How to Reach Wayanad: Airports, Trains and Which Ghat Road to Take

The first thing to know about how to reach Wayanad is that you cannot, directly. There is no airport in the district and no railway station. Every route ends with a drive up a ghat road, and which ghat you come up makes more difference to your day than which airport you fly into.

The nearest airport to Wayanad

Three are in play, and the right one depends on which half of the district you are staying in.

• Kannur (CNN) is the closest for the northern side of Wayanad — Mananthavady, Vellamunda, Thirunelly. You come up the Periya ghat, which is the quietest of the routes and, on a good day, the prettiest.
• Kozhikode, or Calicut (CCJ), at Karipur, is the usual choice for the southern side — Kalpetta, Vythiri, Sulthan Bathery — up the Thamarassery ghat.
• Kochi (COK) is the furthest by a distance but has the most flights and the most international connections. If it saves you a layover it can still be the better call.

By train

There is no railway line into Wayanad, so you are getting off somewhere and driving. Kozhikode is the practical railhead if you are coming up the coast from Kerala or beyond. Mysore is the one to aim for from the Bangalore side. Either way, arrange the car before you arrive rather than negotiating it on the platform at six in the morning.

The ghat roads, and why it matters which one you take

Four roads climb into the district, and they are not equivalent.

Thamarassery ghat is the main artery from Kozhikode and the busiest by far. Nine hairpin bends, and a fair chance of sitting behind a lorry on at least one of them. It is a fine drive when it is moving and a long one when it is not.

Periya ghat comes up from the Kannur and Thalassery side into Mananthavady. Fewer vehicles, gentler traffic, and the one to use if you are heading anywhere in the north.

Kuttiady and Palchuram are the quieter alternatives, worth knowing about mainly because they are the fallback when something has gone wrong on the main route.

Driving from Bangalore, and the rule that catches people out

The Bangalore run goes through Mysore and Gundlupet and then into Kerala through forest — either the Bandipur and Muthanga stretch, or the Nagarhole and Tholpetty road further north.

Here is the thing nobody tells you until it is too late: the forest roads through Bandipur are closed to traffic at night, from around nine in the evening until six in the morning. It is a wildlife measure and it is enforced. Arrive at the checkpost at ten at night and you are sitting there until dawn.

Plan the whole drive around that one fact. Leave Bangalore early, or leave late enough that you are stopping the night before the forest anyway. It is the single most common way a Wayanad road trip goes wrong.

How long it really takes

Whatever the map application tells you, add a third to it. The last stretch is single-lane in places, the hairpins are slow, and you will be behind something heavy for part of it. Nobody has ever arrived in Wayanad early.

Time the ghat for daylight if you can. It is a better drive, and if you have anyone in the car who gets travel sick, a winding road in the dark is the worst version of it.

Getting around once you are here

Buses run, but they run on their own logic and not on yours. Almost everyone hires a car with a driver for the days they are sightseeing, which for the price is usually the sensible answer — the driver knows which roads are open, where to park, and how long things actually take.

If you are self-driving, download the map before you set off. The signal drops out completely through the forest stretches, and it drops out exactly where the turnings stop being obvious.

We are in Vellamunda on the northern side, so the short version for us is: fly into Kannur, come up the Periya ghat, and have a look at what is nearby before you fix the plan.