Araku Valley Travel complete Guide in 2020- Best time to visit, How to reach, Top 5 place to see, Araku Valley Budget

“Coffee and rain along with hill station “Anything can be tastier than this? If no then Araku Valley is the answer where one can find their happiness of inner soul in between the green valley.

About Araku Valley

Araku Valley is the beautiful hill station in Andhra Pradesh, situated at an altitude of 900 meter above the sea level and around 90 to 120 km from Vizag (Vishakhapatnam) depending on your departure destination.

Araku Valley is an combination of lush green forest with mountain, fogy whether, mind-blowing waterfalls, curvy roads, rich in tribal culture, coffee plantation a perfect destination for nature lover where you can enjoy pollution free air.

Best Time to visit

The Best time to visit the valley during winter season in the month of November to February. In the winter, the weather become pleasant and most of the traveler preferred visit during winter but during this season all the tourist places in Araku become overcrowded and you may get disappointed and unable to enjoy as expected. My recommendation would be November first or February last to avoid such crowd. Otherwise you may visit at any point of time throughout the year to the mesmerizing hills station.

How to get In/How to Reach

Araku Valley is well connected via roadway and railway. Its about 3 hour drive to Araku valley by car from Vizag (Vishakhapatnam). The cost of the rental car would be around 3500 to 5000 depending on the season you preferred to visit the beautiful valley. Again from Vizag (Vishakhapatnam) ac and non-ac buses also available to Araku valley but it may take more time to reach your destination as compared to car or train.

If you are travelling solo or couple then I would recommend you to rent a bike at Vizag (Vishakhapatnam) and enjoy the hills station at your own will. And the advantage of getting into Araku via bike is that you have the choice to stop at every view points to click photos and again your time will be saved. But riding in hill station is quit risky so if you are a good rider then you may go for it otherwise use car and train to get into the Araku valley.

The journey to the valley by train enables every nature enthusiast to experience and distinguish a number of tunnels, waterfalls and bridges that will definitely make the journey a fun play.

There are a plenty of trains that runs between Vizag (Vishakhapatnam) and Araku that took around 3 hour to reach. You may refer IRCTC website to know the train details, price and timing before planning to to Araku via train. I would recommend you to book tickets online and in advance during the winter season. 

Top 5 Places to visit

Bora Cave: One of the most popular tourist attraction in Araku Valley is Bora Cave which is also known as Bora Guhalu.

The interesting fact is that the name Bora Guhalu derives from mixture of two language Odia and Telegu. Bora means in Odia language is Hole and Guhalu means in Telegu language is cave. It is located in the Anathagiri hill range and formed as a result of the flow of Gosthani River on the limestone deposits. Bora Cave is discovered by Willian King George of the Geological Survey of India, that attracts millions of tourist and have become one of the major attraction of Vizag.

During winter seasons the visitors to the cave is high in volume so recommend you to visit early as possible. Even some time it would become difficult to obtain tickets by standing in the long queues.

Ticket price to visit the cave listed below: (price may increase in future time)

60/- per person for Adults.

45/- per person for children.

25/- for Phone camera.

100/- for video/Digital Camera.

Timing to visit Bora Cave:

All day of the week from 10.00 am to 5.00 pm.

Time required to explore the Cave:

2 to 3 hour is sufficient to fully explore the cave.

Katiki Waterfall: The second most visited and liked tourist attraction is Katiki waterfall.

The way to reach the waterfall quit adventurous. And might difficult for children and elderly person. As you have to track more than 1 km to reach to fall. There is no entry fee to reach the waterfall but jeep ride to the fall from the mail road would cost around 250 to 300 per person on sharing basis. When we have visited katiki waterfall in the month of January, 2020 few local person near the fall took 20 per bike to keep the nearby area of the waterfall clean. And we have paid the same as it was for good cause to clean the environment. From one point vehicle would not be recommended to go up and your tracking starts from that point.

The waterfall is small as compared to the waterfall we can see in Meghalaya. You may check out my north east travel blog to see the waterfall in Meghalaya.

There as a railway tunnel on the way to the waterfall where you can capture some good photos but be careful. There are some rest shades you can see on the way to relax during your track to the waterfall. And also find some shops where you can enjoy corn, bamboo chicken etc. Bamboo chicken is a special recipe that is made by marinated chicken using bamboo sticks with mouth watering taste and absolutely disserves a try.

