Bangalore
Located 949m above sea level in South India on the Deccan Plateau, Bangalore enjoys a salubrious climate throughout the year. The city boasts of spacious gardens, parks, tree-lined avenues, a profusion of flowering trees, lakes, and parks, earning it the sobriquet of “Garden City.” The once-sedate cantonment settlement of the British has now spread way beyond the mud fort and the four towers constructed by Kempegowda in 1537. With its booming economy and racy lifestyle, the capital of Karnataka has metamorphosed from a sleepy Garden City into one of India’s fastest growing, accommodating, technophiliac, and cosmopolitan cities.
Mysore
Known for its magnificent palaces and majestic buildings, sprawling gardens and tree- lined boulevards, shimmering silks and sandalwood, the ‘City Royale’ always figures in the tourist’s itinerary. It conjures up visions and memories of the resplendent glory of the illustrious Wodeyar Kings. This former state capital is a seamless blend of old-world charm and modernity. It retains its tradition in music and dance, art and literature, and time-honoured crafts. Mysore today, is a pleasant and growing city in Karnataka with an old world charm, owing to its broad avenues, picturesque gardens, exceptional edifices and a salubrious climate .
Ooty
Called the Queen of Hill Stations, picturesque, green Udhagamandalam better known, as Ooty is the most popular hill station in the South. Located in the Western ghats at a height of 2240m, Udhagamandalam is the headquarters of the Nilgiris district where the two ghats ranges meet. Nature has been generous with this region, which is by far the most beautiful in the state. Apart from coffee and tea plantations, trees like confiers, eucalptus, pine and wattle dot the hillside in Udhagamandalam and its encirons. Summer temperature is rarely higher than 25°c with a minimum of 10°c and winter is are distinctly cooler with a high of 21°c and a low 5°c. Curiously enough, this slice of paradise remained unknown to the great southern dynasties and it took the British to discover it in the early 1800s. They were, however, not the first inhabitants of this land as a tribe called Todas had been living there long before the British came, claiming that the Nilgiris had been their home since time immemorial. But the credit for modernising Udhagamandalam and making it accessible goes to the British who constructed the first railway line in the area and made it the summer capital of the Madras Presidency.
