Recent reviews Hyderabad
[koshkha, 04/08/2010] You have to wonder about the workings of the mind of Mr K Sudhakar, the builder of the world's biggest tricycle and more than 150 novelty cars. What makes a man set out to do something as bizarre as hand building weird vehicles?
As a teenager Sudhakar was designing and building his first bicycle at the age of 14. Sounds healthy enough you might think and a year later he did the same with his first motorbike. You've got to be so careful with engineering though. You start on 'soft' vehicle design and before you can say 'Rizla' you're hooked and the vehicles are getting more hard-core. Before
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[koshkha, 04/08/2010] During our visit to Hyderabad's most famous attraction, the Charminar, we spent a lot of time looking out over the nearby Mecca Masjid and were really looking forward to having a good look. However, our timing was slightly off and we had to wait half an hour until the lunchtime prayers were over before we could visit. I love a good mosque but we've been spoilt by visiting spectacular mosques in Iran which have left everything else looking a bit drab by comparison.
The Mecca Masjid is one of the world's largest mosques and ranks at number 3 in India in terms of size, beaten only by a mosque
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[koshkha, 19/06/2010] Trying to find a hotel in a city that you don't know is always a bit of a challenge and when it's in India, it can be really tricky. We've stayed in some very dodgy cheap Indian hotels in the past and we seem to be spending less money each time we go. I didn't intend to book a cheap place but when I looked at reviews of mid-priced hotels in Hyderabad, I couldn't find anything that persuaded me it was worth paying the extra. One of the most important things to me was to find a base from which we could explore and get the most out of the city.
I got a tip-off about the Geetanjali from a trav
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[koshkha, 25/05/2010] Snow World is one of India's most bizarre attractions - so much so that it's featured in TV programmes such as Paul Merton on India. We visited in November 2009.
We pulled up at the entertainment complex where Snow World seemed to be the main attraction. Our driver went off to get our tickets which at 250 Rupees each was the second most expensive attraction of our visit to Hyderabad. (It's about £3.50 but that's the price for everyone, not an inflated tourist price).
We headed through the door and saw a sign saying we should take a bag and put our shoes in it and swap them for boots. Suc
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[koshkha, 25/05/2010] Just up the road from the rather unexciting Lumbini Gardens sits one of Hyderabad's newest attractions, the NTR Gardens. Opened just a few years ago, they were named in memory of N T Rama Rao, a much-loved but now deceased Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. Indians seem to like using initials and almost every city has an MG Road (Mohatma Gandhi of course) or a JN Road (Jawaharlal Nehru) but I'll admit I didn't have the slightest idea who NTR was but apparently in local circles the initials need no more explanation than JFK would to anyone in the USA or Europe. We failed at our first attempt to
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[koshkha, 01/04/2010] Lumbini Park was on our list of attractions included in our sightseeing package for Hyderabad and was one for which I'd not bothered to do any research. I knew there was a statue of the Buddha standing on a small island in the middle of Hussain Sagar Lake that I wanted to see, but I'd not given any thought to how to get there. Luckily my lack of research didn't matter because our driver took us straight from the Birla Science Museum down to the waterfront to visit the park.
He parked up outside and rushed off to get our tickets. Since every place we'd been to up to that point had refused to
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[koshkha, 01/04/2010] Just a stone's throw from our hotel, the Geetanjali, we found a nice little restaurant tucked away on the corner of the street. The hotel had a menu for the New Santosh Dhaba III at reception and sent us over with their recommendations. It was our first day in Hyderabad after an overnight flight and I think we'd have eaten anything that was put in front of us but we appreciated the proximity. The restaurant has a cash-desk on the ground floor but the dining area was upstairs and we were sent up to find something to eat.
As two tired, pale, Europeans we did feel a bit out of place in a local
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[koshkha, 01/04/2010] The Taj Hotel's restaurant is one of the most popular and respected vegetarian eateries in Hyderabad and is housed in the city's only heritage property. It's not part of the Taj Hotels chain - this is an independently owned place. When researching hotels in Hyderabad I'd learned that this place was in the same area as the hotel we had booked and had a great reputation. It was just a block from our hotel and we'd wandered over to have a look after we got back from the museum to see if there was any prospect of getting a beer. We'd learned there was no bar but they sent us to the restaurant whe
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[koshkha, 13/12/2009] On day one of our trip to Hyderabad we slept until lunch time and then set off in our taxi to try to see the Golconda Fort. After just a couple of minutes in the car it started to rain and as we drove it got steadily worse. Since we were hoping to go to a sound and light show in a ruined fort, it soon became apparent that going there probably wasn’t the cleverest idea I'd ever had. Remembering my quick scan of the tour guides that morning, I took a decision to cancel or postpone the fort and I asked the driver if he could take us to the Salar Jung museum instead. It was the only place I could
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[koshkha, 13/12/2009] If you had asked me to name one famous thing associated with Hyderabad before we went there it have been the Charminar. It must be on every website and on the cover of every map or guidebook of the city ever printed. It's a fascinating looking building that might not quite have the lure of the Taj Mahal or India's great palaces but it pricked my imagination. If you'd asked for two famous things, the second would have been Biryani, the rice-based dish for which the city is famed but the Charminar would have been a long way ahead of the biryani. There's something about the buttery-yellow buildin
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[koshkha, 13/12/2009] The Birla Mandir - or Birla Temple - in Hyderabad was the second of the Birla Mandirs that I have visited, the other being in Jaipur. I visited that first one on Christmas Day 1996 during the first of my visits to India. Aside from being so white that it almost glowed in the moonlight and floodlighting, not too much of the visit stuck in my mind except the tale we were told that it had been built by a famous rich man and his family. I didn't give it a lot more thought until recently.
