A weekend trip to Yercaud (Mini Ooty)

Yercaud is a beautiful hill station in Salem District, in Tamil Nadu, India. It is located in the Shevaroys range of hills in the Eastern Ghats. It is situated at an altitude of 4970 ft above sea level, and the highest point in Yercaud is the Servarayan temple, at 5,326 feet. The hill station is named owing to the abundance of forest near the lake, the name signifying Lake Forest.

How To Reach Yercaud from Bangalore | Bangalore to Yercaud Route

Yercaud is situated in Salem district, Tamil Nadu. The nearest city is Salem, 32 km away. The nearest airports are Salem Airport at a distance of 38 km. The nearest railway station is Salem Junction – 38 km.

There are two well known routes to Yercaud if you are looking to make a road trip from Bangalore. These routes are highly scenic and will be a fun experience if you travel either in sunrise or sunset time.

Route 1:
Bangalore - Kanakapura-Hunasanahalli Rd - Dharmapuri-Hogenakkal Rd - NH44 to Deevattipatti - Danishpet - Bommidi Rd. - Kanavaipudur - Yercaud (a total of 272 km which will take you about 6 hr 38 minutes)

Route 2:
Bangalore - Electronic City - Krishnagiri - Kaveripattinam - Dharmapuri - Nallampalli - Deevattipatti - Danishpet - Bommidi Rd. - Kanavaipudur - Yercaud (A total of 215 km and will take you about 4 hr 16 minutes which is shortest route)


We started our journey early in the morning around 4 am from Koramangala, Bangalore. Hired an XUV as we are 5 members(excluding driver). We took the 1st route and after crossing electronic city there is a check post near Hosur we paid 1000 bugs for TN state tax. Had a coffee break near Namakkal, and again we continued our journey. Unfortunately we stuck in huge traffic jam due to an accident on highway so it took 3hrs to reach Krishnagiri. We had breakfast at Sree Sarvana Bhavan near Krishnagiri. We came across at least 2-3 tolls after crossing Electronic City from Bangalore.

Yercaud hill station Hairpin bends :

Yercaud offers nice roads that offer you some great views of the valley. Go for an aimless drive from the town till the top of the Yercaud hill. Driving amongst clouds/fog is fun on it’s own. The winding roads take you to almost all tourist spots (which are few, since this is a small hill station). Explore and get a feel of the place that you are about to spend a weekend at Smile

Finally after reaching the hill top, we went in search of our stay Eesha Gardens. These resorts are new buildings having a great view of yercaud valley which is very near to Yercaud lake. We had lunch in Waterfront Multicuisine restaurant, which is opposite to the yercaud lake.

Places visited on day1 

1. Yercaud Lake

Yercaud Lake is a beautiful lake that is naturally formed. We spent about 1-2 hrs enjoying the lake's beauty and of-course boating post that.

2. Kiliyur Falls

Kiliyur Falls is a waterfall in the Yercaud range where the water flows from a height of 300 ft. This falls is situated at around 3.2 kms from the Yercaud lake and one has to hike to reach. The last 500 meter stretch is rough, steep. This hike took us 1-2 hours including our photoshoot 😜 .

3. Ladies seat view point for sunset

Awesome valley view of Salem city and down hilly track of 32 Km with few rocks here and there. But be careful with the monkeys. One monkey pulled water bottle from our hands. One of the best place to see sunset around 5:00 - 6pm.

Came back to our resort and spent time to click some beautiful pictures nearby. At 7:30 pm, we went out in search of a veg restaurant. Found one hotel which has good food and is budget friendly(a small veg hotel near to the lake, sorry forgot the name). By that time we reached back, resort people over there arranged a campfire. We couldn't spend much time near campfire as everyone are so tired because of early start.

Next day we got ready by 7am and checked out our resort. Had breakfast in the same hotel where we had dinner last night. Started our day2 to visit few more places and one temple visit is a must in all of our trips.

Places visited on day2 

4. Servaroyan Temple

One of the most popular spots in Yercaud, the Servaroyan Temple marks the highest point of the hill station. The Servaroyan Temple is quite ancient and had been built by the indigenous tribes that belonged to this part of the Nilgiri forests. we spent some time taking clicks at the view point. Here you can find few stalls to play games like shooting balloons, giant wheel, ring games.

5. Pagoda Point

This view point offers amazing view of the hill station around. You can see as far as Salem while the mystic and cool breeze creates a trance that will mesmerise anyone. And there are no monkeys to disturb us for taking wonderful pics. But unfortunately we missed out to visit this place in the evening. My suggestion to visitors is to visit this place in the evening for sunset. An evening spent in the Pagoda Point would be a great idea to rejuvenate yourself.

Thats all, we started back to Bangalore. Had lunch around 1 pm at Sarvana Bhavan hotel and reached Bangalore by 3:30pm. Apparently if we might have started little early on Saturday, we can see all these places on the same day.


Hope this post of "Places to visit in Yercaud" will help you to plan a weekend trip to Yercaud. Don’t forget to leave a comment below!