Udupi Travel Guide

Udupi is an emotion. Udupi, a land of Parashurama, place of blue water beaches, and place full of beautiful marine life. This place has so much in it for so many people that one can never get bored of this place. For us, we can keep coming back to this place for all the above & the lazy chill vibes.

Mythical story it that Parshuram threw the axe, the sea got retreated and the land exposed stretching in north-south direction. This was identified as Parashurama Kshetra which denotes the religious significance of this place for Hindus. This story referrs to the subvolcanic activity that separated Madagascar (and Seychelles) from India. The beauty of Hindu cultures story telling is that every aspect that our sages learnt, they weaved the factual knowledge in an unforgettable story telling method which carried on for generations.

Udupi has pristine blue water beeaches and beautiful marine life that incredible and gives completely out of the world experience.

Karnataka Blog Article Links

Coastal Karnataka Travel Guide	Udupi Travel Guide
Gokarna Travel Guide	Mangalore Travel Guide
Murudeshwar Travel Guide	Kayaking in Udupi

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Karnataka Travel Guide article blog links

Itinerary for 2 to 3 days

Things to do

Best time to visit

Locals festivals are a must

Stay options

Visual journey of our trip

Udupi Travel itinerary for 2 to 3 days

Day 01	On our way to Udupi, visited Marvanthe beach & spent 30mins there. Started for Udupi at 9am in car & reached by 10am. Checked into our homestay with a private beach. Enjoyed the afternoon basking on the private beach under the coconut trees. Had lunch at Malpe lunch home. Went for kayaking at Saligram, about 23kms from Maple. Dinner at homestay.
Day 02	Early morning swim at the beach. Breakfast at the Homestay. Enjoyed quiet morning by the beach. Lunch at Nemo at Malpe beach. Visited Thonsepar or St. Mary’s island. Dinner at homestay.
Day 03	Early morning swam at the beach. Visited Malpe port fish market, where we bought fish with our homestay owner. Visited Delta beach backwaters & enjoyed a local meal. Sawm in the backwaters & retreated in evening to homestay. Enjoyed fresh fish meal at the homestay.

Things to do in Udupi

There is so much to do in Udupi that in my honest opinion, you need to spend atleast a week to soak in everything. Or just make multiple trips to enjoy this sleepy town in different season.

