This is my first Tlog on this forum so please pardon any mistakes. I did not take any picture of the car or the roads since I am not very fond of taking pics (just me and my idiosyncrasies).
The Vehicle: 2023 Tata Nexon (old version). Named Lava (Geologist and his likes! The car is Red)
Trip participants: Me, the wife and two kids aged 11/12 (turned a year older in the trip) and 6 years
Journey: from Vadodara to Dehradun and back, covered from 28 Oct 2024 to 11 Nov 2024
The path: Vadodara-Kota-Gurgaon-Dehradun and back
Lets get down to the journey
We had planned a trip to Dehradun, where my in-laws are based, for Diwali vacations. I had attempted to book train tickets exactly on the day the reservations opened, but got a WL-4. The hope was that it would get confirmed by the journey time which was 120 days away. As days wore on, no changes were observed. A few days before the day, my wife casually suggested that we can do a road trip.
There were some problems.
Firstly both my wife and son have road sickness. I tend to measure distances by the number of vomit breaks we take. For example Silchar-Agartala is 8 breaks and Vadodara-Saputara is 2. Vadodara-Mumbai is 3.
Secondly, the longest I have driven in a day is 400km and this journey was 1400km long. I tentatively planned to cover the distance in 3 days but also kept hope that the train tickets come through.
On the day before the travel, I came back from office after taking tentative leaves without any concrete plans. To cut a long story short, the tickets did not get confirmed and suddenly we changed plans to pack smartly and take the road trip after all. My kids were excited and I slept well thankfully.
The day 1: We woke at 7 AM and took a bath and packed some snacks and water. Loaded the luggage and went to the kids' school to attend a PTM. I had planned to leave at 9 AM but that turned to 11AM and off we went. Crossing Vadodara city quickly, we hit the Vadodara-Halol State Highway. The movement was done in decent time and through well known roads. Post Halol, we took the NH-47 towards Jhabua (MP) via Godhra, Dahod and Meghnagar. The roads were decent but had good amount of traffic, which were a mix of heavy trucks and bikes with smattering of cars. It took us 3 hours to cover the distance to Meghnagar. Took a couple of quick biobreaks and tea breaks. Reached Thandla at 3.30PM where we took a lunch break at OM Restaurant. It was a mix of good and disastrous food. However it is the only decent food joint in the entire stretch, with decent washrooms. Service is okayish and food is decent. Post light lunch we hit the NE4 towards Kota. It was the first time that I used the cruise control and it was a revelation. I became a fan of this invention instantly. We covered the distance to Chechat exit, where the current opened stretch ends, in about 2.5 hours. I admit that I did cross the speed limit of 120 KMPH on occasions.
After exiting at Chechat toll, we took some village roads to join the NH-52 towards Kota. We passed painfully slow through Dara pass and Mukundara tiger reserve in complete darkness. After that, open roads with somewhat decent traffic greeted us and we reached Kota at 8.30PM. I had booked a hotel the previous night. The hotel, Surya Plaza was expecting us since the evening. Thankfully they checked us in quickly and we ordered dinner, as kids were famished. They had not eaten much since morning. The hotel is quite good and rooms are quite well done. It is a good business hotel and highly recommended. The food arrived and it was polished off quickly. The food was very good and the Caesar salad was fresh and well made. We just dropped off to sleep. Sleep quality is good here.
Day 2: We woke up late around 8 AM and went to take breakfast. the spread was decent and service was quite good overall. I usually take my own good time post breakfast as otherwise the wife and son don't travel well. We checked out at 11 AM and started for Gurgaon via the "Mega Highway" to sawai Madhopur. The road is actually a 2 lane Highway passing through villages and has good amount of traffic throughout. Me and the wife appreciated the scenery all around, as both of us are geologists and Rajasthan is our academic Karmabhumi. The hills of Rajasthan always have a special place in both our hearts. The roads are decent but have lots of scope for improvement. The tolls are not worth it though. It took us about 1.5 Hrs to reach Sawai Madhopur exit of NE4, which is the last exit of the opened stretch of this Expressway from Gurgaon. Once we hit the expressway, its blissful. The roadside amenities are not opened yet till Dausa exit. The roadside break areas are deserted and not recommended for a stop. Post Dausa/Lalsot exit area, the traffic is higher and roadside amenities are well working. We stopped at one just after the Dausa exit which had lots of options like Starbucks, KFC, Pizzahut, Vango and others. We had little food including some Dosa, Pizza and a small ice-cream. We covered the distance upto Sohna Exit from Sawai Madhopur in about 4 hrs with the journey done mostly on cruise control. From Sohna Exit to Sector 42 in Gurgaon took us about an hour with moderate traffic. We went to my cousin's house there. The next few hours passed happily with kids and elders enjoying good food and adda. Also to note, Gurgaon has the cheapest alcohol in my knowledge. Sleep came late for the grownups as we kept chatting to the annoyance of the kids.
Day 3: Again we woke up late and resumed the adda and good food. Somehow, my plans to leave by 9 AM turned into 12 PM. We took the Western Peripheral Expressway to Meerut Expressway. Till the end, the journey was good though traffic was quite high. Post exit from Meerut Expressway, the problems started. Meerut bypass does not deserve the name as it is very very crowded and movement is painful. No traffic sense and less civic sense was palpable. The journey to Muzzafarnagar bypass was again slow. Infact the road till Haridwar via Roorkee bypass is slow moving overall. The road passes through Haridwar city. It has good number of flyovers and underpasses and surprisingly the passage was quick. But after that again the roads are crowded till Motichur. It was already dark when we passed through so could not see the jungles around. The road to Dehradun has been widened and made smooth over the last few years. That is a welcome change and appreciated. Even though the progress was slowish, we managed to cover the distance from Haridwar in about an hour and a quarter. Crossed the Dehradun traffic and reached home by 7 PM.
Overall, the last day was 250 KM, it took us about 6 hours of driving time. Same as covering 450 Km on day 2.
Some observations have been made in another post in another part of the forum.
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route...ml#post5875567 (Delhi - Mumbai : Route Queries)
Overall, the toll from Vadodara to Dehradun was around Rs 2500 and fuel cost us around Rs 12500. I used tankful to tankful method to measure efficiency and found that the best mileage I got was 19 KMPL on day 2 from Kota to Gurgaon. More that 2/3 of the road was Expressway so understandable. The worst efficiency was about 11 KMPL on Gurgaon to Dehradun, which also is explainable.
Nexon is a very competent Highway rider. At no point did I feel any discomfort and felt insecure even at high speeds. The kids sitting in the back had lots of space to move and hence no fatigue was felt even after 3 days on the road. Interestingly, my wife and son did not feel road sick even once throughout. A testament to stability of the car and my improved driving. But also them eating Oranges periodically and keeping a gap between meals and travelling. Both are homegrown ideas but worked (Touch Wood)
2nd January 2024, 11:47
(1)
Thanks
This was very helpful as we were not sure where to enter Delhi - Mumbai Expressway in between. It was one of the reasons, we were oscillating more towards Route 1, as it was a tried and tested route. Other being lack of good restaurants in between as I could gather from some youtube videos. 
