The way to Kemmannagundi is planted with enough compelling road signs to waylay innocent tourists into some other, seemingly more tempting holiday. But if you stick firmly to your path, skirting the tangential charms of Halebid and Belur, the Chikmagalur coffee estates, and the distant road to Kudremukh, you'll reach a hill that was once preferred by a monarch.
Kemmannagundi is actually a single, secluded hill that's been successfully posing as a hill station ever since King Krishna Rajendra Wodeyar IV made it his summer haven in 1932 from the mercurial British, who kept giving and snatching Mysore from his family.
Kemmannagundi's compact charms views, waterfalls, gardens, all in a day's work make it one of the most fun-filled short holidays from Bangalore. Despite the fact that it has few amenities, and food that breaks the dam on hostel memories, every Saturday morning nuclear families and those loose electrons called college students burst upon this royal getaway that still carries the grand title of Krishna Rajendra Hill Station.