Finally I got around to writing my travellogue for my Hyderabad trip with my wife. We took trip from 5th to 7th Jan but wasn't able to find time to write until today. Since this was a 3 day trip and we visited a lot of places, I'll write this travellogue like a diary.
Before the trip started:
There are few preparations we made which proved to be an important part of this trip. I had been to Hyderabad in 2005 during my Engineering. So I knew which are the most popular tourist spots. So this time, I wanted to experiment something: rather than booking a cab for 3 days, I decided to give Zoomcar a try this time. The reviews of the service weren't very great. But I decided to try it out myself once. When I registered, I had to upload a soft copy of my driving license. As opposed to some reviews, my license was approved within ~5 mins of my uploading of the soft copy. So the local travel arrangement was done. Flights were booked in advance for the return journey. In order to afford maximum possible time, we booked Pune-Hyderabad flight for Friday 6 AM and Hyderabad to Pune flight for Sunday 10 PM. So we had almost 3 full days to cover different spots in Hyderabad. However, while planning, we found out that a lot of tourist attractions of Hyderabad are closed on Fridays so we had plan accordingly.
Day 1:
We boarded the 5 AM flight from Pune to Hyderabad and reached Hyderabad by about 7 AM. We were supposed to be picked up at the airport by a Zoomcar executive to take us to the nearest Zoomcar station which is just outside the Hyderabad airport boundary (by around 7:30). There, we filled the checklist, verified the car condition, captured a video to note if there are any existing scratches / dents. The car was in a good condition and was washed neat and clean but the inside was a bit littered so we asked the executive and he got the car cleaned there. We left by around 8. We planned to start our trip with Chilkur Balaji temple on the Western side of the Nehru Outer Ring Road. The temple decently maintained and is reminiscent of the olden days since it doesn't have any modern attractions / decorations on the temple. In fact, we actually struggled to find the actual temple until we had almost reached there since it looks almost like some old Factory. We visited the temple and had planned to possibly spot some Flamingoes at the Gandipet lake which is just beside the temple premises. However, the place wasn't very accessible and we couldn't spot any birds there. Then we had our breakfast - masala dosa with tea - in the temple premises itself. Next we proceeded to Harina Vanasthali park. But again we were disappointed since we were informed there that the park safari goes for the rounds only if there are min 20 ppl, else we can walk around but we didn't because we didn't want to tire ourselves out. So next we went to Taramati Baradari to reach there by around noon. This actual site which is of historical importance was not so well maintained, but the gardens surrounding it seemed good. However, we didn't find it much interesting so we left from there. Then we proceeded to our Hotel Imperial Classic which is situated at around 5 kms from the Hussain Sagar lake. You can read my review of the hotel on the TripAdvisor website. We had our lunch and then decided to take a little rest.
At around 5 PM, we reached Hussain Sagar lake boating point, which is close to Lumbini park. We enjoyed the evening stroll in the Lumbini Park. Then we took a boat ride to reach the Buddha statue at the center of the lake, spent some time there, taking selfies and then came back. From there, we went to the famous Charminar. Here, we navigated across the various shops selling variety of products including the famous Pearl jewellery. Then we got back to the hotel by around 9 PM, had our dinner at a nearby restaurant and then went to sleep.
Posting a few pictures here below.
Dosa at Chilkur Balaji
Taramati Baradari
Lumbini Park
Charminar
Before the trip started:
There are few preparations we made which proved to be an important part of this trip. I had been to Hyderabad in 2005 during my Engineering. So I knew which are the most popular tourist spots. So this time, I wanted to experiment something: rather than booking a cab for 3 days, I decided to give Zoomcar a try this time. The reviews of the service weren't very great. But I decided to try it out myself once. When I registered, I had to upload a soft copy of my driving license. As opposed to some reviews, my license was approved within ~5 mins of my uploading of the soft copy. So the local travel arrangement was done. Flights were booked in advance for the return journey. In order to afford maximum possible time, we booked Pune-Hyderabad flight for Friday 6 AM and Hyderabad to Pune flight for Sunday 10 PM. So we had almost 3 full days to cover different spots in Hyderabad. However, while planning, we found out that a lot of tourist attractions of Hyderabad are closed on Fridays so we had plan accordingly.
Day 1:
We boarded the 5 AM flight from Pune to Hyderabad and reached Hyderabad by about 7 AM. We were supposed to be picked up at the airport by a Zoomcar executive to take us to the nearest Zoomcar station which is just outside the Hyderabad airport boundary (by around 7:30). There, we filled the checklist, verified the car condition, captured a video to note if there are any existing scratches / dents. The car was in a good condition and was washed neat and clean but the inside was a bit littered so we asked the executive and he got the car cleaned there. We left by around 8. We planned to start our trip with Chilkur Balaji temple on the Western side of the Nehru Outer Ring Road. The temple decently maintained and is reminiscent of the olden days since it doesn't have any modern attractions / decorations on the temple. In fact, we actually struggled to find the actual temple until we had almost reached there since it looks almost like some old Factory. We visited the temple and had planned to possibly spot some Flamingoes at the Gandipet lake which is just beside the temple premises. However, the place wasn't very accessible and we couldn't spot any birds there. Then we had our breakfast - masala dosa with tea - in the temple premises itself. Next we proceeded to Harina Vanasthali park. But again we were disappointed since we were informed there that the park safari goes for the rounds only if there are min 20 ppl, else we can walk around but we didn't because we didn't want to tire ourselves out. So next we went to Taramati Baradari to reach there by around noon. This actual site which is of historical importance was not so well maintained, but the gardens surrounding it seemed good. However, we didn't find it much interesting so we left from there. Then we proceeded to our Hotel Imperial Classic which is situated at around 5 kms from the Hussain Sagar lake. You can read my review of the hotel on the TripAdvisor website. We had our lunch and then decided to take a little rest.
At around 5 PM, we reached Hussain Sagar lake boating point, which is close to Lumbini park. We enjoyed the evening stroll in the Lumbini Park. Then we took a boat ride to reach the Buddha statue at the center of the lake, spent some time there, taking selfies and then came back. From there, we went to the famous Charminar. Here, we navigated across the various shops selling variety of products including the famous Pearl jewellery. Then we got back to the hotel by around 9 PM, had our dinner at a nearby restaurant and then went to sleep.
Posting a few pictures here below.
Dosa at Chilkur Balaji
Taramati Baradari
Lumbini Park
The Buddha statue on an island on Hussain Sagar lake
Charminar
Charminar
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