Chikmagalur in the monsoon: what nobody tells you

The standard advice is to visit Chikmagalur between October and March. The standard advice is fine. It is also how you end up sharing Mullayanagiri with six hundred people.

The monsoon — June through September — is the other option, and it is genuinely better, if you accept what it is.

What you get

The Ghats in full flood. Waterfalls at maximum. Coffee flowering after the first rains, which smells like jasmine across an entire valley and lasts about three days. Estates to yourself. And rates that are, frankly, a different business.

What you give up

Views. Mullayanagiri in August is a cloud. You will drive up, stand in white, and drive down. Accept this or do not go.

Roads. Landslides close the ghat sections without much warning. Build in a spare day.

Leeches. Real, numerous, harmless. Closed shoes, tuck your trousers in, carry salt.

The three caveats

1. Do not plan around viewpoints. Plan around a verandah.
2. Book a place with a covered outdoor space. You will spend a lot of time on it.
3. Do not come for two days. The rain will take one of them, and then you will have come for one.

If what you want from Chikmagalur is a view from a peak, come in December. If what you want is the place at full volume, come now.