[pypkmsrikanth]

Originally Posted by girish.r

Hi laluks, may I know the name of the Hotel where you had breakfast in Ranebennur, the location, the food quality, parking space etc.?
This could be helpful for my next drive to Hubli as I dont see any good hotels between Chitradurga and Haveri and getting into Davangere-Harihar would be time consuming.

Hi Girish you could try Vittala Kamath restaurant, part of a HPCL pump, which is at about 25 kms from Haveri (Shiggaon) on the way to Hubli had my lunch on the way back from Mahabaleshwar to Chennai a couple of weeks back, alternatively you could try the Ranibennur BP which has a Ghar, this is just before the entrace to Ranibennur. Did not try it but it looked good when we filled up fuel on the way onwards.

[swiftrazak]

Hi All,

This is my first mail in team BHP. We are planning a trip to goa from 26th to 2nd Nov.

We wish to go by my swift car and the passengers are 2 males, 2 females and 4 year old child.

After reading the below reviews, i have shortlisted the following route but need confirmation from the experts before starting the journey. As we are interested to cover Hampi, I have slected this route.

Bangalore - Tumkur - Chitradurga - hospet - hampi - gadag - hubli - ankol - karwar - panaji.

we will be having a halt for 1 full day at hampi and mostly it will be day driving.

Also while returning can i use the below route for bangalore or will it be risky considering we are travelling with a child?

panaji - Karwar - Honnavar - Jog Falls - Sagar - Shimoga - Bhadravati - Tumkur - Bangalore.

Cheers
Razak

[akroy]

Originally Posted by swiftrazak

Hi All,

This is my first mail in team BHP. We are planning a trip to goa from 26th to 2nd Nov.

We wish to go by my swift car and the passengers are 2 males, 2 females and 4 year old child.

After reading the below reviews, i have shortlisted the following route but need confirmation from the experts before starting the journey. As we are interested to cover Hampi, I have slected this route.

Bangalore - Tumkur - Chitradurga - hospet - hampi - gadag - hubli - ankol - karwar - panaji.

we will be having a halt for 1 full day at hampi and mostly it will be day driving.

Also while returning can i use the below route for bangalore or will it be risky considering we are travelling with a child?

panaji - Karwar - Honnavar - Jog Falls - Sagar - Shimoga - Bhadravati - Tumkur - Bangalore.

Cheers
Razak

I would suggesst take the following while going:
Hubli - Dharwad - Kittur - Bidi - Khanapur - Anmod - Panaji
(Pls check a previous post by filcord where he mentioned this in detail). Dont try Hubli - Khanapur, you might run into trouble with extremely bad roads.

If you donot want to visit Jog Falls then I would suggest the following for return (if not the same route as above):
Karwar - ankola - Mirjan - Devimane Ghat - Sirsi - Haveri - NH4 - Blr

No Problem with child. Check my Goa travelogue we travelled with child and there was no issues (same combination as yours).

Abhi

[girish.r]

Originally Posted by pypkmsrikanth

Hi Girish you could try Vittala Kamath restaurant, part of a HPCL pump, which is at about 25 kms from Haveri (Shiggaon) on the way to Hubli had my lunch on the way back from Mahabaleshwar to Chennai a couple of weeks back, alternatively you could try the Ranibennur BP which has a Ghar, this is just before the entrace to Ranibennur. Did not try it but it looked good when we filled up fuel on the way onwards.

Hey Srikanth thanks for the info and even I saw the picture of this hotel in your travelogue. However I am looking at a hotel in between Chitradurga and Ranebennur. The idea is to leave Bangalore by 6AM, stop by Kamat Upachar at Hiriyur for breakfast and from here to Haveri would be 3-3.5hrs and in between planning to have a tea break. Haveri-Hubli would be 35-40 mins, so might as well get into Hubli and break for lunch.
As per your recommendation most probably will plan to have lunch at Vittal Kamath, Shiggaon itself & can drive directly to home avoiding the Hubli city traffic looking for a Hotel.

[sanjaykhm]

Any recent feedback on the Hubli - Karwar section?
Planning to travel this weekend Bangalore - Goa and wanted to decide between
a. Hubli - Karwar section
b. Hubli - Kittur - Bidi - Khanapur - Ramnagar - Anmod - Molem - Ponda (filcord!!)
Thanks

[DDGuy]

Originally Posted by sanjaykhm

Any recent feedback on the Hubli - Karwar section?
Planning to travel this weekend Bangalore - Goa and wanted to decide between
a. Hubli - Karwar section
b. Hubli - Kittur - Bidi - Khanapur - Ramnagar - Anmod - Molem - Ponda (filcord!!)
Thanks

Hi Sanjay.

I went to Goa from Bangalore last month via Hubli-Karwar. I didn't chose the Ponda route as my resort in Goa was in South of Goa and so going via Karwar made sense.

