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Karnataka is a state in Southern India.

Regions

Cities

There are many cities in Karnataka. The notable cities are:-

Other destinations

Below is a selective list of sites of interest in Karnataka. It is far from exhaustive. For other sites, check regional articles.

Culture and History

Talk

Kannada is the official language of the state and the mother tongue of around 70% of the population. Other linguistic minorities include Urdu (9.72%), Telegu (8.34%), Marathi (.5%), Tamil (3.82%), Malayalam (1.69%), Tulu (3.38%), Konkani (1.78%), and Hindi (1.87%). English is also in common use and Hindi understood by most educated people.

Travel to Karnataka - Visa Requirements

Tours and Getting around Karnataka

Buses to Karnataka

Transportation is made easy by the numerous services available from the KSRTC(Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation).They ply not only intra-state buses, but also inter-state buses to neighbouring states. KSRTC reservation counters are aplenty all over the state, and tickets can also be booked online at the KSRTC website.
Services available:

  • Airavath:Semi-sleeper Volvo a/c buses
  • Mayura and Meghadoot:Comfortable A/C buses
  • Rajahamsa:Non-A/C buses comfortable for short distances,and cheap for longer journeys!

Also available are private bus services for interstate areas, as well as to neighboring states.The information for booking tickets and available services from various vendors is available on http://www.redbus.in/.

By Train

Karnataka has a good network of railway lines, and most tourist destinations are well connected by train. Bangalore,Mysore,Hubli and Mangalore are the most important railway stations of Karnataka and are convenient railheads for seeing nearby tourist destinations. Details of train services are available online as well as in the Indian Railways Southern Zone Timetable, which is available at most railway stations in South India. Travelling by train is particularly advisable in North Karnataka, where roads are terrible and bus services far from satisfactory.

Karnataka tourist attractions and sightseeing

  • dornakal.  

Karnataka city tours

Scuba diving

Pigeon Island ( Netrani Island ) lies about 10 km off the coast of Murudeshwar in Karnataka. It is a 4 hour drive from Goa, or can be reached by Konkan Railway, with Murudeshwar and Bhatkal being the nearest stations. There are currently no local dives centers here,and all diving at this location is organized by dive centers based in Goa.

The visibility here is generally in the 15-20 m range and the dive sites are between 10 to 30 m. Marine life is spectacular, with huge schools of Jacks, Barracuda, Triggerfish and Fusiliers.

Support to investors

Karnataka Tourism has today embarked on a major initiative to invite world-class investors to set-up mega projects in tourism infrastructure development. Investors have been invited for setting up boutique hotels in heritage locations, resorts with spas, golf course, convention centres, large hotels with convention and MICE facilities. It conducted a tourism investor’s meet called ‘Momentum Karnataka’ in February 2008. Taj Group of Hotels, ITC Group, Bharat Hotels, Orange County, Emaar MGF, Confident Group, Sobha Developers, DLF Investments, Brigade Group, Puravankara and few Dubai-based companies have evinced interest to invest in tourism projects in Karnataka.“The tourism department has over 150 tracts of land for such projects. We will develop a land use plan very shortly to help us implement these projects. We also want the land owners to be stakeholders in these projects. We will identify the land, make a list of projects and bring in the necessary investment,” informed Vittalamurthy.

Karnataka Restaurants: cheap, moderate and expensive

These are a few speciality dishes you can feast on in Karnataka:

  • Dosa - A thin dough baked until crisp and containing masala. To eat, pieces are broken off and dipped in one of the amazing sauces that accompany the dish.
  • Bisibele Baath - Made of rice and lentils and a lot of spices.
  • Raagi and Akki Rotis - Similar to tortillas but made of raagi (English: coracan, finger millet) or rice flour and black cumin, asafoetida, fresh coriander, green chillies and finely chopped onions.
  • Raagi Mudde – A staple food in some South Indian households. It is basically made by cooking raagi flour in water and rolling it into thick-consistency balls. Raagi mudde is swallowed and not chewed after dipping it into ghee and sambar.
  • Idli - Idli, also romanized "idly", is made by steaming batter — traditionally made from black lentils and rice — into patties using a two to three inch diameter mold.
  • Jolada Roti: A thin tortilla made of Jawar baked on both sides for 2-3 minutes, grown in northern part of karnataka. Preferable to have with brinjal curry.

Karnataka nightlife, bars, clubs and pubs

Tender coconut is a one of the famous drink (especially in coastal areas). Soda sharabat, raagi juice are equally famous in village areas.

Stay safe

Get out

Destinations in Karnataka:

This page was last edited by Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel. Based on work by Raghavendra Nayak, Ravi Shankar, gyurka, Abhishek Goyal, David and Wandering, Wikitravel user(s) Shaund, Morph, SBC-YPR and DorganBot, Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel and others. - Content on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 1.0 license

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