10 Best Places to Visit in Chikmagalur in 2026

Mullayanagiri — Karnataka's Highest Peak

I set my alarm for 4:30 AM on my first morning in Chikmagalur and drove up to Mullayanagiri in complete darkness. The decision to get there before sunrise is not optional if you want to experience the peak without a crowd, and in 2026 the vehicle access restrictions mean private vehicles are turned away after a certain quota fills the narrow approach road. The peak stands at 1,930 metres above sea level, making it the highest point in all of Karnataka and one of the most accessible high-altitude summits in peninsular India.

The name derives from a sage named Mullappa Swamy, who is believed to have meditated in the caves just below the summit for years. A small shrine dedicated to him sits at the very top, next to a Nandi statue that watches over the entire Baba Budan range below. When I reached the final 300 steps carved into the rock face, the sky ahead was still dark indigo. By the time I reached the shrine the eastern horizon was bleeding orange and the entire Western Ghats range was laid out in front of me in tiers of purple, then forest green, then the pale gold of the first coffee plantations catching the light.

The vast Western Ghats unfolding from the summit plateau of Mullayanagiri at first light

The trek from the car park to the summit takes about 20 to 25 minutes along a well-maintained stone path. There is a longer trail of approximately 3 kilometres that starts lower down and passes through shola grassland where you can spot Nilgiri Flycatchers and occasionally Bison early in the morning. The shorter route is fine for most visitors. What I strongly advise is carrying a light jacket even in October because the wind at the top is sharp and relentless, and it strips away heat faster than you expect at that altitude.

Baba Budangiri — The Cradle of Indian Coffee

A short drive from Mullayanagiri sits the mountain range that changed the course of Indian food and drink history. According to legend and broadly accepted historical record, it was around 1670 AD that a Sufi saint named Baba Budan returned from a pilgrimage to Mecca via Yemen, carrying seven coffee seeds taped against his stomach. Coffee was so jealously guarded in the Arab world at the time that exporting live seeds was reportedly punishable by death. Baba Budan planted those seven seeds on the slopes of what is now called the Baba Budan Giri range, and from that single act the entire Indian coffee industry was born.

The cave shrine itself sits inside the mountain and is one of the rare holy sites in India shared by two faiths. It is simultaneously a dargah for Muslim pilgrims who revere Baba Budan as a Sufi saint and a temple for Hindus who know the deity within as Dattatreya. Both communities arrive without conflict and often at the same time. I spent about an hour here and found the atmosphere genuinely moving in a way that very few religious sites manage.

The 2025 infrastructure upgrades between Mullayanagiri and Baba Budangiri have made the connector trail far more manageable than it used to be. I did the 8-kilometre ridge walk between the two peaks and it remains one of the most scenic half-day hikes in Karnataka, with unbroken views of coffee estates on both sides. If you prefer not to trek, the driving route via Aldur is paved and comfortable.

Jhari Falls (Buttermilk Falls)

Locals call it Jhari Falls. Some maps list it as Buttermilk Falls. Both names point to the same tumbling white cascade located inside a private coffee estate near Attigundi village, approximately 12 kilometres from Baba Budangiri. I reached it on my second afternoon after the jeep union officer at the estate entrance quoted me a standardised fare, which is something new for 2026. Previous years saw wildly varying jeep rates depending entirely on how gullible you appeared. The local jeep unions have now pegged their rates officially, which makes budgeting a lot easier.

The road down to the falls is genuinely rough, cut through the estate and shaded by coffee plants on both sides. You do the descent in a battered Mahindra Bolero whose driver confidently ignores every pothole at full speed. When the fall comes into view through the trees it is a proper surprise, a long white ribbon of water twisting down a basalt face surrounded by uncut forest. The pool at the base is cold and clean. I sat there for an hour watching hornbills move through the canopy above the falls, which I had not expected and which was one of the best unplanned moments of the whole trip.