Temple tour – One of the best charm of southern India is that most civilisation temples of India have been preserved (and safe from multiple invasions that Morthern India faced) in same avatar as they used to be. Some of the must visit temples of Udupi are Shri Krishna Math and Kadiyali Shri Maheeshamardini temple. Other key temples which are away from the city limits are Anantha Padmanabha Temple, Bailooru Mahishamardini Temple, Anegudde Vinayaka Temple, Mookambika Temple (Shakti peeth), Pajaka Parshuram temple, Shri Chandramouleshwara Devsthana, and Ananteshwar Temple (opposite to Chandramouleshwar temple.
Kayaking in the backwaters – Kayaking is a lovely sport that we have come to enjoy a lot. We love how kayaking allows you to explore the waters at a slow pace while soaking up the view. There are 2 places near Udupi for proper kayaking: (i) Kemmannu hanging bridge and (ii) Saligram. We prefer the kayaking at Saligram as its way more picturesque & less crowded since its far from Udupi (23kms). Read more about the Kayaking at Udupi here.
Visit the geology beauty at Thonsepar Island – Thonsepar, also known as Coconut island or St. Mary’s island is a geology marvel that has been referred in one of the epics of Parshuram where he threw an axe to divide land mass, referring to the subvolcanic activity that separated Madagascar & seychelles from India about 88 million years ago. Thonsepar island is a part broken from Madagascar, it still shares many similarities with Madagascar on the flora & fauna, birds & insects that thrive on this island. the unique columnar stone structures & insanely blue water is a must see at this place. There are ferry‘s from Malpe beach every 30 mins that takes you to Thonsepar & drops you back at Malpe. There is no stay option at the island as its a very island mass mainly preserved for its geological importance.
Malpe Port Fish Market – This port fish market is one of the biggest fish market in the western coastal part of India which supplies fresh fishe to Bangaluru, Mumbai, entire Karnataka, and unique fishes are also supplied all the way to Delhi. This is a wholesale place where 100 of boats dock at the port from 5am & sellers auction there fresh catch to wholesale & processing company buyers. If you have visited the Japanese fish auction market, than this will be a good experience for you to see as how fish is still auctioned in the the most centuries old traditional method in India. Read my detailed article here.
Beach chill – Udupi is a beach town & there are many beaches to chill by the ocean or the back waters. Our favourite was Malpe beach on the extreeme end as there mainly residents around this part of the beach which means very less tourist & crowd & no shacks. Some other beach to explore are Malpe main beach (full of shacks & water activities), lighthoues at the Kaup beach, Kodi beach (& the islands around it), Mattu beach (& the backwaters around it), and Padubidgri or Malpe end point.
Drive by Marvanthe beach – Marvanthe beach is another beautiful beach with white sand & blue water however this became more famous for the coastal Highway carved next to it. The drive on this highway is spectacular as you have ocean on one side & backwaters on other side. This is about 80kms before Udupi while coming from Murudeshwar & its a good pitstop to enjoy the beach view & its stone deck created along the highway.
Unique food to try – Like every part of India, Udupi has unique and sumptious food to offer. Must try Malpe lunch home for sumptous kory roti, breakfast food at Mitra samaj in Shri Krishna math complex, Thimappa is a must try fish speciality place, Machali restaurant serves very good squid ghee roast, Karavali seafood serves good seafood variety, and MTR 1924 for the nostalgia. For more read my detailed article on food to try in Karnataka.
Party in Manipal – Manipal is an area located within Udupi district and about 20kms from udupi town. Manipal is filled with engineering & medical colleges with majority youth population concentration. There are many pubs, bars & clubs that you can try here. Some of the places you can try are Deetee (supposed to be one of the best in Manipal), Eye of the Tiger, and Big Shot pub.

Best Time to visit Udupi

Udupi is known for highest annual rainfall, humidity and dynamic weather patterns. The year can be divided into four parts from the point of view of climate. Summer is between March and April (average 29 degree celcius), Monsoon is between June to September with moderate to heavy rainfall (average 24 degree celcius), post monsoon is between October to November with light showers sometimes (average 24 degree celcius), and winter is between December to February (average 22 degree celcius). Udupi is more or less same temperature throughout the year making it a comfortable place to be with no extremities.

Local festivals are a must

Mooru Theru utsav (January) – Ratha yatra during Makara sankranti is a must watch.
Saptosava (January) – Grand celeration of 5 days before Makara sankranthi
Vasantotsav (March) – marking the beginning of spring
Mesha Sankranthi (April) – celebrating the Hindu New year
Rathayatra on Krishna Jayanthi (August/ September)
Deepavali (October/ November) – This Hindu festival is also celebrated with major galor in all of India, including Udupi.
Paryaya Utsav (January) – The colourful Paryaya Festival, where officiating priests from one of the Ashta Mathas hand over their responsibilities to other pontiffs, beckons thousands of devotees from all over the country every alternate year

Stay options

The Stay option can be divided in 3 ways:

Udupi city stay – Needless to say if your itinerary is going to be lot more in city than makes sense to live within city limits. Some of the good options for city stay are Udupi Inn, Matha Guest house (lovely for religious trip stay),
Udupi Beach side stay – Villa Malpe (this is where we stayed & highly recommend it) and Beach castle Homestay. When we visited, there was sudden uproar in the many homestay construction on the Malpe end point strip of various budgets so check them out thoroughly.
Udupi faraway stay – Mulki (35kms from Udupi) is a popular destination among locals to spend weekends for its lovely weather. Some of the far away stay options are Wild woods spa & resorts, Blue flag house and Blue lagoon homestay.