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Salem- Thrissur route will be the stress free one. With an early morning / late evening start you can reach Thrissur within 8 hours of leaving Silk board junction.
Budget approx 45 mins for Thrissur - Guruvayoor.

If travelling via Mysore - Wayanad with an early morning (~3AM ) start from Bangalore you can reach Calicut bye-pass by 09.30 AM. Based on traffic you may take around 3 hours from Calicut - Guruvayoor. With a late start you will have to add around 2 hours more to this.

Another route you can consider is NH 209 till Annur, take a left there to join Nh 47 between Avinashi and Coimbatore and proceed as per your first route.

Bangalore-Wayanad-Guruvayur is a bad choice, as it will be quite longer (at least by about 60-70 km) than the other routes with no compensatory benefit. It is always better to go via Salem than taking this route.

Bangalore-Nilambur-Guruvayur is probably the shortest, but in this route you have to go via the super-horrible Theppakkad-Gudalur stretch (about 12 km, at a guess).

Once you enter Kerala via Wayanad or Nilambur, the road conditions are generally good all the way till Guruvayur.

Thank you all. I will take the Salem route then.

I heard horror stories about Nilambur road condition.

Regards
Sreekumar

Best Option: (Fastest in my opinion and has good roads all the way)

Bangalore-Salem-Avinashi-Mangalam-Palladam-Pollachi-Alathur-Pazhayannur-Wadakkanchery-Kunnamkulam-GVR

Route Link

After considering all the expert opinion received in TeamBHP, I did use this route for the long week end travel. I had marked all the points on my MapMyIndia device, and this considerably improved the comfort levels.

I never knew that Mangalam had a railway level crossing :). Because that would be for the main line (double line between JTJ & CBE) where train traffic is quite high. But now there is no reason to worry any ways. There is a road over bridge out there.

On the return leg also we took the same route, and all passengers this time was happy with the road condition and scenery as well :). We also had a lunch break for 45 minutes at a village.

The current verdict: We would henceforth go via this route, so that the irritating L&T byepass, Chavadi and Walayar areas can be ignored for good.

One thing I have noticed is that during long week ends the Toll Booths at Attibele and Krishnagiri are becoming a nightmare. I am reminded of the long queue of vehicles which we see on highways in foreign countries.

I have found out ways to byepass Attibele Toll booth, but need to figure out a good way to skip Krishnagiri Toll booth as well. Yesterday it took almost 30 minutes to cross Krishnagiri Toll. Vehicles were piling up (towards BLR). Finally Krishnagiri Traffic police had to bring in additional men, and they managed to get another two toll counters opened !! They closed down two counters on the other side of road (coming in from BLR), and started using that to push the traffic towards Bangalore. By that time I realised that Hosur area was also getting traffic blocks. So decided to skip Zuzuvadi and Attibele. Attibele toll booth is technically inside Karnataka state, and I don't have any much hopes on Bangalore Rural Dt. Police (at Attibele) to do any thing to control the chaos.

Friends, my small update for this thread:

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...ml#post3507776

Shanks

Still the road between Palakkad and CBE by-pass is under construction and bumpy.

Shanks

Planning to drive to Mavelikkara (Alappuzha) from Bangalore on 5th of Sept. Considering that it is the Onam weekend, I expect heavy rush on the roads. I am researching on these options:

1) Bangalore -> Salem -> Palakkad -> Ernakulam -> Kayamkulam -> Mavelikkara

2) Bangalore -> Salem -> Palakkad -> Perumpavoor -> Kottayam -> Mavelikkara

3) Bangalore -> Salem -> Dindigul -> Kumily -> Ranny -> Mavelikkara

4) Bangalore -> Salem -> Madurai -> Tenkasi -> Punalur -> Mavelikkara

- Which is the fastest route?

- Is the S curve at Tenkasi still a bottleneck?

- How is the state of NH inside Kerala?

I like the last option better because most of the drive is in Tamil Nadu where the roads are better, but really worried about the S curve.

Thanks to everyone in advance.

There's no construction happening between Walayar and Madukkarai - it's just a mess that was created after luring everyone with a smooth, wide highway, almost a decade ago.

If you do not mind not so good roads, you can take the attibele-TVS factory-rayakottai-palacode-dharmapuri route. This way you can completely bypass attibele and krishnagiri toll booths. Roads are bad in stretches and the tarmac is broken in many places last I went. But it beats the mess at the toll booths.

They need to figure out a way to expand the krishnagiri toll booth. Even on regular weekends, it is a mess

Thanks for the pointer. Let me try plotting it on the map first. Good roads are important as well, because many times there would be aged people and a baby travelling with me. A way I used to avoid the Krishnagiri Toll booth mess is to cross it by around 15:00Hrs to 16:00Hrs (which means I need to start early from home). At this time what I have observed is that folks from Chennai and Kerala side would not be present in large numbers. They all generally start piling up after 17:00Hrs - the idea being to reach Bangalore by around 20:00Hrs and take good rest.

The only way is to beat them to it. Plan in such a way that you are at Silk Board before six. Which translates to what Sachin mentioned. Cross Krishnagiri by 4/4:30 at max. Beyond, that its way too painful. Sachin, meanwhile can you mention what route you take to bypass the Attibele toll?

Silk Board->Electronics City->Bommasandra->Chandapura->Attibele. Here do not cross the fly over but keep left and reach Attibele circle.

Attibele Circle->TVS Road->TVS check post (enter Tamil Nadu)->Junction with roads going towards Rayakottai, Hosur.

At this junction->Take right turn to proceed to Hosur->Cross a railway level crossing->The road leads you to NH7 again.

Take a sharp left turn here and you are back on the main highway.

Let me see if I can plot it on a map and share the URL as well.

Am aware of this route. Just wanted to know if you were looking at any other option. The utility of this options comes good if you use it all the way to drive past Krishnagiri via Palacode/Dharmapuri. But mostly with an early start, at least I am still able to beat the traffic at the toll booths. So to that effect, I never felt the need for the alternative route. But still I have taking such routes more for fun!

If faster travel time is one's objective don't look beyond
Bangalore-Salem-Coimbatore bypass-Palakkad-Pattambi-Guruvayur.
I have done this route umpteen times.
Why take such a route when you have an almost straight road in the form of NH with acceptable road conditions from Avinashi to Palakkad? Also road from Palakkad to Kunnamkulam is excellent with less traffic. The Alathur route was being suggested as an option to Thrissur when NH between Palakkad and Thrissur was in horrible condition. I may still use it if my destination is Thrissur, for Kunnamkulam/Guruvayur the other option is the best.

Hosur-Palacode-Thoppur route is in good condition and comfortable for 80-100 speeds. Its shorter by some 15+ kms and running time remains almost same for above speeds.

During busy hours, it saves time going via Attibelle -Palacode route.