While going it took me 5 hours to reach Goa from Hubli (we had left Bangalore on Friday 11 am and stayed overnight in Hubli) when we left Hubli at 6 AM. While coming back we left Goa at 5.30 am and was at Hubli in 4 hours flat. For details refer to the attached Excel file. It will give you most of the data you are looking for.

The road is not as good as NH4 but its very scenic, it was misty and looked beautiful. It has lots of turns, one of which nearly pushed by Santro out of control but I managed. (the only scary moment of the whole trip !!)

[laluks]

How do you guys make this travel log thingy. Do you use a GPS with enabled softwre to capture the time and distance covered? or use the manual way of writing it down? Probably the co-driver notes it down?

[DDGuy]

Originally Posted by laluks

How do you guys make this travel log thingy. Do you use a GPS with enabled softwre to capture the time and distance covered? or use the manual way of writing it down? Probably the co-driver notes it down?

Nothing that fancy. Just a small notepad and pen in hands of a grudging wife-who-can't-complain-due-to-free-ride does the trick !!

[sanjaykhm]

DD,

Thanks, I had taken the same route 2 years back and really enjoyed the route. Special Mention for Karwar and the view of the POrt & Sea.

[whitemm550]

Originally Posted by DDGuy

Hi Sanjay.

I went to Goa from Bangalore last month via Hubli-Karwar. I didn't chose the Ponda route as my resort in Goa was in South of Goa and so going via Karwar made sense.
---
The road is not as good as NH4 but its very scenic, it was misty and looked beautiful. It has lots of turns, one of which nearly pushed by Santro out of control but I managed. (the only scary moment of the whole trip !!)

i personally feel that the Goa- Belgaum-Hubli-Bangalore route is the best

[abhishek79b]

Hi Sanjay,

I just did Bangalore-Hubli - Kittur - Khanapur - Ramnagar - Anmod - Molem - Ponda - Panaji - Calangute last (Diwali) weekend and the road was pretty ok-ish save for the Kittur - Khanapur stretch and the mining belt around Molem...a total of around 30 km amongst the total 635 km route from Outer Ring Rd to Calangute.
Especially enjoyed the drive through the ghat section on the goa side.

There was one road branching off NH4 almost 30 km before Kittur towards Panaji (165 km) which could have cut the trip shorter by about 50 km. But the toll plaza guy himself advised against taking that one citing very bad road conditions. I was wondering if this road finally merges with the same route I took, someplace after Anmod or Molem OR a seperate route altogether. Because if thats the case, its better to take this route and save 50 kms than bear with the anyways horrible 15 km stretch between Kittur and Khanapur plus the additional roundabout. What say roadies?

BTW, this is my first post at TBHP and I've *JUST* been a member of this awesome gang!!

[Taz-On-The-Road]

I guess this is the route that you are talking about. It connects to NH4A after Londa and goes through a place called Alnavar. This is not a road. It is a dirt track with foot deep ditches. My friend who was brave enough to take it last year in a Santro had 8K worth of repairs in Panaji to spice up his holiday. So you either do 50km more or be ready to do some serious damage to your vehicle . Someone with an SUV like a Safari could try it though and enlighten all of us on the condition of this "road". Guess the government has forgotten that such a road exists. Haven't seen many people on this forum talking about it either. Cheers!!!

[akroy]

Originally Posted by abhishek79b

There was one road branching off NH4 almost 30 km before Kittur towards Panaji (165 km) which could have cut the trip shorter by about 50 km. But the toll plaza guy himself advised against taking that one citing very bad road conditions.

You should thank that toll guy for his advice.
hubli - londa - ponda (via Chorla ghat i think) is in shambles since atleast 5years. My friend's Indica was hanging between 2 craters an year back. It would have taken you ages to cross that section.

Originally Posted by abhishek79b

BTW, this is my first post at TBHP and I've *JUST* been a member of this awesome gang!!

Welcome to Team Bhp. I am sure you will have a wonderful journey in the Forum !!

Abhi

[mclaren1885]

I think the best route to take to Goa right now is Tumkur-Shimoga-Honnavar-Karwar-Goa. Only the stretch between Tarikere & Shimoga is in shambles. Thats just 30 kms and around 10 kms at the outskirts of Goa. Its way better than negotiating Haveri-Chitradurga stretch, travel out of way to Belgaum, again go thru Ponda-Londa. Via Hubli route you get atleast 70kms of bad roads.

[abhishek79b]

Good that I wasn't feeling "thrifty" enough to take that road

@Taz
Thanks for confirming my theory...very bad idea though.
On my way to Khanapur from Kittur it did occur to me a couple of times why not try that route on my way back. Thank my beers that I couldn't pull myself together for the required google-mapping while in goa.