Mysore Travelogue: Must visit places

We visited Mysore in the year 2023; this post was written then. Publishing it now, as better late than never.

We went for daughter Sneha’s convocation; Visited all these places with CS friends who had come to attend the convocation and it was great fun with them.

Sharing some of the important places to see in and around Mysore. Except Somnathpur temple, which we went by car, remaining places we went in auto (sometimes 2 autos) which worked out very cheap.

Zoo

It is a must watch, particularly if you have kids with you or if you are a pet lover. It’s a pretty large zoo with various animals (unique foreign animals included). If one covers the zoo by walk, it will take 4 hours; if you have time you can do that; else they have battery operated vehicle and charge Rs 200 per person to cover in 1 hour; They stop in important places (Around 10) and allow us to see the animals. 

                                                               Sneha @ Zoo

Being pet lovers we enjoyed some of the animals like Chimpanzee, Foreign birds, Elephants very much.

Karanji Lake

It is very close to Zoo; in fact they give both tickets as combo pack; You can cover both Zoo and the lake in half a day. Boating is available with self pedal or driver operated vehicle. 

                                                                         Karanji Lake


Lot of plants and trees are there in this place. We can have a calm and cool time here.

Guru Sweets & Mahalakshmi Sweets

Guru Sweets is the most famous sweet shop where even on a week day, people wait in queue for 15 minutes to buy the sweets. 

                Forgot to take photo of the long queue before the shop :)

Mysore Pak in three different forms is the attraction here; Milk Mysore pak is a different one, which we bought and liked very much. Cost of sweets is very reasonable.

Mahalakshmi sweets is another famous shop- again Mysore Pak is the famous thing here.

Somnathpur – Chenna Keshava temple

It is situated about 35 Km away from Mysore and takes one hour drive. 

It is a beautiful temple and an architectural marvel. It is built about 750 years ago and it is so beautiful and we are amazed at the minute sculptures & how they have done in it during this period.

Lot of movies – Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam have been shot here. Entry fee is just Rs 20 but needs to be paid online (You can go there and pay it there too)

Though I have written very shortly here, we can write a lot about this place; those who like ancient architecture, should not miss this place and it is a treasure for them.

Chumundi Hills

The famous Godess Chamundeswari temple is situated here and it is about 12 KM from the Main city of Mysore. Those who visit Mysore generally do not miss visiting and praying here.

Mysore palace

We visited the Palace twice- once during the day to see the palace inside and once to see the palace in the night. 

Inside the palace the rooms, pillars etc gives us a feeling like we are in a big Studio (Much bigger than we have seen in movies in fact).

Light show in the evenings are done only on select days (Mostly in the weekends) ; Ideally if one visit the Palace around 4 or 4.30 PM, they can see it, wait and see the lights by evening.

Palace is centrally located and most of the places inside Mysore is 2-5 KM away from Palace

Finally..

Mysore is well connected by train and bus and has a good climate and some beautiful places to see. A 2 or 3 day trip here will be really good and can cover most places.