Between that first visit to India and our recent visit to Hyderabad I'd come across the Birla family name ma
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[koshkha, 13/12/2009] We arrived at the Birla Science Museum fresh from visiting the Birla Mandir temple nearby. It was about 10 am and the place was still closed so we parked up and bought soft drinks from the food stand inside the gates whilst I driver wandered off to get some tea with the other taxi drivers. We couldn't get in until 10.30 and whilst we waited a small army of neatly dressed primary school children marched up, two abreast to wait with us. The teachers were going crazy trying to control them and you could sense to excitement amongst the little ones. We wondered why they would be so excited about a
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[steveelondon, 04/12/2009] Place where we stayed in Road no 6 Banjara hills is simply nice as it is located on the top of the hill type and the view is fantastic from here,sorroundings are excellent with greenery,security is 24hrs.slightly interior though but if u need peaceful and quiet place to stay i recommend this place.
Food is very nice specially Mix veg curry ,Butter chiken and pakoda...staff are extremely polite.
Overall comfortable place to stay and we will love to come back here.
Steve
[koshkha, 03/12/2009] It's never a great experience to land at a new airport at 4.45 am so our recent visit to Hyderabad found us tired, a bit confused and not entirely sure what to expect. I knew only a couple of things about the airport: that it was very new, that it was a LONG way from the city and that I was likely to get ripped off for a taxi. I was also aware that if we got hot and bothered and looked at all like we might have swine flu, we weren't going to get let into the country. So no pressure then!
Due to having nabbed seats that were fairly near the front of the economy cabin, we were able to get off
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[Kevin2030, 22/08/2009] Excellent place to stay with fantastic staff who helped me day and night with smile on their faces.Only one thing they need to improve is time taking for food order need to be improved else it is spotless about any complaints,
cheers,
Kevin,UK
[chocolatesafari, 22/08/2009] Stayed at Leonia Holistic Destination with friends and family in July 2009 and thoroughly enjoyed the 'Leonia Experience' with opulent settings and leisure facilities ranging from DJ and Rain Dance at the water park to Gala Dinner at the Wading Pool (9 inches deep water body, with ultra modern lighting and acoustics) and Live performance by Indo-Brazilian Troop... It is truly an ideal and holistic destination with very friendly and courteous staff to compliment the facilities. The scrumptious cascade rooms are huge with a waterfall like experience right in your own room... kids just loved it..
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[Minu, 10/07/2007] Birla Temple at Hyderabad is one of the temples made by Industrialists Birla and it took ten years to complete the temple. Industrialist Birla built the temple's all over the India and named it 'Birla' e.g., Birla temple in Delhi, Birla temple in Jaipur. The Birla temple of Hyderabad is a fabulous temple dedicated to Lord Venkateswara(Vishnu God ), known as 'Balaji' in the North of India.
Birla temple is situated in the heart of the Hyderabad city. Birla temple is built of white marble which is brought from Rajasthan, which is famous for marble. It is situated on top of a hill called 'Kal
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[Minu, 09/07/2007] Once you are in Hyderabad ask for the tourist attractions! Locals will always recommend 'The Charminar'. It is always first on the list for any tourist visiting Hyderabad.
Charminar is a mix of Hindi and Urdu word as Char means 'Four' and Minar means 'Tower'. Four Towers is a monument located in the City of Hyderabad which is the capital city of the state of Andhar Pradesh. Hyderabad is locally known as the old city,
where the main language is Urdu. Particularly this part of the city is the home for the Muslim people. The Charminar and the Makkah Masjid, (Masjid Mosque) are lying on t
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[Minu, 05/07/2007] '' Golconda Fort ' is the one of the most famous fort in Hyderabad and its is located on a Hill. Hyderabad is the capital of Andra Pradesh and its local language is Telugu. Hyderabad and Secunderabad is called as a ' Twin Cities '. Golconda Fort is one of the oldest fort ,it is more than 100 years old from the Mu gals period. As i remember guide talk about the Qutab Shahi king who established the fort . You can also hire the guide they are available all the time
The interesting thing is the dome at the entrance when you clap the sound vibrates and you can be heard clearly at the 'Bala H
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