#travel #forbabyandmommy Archives — Page 2 of 2

Europe Trip – Hotel, Paris Metro/Bus ride & Seine River Cruise

This is our day 2 in Europe and Day 1 in beautiful city Paris.

Day 2

After going through all the trouble at Paris Nord and Paris Metro station near to Pairs Nord we finally reached our hotel all thanks to Uber. (If you have not read my previous blog do read it here)

For our 3 night 4 days stay in Paris we have booked MERCURE PARIS BOULOGNE APARTHOTEL. It’s an apartment hotel where you get a small kitchenette with refrigerator, microwave, ceramic hotplate, dishwasher. Safe, television, telephone, Wi-Fi. Bathroom with bathtub and hair dryer.

We choose apartment hotel due to 2 reasons one and major one was our daughter, as she was only 1.6-year-old, so we need to make food for her second in a medium long trip of 10 days we don’t want to eat outside junk food both the time. Eventually save some money ?

We really didn’t cook full meals but cooking B/F as it was not included in the booking and dinner which was mostly a ready to eat Indian meal like pre-cooked rice, dal, pulao, chole etc.

Mercure is a mid scale brand of hotels b/w 3 & 4-star properties run by its parent company AccorHotels, a French multinational corporation.

Our’s was an around 32m sq. room with a double bed and 1 sofa bed. Bed was comfortable with lights on both the side of the bed, a small shelve on the full wall behind the bed to keep the things like phone, wallet etc.

There’s a small dinning table places beside the wall in the kitchenette, space after you enter the room where we can keep the stroller and other stuff, one wardrobe to store all the luggage and one small stool.

There is a storage cabinet above the sofa cum bed and beside it was a small TV. This storage was very useful during our stay as we kept all our raw/ready to eat food item there.

These was a big window on one of the walls, our room was a front room, so we could see the front road. This hotel is in the quitter residential area, sometimes it was nice to open the window and let the fresh air in.

So, after reaching and settling down, relaxing a bit after a tiring Metro run we went out as today evening we had our Seine river cruise.

Beautiful art on one of the most beautiful bridges in Paris – Pont Alexandre III

Deliberately we have opted for evening time as that time we can see the beautiful monuments in the day light and witness the beauty of Paris in the artificial lights.

To travel locally in Paris, you have metro & bus. Regular ticket cost 1.90 or say 2 Euro if you purchase per ride but there is a little cheaper option i.e. ‘Carnet’ which is a book of 10 tickets cost 16 Euro.

At Nord Station the machines through which we can buy Carnet was not accepting international credit card, but at other station it worked.

You can take help from local people there, they are helpful.

Green Metal Bridge, there is a metro line 6 above the roads

With the help of Google Maps, we found that we can take direct bus from a stop near to our hotel directly to the center where all the attractions are. So, there is no changing metro, no climbing stairs, we were very happy ??

For the next 4 days we only used Bus, well most of the time say 95% as once you reach the centre then you must walk…walk…walk & walk… Saying it again stroller and baby carrier is a must if you have small kid(s).

If one doesn’t want to walk then there is an option of Hop on Hop off bus, in these buses you can ride full day on a single ticket. You can Hop off at any attraction on their specific route visit the place and then Hop on again in the next bus to go to another attraction.

We have done our booking from Vedettes du Pont Neuf after going through review of different service providers at different platforms. Normal ticket w/o any add on would cost maximum 14 Euros pp.

The boats are quite big and have 2 type of sitting options one is in open on the top and second is close below it.

The tour is of 1 hour with live commentary informing about the monuments and places that are covered during the tour. If you choose the evening tour which might end up in late evening or night, then you can witness the beautiful monuments and bridges in night light.

Art on one of the bridges out of many bridges in Paris

Beautiful Cour De Cassation – Civil and Criminal Court Paris
Beautiful Pont Alexandre III at night

It’s all Altogether a different experience in artificial lights. It’s amazing experience sailing in the Seine river.

This concludes our first day in Paris.

Stay tuned for more updates and details of the coming days in Pairs.

Note - All the pictures are from our trip taken by us.

Europe Trip – Emirates, Schiphol Amsterdam & Thalys

Day -1 & 2 (This is going to be a series of Blogs of my 10 days Europe trip, please be patient as these blogs might be lengthy as I want to provide as much information to help someone in their trip ?) The whole trip was planned by us which includes lots n lots … Continue reading “Europe Trip – Emirates, Schiphol Amsterdam & Thalys”

Day -1 & 2

(This is going to be a series of Blogs of my 10 days Europe trip, please be patient as these blogs might be lengthy as I want to provide as much information to help someone in their trip ?)

