[lazybrain]

@rajshenoy I drove down to Hampi just last weekend. For your questions above:

1. I took bangalore - tumkur - Sira - hiriyur - chitradurga - hospet route. Bangalore to chitradurga stretch is good expressway drive though with frequent diversion to service road after you cross tumkur since they are constructing flyovers and underpasses on this stretch. But good thing is entire stretch is pothole free until chitradurga.
Once you reach chitradurga exit at the second flyover and take right to join SH which leads to hospet. Stretch between chitradurga and hospet is 2 lane roads but pothole free. But you will get irritated to drive because of heavy truck traffic. Also beware of unmarked speed breakers on this stretch. Distance from bangalore to Hampi: around 350 kms.

2. Hampi is open for tourists from sunrise to sunset, approximately from 6 AM in the morning to evening 7:00 pm. So you can plan accordingly.

3. Weather in Hampi: it's terribly hot and dry during the day with no signs of rains whatsoever. But nights are bit pleasant not comparable to bangalore though

Hope this helps

[rajshenoy]

Originally Posted by lazybrain

@rajshenoy I drove down to Hampi just last weekend. For your questions above:
Hope this helps

Thats perfectly what i was looking for. Thanks alot. I am assuming this would be approximately 6-7 hours journey including food breaks in between

While surfing i came across other attractions such as Reservoir and more distant Badami pattadakal etc.

I was planning for just 2 day,1 night trip but If i need to cover additional stuff like Badami, i might need another extra day. Is it worth visiting or similar to Hampi?

[lazybrain]

Originally Posted by rajshenoy

Thats perfectly what i was looking for. Thanks alot. I am assuming this would be approximately 6-7 hours journey including food breaks in between

you are right. It will take maximum 7 hours if you take the route i suggested. Keep in mind that you wont find much decent places to eat in this stretch except for Kamat upachar and CCD next to each other on the tumkur road. Once you break there, the next decent restaurant you will find is only once you reach Chitradurga (considering that you are traveling with your family and clean restrooms is on top of your priority list in addition to decent eat-out place).

Originally Posted by rajshenoy

While surfing i came across other attractions such as Reservoir and more distant Badami pattadakal etc.

Originally Posted by rajshenoy

I was planning for just 2 day,1 night trip but If i need to cover additional stuff like Badami, i might need another extra day. Is it worth visiting or similar to Hampi?

I would suggest dont miss Badami, Pattadakal and Aihole since these places are near from Hospet - Just 150 kms max drive to these places from Hospet. You can make Hospet as your base and then travel to these places.

for people who are not aware there is a newly laid 6 laned expressway from hospet to hungund via kushtagi (NH-13) which takes you to Aihole. I enjoyed the drive on this stretch this time. there are toll booths on this stretch but they are yet to be functional. So please seize the opportunity for now for people who are going to Badami, Pattadakal and Aihole and enjoy the drive on this 100 kms. stretch expressway without paying any toll . Below is the route map:

Hospet, Karnataka to Aihole, Karnataka - Google Maps

The thing we need to keep in mind is if you take that route from Hospet you will first reach Aihole. So you need to cover Aihole, Pattadakal and Badami in that order.

[rajshenoy]

What is the better route among the two. I am seeing mixed feedback.

1.Blr-Chitradurga-hospet
2. Blr-Hiriyur-Challakere-Bellary-Hospet.

I plan to leave Bangalore early morning(read 5AM) so should reach hospet by 12ish.
During return, i plan to leave hospet post lunch(Max 2PM) and reach Bangalore by night

Which route do you recommend based on the traffic patterns at the timing i am choosing. Or should i try to tweak my timings a bit ?

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by rajshenoy

1.Blr-Chitradurga-hospet
2. Blr-Hiriyur-Challakere-Bellary-Hospet.

From lazybrain's recommendation Chitradurga-Hospet is in good shape. I've travelled Bellary-Hospet myself and it has quite a few bad patches. It will take upwards of 1 hr just to cover Bellary-Toranagallu-Hospet.

[sureshurs]

Originally Posted by rajshenoy

What is the better route among the two. I am seeing mixed feedback.

1.Blr-Chitradurga-hospet
2. Blr-Hiriyur-Challakere-Bellary-Hospet.

I did Bangalore-Hospet twice during last two weekends. I travelled through the following routes

1. Bangalore - Chitradurga -Hospet : Shorthest distance. Good road condition with minor patches of un even surface. Best route if you are starting before 7.00AM in Bangalore as you would cover Bangalore-Tumkur before traffic peaks. Took me 5 hrs when I started at 6.00 AM from HSR Layout

2. Blr-Hiriyur-Challakere-Bellary-Hospet: Good road with one of the best 2 lane roads bewteen Hiriyur and Bellary. However the road from Bellary bypass to Hospet is not so good with bad patches. I would not recommend this route. Took me 6 hrs when i started at 9.00 AM from Hospet

3. Blr-Anantapur-Urvakonda-Bellary-Hospet : I prefer this route if i am leaving after 8.00 AM or would be returning to Bangalore after 4.00 PM. I stay in HSR Layout and I take HSR-Whitefield- Devanahalli road to avoid the peak traffic. Excellent road between Blr- Ananthapur ( can cover in 2.5 Hrs). Very good road between Ananthapur-Urvakonda-Karnataka border. Road condition is not good between Karnataka border and Bellary bypass

[rajshenoy]

Originally Posted by sureshurs

I did Bangalore-Hospet twice during last two weekends. I travelled through the following routes

1. Bangalore - Chitradurga -Hospet : Shorthest distance. Good road condition with minor patches of un even surface. Best route if you are starting before 7.00AM in Bangalore as you would cover Bangalore-Tumkur before traffic peaks. Took me 5 hrs when I started at 6.00 AM from HSR Layout

I guess i will stick to Chitradurga route. My plan is to start early at say 5-5:30 AM to avoid traffic.
BTW i see that chitradurga to hospet is NH13, but google maps seem to show some deviation to jagallur and joining NH back at Kudigi. I hope i can stick to NH instead of following google maps.
Any other good breakfast options apart from Kamat on tumkur road? I might reach this place pretty early if i start at 5 and i might not be open
Anything good in Chitradurga ?