Katiki waterfall can be visited from 6.00 am to 6.00 pm throughout the week.

Tribal Museum: My personal favorite place to visit in the valley is Tribal Museum and considered as a must visit place that offers to know its visitors about the tribal culture of peoples in  nearby areas of the valley in Andhra Pradesh.

Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation developed and established the museum arpund 23 years ago in 1996.

The tribal Museum has designed to showcase tribal lifestyle of people using status starting with how people used to hunt in earlier time to collect foods, how people celebrate their occasions, how to catch fish using different tools, how people grind masalas, how cooking take place etc in a very beautiful ways.

There is a large pond in the Museum where visitors can enjoy padal boating. Again cycling though rope is an another adventure activity you can do in the museum. The charges would be different according to season you visit.

At the evening time tribal dance and music program conducted by some local volunteers in the museum to showcase their culture and it would be a fun to be a part of such program.

There are few shops inside the area of museum to buy handcrafted items of bamboo and woods where you can buy items of personal interest in reasonable rates.

Ticket price to visit the Museum listed below: (price may increase in future time)

40/- per person for adults.

20/- per person for children.

Timing to visit Museum:

All day for the week from 9.00 am to 7.00 pm.

Time required to explore the Museum:

1 to 2 hour is sufficient to fully explore Museum.

Padmapuram Garden: Padmapuram botanical garden is located in Paderu, Andhra Pradesh around 2.5 km away from Araku bus station is a great option for nature lovers.

It was started during the world war II  that offers wide variety of flowers(rose garden), plants and trees. The major attraction in the garden is toy train and tree top huts which is also called as hanging cottage. Along with that there are few statues in the garden like shiv-parvathi, Dinosaur etc.

Horse riding also can be done in the garden and there is a hug children play open area ideal to bring  kids. Moreover this is a good place to spend some quality time in the heart of nature.

Ticket price to visit the Garden listed below: (price may increase in future time)

10/- per person for adults.

10/- per person for children.

Timing to visit Garden:

All day for the week from 9.00 am to6.00 pm.

Time required to explore the Garden:

1 to 2 hour is sufficient to fully explore Garden.

Toy Train ride price in the Garden: (price may increase in future time)

20/- per person for adults.

10/- per person for children.

Horse riding price in the Garden: (price may increase in future time)

Photos with Horse 10/-

Horse Riding 30/-

Horse fast running 50/-

Cow Boy Dress Rent 100/-

Araku Coffee Museum: If you are a coffee and chocolate lover then this place is for you. Araku Coffee museum offers wide variety of coffee and chocolates along with some fun activity to play in the museum.

The museum itself also explains the journey of coffee from Ethopia to Araku Valley and through its history you are able to know when coffee was about to mark its enrty in the Valley.

Fun activity offered by museum includes Bungee Trampoline, water balloon ride, Colombus ride, joy bull ride shooting etc makes this place a children friendly tourist attraction.

There are also few fast-food stall in the museum to enjoy pizza, panipuri, dosa and all. But the cost of the items in the museum is quit more than usual.

Ticket price to visit the Museum listed below: (price may increase in future time)

10/- per person for adults.

5/- per person for children.

Timing to visit Museum:

All day for the week from 8.00 am to 8.00 pm.

Time required to explore the Museum:

1 to 2 hour is sufficient to fully explore Museum. 

Where to stay: Araku valley is such a travel destination where to cover all the major attraction 2 days is sufficient. Even one can cover it in 1 day by managing time. But preferably 1 night stay is required to experience all the places enjoying the same at a time without much rush. There are number of hotels lodges and guest house available and you can choose according to your budget and comfort level. Bui it is recommended to book accommodation in advance if you planning to visit in December and January.

Along with that for adventure lovers Adventure tourist camp is also available to spend nights in huts and tent. It will be a great experience if you want to feel the adventure thrill.

Budget: For a single person to cover all the major attraction including one night stay will cost you around 3000/- to 4000/-. But the cost may increase you want to spend in shopping. Travelling in groups may reduce the cost to some extent and it could be pocket friendly.

In this blog I have tried to cover all the relevant question that may arise before visiting any place. Let me know in the comments below if it is helpful for your next Araku Travel.

Keep reading and keep sharing. Thank You.