Nagarjun Sagar is about 130Km from hyderabad by road. The roads are fairly decent and should take you anywhere between 2-3 hours to get there primarily subject to city traffic conditions. A nice place to go to to for the weekend. As you enter the nagarjun sagar area with the spectacular view of the reservoir with the dam. I have been told that these patches keep varing according to the rainfall.
The dam is constructed in 3 parts. one being an earthen dam approximately 800 m long. another masonry dam which looks absolutely spectaular is about 2km (if my memory serves me right) and the third dam being another earthen dam abt 2km again approx.
Each of these dams has a power station and there is a rilght and a left canal branching out which is pretty arterial to Andhra Pradesh. One should drive away from the dam and take a look at the dam in all its splendor on the side away from the reservoir. It would be a great time to visit if there reservoir is spilling over with the water gushing down the wall of the dam. Very scenic to take photographs. As you drive onto the other side of the dam you can take a 45 minute ride on a boat to the NAGARJUNKONDA.
Before the dam was constructed the present reservoir had a lot of buddhist sites which were submerged. These buddhist sites have been reconstrctedblock by block on the nagarjunkonda which is an island. There are abt 2 boat trips in the morning and the last one in the afternoon at 1:30 which left at 2 when we went. But you have to be back by 16:30 at the boat. Ideal time to go would be in the morning coz its very hot and there really isnt too much shade and unless you can sustain the heat and the time pressure u will not be able to appreciate all the monuments. So do leave by the earliest boat and come back at ur leisure in the evening coz all in all you may have to walk 6 km.
Do remember that the walk on the hill around the sites is not circular and you have to walk back all the distance. There also is a musem with a lot of buddhist monuments. Similar to the nagarjunkonda there is a place called anupu 7km from the dam.though with relatively fewer monuments. Should not take more than 1 hour to look around. The amphitheatre is really worth a look here. The most spectaulr part of the trrip though was the ETHIPOTHLA falls.
They are about 80-100 feet high and an absoulte beauty in the night. The water fall is lit in the night and one of the falls keeps changing colors. A million dollar sight unfortunately poorly marketted by the government and a gold mine fortourism. You could book a room by the waterfalls in the AP tourism guest house (punnami, Ethipothla)which looked pretty decent with AC rooms and yes they are by the waterfalls not more than 20 metres.
As for accomodation at nagarjun sagar there is the punnami, Nagarjun Sagar (with an excellent view of the dam). we unfortunately did not get a room there but the ambience and service was great and so was the fist they served. I guess they have a TT table , billiards, carroms all for no extra charge. We manged to get a room at the Nagarjuna resorts which was not all that freat because the rooms were poorly maintained. The food was nothing to write home about too.
This also had the free TT, Billiards and carroms for no extra charge. So all in all a good place to go to for a nice laidback holiday. Not for an adventure holiday though. Good weekend getaway from hyderabd.