I have been to Yercaud last weekend (15/August/2008) with my wife. It’s a nice place to visit and good climate. My journey started from Bangalore it’s a train and bus travel, I started at 15th August morning 6.15 am train(Ernakulam Express) from Bangalore and reached Salem at 10.45 AM. In Salem there are two bus stops (old and new) we need to go to new bus stop to catch Yercaud bus. It hardly takes 20 to 25 min in bus and 15min in Auto to reach new bus stand.
There are lots of buses available at railway station. In auto they charge 50 bugs and in bus they charge 3 bugs. We reached new bus stand by 11am there are buses for every 15min to Yercaud, so we got bus at 11.15am its one and half hour journey from salem. Better sit in left hand side for the bus (opposite row of the driver site) because you can see lot of sightseeing on left hand side only, in right there is only rocks. We reached Yercaud by 12.45pm; it’s nice to have day travel. There are 20 hair pin bends and it’s good to watch at day time and lot of moneys on the way. I have booked room in TTDC(TamilNadu Tourism Development Corporation) the rooms are good and the rates are normal. I stayed for one day in double cottage room its good as per my knowledge.
We had lunch at Malar hotel it’s a good hotel in Yercaud for Vegetarian. Our sightseeing started by 2.30pm on the same day(15/August/2008) after lunch. There is no public transport available for sightseeing there are lot of autos and cars available for rent near lake and bus stand. I got an auto near TTDC itself, since lake was very near to my hotel(TTDC) I asked him to take for other site seeing places. He took first to Kiliyur Falls it’s a good place but families better have a good team and proceed because there are lot of college guys and local people who use to drink near the falls and have bath. Only gents can go near the falls and have bath, ladies its not possible to go near the falls only they can see because there are lot of rocks near the falls we need to walk on the rock and reach the falls. The way to Kiliyur falls are really very narrow, only one person can walk on the path and the way is also very risky. If you have small children who cannot walk its advisable not to go for kiliyur falls. Next he(driver) took as to Rose Garden its nice place to see some Roses in the garden and from there we can walk to children seat. Third place was Ladies seat which has good view point to salem, people said its good to see at night time with full lights since I went at 3pm it was ok. From there we went to one Church (Holy Trinity Church) its good church if you love church don’t miss that. Then our fifty place was Mont Fort school since there was some function we did not went inside the school its good to see from outside. Our sixth place was Pagada point there is nothing special only some view points are available to salem. The place with I missed was the Servarayan Temple people say its good temple to see. Our first day sight seeing is done and we are back to room by 7pm. I need to tell about the charges for auto its 350 bugs for the above placed with I have mentioned. We had dinner at Malar hotel.
Second day, I discussed with the driver and he told he will take to some view point in yercaud ring road. We started by around 8.30am next day(16th August) and had breakfast at Selvam Hotel its really good Veg and Non-Veg hotel. The taste is really dam good visitors please try to have breakfast or lunch there. From there we started for ring road its almost 33km we can see some view point on the ring road and lots of coffee plantation on ring road. He(driver) showed me lot of fruits tree from where we can pluck the fruits from the plant. Nothing much on the ring road but we can have one good ride on auto and see the entire place of Yercaud full green. If you don’t like nature sightseeing better avoid ring road its only seeing green plants and moving. We are back at 12pm(afternoon) and we went to lake and asked the auto driver to wait for a while and we went for boating and from there we went to Anna park near the lake. From there we came to bus stand to get bus to Salem because we have train to Bangalore at 4.15pm. I got bus at 1pm in Yercaud bus stand and reached Salem by 2.30pm. In salem we had lunch near the bus stand and we came to railway station by 3.15pm. Our train came at 4.15pm(BANGALORE EXP) and reached Bangalore at 9pm.
Overall it’s a good place to visit and have some peace time there. Some for the places which I cannot forget are Malar hotel, Lake, Kiliyur falls, church and Selvam Hotel.
Hotels to stay: Shevaroys, TTDC
Hotels to have Food : Malar for Veg and Selvam for Non-Veg