Manikyadhara Falls

Further along the Baba Budan range, roughly 3 kilometres from the dargah, Manikyadhara Falls drops into a small pool considered sacred by local Hindus. The name translates loosely as the jewel stream, and the site is associated with the deity Dattatreya. Pilgrims come here to bathe in the water, particularly on Fridays and during festival periods. The falls are not enormous in volume but they are photogenic in a very specific way: the water hits a broad flat rock and fans out before falling again, producing the kind of layered cascade that looks spectacular in long-exposure photography.

Post-monsoon is the best time to visit Manikyadhara. I was there in late October and the flow was powerful. The mist radius was surprisingly wide and I learned from experience to keep my phone inside a ziplock bag. The approach is a short 10-minute walk from the road, mostly flat and fine for everyone. There are small stalls selling tender coconut and corn near the parking area that I was grateful for after a morning of hiking.

Hirekolale Lake

If I had to pick the single most visually spectacular hour of my entire trip it would be the sunset I watched from the edge of Hirekolale Lake. The lake sits at an elevation with the Baba Budan range rising as a dark wall on one side and open paddy fields on the other. The water is shallow and calm and in the final 40 minutes before the sun goes down it turns a sequence of colours, from copper to amber to blood orange, while the surrounding hills hold the last light on their ridgelines long after the valley has gone dark.

The lake is also significant ecologically. It supports a healthy population of cormorants, painted storks and open-billed storks, particularly from November to February. The water body and surrounding wetland form a de facto bird corridor connecting the higher forest zones to the agricultural plains. I counted at least seven species in 30 minutes without any special effort, which is encouraging for a lake this close to a town.

A practical note for 2026 travellers: the Karnataka government has installed EV charging points near the Hirekolale viewpoint as part of the Green Mandate infrastructure programme. This is genuinely useful if you are driving an electric vehicle from Bangalore and need a top-up before the return journey on the ghats.

Ayyanakere Lake

Ayyanakere is the second largest lake in Karnataka by water spread. Located near the town of Sakrepatna at the southern edge of the Chikmagalur district, it covers roughly 1,415 hectares when full. The lake was historically built as part of an ancient tank irrigation system that fed rice cultivation across the lower valleys, and local farmers still depend on it for seasonal water supply.

What makes Ayyanakere different from Hirekolale is scale and mood. Where Hirekolale is intimate and golden, Ayyanakere is vast and grey-blue and a little austere. Driving along its embankment in the early morning, with low mist sitting on the water and the Baba Budan hills as a distant backdrop, feels nothing like what you expect from a tourist attraction. It feels more like stumbling upon a natural wonder that nobody has quite decided what to do with yet. That is its appeal. The boat rides available at the main jetty are basic affairs but give you a perspective on the lake's size that you cannot get from the shore.

Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary

The Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary, anchored around the Muthodi forest range, covers 492 square kilometres of moist deciduous and semi-evergreen forest in the south-western corner of the Chikmagalur district. It was declared a Tiger Reserve under Project Tiger in 1998 and the results have been visible. Tiger sightings in early 2026 have been more frequent than in any recent period, with the forest department's camera traps confirming at least 35 individuals within the reserve boundaries.

I did the morning jeep safari starting at 6 AM and did not see a tiger, which is entirely normal and should not discourage anyone. What I did see, in three hours of driving through riverine forest, was a herd of about 40 elephants crossing the Bhadra river at a shallow ford, a leopard cat sitting in a fork of a terminalia tree watching us with complete disinterest, and a family of gaur so large that the bulls looked like they had been designed by a committee that kept adding mass at every revision. The river boating experience alongside the safari offers a different perspective on the same forest from water level, which is worth the extra hour.

The safari requires advance booking through the Karnataka Forest Department online portal. Walk-in slots are limited and frequently taken by the time the gate opens, especially on weekends between November and February. Book at least three days ahead.

Kudremukh National Park

Kudremukh is in a different category from everything else on this list. It is a genuine wilderness, covering 600 square kilometres of the Western Ghats at its most dramatic, and it was declared a National Park in 1987 specifically to protect its shola-grassland mosaic ecosystem, which is one of the most threatened habitats on earth. The name means Horse Face in Kannada, derived from the profile of the main peak at 1,894 metres, which when viewed from the right angle does bear an uncanny resemblance to the nose and muzzle of a horse.