The whole trip was planned by us which includes lots n lots of research, on call discussing with each other where to go what to see, how to go etc. many hours spent burning our eyes in laptop screen.

After all the hard work we really enjoyed and created some amazing memories. There is this amazing site and app inspirock which will help you to plan your itinerary.

Itinerary planning Application

This will tell you each and everything like how far the place is from each other how to go how much time to spend, how much spare time you have etc. This was great help in planning our trip.

It was March end of 2018 when I landed in Amsterdam, Netherlands, travelled through Emirates airline. It’s a 1 stop flight with around 1.30 hours of layover in Dubai.

After landing in Dubai to go to your connecting flight’s departure gate you must go through security check. This could take time as many people will be coming to same place to go to their respective gates.

If time permits, then you can relax and enjoy some food and drinks in Marhaba Lounges in Dubai Airport with your Priority Pass membership. Priority Pass is a program which provided Lounge access to its members across the world.

There are some premium credit cards that too provide International lounge access like HDFC Bank Diners Club card.

This was my first solo flight with my daughter, who was around one and half year old. Few points I want to mention which will be helpful if you are traveling alone with baby.

1) Always carry some healthy food for your baby as they don’t provide baby food below 2 years

Food served in flight

2) Baby carrier is must as you must check in stroller while boarding and will get back once you reached your destination. Check my post on baby carriers for more details.

Baby carrier

3) Limit your hand luggage as with baby it’s hard to manage with heavy luggage

4) Flight staff was helpful. So, feel free to ask for any help needed

After landing in Amsterdam and clearing the immigration’s, me and my little daughter came out and looked for hotel shuttle service. Hotels near to Schiphol, Amsterdam provide shuttle service which is free of charge to pick and drop their guest.

The frequency of this service depends from hotel to hotel and what time of day but mostly it is in every 30 min.

I stayed in NH Hotel Schiphol, it’s nice big hotel with lot of facilities present in it. I just stayed there for a night so didn’t use any of the facilities like gym, indoor heated swimming pool etc.

Room at NH Hotel

Bathroom with all the toiletries and hair dryer

Gym at NH Hotel

Gym at NH Hotel

The room was quite cozy and of good size, you can even request for a kid’s cot w/o any extra charge. Check in and check out was smooth as we have already paid the charges.

NH Amsterdam Lobby

Earlier you book cheaper it is and if you go online payment with Zero refund option then it is cheaper than the full refund option. So, it’s better early you decide, might get good deal in full refund option.

We were little late in planning as we were planning with my brother & sister in law who were supposed to join us from London. Ours was 128 Euros + 7.30 Euros in city tax.

Where ever you go in Europe city tax is charged additionally and needs to be paid either at the time of check in or check out in cash or card.

Next day took train from Schiphol to Paris Nord. Our tickets were in Thalys First Class. Full train journey was covered in just 3 hours.

First Class Seats

Train ticket prices also increased as the journey date comes closer. Our ticket price for 2 adults was 190 Euros. So, if you are planning a trip by your selves then finalize soon and book everything to save some money.

First class of Thalys is quite amazing and can be more amazing if you can get the single seats. So basically, in first class coach the seat layout is 2×1. Seats are comfier and broader and recline a little then the one in economy class.

Comfortable seats

Other benefits of first class are like – free faster WiFi with more data, paper & magazines, there lounge access, priority boarding etc.

There are attendant in each first-class coach, they will great you at the station and might help with luggage (depends on person to person). A separate space to keep your luggage and it is there at the start of each coach.

Enjoying sun after long cold winter

In 3 hour of journey we were served 2 times, yes you read it right there is free food or say included in ticket price of first class. As ours was morning 9.34 AM train so we were served, B/F and small snack.

Morning breakfast

In B/F we got a multi grain bun, sugar coated puff,delicious cake, fruit, juice, yogurt. It was nice tasty and makes you full. 1hour before the scheduled time to reach Paris Nord, we were served some snack.

Snack

It was delicious chocolate cake, with drink of your choice like, juice, tea, coffee or wine. The trains in this part of the world are very punctual. They come on time, depart on time, the highest speed that I saw on the display was more than 250Km/hr.

After this amazing journey we finally reached my dream destination – PARIS.

Reaching our hotel from Paris Nord was a big task and took us more than 1 hour to figure out how to reach there, which metro to take, which direction to go etc.

