ODISHA TOUR PACKAGES

THIS PACKAGE INCLUDES TOUR OF FOLLOWING PLACES:-

PURI
1. Jagannath Mandir

KONARK
1. Surya Mandir (Sun Temple )

BHUBANESHWAR
1. Lingaraj Mandir
2. Brahmeswara Mandir
3. Nandankanan (Chidiyaghar /Zoo )
4. Udhay Giri

SAMUNDRI TAT (Coastal Area )
1. Chilka Lake Samundri Tat
2. Mukteshwara mandir
3. Rameshwar Mandir
4.Dhawal Giri
5.Khandan Giri

ODISHA TOUR PACKAGES :- Odisha (previously Orissa) is a place where travellers have been attracted to its history, culture, arts and extensive shores. You have to make sure your route covers all part of this culturally stiff East State to book Odisha packages.

Odisha: An overview
Odisha is a favourite destination for travellers who like to discover the beaten track, the complicated tapestry of archaeological wonders, the crystalline shoreline, a vibrant Tribal culture, the lakes where many birds and animals live and a scene of walking art, all because of their archaeological grandeur.

Although Odisha is a dense, coastal and interior wooded city, it also has a stunning unusual fauna and flora amid enormous crocodiles, enemy sea tortoises, rare dolphins and a vast number of nesting birds. The Odisha is a natural reserve of the Odisha region. Most of these wooded hills to the south-west form the habitat of tribal tribes of Odisha, and during weekly markets, it is feasible for the people who live a more or less traditional existence to meet them together.

The food enthusiast has plenty to delight from Odisha’s kitchens, where he dishes up strong flavours, great audacious fish and plenty, tender meats but those that have been strictly involved in it for history can browse his list of ancient Hindu relics, the astonishing Konark Sun Temple, centuries old rock carvings from Jain and long-standing Buddhist educational schools.

It would not be a struggle to select appropriate Odisha tournament packages if you were aware of the sort of business you want and whether or not they match your budget specifications.

It is vital to identify some of its major tourism places, what they stand for, as you screen through Odisha Tour packages.

Bhubaneswar
The chaotic Bhubaneswar with its mediaeval temples in its streets, named ‘Temple City,’ merits a trip on your Odisha vacation for at least a few days. When you finish one of Odisha’s tourist packages, you will truly be helpful if you spend approximately two nights in the capital of Odisha and experience the spiritual centre of the old city around the ceremonial water tank called Bindu Sagar.

The amount of mediaeval stone temples that you meet on footwalks, of which just about 50-odd remain after the devastating times have survived, will amaze you. Apart from its temples, its museums, the old cave complex and an eclectic dinner scene are also known in Bhubaneswar.

 

Places to visit in Bhubaeswar

Lingaraj Temple: The 54 metre high Lingaraj temple dates from 1090 to 1104 BCE and is consecrated to Lord Shiva and is flanked by other shrines and temples. Certain portions of the temple are thought to be more than 1400 years old. A ceremonial bath with milk, water and bang or marijuana leaves every day is provided with the granite boulder at the temple, which symbolises tribhubaneswar (lord of the three worlds).

For the pilgrims are the moustacheed lions which are guarding the entryway. Because non-Hindus are not allowed by the temple, other people, including foreigners, can see the interior of a temple from an observatory immediately before reaching the Chitrakarini Temple. Busses from the Master Canteen bus stop are available to the location.

Museum of Tribal Arts and Artifacts: Anyone who is interested in Odisha’s 62 tribes’ history, culture and customs has to visit this highly interesting museum. Galleries with bead gems, currency collars, complex headgear, silver necklaces, traditional clothing, decorative pipes and musical instruments may be found in the museum.

Pass through the arms gallery, hunting, fishing and numerous agriculture equipment. You will find reproductions of Santal, Gadaba, Saora and Kandha tribal huts, among the other tribes, on the rear of the museum building. You may either go to the auto rickshaw at Master Canteen or take the Azad Marg bus that drops you five minutes from the museum.

Mukteshwar Temple: One temple from the 10th century, albeit modest, is one of the city’s most magnificent. Its carvings, while complex, exhibit a sharp mix of Hindu, Buddhist and Jain traditions.

Look up the snake queen Nagarani, like a jeremy, a sculpture that repeats itself at nearby Rajarani Temple. No room left without carvings, no matter if this is the ceiling, stone arch or the archway on the front, which depicts a Buddhist sculpture style.

Udayagiri and Khandagiri Caves: You will arrive on two hills with rock-cut facades, heading six kilometres west of the town. Allegedly carved by Jain saints in the first century BC, a great number of these caverns have been decorated in an ornate style with a very nice temple surrounding Khandagiri.

