How to Reach:
We rented car from cab agency in Marathahalli, bangalore. There are plethora of car agents in Bangalore and you can hire as per your team size and convenience. In case you are coming from bangalore Majestic/KBS, book your cab from Majestic itself as lot of travel agents are located near Majetic Rail Station. We started from BTM layout and headed towards Krishnagiri by taking NH7 from Silk board via Hosur. From Krishnagiri, we took Dharmapuri – Hoggenakkal route and reached at site. Total travel distance is 400 km between bangalore and hoggenakkal.
Best time to visit:
Apart from monsoon season, anytime is good to visit the falls. In monsoon, water level becomes high and creates lot of turbulence in water so coracle boats do not operate for tourists in this time for safety concern. Post monsoon is relatively best time as you can see floras and greeneries everywhere, and flow of water at falls creates lot of fume at falls. Try and start early in the morning, at least by 7 or 7:30 AM, so you can reach at falls by 11:30 AM. After enjoying whole day at falls, you can start by 6 PM there and return to city by 10PM.
Road Permits and tolls:
We started from Karnataka so we had to pay Tamilnadu road permit Rs. 150/- at check-post and all other tolls and taxes will be within Rs.180 /- which includes tolls for flyovers, highway tolls, forest toll once you approach towards hoggenakkal and parking fees at site. Always pay tolls for both ways so you can get concession (eg. 35 rupees for one way and 50 rupees for two ways) in that and you can save time while returning to den.
Activities:
Scenic Beauty: Any aesthetic would enjoy to see greeneries and falls under the blue sky. You can suddenly feel the canvas of colors on mother earth which has enriched the falls and its vicinity with natures' true colors. If you reach there on sunny day you may see that rainbow has come down at your feet and begging for your serendipity. Scientifically, ray of sun passes through molecules of fume and creates color illusion which perceived as beautiful rainbow shaped palette. This falls is on river "Cauvery". Water of this river is used for water project at “Mettur” and is used for drinking purpose; therefore, you can feel the tenderness of water. It is not at all hard water and, you feel as if, somebody has refined this water at heaven for the sake of mankind.
Boating: You can not reach at main falls without small circular boat which is called “Coracle”. It is best to go to “Utmaalaai”, which is 2Km from actual tourist location and quite isolated area. Utmaalaai is actually little upstream from where stream is coming downwards and, initially, there was no boating available at this place. But if you start boating from this place you would enjoy the maximum distance on these small boats. Max six people are allowed on this boat and total charge is Rs. 1200/-, negotiable. We agreed to pay Rs. 700/- + Rs. 20/- (for some kind of ticket, I do not know what) for two people since we were not ready to share our yacht with anybody. Our cicerone, boat driver, was very modest and helped us thoroughly pass the boulders and reach at relatively best location in front of falls. We spent almost 1 hr and cared to start our yacht to explore something new. Boat journey prevails maximum for 2 hrs and it is worth to enjoy the beauty, provided the day is quite sunny and you have blue sky above. On our tour to falls, cicerone turned the boat in circular motion thrice by creating turbulence in water and believe me it was enchanting to see the whole world circling in front of my eyes. Since we started from upstream, boat wont take us there. Whenever these men feel to go to upstream, they take coracles on their shoulders and carry to upstream. After seeing these efforts he took for us, we gave him another one hundred bucks after our tour.
Eating Fishes: Do not expect to have king's lunch there because most shops provide fish in curry. Lot of local women are frying “Katla” fishes and selling them each for 10/-. We opted not to have those, since oil was totally burnt and fishes looked awfully red. Most probably, red effect comes from red chilli effect on those fishes. I felt it's good that fishes do not know how much chillis these people have put on them after their death. Finally, we went to one shop which was selling "paratha" with "veg kurma" but, after eating that "veg kurma", I learnt that it was made of fish bones and fleshes though curry was called “veg”. But if you want you can definitely try this fish to cherish in future.
Drinks: Bars are available at this tourist spot but they have only limited number of brands. Do not expect to have chicken and Chinese with your favorite beer. They provide only some terribly dry snacks and cucumber with drinks. So do not visit bars in case you feel to have nice lunch at breweries.
Loadging: It is not required to stay there because all things can be covered in one day. But hotels are available nearby. You have to check with them before booking. I do not suppose they are usually used for night stay and, hence, quite unsure about quality and services.
Massage Service: It is said that massage at this site is very stress releasing. We did not try it but, apparently, other places apart from this falls are confiscated by massage service and tourists. It is ugly to see men, all in short briefs, are enjoying massage openly. I do not know why they have not started private areas for these kind of activities, at least they would not have polluted everywhere along with water.
