Wayanad and Chikmagalur late December - Help Needed!

Hi, I just finished trawling through the various Chikmagalur and Wayanad threads in Team BHP, but no closer to finding out what to do, except to visit these beautiful places! We are planning to leave from Bangalore on Dec 24 andKenichira (Blooms Homestay : : Home : :) for 3 days. We were planning to do some Mangalore beach resort first, but decided against it because of the road reviews (esp Shiradi ghat). We are planning to end it (Dec 29-31) in Chikmagalur. A few questions: 1. Where else can we go in the middle (Dec 27/28) 2. What routes are the best? (Bangalore-Wayanad, Wayanad to the answer of Q1, and Chik-Bangalore) 3. We are 6 ppl (incl my 80yr old dad) and 2 kids (incl my 2.5 yr old!) in two cars (my Fiesta and one hired) - is it even safe to drive down (though a couple of years back we did a 17 hr drive (with breaks) in my earlier car an Innova straight from Thrissur to Chennai, but want to restrict ourselves to 5-6 hr drives (or a max of 7-8 hrs) only). 4. Will it be very cold? 5. Are there good beach resorts in the coastline near Wayanad? My daughter is crazy about water! 6. Finally (whew!)- what are the good places to stay in Chik?

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