Lepakshi was the easiest planned and executed weekend getaway till date. We hardly had to plan for route, food or stay and it turned out to be a very nice place for a day's visit. Lepakshi, in the neighboring state of Andhra Pradesh, is easily accessible from Bangalore. The beautiful Veerabhadraswamy temple and India’s largest monolithic granite Nandi make for a great day-trip option. Lepakshi is located about 125 Kms from Bangalore. I live in Whitefield area and hence we took the bypass to the new airport. (we avoided the Hebbal route, by taking Whitefield station - NH4 - NH207 - NH7 (after new airport)). Google Map was of course very helpful.
We left at around 8AM and reached Lepakshi village by 11AM with a tea-breakfast break in Devanahalli. The road is amazing and drive was as smooth as it can be. At the RTO check post in AP there is a left turn for Lepakshi. You cannot miss it as you can see lots of trucks parked and at the corner there are models of 2 huge swans. Only last 15km is a village road after leaving Hydrabad highway which is ok to maneuver even for a small car. Some 6-8km before Lepakshi, we spotted a beautiful sunflower farm. we stopped there for some photo session and freshen up.
Lepakshi is a small village with very few number of people visiting temple even on weekends. You won't find any good hotels or restaurants to eat so do carry food if possible. We first visited the monolithic Nandi & then the temple. Both places are very beautiful and historic. Temple's paintings / carvings reflect Vijaynagar dynasty aka Hampi style. Inside the temple there are lots of carved monolithic pillars probably made of sandstone. Floating pillar is attraction among tourists visiting this temple. Another major attraction was a huge shiva linga well guarded by a king cobra all marvelously carved by sandstone.
It was 20th January, a pulse polio day so I also got my little one vaccinated at one of the polio booths in village. :-)
On our way back, we tried the restaurant "recommended by AP tourism" on NH7. It was not very good. may be there are better eating places on highway elsewhere. Finally after lunch, everyone was tired of walking in Sun and there was silence in car. Thankfully Milind did not doze off while driving and we reached home by 5PM.
Here are some of the images from our trip.
We left at around 8AM and reached Lepakshi village by 11AM with a tea-breakfast break in Devanahalli. The road is amazing and drive was as smooth as it can be. At the RTO check post in AP there is a left turn for Lepakshi. You cannot miss it as you can see lots of trucks parked and at the corner there are models of 2 huge swans. Only last 15km is a village road after leaving Hydrabad highway which is ok to maneuver even for a small car. Some 6-8km before Lepakshi, we spotted a beautiful sunflower farm. we stopped there for some photo session and freshen up.
Lepakshi is a small village with very few number of people visiting temple even on weekends. You won't find any good hotels or restaurants to eat so do carry food if possible. We first visited the monolithic Nandi & then the temple. Both places are very beautiful and historic. Temple's paintings / carvings reflect Vijaynagar dynasty aka Hampi style. Inside the temple there are lots of carved monolithic pillars probably made of sandstone. Floating pillar is attraction among tourists visiting this temple. Another major attraction was a huge shiva linga well guarded by a king cobra all marvelously carved by sandstone.
It was 20th January, a pulse polio day so I also got my little one vaccinated at one of the polio booths in village. :-)
On our way back, we tried the restaurant "recommended by AP tourism" on NH7. It was not very good. may be there are better eating places on highway elsewhere. Finally after lunch, everyone was tired of walking in Sun and there was silence in car. Thankfully Milind did not doze off while driving and we reached home by 5PM.
Here are some of the images from our trip.
