Madikeri is the administrative heart of Coorg, a small, walkable hill town built across a tangle of ridges at 1,170 metres. The streets twist sharply up and down; most travellers use Madikeri less as a destination in itself than as a base for the estates and waterfalls in the surrounding hills.
The old fort, the Omkareshwara Temple, and Raja's Seat — a clifftop garden with a view across the valley to the western horizon — are the main sights. Stay one night, walk the bazaar in the cool evening air, eat a Kodava meal of pandi curry and akki roti, and head out into the hills in the morning.