Although there aren’t very many buses going to the location, you may go back to the Master Canteen by car. You must seek for Cave 9 called Swargapuri, noted for its religious figures when climbing up a ramp at Udayagiri, which means Sunrise Hill. The inscriptions of the king Kharavela of Kalinga, in Hathi Gupha or Elephant Cave, Cave 14, describe the accomplishments of the man who constructed it.

Cave 12 or Tiger Cave entry is marked with open tiger jaws and there is a little door mounted by a cobra with three heads in the Pavana Gupha or Wind and Sarpa Gupha or Snake Cave. You will discover gravings of elephants while the Bodhi tree is carved in the Jaya Vijaya Cave, which is located in their centre region. You will find a smaller elephants caves or the Chota Hathi Gupha.

You may have a wonderful view from the summit from Khandagiri over the city of Bhubaneswar. The steep route that leads up to the hill divides somewhere between them. The route to the right leads you up to the Ananta Cave, which features carved elephant, female and flowers. A battery of Jain temples along the length is located, with a temple from the 18th century on top.

Nandankanan Zoological Park
The Nandankan Zoological Park is built within a forest, unlike much of India, and lets animals stay as close as possible to their native environment. The zoo is about 15 km from Bhubaneswar, whereas the Bhubaneswar Railwaystation is 18 km away and the Biju Patnaik International Airport approx. 20 km away.

You can reserve one of the holiday villas in the zoological park complex on advance reservation by the Office as the Deputy Director of the Nandankan Zoo. But only throughout the day may you stay there. The park is closed on Mondays and the zoo visits are between 07:30 and 17:30 (April to September) and 8:00 to 17:00. (October to March).

For children between 3 and 12 years, INR 50, for foreign nationals INR 100. Admission price is INR 50 and for children between 3 and 12 years.

Reasons to visit Nandankanan Zoological Park
– It is the only conservation breeding centre of Indian pangolins.
– It is the world’s first zoo to breed melanistic tiger with a white tiger.
– It is the only zoological park in the country to become an institutional member of the WAZA or World Association of Zoos and Aquarium.
– The open-top leopard enclosure of the Nandankanan Zoo is one of its kind in India.
– It is the first zoo in India where the endangered honey badger, also called ratel was born in captivity.
– It is the only zoo in the country after which the Puri-New Delhi express train has been named the ‘Nandankanan Express’.
– Nandankanan is also the second largest heronry for open-billed storks in Odisha.
– Nandankanan is among the participating zoos in a vulture breeding programme aside from working towards the breeding of pangolins and the conservation of water monitor lizard and the gharial crocodile.

Satkosia George Sanctuary
Set in Odisha, Angul district, Satkosia is now a tiger reserve which brings thousands of people to it each month. It has been developed as the refuge of animal life. The Mahanadi flows through the region, one of the largest rivers in Odisha. The park comprises four districts, covering the banks of the Mahanadi river, Cuttack, Boudh, Nayagarh and Angul. The covers of the park are around 10 miles.

As a sanctuary for leopards, Satkosia also offers the ideal environment for tiger breeding. In addition to numerous rare species and exotic birds, such as hornbill, crested serpent agle, fishing eagle, amongst others, you may see Nilgai, elephants, sambar deer, dear mice, crocodiles and turtles in this sanctuary.

Satkosia is located in the Nayagarh district at approx. 120 km from Bhubaneswar and 30 km from Gania by road.

Puri
While Puri is one of India’s most sacred pilgrimages, it continues to draw many international tourists to train loads from neighbouring Bengal. Although endowed with a magnificent seashore, Puri’s life typically centred around the Jagannath Temple and its annual Rath Yatra showpiece event.

The beaches of Puri are suitable for swimming and leisurely walks. It was a hippie path that drew the sea and the abundance of bhangs and marijuana in the Puri of the ’70s. The scene was completely different. Although the landscape has dramatically altered now, many people both inside and outside of the nation visit the place to enjoy the magical sun and sand and to visit the neighbouring Sun Temple in Konark.

The eastern end of Chakra Tirtha Street is the backpacker population, but the local visitors stay along a magnificent beachfront on the lively New Marine Drive to the West. You can search up among Puri’s top locations…

 

Places to visit in Puri

Jagannath Temple: The temple dedicated to Lord Jagannath, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, was built as it remains in its present form in 1198 BCE. Not open to non-Hindus, the temple is surrounded by two walls and its 58-metre-high shikhara or spire is mounted by Vishnu’s wheel. For non-Hindus who would like a view of the temple can get to the Raghunandan Library terrace and get a rooftop view of the temple and even take pictures.

