Some travel details and links for people traveling to Mangalore.
Contents
MANGALORE
The ?MiniDebconf is being held at N.M.A.M._Institute_of_Technology at Nitte, about 60 km away from Mangalore. Mangalore airport is closer to the venue, which is in turn closer to "Karkala" than Mangalore.
Hotels in Mangalore
These travel portals have a few hotel listings:
http://www.travelguru.com/india-hotels/mangalore-hotels.html
http://www.expedia.com/Mangalore-Hotels.d1654.Travel-Guide-Hotels
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotels-g297630-Mangalore_Karnataka-Hotels.html
Places of interest for Tourists
India has a Colonial (French, Portugese and British) past and Mangalore was occupied by the Portugese so some places of interest within the city are:
The goddess Mangaladevi Temple, wherefrom the city gets its name.
The St.Aloysius Chapel built by the Portugese.
The Wikipedia page has some interesting suggestions
Other places of interest around Mangalore are:
Udupi -- a temple town, with good places to stay. Folks traveling via the Konkan railway would have a visual and scenic treat down the coastline. Another interesting place to visit is the India Heritage Village, which started off with Mr Shenoy building a house from discarded parts of demolished old houses. This house was apparently was taken over by the Pai group of Manipal, who with their financial support, have been able to build a more comprehensive cultural village. (Some networking would be required to gain entry though.)
Udupi to maravanthe beach is 50Km; Marvanthe to Murudeshwar is another 80 KM. Karkala to Udupi is 40 KM. 170 KM in all.
Manipal -- Kediyoor at Manipal is a good tourism spot, being an "Education city", full of colleges, a hospital, (medical college), and is very well developed infrastructure wise, including a "hotel management" college co-managed by the Welcomgroup at Manipal.
- Moodbidri - the thousand pillar temple. (count'em if you can).
- Karkala - Gomateshwara statute - tallest monolith statue of Bahubali - one among 4 such statues in Karnataka. Other 2 statues are in nearby towns of Dharmasthala and Venur. (the 4th is far away sharavanabelagola).
- Kudremukh - This is the place of abandoned iron ore mines, including a wildlife (tiger) sanctuary, a dam (Lakya dam) and source for two rivers - Tunga and Bhadra, which later on join to form the Tungabhadra. Hanumanagundi (aka Suthanabbe) falls on way from Karkala. It is hardly 48 / 50 KM from Karkala.
- Dharmasthala - Museum of Vintage objects and cars collection of Veerandra Heggade - you will need to ascertain that is open though.
- Mysore - around 80+KM from Karkala. For a full day of sightseeing at Mysore, you have the Mysore Palace.
Hiring cabs and Taxis
Within Karnataka private cab/taxi fares range between INR10-15 per kilometer. You can ask the hotel manager to recommend and/or book a car for your local travels and do make sure you are able to bargain (a festival discount maybe?) a better deals if you plan to use/keep the car for a whole week.
FWIW, 'hiring a car' in Indian usually means chauffeur-driven car provided by the car rental company as compared to, say, in EU/America where you are expected to drive yourself. His salary is paid by the car-rental company and if we use the car for more than 5-6 hrs each day we only pay him a daily-bata (slang for, tips/Lunch/dinner or miscellaneous expenses). The daily-bata is usually within the INR.100-200 range.
Places of interest around Mangalore and Kerala
Taxi fares in Kerala are around INR 12-14 per running KM or between INR100-150 (depending on how well the vehicle is maintained) as "waiting" charges. If you take the taxi for 50 KM round trip (that is, 25 KM each way), and take 8 hours for it, you will be charged on an hourly basis. If you finish the trip in 2 hours, you will be charged on running KM basis.
Note: The return fare charge is included in all one-way trips, so it makes sense to hire a car for a longer duration