My boyfriend and I have been in a long-distance relationship for about a year now. He studies music in Chennai and I am still stuck in Kolkata with my Bachelor’s degree. And, long-distance is not everyone’s cup of tea. But we made it work and for our first anniversary, we decided to visit each other. I was quite honestly quite invested in the hype, for which I saved a considerable amount of money. Although there weren’t many plans, we did decide to visit Vellore. But we only had a few days before I had to come back. So, I made a clean travel itinerary for us – one that helped me pluck out any pockets of redundancies.
The itinerary was quite linear for a person like me – but it is what it is.
- Vellore Fort
- Sripuram Temple
- Amirtha Zoological Park
- Palamathi Hills
- Yelagiri
Reaching Vellore
As you know Vellore is quite an accessible place. I had already booked a convenient Chennai Airport to Vellore Taxi that took me straight to the hotel that my boyfriend had booked. But now that we had reached Vellore, we had to figure out a way to cram the entire set of itineraries within our time. Since I had planned about 5 places to visit, I divided them into two groups, one of which we’ll visit each day. The plan seemed to consolidate enough for both of us.
A little run down on the city – Vellore is culturally rich and has been one of the most visited tourist spots in Tamil Nadu. The city is of immense historical importance since it had been a seat of major dynasties like the Cholas, Vijayanagara, and the Pallavas. But, I think this city can strike a perfect balance between history and nature since the scenes here are simply extravagant.
Day 1
I am glad that I had booked a comfortable and affordable cab from Chennai to Vellore. That saved me a lot of money – as you can see I was already on a tight budget just as my boyfriend. The plights of being middle class and in love – but at least Vellore had some soulful places for us to visit.
Vellore Fort’s visit did not disappoint us at all. This 16th century is amongst the highly sought after tourist spots in Vellore. The fort was huge covering an area of 133 acres right in the centre of Vellore. The moat enclosing the fort had boating facilities that I would’ve tried if I weren’t too afraid of the water.
The Sripuram temple is where we headed next and it truly is a man-made splendour. Its architectural nuances are something that made me marvel at it – although it might seem like I am exaggerating but I am frankly not.
The last spot of the day was Amirtha Zoological Park. I chose it for the last since it was about 27 Km away from Vellore. It was his first time visiting a wildlife sanctuary and me being the overenthusiastic geek that I am, I started explaining the various attributes of it. Bottom line – we both could spot a varied range of wildlife here and we liked the conducive trekking trail here.
Day 2
Day 2 started roughly since we slept in late and we made our booked cab wait for an hour. But we did manage to reach the Palamathi Hills which frankly was so green that I could practically start complaining about the lack of such greenery back in my town. I also insisted that we visit the Otteri Lake and spend an hour at least. It seemed like we did finally find a spot to romance a bit and what can be more lucrative than nature itself in the backdrop.
Since I had already kept the second day for lighter trips, Yelagiri hill station had to make it to the list. Located about 1110 m above the sea level, this greenscape is enveloped with tea estates and colourful flowers all around. The landscape here is quite Instagram worthy and I stocked a good chunk of photos for my social media posts. The Nilavoor Lake also adds to its charm, quintessentially making it more conducive as a spot.
Leaving the city
Well, goodbyes are always too hard. But we had to get back to our respective lives and routine. While we parted ways at the airport, I could see us sobbing internally. But this trip did help us find the respite we were looking for. As I returned home, I started browsing all the fond memories I made with him. Vellore will always hold a special place in my heart.