Though within the temple cameras and mobile phones are not allowed. Lord Jagannath, the presiding deity is depicted in all-black with large eyes in white, and is tended to regularly and his clothes too are changed on a daily basis. The eastern entrance to the temple also called Lion Gate is guarded by two stone lion statues and a pillar topped by the Garuda that was once found in Konark’s Sun Temple.

This entrance is also the passageway for the Rath Yatra where a chariot procession is taken out on the street among a crowd of tens of thousands of devotees from all over the world. You will find idols of Jagannath’s sister Subhadra and brother Balbhadra in the central Jagmohan hall. All three idols are dressed ceremoniously by priests on a daily basis.

It is believed that the temple employs around 6000 people to take care of the complicated rituals involving giving care to the gods. An estimated number of 20,000 people are believed to depend on the Jagannath Temple for their livelihood.

Model Beach: This is perhaps the cleanest stretches of sand in Puri. The Model Beach has been taken up as a community-run, sustainable tourism initiative which has palm trees to offer you shade from the striking heat, has a team of stewards, there are life guards called Sea Riders Hawk and sun beds available for an hourly price.

You can also get a quick massage for INR 200. This team is responsible for keeping the beach clean.

Konark
Konark, known for its fabled Sun Temple, is about 36 kilometre from Puri. The Sun Temple remains one of the country’s architectural splendors and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Plenty of visitors stay in Puri so that they can make a tour of one of its signature buildings, the Sun Temple.

Konark originally was closer to the coast and was visible from the sea, the European sailors terming it the ‘Black Pagoda’ which stood in contrast to Puri’s glittering, all-white Jagannath Temple. Standing testimony to the fact is the lighthouse close to Chandrabhaga Beach.

 

Places to visit in Konark

Sun Temple: Built in the mid-13th century by local king Narasimhadev I to proclaim his victory over the Muslims, the Sun Temple was conceptualised as a chariot of the sun god in motion. The base of the structure has seven horses, representative of the seven days of the week, that are depicted to move the gigantic stone structure on 24 cartwheels in stone, this is representative of the hours of the day.

The temple is positioned in a way that the first light of the dawn would touch the inner sanctum and fall on the presiding deity. For years now, the temple has been under continuous restoration as it continues to weather to this day. The main entrance called Gajasimha is guarded by two stone lions shown trampling elephants and leads you further into the Nritya Mandapa or the Dancing Hall.

Along the steps too you will find horse figures poised to climb. The chariot theme of the temple goes back to a changing stylistic trend in Indian architecture and finds an echo in the stone chariot of Hampi’s Vittala Temple and even the Pancha Rathas complex of Mahabalipuram characterised by five stone chariots dedicated to the Pandavas from the Mahabharata.

The Kalinga life is chronicled in stone on the walls, showcasing men hunting and women cooking, aside from several erotic styles depicted in stone for which Konark is quite known.

Chilika Lake
Considered Asia’s largest brackish lagoon, the Chilika Lake swells from 600 square kilometre between April and May (summer months) to 1100 square kilometre between June and August (monsoon months). A 60 kilometre long sandbar called Rajhansa separates the shallow lake from the Bay of Bengal. Chilika is known for its over a million migratory birds such as herons, grey-legged geese, pink flamingos and cranes that come here in winter between November and mid-January from countries like Iran and Siberia and stay concentrated in the 3 square kilometre span of the Nalabana Bird Sanctuary on the Nalabana Island.

Other attractions of Chilika include dolphin spotting at Satapada, the quaint beach of Rajhansa, the Kalijai Island Temple popular with Hindu pilgrims for its annual Makar Mela in January.

Gopalpur-on-Sea
Gopalpur-on-Sea is a port that was originally found by the British but one which was left to slide into history. Today Gopalpur-on-Sea stands as a little hamlet by the sea, being rediscovered by Bengali filmmakers since the ‘80s. Gopalpur has had a pleasant maritime history with connections to the Southeast Asia, immortalised in the town’s few ramshackle old buildings and a beautiful lighthouse standing sentinel over the settlement.

You can’t swim in the sea here though, because the waves are far too rough, though the beach is considerably clean and great for a stroll or for simply soaking up the sun. There are a few pleasant resorts close to the beach in Gopalpur for those who would like to avoid the bustle of the Puri beaches and yet enjoy some good old sprinkling of sun and sand.

The main Gopalpur village is a few hundred metres away from the main beach on the road to Berhampur.

Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary
This sanctuary lies in the estuarial region of Bramhani-Baitarani in Kendrapara district of Odisha. Bhitarkanika covers about 672 square kilometre of the mangrove jungles and wetland. At Bhitarkanika, three rivers flow out and blend with the sea creating a natural habitat of sorts with its muddy creeks and mangrove forests where numerous bird and animal species take shelter.

