Shimoga is located about 300 Kms from Bangalore and about 180 kms from Mangalore city. It can be easily reached by an overnight train or bus or a private car. Transport options for reaching here are:

By Road

The distance between Bangalore (Bengaluru) and Shimoga is 280Kms. Shivamogga has two National Highways passing through it-NH 13 (Sholapur - Mangalore and NH-206 (Bangalore - Honnavar).  Shivamogga has three State Highways passing through it.  SH-1 (Padubidri - Maharashtra border), SH-26 (Halageri - Hulikal), SH-48 (Kumta - Andhra Pradesh border). There are various classes of buses which one can take as per their wallet size. It takes nearly 7 hours by bus and it traverses through Tumkur, Tiptur, Arsikere, Kadur, Bhadravati before reaching Shimoga bus terminus.

By Train

Numerous trains run from Bangalore and Mysore to Shimogga on Broad Gauge and connect Bhadravathi Town. Another older line on Meter Gauge passes through Sagar, Talguppa which was laid in 1938 by the British. 

There is a proposal to connect the older line to Konkan Railway for convenience in operations. Shimoga can be reached by train from Bangalore or Mysore.

The train starts off from Bangalore every night at 11:00PM and reaches Shimoga station by 5:00AM. If you can rush out of the station soon, you'll be lucky to hit the city service bus which will take you to the main bus terminus from where you can take buses to other places.

By Air

Airports at Bangalore (300 Kms), Mangalore and Hubli may be used to reach Shimoga.  The nearest airport, however, is Mangalore (180 Kms).

Local transport

There is not much to see inside Shimoga city. However there are a lot of places scattered around Shimoga district. You could have Shimoga or Chikmagalur as the base and hire a private taxi to see around.

Return to Shimoga Travel & Holiday Guide or Learn about its history or see the tourist spots in and around Shimoga city.