Hampi, as lonely planet describes it, a fantasy world of rocks and ruins.

Fondly called the city of ruins is a

world in itself and nothing like you would have ever seen. At one point in time during the tour guide of
hampi, as the guide tells you about how the invaders destroyed and burnt the art of hampi you being to
wonder why could anyone ever feel like to destroy something so spectacular and what could have their
motivation! Today whatever is left of hampi is enough to spell bound anyone and you wonder during its
full glory how magnificent could it have been. The erstwhile capital of the Vijayanagara empire, has now
been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and it's also good to see that all the monuments are
maintained well. The easy part is everything is pretty nearby so if you have your own mode of transport
it is easy to get around because everywhere you have direction boards specifying the direction of the
monuments. I suggest you screenshot the maps of hampi monuments, that way you can keep an easy
note of what all have you already covered and what is left. You should spend about about 2 days and
you can pretty much cover all the monuments with ease. At Hampi, the sunset and the sunrise are a
breathtaking sights, but you have to put an effort to trek to various hill tops like the mantaga hill,
hemakuta hill or the monkey temple hill to see the sun go down between the boulders and the
architectural marvels of hampi and the colors of dusk just look mesmerizing. Remember many pictures
of hampi during the sunset might be brilliant but what your naked eye can see cannot be captured
through any lens.

Every monument is a great place to shoot in hampi but here is my top picks where you can spend good
time with your camera are (it is great if you can manage to reach early morning to avoid the rush and
the hot sun ) :

Vijaya Vittala Temple

Hazara Rama Temple

Hemakuta hill monuments

Balakrishna Temple

Virupaksha temple

Lotus Mahal

Stay : Hampi today has great resorts to guesthouses too, we stayed in hospet which is about 12 kms
away as most hotels in hampi were full.

hotel malligi

Eat : Mango tree and 2 restaurants at hotel malligi

Here's a glimpse of our time in the city of boulders :