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With a 6:00 AM start from Hyderabad, you can reach Devanahalli by 1:00 PM, Hosur by 3:00 - 3:30 PM and Salem by 6:00 PM. From Devenahalli, take the NH 648 (old no 207) and not the state highway via Whitefield.

I think Dindigul - Kumily route will be better to Tiruvalla. Google also shows it as default route.

Has the Chennai cyclone affected any of the roads between Bangalore to Cochin?

Planning to drive from Bangalore to Calicut next week and wanted to get some inputs

1. Which is the best route and whats the current road condition ?
2. If I start by 2.00 PM from Bangalore, will I able to cross the forest area on time ?
3. Which will be a good place for an overnight stay, if need be?. I don't intend to travel after 10 PM
4. Other option I am mulling over is to go to Palakkad, stay there overnight and next day to Calicut. Stay will be free as we have a relative there, so does that make sense ?

Looking forward to your valuable inputs

1. Standard route is good enough. Bangalore-Mysore-Nanjangud-Gundlepet-Bathery-Kalpetta--Calicut. Alternative is Bangalore-Kanakpura-Malavalli-Bannur-Mysore and then on. This will avoid the Bangalore-Mysore highway if you are leaving at a peak time/day (Example Next Friday/Saturday). Roads conditions are good through out. But mostly 2 lane roads (completely 2 lane roads if you are taking the 2nd route). When you hit Mysore Ring Road (either at Columbi Asia if you are taking Bangalore Mysore Road, or at the Bannur Road-Ring Road intersection) remember to take a left and go via the left ring of the ring road. This is relatively new and gets you to the Gundlepet Road very quickly.

2. You should target to be at the NICE Road exit (either Kanakpura or Mysore) latest by 3 to be comfortable. If you are not very familiar with the route, make it a little earlier. So adjust accordingly depending on where in Bangalore you are starting from.

3. If you leave by 2PM, you should reach or be very close to Calicut by 10PM. No point halting. Otherwise, stop at Bathery or Kalpetta (several hotels like Jubilee (Bathery), Woodlands(Kalpetta) are there in the main town itself), enjoy the wintry morning in Wayanad and then move on to Calicut. But again, not really needed unless you absolutely do not want to drive 7-8 hours, or drive down the ghats after sunset.

4. No reason to do it, unless you get delayed leaving from Bangalore and cannot beat the forest closure. If that is the case, makes sense.

Thanks much Rajeevraj. I am not familiar with Bangalore but I will be starting from Bellandur, Varthur Hobli area (Bangalore – 560103). How long, do you think, it takes to reach the forest starting point from the above place ?

Assuming you take the kanakpura road; expect 3.5-4 hrs relaxed driving time from nice road exit to forest checkpost

From Bellandur, take the Outer Ring Road towards Silk Board, then get onto Hosur Road (left). Don't take the BETL (Elevated Road) and stay below on Hosur Road. At the 4th signal (Hosa Road/Jail Road) get onto the service road on left and you will go past Audi showroom and just after PESIT college campus, take the NICE Road ramp. This is about 8Km from Silk Board and can take about 30 minutes if you're starting in the afternoon. Once you decide what route to take, you can either take the Kanakapura Road exit or the Mysore Road exit of NICE.
In about 4 hours you should be able to reach the forest checkpost just past Gundlupet. The gates close at 9pm, so plan to reach accordingly without cutting it too close. I would say 1:30-2pm would be a good time to start from Bellandur, not later.

I would actually recommend this route from Belandur. Belandur-Sarjapur Road- Jail/Hosa Road-Turn left on to service road at Hosa Road-Hosur Road Jn and then get on to NICE Road. Should be faster than Silk Board and Hosur Road at 1.30-2PM. Should take about 30 min to get on to NICE Road from Belandur, assuming there are no unexpected jams.

Route Link

I assume when you say Belandur, it is somewhere around the starting point mentioned on the map in the above Link. If you are actually on Sarjapur Road, this is the route to take.

How is the situation at Toll booths towards Kerala from Bangalore after demonitization? Are there long queues? I am planning to drive to Vaikom on Dec 22nd. Plan to start at 5:00 AM from Whitefield via Bagalur - Hosur. Would there be long queues at toll booths due to Christmas vacation?