Paris Nord (Not clicked by us, was so exited after reaching Paris that totally forgot to click)

Believe me Paris metro stations are not at all stroller friendly. These stations are very old, and they have lots and lots of stairs. It was very difficult for us to climb up and down with stroller, heavy suitcase and bag with small kid.

So finally, after lot of struggle we finally book Uber ? and it was costly ☹. We paid 22.5 Euros and finally reached our hotel.

Stay tuned for more details in my second blog like hotel we stayed, places we visited with some amazing pics ?

Note - All the pictures (except one) are from our trip taken by us.

Gandikota and Belum Caves

Gandikota is a hidden gem, also known as Grand Canyon of India. Gandikota is a small village on the banks of river Pennar in Andhra Pradesh. Planned 1N/2D road trip from Bangalore to Gandikota and Belum caves. Gandikota is around 292 Km and it’s NH 44 i.e. highway to Hyderabad. The roads are awesome, it’s … Continue reading “Gandikota and Belum Caves”

Gandikota is a hidden gem, also known as Grand Canyon of India. Gandikota is a small village on the banks of river Pennar in Andhra Pradesh.

Planned 1N/2D road trip from Bangalore to Gandikota and Belum caves. Gandikota is around 292 Km and it’s NH 44 i.e. highway to Hyderabad.

The roads are awesome, it’s a 4-lane highway and state highway after Kodur with quite less traffic.

Route took –

Outer ring road from home till Hebbal Junction and merged into NH 44.

Bangalore – Kodur – Muddalakuntapalli – Sunnampalle – Mukkandlavarikothapalle – Kadiri – Kutagulla – Kanampalli – Venkatpuram – Rachumarripalle – Muddanur – Ananthagiri - Gandikota

There are toll on this road. The state highway is also in good condition with occasional bad patches.

If you love to drive fast, then you will fall in love with this highway (please don’t drive fast you will save few minutes but will be risking your and others life’s).

Bangalore to Belum — Beautiful view on NH 44

We started around 6.00 AM from our place, it took 1 hour to cross the airport toll from out place. There are good options for B/F few kilometers after the toll. We stopped at Indian Paratha Company.

Heard a lot about Indian Paratha Company from friends and were thinking to visit this place from long. Finally, we got a chance and made our first stop here.

It’s quite good option to have heavy B/F with large glass of tea. They have 2 sitting options few tables inside and then outside. It’s quite nice to sit outside in the morning as there is less traffic, less noise and pollution.

Taste was good, they serve parathas with achar, curd & chutney. As it was early morning time, we had ginger tea which they served in a big glass. Tea was priced heavily around Rs 60, but taste was good. Toilets are not that clean and small toilets.

After having heavy B/F we stopped one more time as washroom break then directly to the hotel in Gandikota. We reached around 1 PM and after checking in directly came for lunch.

There is only one place to stay in Gandikota and that is Haritha Hotel which is run by APTDC i.e. Andhra Pradesh Tourism. There are limited rooms available here and can only be booked through APTDC website.

Do carry print out of booking confirmation.

Haritha Hotel Gandikota — View of rooms @ Haritha Gandikota

Rooms are air conditioned and cost very nominal i.e. Rs 1500/night on weekdays and Rs 2000/night on weekend. Nothing is included in the price but the food here is quite cheap.

There is no other restaurant near by as this is located right next to Gandikota Fort, which is far from nearby towns.

One of the speciality of this hotel is you can drive your car right up to your room and park it there itself.

Volkswagen Polo — German beauty soaked in over night rain

Nearest towns are namely Tadipatri, Gooty and Guntakal. The road after the highway to the hotel is single lane road but in good shape. You might be able to see Tatireddy Narasimha Reddy Dam at a distance and Pennar river on the right.

Tatireddy Narasimha Reddy Dam — View of Pennar river

It’s a decent property with big room and small washroom. Room was nice decently cleaned and doesn’t smell foul. They do have TV and set top box. There is option to stay in tents, as this is a government property, they have lots of open space.

For full review of this property please check my TripAdvisor.

Food was OK here, mostly they have limited options. Taste was OK, and price was low we paid around Rs 770 for 4 meals and evening snack for 2 persons.

Bangalore Gandikota — Somewhere on the way to Gandikota

Best thing about this hotel is the view and is located right next to fort. They do have some outdoor activities at additional cost like kayaking which is organized by some other organization. For it you have to track down to Penna river which takes around 40 min.

After lunch, went to relax for some time. After freshen up head out to visit the main attraction – Grand Canyon of India. It is called Grand Canyon because a spectacular gorge formed by river Pennar which goes through the Erramala hills.

