If you are visiting India for birding and eco-tourism, airline miles won’t get you to where you need to be. You will need to take buses from the main cities to the small towns closest to the national parks and reserves. Although most bus companies have online sales, they require an Indian mobile phone to complete the order and in most cases an Indian credit card as well. For some bus routes, you can use Make My Trip. In other cases you will have to wait until you arrive in India and make your bookings locally. This usually won’t be a problem as the comfortable AC buses are rarely fully booked unless there is a holiday such as Holi or Diwali. Unfortunately the United States tab only allows you to book flights, hotels and holiday packages, not buses or trains. But you can still do research and plan in advance!
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Notice how you can choose the Gudalur pick up point as well as the main Ooty bus station.
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You won’t get any further without an Indian mobile phone number just as you see below in the Red Bus example. But this is a useful tool to search routes and prices. You should search all the tools as not all bus companies are represented by each booking agent.
Red Bus has many bus routes all over India. You can use this website to get an idea of timings and prices. If you buy a SIM card in India, you will be able to book these tickets online. Here is an example of a route from Kochi to Bangalore. This is a 12 hour trip so most people would want a comfortable sleeper bus, see the yellow highlights below.
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When you click on view seats, you will see a chart of available seats. Select an open seat and you will see the price.
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This is where you will get stuck as you need an Indian mobile phone and it won’t let you change the country code.
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The last tool you should check, especially for the routes in my Coorg & Mudumalai blogs is Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation. You won’t be able to use this site to book online either but they will have extensive routes all over the state and you can book any of their routes in advance at any bus station served by KSRTC. Here’s a sample display to get from Bangalore to Gonikoppal in Coorg. A few things to notice is that some buses leave from Shanthinagar bus stand in the city centre and some leave from the Mysore Road bus stand (near the Transit Hotel I stayed in). Given Bangalore’s extreme traffic jams, it’s best to use this bus stand. We wanted that early bus at 5:45 but couldn’t find it and ended up on a Mysore bus which worked out fine. The help desk and ticket office weren’t open that early and I couldn’t find anyone who spoke English to help us.
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Buses are a great way to travel around India! I found the locals were very friendly and the AC buses are comfortable.