Traveled a week ago on a weekday and found it to be normal (bangalore-Palakkad). I think Dec 22 should also be manageable as it's a weekday. FasTag helped me to quickly navigate through all tolls, had to use cash only at L&T Coimbatore bypass.
If you don't have FasTag, be prepared with cash including small change or Paytm/card payments though it may take a little more time.
Needless to say early morning 4am or even earlier starts will help tremendously :)

Will be travelling to Thrissur on the next week end. On Christmas day (25th). Hope the traffic will not be much as starting on Sunday. Generally we start very early (~3-3:30AM) and used to reach Thrissur by 11:30AM-12PM.

The Dindigul Kumily route is good. A bit crowded. But, not much of a hassle. Wind is not a factor.

Regulars here have answered your questions, but I'll add these points based on the fact that I have driven Bangalore-Calicut thrice in the last 25 days, most recent being yesterday:

As of today, the best route in terms of road conditions is Bangalore-Mysore (NH 275)-Mysore Ring Road-NH 212-Gundlupet-Kalpetta-Calicut. All the alternatives are inferior in some way or other (though they hold appeal to us regulars for various reasons).

This you need to work backwards.

From Mysore's Columbia Asia Hospital junction, the forest edge is about 90 km and takes about 75-90 minutes depending on your driving style (not traffic; this route does not have a traffic problem unless there is an accident or something).

From the NICE Road junction to Mysore Columbia Asia junction, it is 118 km. This takes me about 90-100 minutes when I drive early mornings before daybreak, and can go up to 180 minutes during mid-afternoons/evenings. You should definitely plan for 3 hours at least, since you will be passing through towns like Ramanagara and Mandya during their versions of evening rush hour.

From Bellandur to NICE Road junction with Mysore Road via Silk Board and NICE Road, I'd say 90 minutes is needed considering Bangalore's afternoon traffic.

So that is a total of 6 hours. You should reach the forest edge comfortably if you start at 2 PM, but make sure you stick to that time (else you'll be cutting it too fine).

In my experience, night driving between 10 PM and 5 AM is safer and less scarier than between 6 PM and 10 PM. If you reach forest edge by 8 PM as I think you would, by 10 you would be at Kalpetta, which is only about 1.5 hours away from Calicut at that time of the night. Still, if you want to stay overnight consider any place with sufficient tripadvisor ratings between Sulthan Bathery and Kalpetta.

I do take this route occasionally; but it is about 150 km longer and takes 1-2 hours more. Plus, the Palakkad-Calicut NH 213 sees very heavy traffic and the alternative routes are too narrow, crowded and sometimes bad roads. You should consider this route only if you are confident you'll miss the forest entry deadline.

Dear members,

Decided to drive from Bangalore to Chengannur on December 23rd, due to unavailability of train tickets.

Plan to leave Bangalore by 2PM, stopover at Theni or Dindgul, stay overnight there and drive to Chengannur next day morning.

Another route suggested by google map was the Bangalore-Salem-Trissur-Perumbavoor-Chengannur. I don't prefer to drive more than 8 hours a day, stopover is a must.

Kindly suggest the best route for my trip. Thanks in advance. I will commence my return journey on December 30th, planned a night stopover, requesting inputs for the return journey too.

Rgds,
Vinod

I just drove from Hyderabad to Tiruvalla with an overnight stop in Salem. I bypassed Bangalore using NH207 from Devanahalli to Hosur. My route was HYDERABAD-HOSUR-SALEM-PALGHAT-ERNAKULAM-ALLEPEY-CHANGANASHERRY-TIRUVALLA.

Hosur to Salem took 2.5 hours. Salem to Tiruvalla took 9 hours driving time. MC Road at Chenganasherry is all dug up and under construction for a 3 km stretch.

15 km stretch from Vadakancherry to Thrissur bypass is under construction and slows you down.

Although i haven't taken the Dundigal-Theni-Kumily route I am planning to explore taking that on my way back. I would recommend you take that one instead of this. You spend more time in the good roads in TN and only about 3 hours in narrow windy Kerala country roads.