Shimoga(formerly called as 'Shivamogga') is a city in Karnataka. Shimoga is a colorful district with attractive landscape, waterfalls , green forests ,river valley , bountiful fields with areca palms and paddy fields. Situated in the center of Karnataka state, it has about 3.28 lakh hectares of forest with sandalwood , teak and other valuable trees.

Tourist attractions in Shimoga:

* Lion and Tiger Safari which is around 10 Km from the bus terminus.

* Gajnur dam which is around 10Km from city center.

* Jog falls which is around an hour and half from Shimoga, water falls down in four different streams named as Raja, Rani, Rocket and Roarer.

* Thirthalli, a small laid-back taluk headquarters .

* Agumbe, an amazing village known for its forest resource, sunset spots, trekking passes, lakes, mountains. This one is a must see.

* Linganamakki dam, very close to Jog falls.

* Kodachadri, a hill station and a sunset spot, better to trek than to drive.

* Shivappanayaka's fort at Nagara.

* Sharavathi Wild Life Sanctuary.

* Kavaledurga - Fort of Shivappanayaka very close to Thirthahalli.

How to reach Shimoga:

By rail: Shimoga can be reached by train from Bangalore or Mysore. The train starts off from Bangalore every night at 11:00PM and reaches Shimoga station by 5:00AM. If you can rush out of the station soon, you'll be lucky to hit the city service bus which will take you to the main bus terminus from where you can take buses to other places.

By bus:There are ample buses from the state capital Bangalore during day as well as night time. There are various classes of buses which one can take as per their wallet size. It takes nearly 7 hours by bus and it traverses through Tumkur, Tiptur, Arsikere, Kadur, Bhadravati before reaching Shimoga bus terminus.

Special local foods of Shimoga:

* Patrode - a special dish made of colocasia, a.k.a. elephant ears
* Jackfruit buns (Halasina hannina kadubu)
* Jackfruit pancake (Halasina hannina dose)
* Jackfruit oildip (Halasina hannina mulka)
* Tender mango chutney (maavina kaai chutney)
* Rice pancake (neer dose or bari akki dose)
* Kadubu(therthahalli kadubu is famous for non-veg, it is made by rice powder)
* hal garige (this is also very tasty sancks, this is made by milk and rice powder)

Tourist activities of interest in Shimoga:

Shimoga as such does not have many places to look around since it is the district headquarters. But it consists of many smaller towns and is one of the greenest districts. Hiring a cab is not a bad idea though, but the better choice is try to catch up a person who can take you around.

Nature Photography is the best thing to do in this district which houses plethora of waterfalls, trekking passes, mountains and viewpoints, hill stations. Also it is an abode to varieties of wild life species, butterflies and moths, colorful snakes and insects.