Short 2.5 days trip from WestBengal

 Are you confused between beach and mountain?

Yeah! You have heard it right. It is Vizag and Araku Valley ;)

Let me introduce myself, I’m Shramona Chakraborty a Master’s student at IIT Kharagpur and I mentioned my location because this small trip was planned while having dinner. I along with 6 other friends booked tickets for the weekend from Kharagpur itself. You can start your journey from Howrah.

Working people will prefer starting their travel from Friday night and they will reach the destination by Saturday morning. Somehow we tricked our date on a holiday Friday and started early morning.

Okay let us focus on the itinerary:

Day0 (Friday): Travel to Araku

Day1 (Saturday): Araku sightseeing which includes travel back to Vizag

Day2 (Sunday): Vizag sightseeing (You can extend 1 more day) and travel back to Kharagpur. (Yes we reached on Monday morning and all of us bunked the first half of college).

Day 0:

We booked Humsafar Express (Bangalore) and it took around 13 hours to reach Vizag. Next, we took another train named Kirandal Express (make sure you have a reservation!! We had a fight in spite of having reservations). One more addon, try to get a non-AC ticket to enjoy the view and tunnel fun. We reached Araku in the evening and from there we had booked a cab for the rest of the journey. (Of course, we returned to Kharagpur by train :D. Continue reading, you will get a clear picture soon).

We trusted AP tourism and booked a resort with a superb view. (Resort detail is available in the picture). It was already evening so we had a fun Friday night plan with a bonfire and we danced, had dinner, played a few games and enjoyed to the fullest!

Day 1:

At 5 am, I shot a dance video and enjoyed the resort view with a morning walk. We had a complimentary breakfast that day so we rushed to get freshened up and got ready first. Just after breakfast, we started our Araku sightseeing (which includes Borra cave, few waterfalls, etc). It was a pleasant morning (we visited Araku in mid-August). We preferred to go for fun ride visits rather than boring common spots. This one is ziplining.

Oh yes! Don’t forget to taste the famous bamboo chicken platter. Then after a short trek, we ended Saturday’s excursion with a beautiful waterfall.

We reached Vizag in the evening with a mouth full of happiness!! Yes yes, we didn’t forget to have “Hyderabadi biriyani”. To enjoy to the fullest, we packed different biriyani platter, phirni, coke from the famous restaurant “PARADISE” and munched it till we were 100% full.

Day 2:

One true benefit of a friend’s trip is each and every fare gets shared and this is the reason we had a booking in a superb resort with a private beach and pool. We started our day on the private beach with a beautiful sunrise and then played in the pool (kindly go and check the first picture and believe me the view from the top of the slip was amazing). Again, after breakfast, we headed towards Vizag sightseeing. We surely covered a few famous spots and then we rushed towards the entertainment spot.

We completed all the payments and stuff and signed off in the night by boarding Trivandrum -Shalimar Express. That’s it friends!! Hope you loved it and I can’t imagine a more fun-filled trip in such a short span.

<3 xoxo <3

-Shramona Chakraborty