A day trip to Bannerghatta – Bannerghatta Biological Park and Sri Champakadhama Swamy temple.

Friends, looking for a day trip around Bangalore? Welcome to our post “A day trip to Bannerghatta – Bannerghatta Biological Park and Sri Champakadhama Swamy temple”.

If you are staying in Bangalore, you must have been to Bannerghatta zoo. Generally we all end up with just the zoo. But there are some other activities which you can do there apart from zoo.

Planning to go to Coorg? Check out our three day itinerary

So what all to see there in Bannerghatta?

You can start you trip with a visit to Sri Champakadhama Swamy temple and Sri Lakshmi Narashimha Swamy temple. Both these temples will take around 1 to 2 hours.

Then you can plan for Bannerghatta Butterfly park, Bannerghatta Zoo and Lion Safari.

Below is the itenary which you can follow:

• Plan to reach Bannerghatta by 8.00 AM
• 8.00 AM to 9.30 AM – visit Sri Champakadhama swamy temple and Sri LaxmiNarashima Swamy temple
• 9.30 AM to 10.00 AM – Reach Bannerghatta Biological Park Parking. Have breakfast. There are couple of options near park itself.
• 10.00 AM to 10.30 AM – Proceed to take tickets for the activities. You need to take separate ticket for Zoo, Butterfly Park and Safari.
• 10.30 AM to 11.30 AM – Have some quick Sugercane Juice outside and proceed for Butterfly park.
• 11.30 AM to 1.30 PM -Enter the zoo. Zoo itself will not take much time. One and Half to two hours are good to complete the zoo. May take more time with small kids.
• 1.30 PM to 2.30 PM – Have lunch at one of the hotels outside / inside park.
• 2.30 PM to 3.30 PM – Proceed for Safari (depends on type of safari you have choosen, time taken will vary)
• 4.00 PM : Call it a day and return to Bangalore.

Ok, here are some details on the acitivities itslef.

Sri Champakadhama and Sri Lakshminarayan Swamy temple:

The temple is at the foothill of the large granite hill (called as ChampakDhama hill) you see as soon as you enter Bannerghatta. When you enter Bannerghatta there is a Y junction where you take left for the zoo. The right road goes to the temple. The temple is very near to the junction and the temple gopuram is visible from far. There is also ample parking space available near the temple.

There are 2 temples.

• At the foothill is Sri ChampakaDhama Swamy temple and
• At the top of hill is Sri LaxmiNarashimha Swamy temple

The gopuram of Sri ChampakaDhama swamy temple is very huge and looks majestic. Its built on a high platform. The temple itself is very old. Built during Hoysala period, this temple is more than 1000 year old. The temple is of great historical and religious importance. This temple is dedicated to Lord Vishnu and Ma Lakshmi. The temple is called Champakdhama as there is a tradition here to offer Champak flowers to lord Vishnu.

Once you are done with the darshan you can come out and at the back side of temple you will find steps going towards the top of the hill. There are around 200 steps which will take you to the hill top and Sri LaxmiNarashimha Swamy temple temple.

This temple is also very beautiful temple and is dedicate to Lord Narashmiha. The view from top of the hill is also something to experience. You are going to like these 2 temples a lot and kids will surely enjoy going up the hill. The steps are not steep and even elders will be able to manage. Though during summer, make sure that you carry sufficient water.

Butterfly Park:

This is one of the important attractions for Bannerghatta Biological park. This park was opened in 2007 and is dedicated towards the education , research and conservation of butterflies.

This park is spread on 7 acres and the total walking trail is approx 1 km. It is a nice experience. Do take kids there.

Bannerghatta Zoo:

Everybody loves zoo and kids are specifically excited to visit. There is some renovation going on at the time of writing this post. There are 2 huge dinosaurs to welcome you at the entrance ( don’t worry, not the real ones, but huge , imposing dino statues) .

The zoo has variety of animals, reptiles, birds etc. There is also a museum which you can plan to see, though it’s a small one and does not take much time. It is located with in the zoo.

Safari:

Now this is the most exciting part of the Bannerghatta Biological park. Though a bit costly, but worth it if you want to experience jungle from with in. There are various types of Safari you can opt for. Like Lion Safari or Tiger Safari .. etc.

Enjoy some other photos:

Some more photos of temple:

Hope you liked these photographs and this itenary will help.

We tend to just go to the zoo and come back, but these temples, butterfly park and safari is also worth visiting once.

Have a good time at bannerghatta and write back your comments!

Read more on Champakadhama Swamy temple

-Kumar