Brindavan Garden light/laser show as we have heard a lot about it. But if you have watched the light/laser show in Hyderabad's Lumbini Gardens, then this will seem very basic. It may have been a great visual when it started in past, but right now it still stays the same old. Light show happens at 6 PM and the crowd rush to it by crossing a bridge or taking a boat ride.

Kaveri River
Kaveri River

Light show
Light show
I took some weird photos of the light show. We were damn tired after this and it was 9 PM by the time we reached the core city. We wanted to try the actual Mysore bonda/bajji somehow, but most of the restaurants were closed by then! Yeah, most of the shops, restaurants,etc get closed very early in Mysore and the roads are almost empty by 9 PM. We finally found a restaurant open after lot of search and had dinner.

This was our first hectic day in Mysore! Strangely Mysore had better weather than Coorg. It wasn't too sunny and it was always breezy.

Day 4: Mysore Zoo

Next day, we had breakfast(buffet included in package) at Rio Meredian which had lot of variety and a better black coffee than Coorg's.

We decided to visit Mysore Zoo and then head off to Srirangapatnam.

Ticket: Rs.50
Timings: 8.30 AM to 5.30 PM

The zoo was spread over a stretch of 3KMs! We had to hurry and walk all the way to cover the entire zoo. It had lot of animal, bird and aquatic life including cheetah, leopard, lion, deer, rhino, hippo, birds, black swan, crocodile, giraffe, elephant, hyena, jackal, chimps, monkeys, jungle cats, snakes...and many more!! Phew! So this obviously takes 2+ hours if you run.

Animals at Zoo
Animals at Zoo





We can even adopt an animal from the zoo. There were many people who adopted each animal and their names and their adopted animal names were on display at each spot. Among those thousands of names, my eye caught this name somehow- That's Humblefool! If you don't know who is Humblefool, you can read about him here on Quora. I double checked if I have seen the right name and confirmed after seeing his actual name.

Animal adoption
Animal adoption




Humble Fool
Humble Fool

After the zoo, we hurried to the hotel and checked out of it. Then we headed to Srirangapatnam. I will post about it in next week's post. Overall, we loved Mysore as it was clean and had wide roads, less traffic, less noise, cool weather and lot of heritage.



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Comments

  1. Se manifique moments captured. Great views and vibes. love the photo collage and great suggestions

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  2. What a grand tour! I have never been to India and although I have been dreaming of such a trip in the future, I have only thought of New Delhi for the Taj Mahal. I never though of visiting other places. Thanks to this post, it is indeed one place to considering going.

    Btw, I wanna ask, how do you pronounce Mysore in the local dialect?

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  3. I have never been to Mysore but have always wanted to go. Reminds of the area called Rajhastan.

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  4. What a stunning place. The palace interior is my favourite, how pretty! This sounds like a really great tour - love your photos!

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  5. Lovely places to visit there! I really enjoyed looking at all the photos. The architecture is simple breathtaking and you can't help but appreciate them all!

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  6. When I stumble upon posts like these, it makes me realize that there is so much out there for me to see and I haven't scratched the surface yet. Do you ever feel that way or is it just me? Would appreciate your honesty!

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  7. Wow this looks like a gorgeous place to visit. The architecture is a dream. Especially Mysore Palace.

    Ami xxx

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  8. How amazing does Mysore Palace look, that work must of taken years, such amazing detailing.

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  9. Looks like you have seen some incredible sights! The Mysore palace looks amazing and breathtaking x

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  10. Wow what an amazing place to visit and so much to see and do! Your photos are great!

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  11. Oh my goodness! Totally wanting to go to Mysore now. I have India on my vacation bucket list, due to all the yoga history and architecture it's right down my alley!

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  12. Looks like a great place to visit! Definitely on my list for the future :)

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  13. I'm always awestruck by fine architecture, and this is one of them! There seems to be many things to do there, and I hope I can travel there soon.

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  14. I always hate it when I underestimate the time I need to explore something. With palaces, I always love to take my time.

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