Grand canyon Gandikota — Mesmerising view of gorge

You can take you car inside the fort and park it near the Mosque. From there walk/climb/jump/balance to reach the point where you will be mesmerized by the beauty of the gorge and river Pennar.

Gandikota Fort — Way to the gorge inside Gandikota fort

As it’s full of rocks so please do wear comfortable shoes and relaxed bottom wear.

Sunrise/Sunset view must be amazing here. We couldn’t witness the sunset as it was all cloudy that evening and we had rains in the night.

After enjoying the evening at the gorge came back had some snacks with a cup of tea and then went to room to relax.

There is one positive point about this place is there is no or very limited cellular n/w, so you can totally enjoy the time with friends and family.

But has one drawback Google map won’t work so download the map of this region in advance.

After dinner we slept early, had a good night sleep and then woke up early. Went to the terrace of our room (one unique thing about this place is each room has its own terrace). The morning view was simply amazing. Click some pics and then went down to get ready to leave.

After B/F we checked out and head to Belum caves, it’s around 61 KM 1.30-hour drive. It’s a state highway and nice road with traffic as you have to cross towns.

Gandikota to Belum Caves — Gandikota to Belum

There is ample parking space and the entry ticket costs Rs 50 -60 for Adult and Rs 30 for child.

The caves are largest caves in India. We visited after the rainy season and major part of the caves was closed as it was filled with water and mud.

There are lights and large fans installed to keep pumping fresh air so that one won’t feel suffocated. If full cave is operational then it is advisable to take a guide.

Belum caves are natural caves formed by underground water. The entrance looks like we are going in a pit and only after entering that pit you will be amazed to see the hug and amazing caves.

It will be humid and hot inside the caves; cloth selection should be accordingly. Walking path inside the cave is nicely laid so you can take stroller, but it will be bumpy. Our daughter was small, so we carried her in her carrier.

We spent around 1 hour in the caves and came back, if it was fully open then one can spend around 2-3 hours exploring the caves.

Coming back to Bangalore from Belum it was different route –

Belum – Bugga – Tadipatri – Anantapur – Rapthdu – Kodur – Bangalore

Belum caves to Bangalore — Belum to Bangalore

From Rapthdu you will merge on NH 44 till Bangalore. Kilometer wise it is few KM more around 10-15 KM. One can plan a trip the other way as well i.e.

Bangalore – Belum – Gandikota – Bangalore

On our way back, we took lunch at NH 7 Refuel which will come after Indian Paratha Company. You must take ‘U’ turn which is little ahead but not too far.

Food was Ok here it was based on Punjabi theme so major food item was non-veg and we are pure veg. so after digging in the menu we finally settled for Makki ki roti sarso ka sag and chole bhature.

Makki ki roti and sag was good but they didn’t serve any gud (jaggery). Chole bhature taste wise were nice but bhatura was too oily. Service was kind of slow and less staff.

It is a huge place with 2 sitting option out of which one is inside in the main hall and other is upstairs in open with a view of highway and landscape.

Over all it was amazing experience exploring the huge natural caves for the first time and the view of Gandikota and Panna river.

Note - All the pictures are from our trip taken by us.

Coorg – Scotland Of India

Coorg is also known as Scotland of India due to its vast natural beauty, hills and cold climate. Coorg was on our travel list from long time the time, the time when we came to know about Orange County Coorg, I remember it was in 2013. After we move to Bangalore it was our top … Continue reading “Coorg – Scotland Of India”

Coorg is also known as Scotland of India due to its vast natural beauty, hills and cold climate.

Coorg was on our travel list from long time the time, the time when we came to know about Orange County Coorg, I remember it was in 2013.

After we move to Bangalore it was our top most priority to visit Coorg but again delayed as I was pregnant ?. So, after delivery and baby is big enough to travel long distances & buying our first car it was time to visit Coorg.

Done some research online, trying to find some nice home stays and luckily, we found one in our budget on MMT(MakeMyTrip). It was Silver Brooks Estate; this home stay is run by a couple Revathi & Yogesh. Yogesh was in hospitality business for long, so these guys knows what all things are required and how to manage and maintain a property effectively.

Route we took was – via Mysore highway till a round about from where we need to take exit on KSR Road then Belagola – Yelwala – Mallinathpura – Hunsur – then on Mysure – Medikeri Road till Kushalnagar. Continue on same road via Suntikoppa – Kedakal – Boikeri.

It was around 250 Km from our home and took us 5.30 – 6 hours with 2 stops. Our first stop was at Kamat Lokaruchi – Ramanagara, it’s around 50-55 Km 1 hour drive, nice clean toilets and very good food.

