While the description of Udupi is not in any way incorrect, many people do not get the complete picture because they will not travel beyond the main temple to see a different stretch of coast and experience a less public, more private religious ritual, which was as important to me as visiting the main temple.
The Mattas Beyond the Main Temple
The Krishna Matha is the obvious starting point, and the temple’s history, tied to the thirteenth-century philosopher Madhvacharya and the unique practice of rotating administrative duties among eight mattas every two years, is worth understanding before you arrive rather than piecing together on the spot. But Udupi’s matha system extends well beyond the one building most visitors photograph.
The lanes around Car Street take you to the 8 Ashta Mattas. These are smaller than the main temple and very peaceful. Many people have not visited these Mattas but they still express their traditions through their own special style even though they all belong to the same family of traditions.
I was invited to attend one of the smaller Mattas at lunchtime. The crowd was so small that I could quietly observe from the back, and by the end I felt I understood the tradition in a way that the larger, more heavily attended ritual at the main temple could not provide.
The famous community kitchen at Krishna Matha, feeding thousands of pilgrims daily, is worth experiencing once. But the smaller mattas are where I’d actually send someone wanting to understand the depth of what’s happening here, rather than just the spectacle of it.
Beaches in Udupi That Don’t Make the Standard List
Malpe Beach is the one every Udupi visitor reaches eventually, mostly as the departure point for the boat to St Mary’s Island, known for its unusual hexagonal basalt rock formations formed by volcanic activity millions of years ago. The boat ride and the island itself are worth the trip, though the crowd at Malpe during peak hours can be considerable.
What surprised me more was Kaup Beach, a short drive south, considerably quieter and home to a red-and-white lighthouse that’s become a minor landmark in its own right. Climbing the lighthouse for the view across the coastline, with fewer people around than at Malpe, felt like the version of a Udupi beach visit that most people skip in favour of the more famous island trip.
Padubidri Beach, further along the coast, was quieter still, and I ended up spending a full evening there mostly because nobody else seemed to be around and the sunset over the Arabian Sea didn’t need to be shared with a crowd to feel worth watching.
The Coastal Roads in Udupi
What I hadn’t anticipated was how much the actual driving between these spots would become part of what I remembered. The road connecting Udupi to Malpe and onward towards Kaup runs close enough to the coast in stretches that the sea appears and disappears between clusters of coconut palms, and slowing down rather than treating the drive purely as transit between destinations changed how the whole day felt.
A few of the smaller roads branching off towards fishing villages along this stretch aren’t on any map worth trusting, and getting slightly lost on one of these, ending up at a quiet jetty with fishing boats pulled up for the afternoon, was one of the better unplanned moments of the trip.
Food, Briefly, Because It’s Impossible to Leave Out
Udupi’s contribution to South Indian vegetarian cuisine is well known nationally, and eating at a proper Udupi-style restaurant here, rather than the diaspora versions found elsewhere in India, made the connection between the temple’s culinary tradition and the wider cuisine considerably clearer. The masala dosa and the filter coffee both tasted like a more authoritative version of dishes I’d eaten as approximations my whole life.
Where to Base Yourself in Updupi?
Staying centrally in Udupi town puts both the matha circuit and the coastal stretch towards Malpe and Kaup within a manageable drive, which mattered more than I expected once the days started filling with beaches I hadn’t planned on visiting. Several hotels in Udupi sit within easy reach of Car Street and the temple area while still keeping the coast no more than twenty or thirty minutes away by road.
What I’d Tell Someone Going Next
See the Krishna Matha properly, but don’t let it be the only matha you visit. Push past Malpe to Kaup and Padubidri if you have even one extra day. And don’t rush the coastal roads connecting them, since some of what I remember most clearly from this trip happened in the stretches between destinations rather than at the destinations themselves.