The trek to the summit is the main draw. It covers approximately 23 kilometres round-trip from the forest checkpost and passes through some of the most ethereal landscape I have walked through anywhere in India. The shola forests, small pockets of dense subtropical rainforest sheltered in the folds between grassland ridges, are so quiet and moss-covered that they feel prehistoric. The grasslands on the ridges above them open up suddenly, with views stretching to the Arabian Sea on clear winter mornings. I have done several Himalayan treks and I would rank the Kudremukh summit experience alongside many of them purely for atmosphere.

The 2026 mandatory online permit system at Kudremukh is strictly enforced. You must book your slot at least 48 hours in advance on the Karnataka Forest Department government portal, and the daily cap on trekkers is firm. The fee is minimal. The rule exists for good reason: Kudremukh sits over the headwaters of the Bhadra, Tunga and Netravathi rivers, which collectively supply drinking water to millions of people in Karnataka and Kerala. Every step of the trek is a reminder that you are inside a watershed, not just a viewpoint.

Belavadi and the Veera Narayana Temple

I had not planned to go to Belavadi. It appeared as a small dot on my map and a footnote in a guidebook, and I nearly skipped it in favour of an extra hour at Hirekolale Lake. That would have been a serious mistake. The Veera Narayana Temple at Belavadi is one of the finest examples of Hoysala architecture that exists and it is almost entirely unknown outside the small circle of people who follow Karnataka's temple circuit seriously.

The temple complex actually comprises three linked shrines built during the Hoysala period, with the main Veera Narayana shrine dating to around 1117 AD, well before the more famous Hoysala temples at Belur and Halebidu were completed. The outer walls carry the characteristic Hoysala friezes of elephants, horses, floral scrolls, scenes from the epics and rows of figures in attitudes of worship and warfare. The stone is soft chlorite schite that the Hoysala sculptors loved precisely because it could be carved with the kind of jewel-fine detail that harder stone would not allow. Standing close to the exterior wall and working through the narrative panels is like reading a medieval graphic novel.

What Belavadi offers that Belur cannot, in 2026, is silence. You can stand in front of the main sanctum for twenty minutes without another tourist arriving. The priest on duty when I visited spoke no English but spent ten minutes showing me specific panels on the outer wall he was clearly proud of, pointing to details and laughing when I photographed them. The entire experience cost nothing and left me more moved than almost any other moment on the trip.

Hebbe Falls

I saved Hebbe Falls for my last full day because I wanted to end the trip properly and Hebbe deserves a full morning. The falls are located deep inside a private coffee estate near Kemmanagundi, approximately 52 kilometres from Chikmagalur town, and the final 4 to 5 kilometres of approach road qualifies as the roughest stretch I drove in five days. A sturdy 4x4 jeep is non-negotiable. The estate owners run a regulated jeep service and do not permit private vehicles onto the estate road, which keeps the area clean and limits the daily footfall.

Hebbe is a double-tiered waterfall. The upper tier, called Dodda Hebbe or Big Hebbe, plunges first from a height that various sources put between 168 metres and 168 feet depending on which version you read. The lower tier, Chikka Hebbe, catches it and sends it again in a second leap. Together they fall roughly 170 metres in total before reaching the pool at the base. The combined cascade is loud and cold and if you stand close enough the spray drenches you within seconds, which is why I was very pleased I had packed dry clothes in my daypack.

The water at Hebbe has a local reputation for medicinal properties, a claim I cannot verify but which clearly encourages pilgrims and health tourists to make the difficult drive. What I can confirm is that after 5 days of trekking at altitude and safari driving, sitting in that cold plunge pool with the falls roaring above me felt genuinely restorative. The surrounding forest is thick with cardamom plants growing wild in the understorey. The coffee estate itself produces some of the district's most sought-after estate lots. I bought a small bag of sun-dried Robusta directly from the estate office on the way out for less than I would pay for a single cup in Bangalore.