Parking is on the road side. Second stop was Café County which is around 125 km from Kamat Lokaruchi and 70-75 Km from out stay. It’s café cum restaurant here you have snacks coffee or full lunch/dinner as per the time.

Service and cleanliness is not good, less staff and until you call them they won’t bother to come to your table, so better find some other place if you want a second stop.

We had one of the cakes with coffee (don’t remember the name) but it was delicious. Small but clean toilets 2 type of sitting options i.e. inside and outside.Other than these 2 stops we stopped at 2 attractions before Coorg.

1. Namdroling Monastery:

Namdroling Monastery is center of Tibetan Buddhism, it’s very calm and peace full place. There is a parking facility outside the monastery behind the shopping complex. Entry is free, there is large beautiful Buddha temple in the center of the complex. It is surrounded by beautiful gardens.

2. Nisargadhama:

Nisargadhama is an island formed by river Kaveri. This place is situated near Kushalnagar. There is ticket to enter the island, you have to cross an hanging bridge built over Kaveri.

The island has lots of bamboo trees and some activities like zip line, place to sit, small tree house kind of. The place is not maintained very well. There is boating facility as well but when we went the current in Kaveri was strong due to which boating was suspended for some time.

There are lots of shops here, all kind of shops like Gov. Silk shop, food shops, toys etc. The main entrance is little hard to find as it’s a small way b/w the shops which leads to the place to buy ticket.

After all the stops and soaking all the natural beauty on the way we reach out home stay Silver Brooks. Believe me it was amazing, exactly what was shown in the pics and the hospitality was just great. Revathi guided us very well and was available all the time for help.

The house is created from scratch inside their estate, look and feel was of old housed. Revathi informed us that they have used reused the old materials like the pillars, doors, swing, chairs. Means they bought the things from some old home and restored it to give more traditional and old age feeling.

This home stay has 5 rooms I think 2 in the main building 1 on the right side which has its own private entrance and site out area, room is also little big and 2 at the start near the parking which are smaller than the other 3.

Cost of room includes B/F and dinner which is home made by 2 talented cooks. Food was delicious, it was a buffet with authentic flavors. There is an open kitchen which means guests have access and can cook their food or snack.

It’s kids friendly place even for infants, the cooks cooked special food for our daughter, the staff is very friendly and help full.

For more detailed review please check my TripAdvisor.

We stayed for 2N/3D and felt that we could have stayed one more day. Most of the time we have spent in home stay relaxing, interacting with other guests. But we also went for some sightseeing to the places like Abbey falls, Raja’s seat & Madikeri Fort.

Abbey Falls:

Is around 14 km from the home stay and you have to pass the Madikeri city, but don’t worry there is not much of traffic like what we have in Bangalore ?. Route is beautiful as it’s a ghat/mountain road 2 lane.

There is a parking little ahead of the main entrance to the falls. There is toilet facility as well in the parking area. To reach to the main falls you have to decent some steps and slope.

The area in front of falls is quite small and in tourist season when the falls are at there peak it will be difficult to find a spot to click some good pics. Spent less time there as it was over crowded, took few pics and came back.

One main issue there is due to some stupid people which park their cars on the road side which leads to traffic jam, so be prepare for that.

Madikeri Fort:

It is around 8 Km from home stay and it is near to Raja’s seat. So, you can cover both the place in one go. You can either park your car in the parking area in front of Raja’s seat or inside fort and walk to one of the places. Distance b/w these places is around 1 Km.

Fort is old and now kind of Gov. office, there is one small museum inside the fort on the right side just after entering the fort. One can stroll on the fort walls, but there is nothing much to do here.

This place lacks proper sign boar, or any kind of guide like some printed material or some guided tour. Due to these reasons it’s very less time consuming.

Raja’s Seat:

Is a kind of valley view point or sunset point.

Kings of Kodagu use to sit here to relax and watch the mesmerizing sunset with beautiful valley view that’s why it is called as Raja’s seat. It has beautiful garden at the start with fountains. Safety measures are good with railing on stairs and on the edges.

There is bon fire facility available in the home stay but went there in after rainy season, but it still rained so couldn’t do it.

To shop from Coorg is special Coorg wine, which comes in different flavors like ginger, chilly, mixed fruit, dates and many more, price range from Rs 500-1000 also spices. There is one government shop on the road which leads to Raja’s seat.

We really enjoyed our stay in Silver Brooks and Coorg tourist spots and the long drive from Bangalore.

Visit Month – August

Note - All pics are from our trip and clicked by us.