[lazybrain]

@rajshenoy - on the chitradurga NH4 itself towards your left ( exit at the first flyover) when you come from bangalore you can find a decent restaurant cum boarding by name "Naveen residency". The restaurant is pretty decent and neat and the main advantage is it is right on the highway and you need not enter chitradurga town. It's a well maintained lodging cum restaurant and the washrooms are also well maintained. I had breakfast, lunch and dinner at different occasions here and I am pretty much satisfied with their quality of food. They have vegetarian restaurant on the ground floor and a multicusine non-veg roof top restaurant too (for lunch and dinner)

There are absolutely no eateries after you cross chitradurga, that is on chitradurga - hospet road. The only eating option will be after you reach hospet.

[rajshenoy]

Originally Posted by lazybrain

There are absolutely no eateries after you cross chitradurga, that is on chitradurga - hospet road. The only eating option will be after you reach hospet.

Thanks Lazybrain. Your profile name doesnt suit you. you are not really lazy

So its either Kamat or chitradurga break for me. hoping that the weather stays decent.

[sureshurs]

Originally Posted by rajshenoy

I guess i will stick to Chitradurga route. My plan is to start early at say 5-5:30 AM to avoid traffic.
BTW i see that chitradurga to hospet is NH13, but google maps seem to show some deviation to jagallur and joining NH back at Kudigi. I hope i can stick to NH instead of following google maps.
Any other good breakfast options apart from Kamat on tumkur road? I might reach this place pretty early if i start at 5 and i might not be open
Anything good in Chitradurga ?

I would suggest sticking on NH13 all through from Chitradurga to Hospet. I took the deviation(as per google maps) earlier when NH13 was in a bad shape, However there is no need for it now.

You may want to try "Pavithra Idly" at Tumkur whic is known for Thatte idly and vada. The other place is Kamath upachar near Sira. This place would be on your right side before Sira while going from Bangalore.

[rajshenoy]

I came back from hospet and took the NH4- NH13 route and the road conditions were decent throughout.

Some hiccups i faced are:

1. Some tunnel work going on just before hospet(near the Dam) and its a steep incline with hell lot of truck traffic. Add to that there was a train crossing and an oversized container struggling to pass. Result was a 2-3 km long pile up which took 45 mins to clear

2. Heavy rains on sunday afternoon. bad visibility reduced my speed to almost 40kmph till i reached Chitradurga and toll road. I wanted to reach nelamangala before day light faded but unfortunately it got late and tumkur-nelamangala was a mess with too much truck traffic and it was a pain with rain and head lights on.

@Sureshurs, I tried Kamath, Sira while returning thanks for the info.

[manjubp]

Last update on this is almost 50 days back. Any latest update on route would help the Dasara Holiday travellers like me :-)

[scanD]

Thanks all.. I found the updates up-to-date and pretty helpful. Just returned from a Blr -> Hampi -> Badami -> Blr trip.

Between Bengaluru and Chitradurga (both to & fro) -> very frequent deviations to service road due to ongoing constructions on highway. Both highway and Service roads are in excellent condition but the trucks turning into and off these deviations will slow us down considerably. Truck drivers were very accommodative of overtaking even in service roads.


Chitradurga to Hospet -> Mostly broken roads.. with very few patches of good roads. (say, only 20% was good). One can still maintain an average of 50-60 kmph. On the return journey, this part didn't seem all that annoying as my expectations were set.


Hospet to Hampi -> substandard roads with traffic.


Hospet to Badami -> we took a detour to Lakkundi (extremely beautiful Kasi Visweswara Temple and Brahma Jinalaya (Jain temple) ) From Lakkundi to Badami, we had a horrible ride through village roads, thanks to a data/software error in navigator :-(


Badami to Mahakuta to Pattadakal to Aihole --> Mostly bad roads.

Returned via: Badami, Guledgudda, Amingad, Hungund, join NH13 to Hospet ... ... ... BLR. Excellent roads with very few exceptions.

Onward Journey: Started at 05:00 AM and took 6 hours (excluding breaks) to cover 350 kms from BLR to Hampi.
Return journey: Reached BLR around 22:30 after 8+ hours (excluding breaks) of driving to cover 480 kms from Badami to BLR.

[sudhir5478]

Hello All,

I'm planning for a historical cum religious tour of Chitradurga, Aihole, Pattadakal, Badami, Hampi, Mantralayam and back to Bangalore

I plan to visit the chitradurga fort and have planned to a day's stay. From there I'm planning to halt in Hospet for a 3 days and visit TB dam, Anegundi on day 1, Aihole, Pattadakal, Badami on day 2 and Hampi on day 3.

Next I'm planning to go to Mantralayam and stay overnight before returning back to Bangalore.

Can anyone, throw some light on the best possible route and road conditions..

Thanks

[nileshch]

A quick update -- A friend travelled to Hampi from Bangalore this weekend. He reports that the Chitradurga-Hospet route is good and very much driveable. He is a slow driver and took 7 hours to complete the one way trip but the roads were good throughout.