Red sandstone, four cave floors, a green tank below
Ask this office to reserve a five night stay in the Badami sandstone gorge
From $1,090 per person, two sharing a double room, for five nights. This is the second half of the Deccan stone route, the line that runs from Hampi to Pattadakal, and it can also be taken on its own. November to February is the workable season: dry, and cool enough to climb sandstone at midday without giving up. March onward the rock holds heat until dark.
Reserve this with the officeNothing is charged here. The form stays open at any hour and a person writes back inside one working day.
What Badami actually is
Badami sits in a gap in a red sandstone ridge, with a reservoir at the bottom and cliffs on both sides. Four temples are cut back into the south cliff, one of them Jain, the others Hindu, all of them carved out of the living rock rather than built up from blocks. Fourteen kilometres away, Aihole is a village with something over a hundred stone temples standing in and between the houses, farmyards and cattle. Pattadakal, on the river, holds ten more inside one enclosure, half of them on a northern plan and half on a southern one. Read in that order, the three places show a form being tried, argued over and settled, roughly between the sixth and the eighth centuries.
A day among the four caves
Mornings go to stone, because the sandstone is bearable then and the light reaches into the caves. You climb steps cut in the rock, a hundred and something of them to the highest cave, and you sit a while in each because the ceilings carry most of the work. Afternoons are flatter: the reservoir, the two hill forts above it, a granary, a small room of loose sculpture. In Aihole there is nothing to queue for and no set route; you walk between compounds and a caretaker unlocks what is locked. Two of the five days go that way, one at Pattadakal, one on the caves, one loose. Evening is a village evening. There is little to do after dark and no reason to plan for it.
Getting here: under two hours
This segment carries a move mark of 1: the journey into it takes under two hours. From the end of the first half of the line the road crosses flat cotton and sunflower country and is done in a little under two hours by car, with one stop. That is the whole of the transit. Once you are in the district the legs are shorter again, about half an hour to Aihole and twenty minutes more to Pattadakal, and they are day trips rather than moves, so your bags stay in one room for all five nights. If you take the segment on its own, you make your own way to the nearest station or airport and the office asks the operator to meet you there. It arranges no flights and no sea crossings.
Inside the figure, and outside it
From $1,090 per person, two sharing a double room, in US dollars. Inside it: five nights in the same small hotel in Badami, breakfast, the licensed guide who holds the keys and the local knowledge for the three sites, all ground transport within the district, and the site entry fees, which for foreign visitors are the larger part of the daily cost. Outside it: getting to India and back, which is your own booking; lunches and dinners; anything to drink; the camera fee at two of the sites; tips; and a single room, which the operator prices separately on request. The operator bills you directly, in its own name and on its own terms. This office holds no card details and takes no payment from you at any point.
| Nights | 5 |
|---|---|
| From | $1,090 per person, two sharing |
| Move into it | under two hours |
| Part of | Deccan stone route |
| Taken alone | Yes. Nothing obliges you to take the rest of the line. |
| Inside the figure | Rooms, the ground arrangements named on this page, and the local operating company's own charges. |
| Outside the figure | Getting to the country, meals not named above, anything personal, and anything you add later. |
Asked before people commit
Is the price lower if I take this segment as part of the whole line?
No. The line from Hampi to Pattadakal is $2,350 per person for ten nights, and that is exactly this segment at $1,090 plus the first one at $1,260. Nothing comes off for buying the chain and nothing goes on for buying one part of it. The two ways of buying cost what they cost, and the office does not rank them for you.
Can you tell me whether I need a visa, and arrange it?
No, and that is a flat refusal rather than a delay. The office does not advise on visas, passports, vaccination, insurance, law or medicine, and it will not read your documents or tell you what a rule means. Entry requirements are set by the Indian government and they change. Ask a consulate or a qualified adviser. The office will give you the dates and addresses you will be asked for.
Who takes my money, and when?
The operator that runs the trip does, directly, in its own name and on its own payment terms, usually a deposit when the reservation is confirmed and the balance before you travel. This office never takes a payment, never holds card details and has no mechanism to charge you. It is paid a commission by the operator afterwards, out of the same figure you were quoted.
Segment 2 of 2 on Deccan stone route
You can take this segment on its own and leave the rest of the line alone. Nothing here obliges you to walk the whole thing, and the figure for one piece is the figure for one piece.
Reserve one segment, or a whole line
This form is open at any hour, and whatever reaches it is read by a person who answers inside one working day. Nothing you send commits you, and no figure is charged at this end at any point.