The Eastern Ghats of India are older than the Western Ghats and are an irregular range of slightly less elevated hills broken by the flow of rivers Krishna, Kaveri, Godavari and Mahanadi. The hills run through the eastern coast from Odisha, through Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and partly through Kerala and Karnataka. Located in the Shervarayan or the Anglicised Shevaroy range of hills in the Eastern Ghats, Yercaud is a petite hill station in the northern part of Salem district of Tamil Nadu.

The Yercaud hills are about 22 km uphill from the city of Salem. The easiest way to reach Yercaud would be to travel by train to Salem and hit the Ghat road climbing up to Yercaud.

Salem’s domestic airport at Kamalapuram has direct flights to Chennai. There are taxi stands outside the airport where you could hire a taxi to the Salem Bus stand that’s 18 km away. Plenty of buses drive up to Yercaud from Salem. You could also hire a cab from the airport for a round day’s trip to Yercaud and back. Yercaud is about 47 km from Salem airport.

There are several trains to Salem, even long distance ones like the Thiruvananthapuram-Silchar Express, Coimbatore-Rajkot Express and the Madurai-Dehradun SF Express that halt at Salem. There are daily trains from Chennai, Kerala, Coimbatore,Hyderabad and Bengaluru as well. From the railway station you could hire a cab to Yercaud. Otherwise board a local bus from the railway station to Salem’s Central Bus Terminus. From there you can get a bus that will take you to Yercaud. Yercaud is about 32 km from Salem Rail station.

It’s a scenic drive up the Ghat road to the Yercaud hills. With about 20 hairpin bends and lush vegetation on either side of the slope, it will be a pleasure driving up the hill by yourself. People go in for a weekend getaway driving to Yercaud from cities like Bengaluru, Coimbatore, Chennai or Salem. The Salem Central Bus Terminus has a frequent bus service to Yercaud. The distance from Salem bus stand to Yercaud is about 30 km.

Salem to Yercaud buses halt at the Lake in Yercaud. There is a cab stand at the Lake, where you can fix up a vehicle for a tour. Some of the sightseeing places are around the lake, which you can walk to and then hire a cab for the rest of the trip, like when you want to visit places like Pagoda Point. If you are staying in a hotel, they could also arrange a taxicab for your sightseeing trip.