The park is also home to the endangered King Cobra. The sanctuary offers the right ecosystem for the giant estuarine crocodiles among other animal and reptile species. The sanctuary is accessible by road through Rajnagar and Chandbali, though Cuttack and Bhadrak which are 110 kilometre from Rajnagar and 50 kilometre from Chandbali, remain the closest railway stations to Bhitarkanika.

The Bhubaneswar airport, about 130 kilometre from Rajnagar and 180 kilometre from Chandbali, is the closest airport to the sanctuary.

Reasons to visit Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary
– Its mangrove ecosystem is one of the richest in the country. The floral diversity of Bhitarkanika makes it the second largest after Papua New Guinea.
– The protected area of the park encompasses several habitats and micro-habitats. The mangroves serving as the nesting, feeding and breeding grounds for a large number of vertebrates and invertebrates.
– Bhitarkanika is home to the largest population of Estuarine Crocodiles in India, with a strength of over 1600 crocodiles.
– The wetlands spread through the sanctuary serves as a feeding ground for a large number of migratory birds in the winter.

 

Best time to visit Odisha

Lying on the eastern coast of Bay of Bengal, Odisha is packed with some magnificent history, cultural sites and traditions that hark back to its long-standing religion and spirituality.

The state is surrounded on one side by the Bay of Bengal and on the other by the Eastern Ghats, lending it a tropical climate predominantly through the year. With the presence of hundreds of temples, multiple beaches, lakes and sanctuaries, it makes it even more important to pick the right time of year in which to visit this lively beach-side state.

Though in general, October to March, especially the time between November and January remains most favourable to visit Odisha owing to the pleasant temperatures and soothing breeze blowing from the sea in the day time. You should avoid visiting in the uncomfortably humid and hot months of April and May, and even in the monsoon that hits typically in June and lasts through September, making the place sweltering hot and unfit for travel.

Odisha in winter (October to February)
The best season to travel within Odisha are the winter months between October and February. This is also the season to make the most of Odisha’s expansive outdoors with the weather being dry, and the skies clear through the day, making it ideal for sightseeing. This is also the time when thousands of migratory birds visit the various islands and sanctuaries of Odisha such as Chilika’s Nalabana Island and Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary, attracting bird watchers from all over the world.

Odisha in summer (March to June)
Blistering heat defines an Odisha summer with temperatures soaring to a maximum of 45 degree Celsius in the day, with the afternoon hours marked by sweltering heat and humidity. The evenings are, however, pleasant with a cool breeze wafting in from the sea, letting you do some sightseeing and engage in a spot of shopping.

The summer season sees the celebration of festivals like Mahabisuva Sankranti, Chandan Yatra, and the most coveted of them all, the Rath Yatra, which sees flocks of tourists and pilgrims coming in, the heat notwithstanding.

Odisha in monsoon (July to September)
Odisha under the influence of the southwesterly monsoon receives thundering rainfall that begins in July and continues to the better part of September. For this very reason, Odisha is not fit for travel in the rainy season. Add to it the occasional thunderstorms, frequent cyclones and tornadoes, rivers bursting their banks – a major cause of flooding in the state as well.

 

How to reach Odisha

By air: You can get direct flights from major metros in India like Kolkata, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Mumbai to Bhubaneswar’s Biju Patnaik International Airport. The airlines operating flights to the airport comprise Air India, IndiGo, GoAir, SpiceJet, Vistara and AirAsia.

Flights are available at a decent frequency.

By rail: Odisha’s most prominent railhead lies in its capital city, Bhubaneswar. Some of the popular trains to serve the Bhubaneswar Railway Station include Coromandal Express, Konark Express, Rajdhani Express, the Puri-New Delhi also called Nandankanan Express, connecting you to cities like Kolkata, Puri, Delhi, Guwahati, Chennai, Mumbai, Tirupati, Hyderabad, Trivandrum.

There are buses and cabs available outside the railway station as soon as you get out, to take you further to your destination.

By road: The major cities of the country are well connected to this eastern state by way of national and state highways. The NH16 passes along the east coast of West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Odisha. The coastal region of Odisha is a stop on the way on road journeys from Kolkata to Chennai, going through Bhubaneswar.

The road connects Sambalpur, known for its textiles, with Chhattisgarh, Kolkata and Madhya Pradesh. There are several inter-state bus service available from the neighbouring states. The two-laned and four-laned highways of Odisha are bliss to drive on. You can even hire a taxi or take a private inter-state bus to reach Odisha.

Tours Package