Visakhapatnam Travel Guide: Beach Road, Hills and Day Trips

The city's best-known sights sit along the coast road, with Kailasagiri hill rising behind it. Simhachalam, Bavikonda, the zoo and the Kambalakonda sanctuary lie outside the centre, and the caves and valley of the Eastern Ghats are a day's excursion inland. If you are planning the whole state, our Andhra Pradesh travel guide sets Visakhapatnam in context.

Ramakrishna Beach and the beach road

Ramakrishna Beach, called RK Beach by most people in the city, is Visakhapatnam's promenade. Incredible India describes it for its scenery, its walkway and its water sports. The road behind it is where the city keeps its museums: the submarine, the aircraft and the Visakha Museum all stand on or beside it, so a day spent here needs little transport. The other beaches are covered further down.

Kursura Submarine Museum

INS Kursura is a decommissioned Indian Navy submarine that now serves as a museum on Ramakrishna Beach. Incredible India lists guided tours, school programmes and lectures, afternoon and evening opening hours, and a closure on Mondays.

TU-142M Aircraft Museum

Opened in 2017 on the beach road, opposite the submarine museum, this museum is built around a Soviet-era TU-142M aircraft that the Indian Navy flew for 29 years. Incredible India credits it with 30,000 accident-free flying hours, and says entry includes an audio guide. It lists the museum as open every day of the week, but gives its opening hours inconsistently, so confirm them on the day.

Visakha Museum

The Visakha Museum opened in 1991 in a restored colonial-era house that Incredible India describes as a Dutch bungalow. Its rooms hold artefacts, rare manuscripts, sculptures, coins and pottery that run from prehistory to modern Andhra Pradesh, along with a section on the Indian Navy and the Eastern Naval Command. Incredible India lists it as open from 10 am to 7 pm and closed on Mondays and national holidays.

Kailasagiri

Kailasagiri is a hill park above the city. You can walk up the hill for views over the city and the coastline, or take the ropeway that runs from the base to the top. A Shiva and Parvati statue about 40 feet tall stands at the summit, and there are two pedestrian stairways. Incredible India lists the park as open from 10 am to 8 pm, with the ropeway running in two sessions, one in the late morning and one from 2 pm.

Simhachalam Temple

The Sri Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha temple stands on the Simhachalam hill, whose name means hill of the lion, and enshrines Vishnu in his man-lion form. Incredible India describes a blend of Dravidian and Kalinga styles, believes the temple dates from around 1098 AD and mentions inscriptions from the reign of the Chola king Kulothunga. The district website adds a stone chariot with stone horses and a 96-pillared dance hall. The idol is kept covered in sandal paste for most of the year, and at the Chandanotsavam festival the old layer is removed, so devotees briefly see the idol as it is. The temple is roughly 16 to 20 km from the city, depending on which official page you read, and is reached by rail and road.

Bavikonda Buddhist Complex

Incredible India dates this hilltop monastery to the 3rd century BC and says it housed more than 2,000 monks at its height. Its name means hill of wells, after the wells that collected rainwater for the residents. The complex has 26 structures from three building phases, among them stupas, chaityas, meditation halls and assembly halls, and a museum shows the pottery, coins and relics dug up here. It lies about 15 to 16 km north of the city centre, and Incredible India lists it as open from 9 am to 5 pm.

Indira Gandhi Zoological Park and Kambalakonda

The zoological park, in the foothills of the Eastern Ghats, covers 625 acres and was set up in 1977; Incredible India lists it as closed on Mondays. Across National Highway 5 from the zoo, just outside the city on the road towards Vizianagaram and Srikakulam, lies the Kambalakonda sanctuary, which the district website puts at 71 square kilometres and presents as a gentle sanctuary rather than a wild one. It has spotted deer, a small lake with boating and trekking routes, and winter is a popular season for walks in the forest. The district website's page dates from 2019, so check fees and hours before you go.

Beaches and coastal viewpoints

Yarada Beach is surrounded by hills on three sides, with the Bay of Bengal on the fourth, and the district website calls it cleaner and less crowded than many well-known Indian beaches, a good place to watch the sunrise or the sunset. Incredible India also names Rushikonda Beach, Bheemili Beach, which it links with history and tranquillity, and Dolphin's Nose, a prominent rock formation on the coast with a panoramic view. It gives no distances for them, so ask where you stay or check a map before building them into a day.

Appikonda

Appikonda is a small village on the Bay of Bengal coast, 18 km from the city according to the district website. Its Shiva temple holds a life-size bull carved from black stone, and the temple's inscriptions date from the 12th century AD and record a grant of the village by a Chola commander-in-chief. Smaller temples nearby are largely buried under sand dunes, so that only their towers show. The Shivaratri festival draws large numbers of devotees.

Araku Valley and Borra Caves

Araku Valley is a hill station 910 metres above sea level, with waterfalls, clear streams, gardens and tribal communities who have kept their traditions, and it has trekking trails. Incredible India also mentions its coffee plantations. The Borra Caves lie in the Ananthagiri hills of the valley, 88 km from Visakhapatnam according to Incredible India. They are limestone caves, up to 80 metres deep, with stalactites and stalagmites formed by water seeping through the rock. The page credits their discovery in 1807 to William King George of the Geological Survey of India, though a local legend tells of a cowherd who found them first when a cow fell through a hole. It lists opening hours of 10 am to 5 pm. The Katiki waterfall, about 50 feet high, is a short distance from the caves.