[vagabond128]

Originally Posted by Rony2207

we have Nexon

There is some 7-8 KM of a bad patch on this route. Nothing that Nexon can't manage.

[rbg]

Route Update
17 Aug: Bangalore 417AM start(Sarjapur road)--huballi--left turn for Dandeli road--Agonda (12:55pm)

20 Aug: Agonda villas parking (10:40am)--Mollem--anmod--dharwad(beautiful roads)--right turn to huballi--nagasandra(IKEA nice road turning 845pm)--sarjapur home(1020pm)

I would suggest south Goa folks to take the anmod ghats only and avoid Mungod/Yellapur since the road will tire you out. On the other hand Anmod ghats will wake you up and make you appreciate my advice.

The only bad road is the Anmod/castle Rock railway phatak section which is around 12 kms broken but piece of cake for a true Bangalorean.

I would also highly recommend Agonda Villas during off season (August) the beach was totally beautiful and enchanting and magical.

Thanks and drive safe.

[mankuthimma]

We need to attend an event in Assonora during October. A quick look at the maps indicates that its a good opportunity do an offbeat no-beach Goa vacation around this area and also tick off some of the things in my bucket list.

For the onward journey, I am thinking of an ambitious and circuitous route as I always wanted to drive on the coastal highway.
Bangalore - Charmadi Ghat - overnight iin Udupi/Kundapura - Assonora.

Kindly suggest if this is worth an adventure. Also need help with few things

1. Thinking of staying overnight at Sai Vishram Beach resort as it was in the backlog for long time. Any other good suggestions close to the highway are also welcome.

2. gmaps indicates around 6 hrs time between Udupi/Kundapura to Assonora. Thinking of vsiting Apsarkonda and Idagunji temple on the way - what are the options for bio-breaks, lunch stops and COCO fuel pump on the way ?

3. Which are the nice routes and points of interest to drive around Assonora - preferably to explore the other side of Goa ?

[kiran_aithal]

Need help with some info (not route or roads).
Me and my friends are going to Goa by flight (yes, not driving. I don't like it one bit; 'time constraints' I heard, huh!). The stay is near the GOI airport and I need help with some good 2 wheeler and car rental options that you may know of - and how it works, hourly basis, daily basis, distance constraints, etc. I heard that Goa miles (equivalent of Uber/Ola) is a good option but, preference is self ride/drive.
Thanks in advance!

[kiran_aithal]

Originally Posted by mankuthimma

Kindly suggest if this is worth an adventure.

If time is on your side, it is very much worth it - the seashore hugging road is great to drive.

Originally Posted by mankuthimma

1. Thinking of staying overnight at Sai Vishram Beach resort

It is a good place to stay. However, as it is near Bhatkal, you use the Agumbe - Kundapura road to join the Highway to Bhatkal. Driving through Charmadi - Mluru/Udupi might be a stretch for this place.
Also, there are a few beach resorts that have come up near Udupi (One which I know of is Aaransh Nilaya)

Originally Posted by mankuthimma

2. gmaps indicates around 6 hrs time Thinking of vsiting Apsarkonda and Idagunji temple on the way

Visits are very much doable. You can also add Murudeshwara if time permits (may be even Mirjan fort!)

Originally Posted by mankuthimma

what are the options for bio-breaks, lunch stops and COCO fuel pump on the way ?

Petrol pump should not be a concern. For lunch, there is Kamat in Honnavar (visited few yrs back) and a couple of good places in Karwar.

For Q3, I leave it to the experts

[DragonHawk]

Originally Posted by mankuthimma

1. Thinking of staying overnight at Sai Vishram Beach resort as it was in the backlog for long time. Any other good suggestions close to the highway are also welcome.

It is highly recommended if one is looking for pure veg family-oriented resorts. The cottages have excellent ambiance and are quite spacious. The Veg spread was limited but it was tasty.

2. Gmaps indicates around 6 hrs time between Udupi/Kundapura to Assonora. Thinking of vsiting Apsarkonda and Idagunji temple on the way - what are the options for bio-breaks, lunch stops and COCO fuel pump on the way ?

This has been my preferred refueling stop whenever I visit that part of the state
IOCL COCO Swagath . Right next to it, there is Kamat Upachar with decent food and clean restrooms. If you want to have lunch much before that then you can visit Panduranga international Kumta which is not bad.

[Rony2207]

Bangalore - Tumkur - Davanagere - Dharward - Ramnagar - Anmod Ghats - Mollem - Ponda - Candolim

Date - 25th Aug to 28th Aug

Start time from Bangalore - 430 AM

Reached Candolim - 2 PM

Breaks - Breakfast (30 mins) and refreshments/fuel break (30 mins)

NH48 till Dharwad is good - no issues at all
NH67: Dharwad to Ramnagar is good, very scenic, and a pleasant drive
NH748: Karnataka side has horrible patches; you must be careful while driving as the road suddenly gives way to these bad patches.
NH748: Once you cross the border to Goa, the roads are nice and smooth

It would help to look for the Speed camera once you cross the Mollem Check post. The speed limit is 60 km/hr, and I cruised between 55 to 60 Km/hr based on my past encounter with Goa traffic police. I saw many KA-registered vehicles flagged down due to the speed trap camera used by Goa police.

A few bad patches in a drive of around 630 km don't matter; it's less than 5%, which is easily manageable. We returned taking the same route

[Nightmare]

What speed are you guys driving at

I took more than 12 hours both ways.

Went via Karwar and came back via Anmod. Anmod took less time and is much better option in my opinion.

But I am not able to fathom how members are managing 10/10.5 hrs.

I drove between 100-120 wherever possible and took 1 hr 15 mins break in total but still that can't touch the times mentioned by long margin.

Note: Even is someone is driving at 140-50, those speeds can't be maintained for a bigger stretch so that increases my curiosity.

[rajivtelang]

Originally Posted by Nightmare

But I am not able to fathom how members are managing 10/10.5 hrs.

The key lies in maintaining a constant speed without accelerating too much or slowing down too much. I usually used to take 10.5 hours with one break of 30 min via Anmod route. Speed to be maintained and really maintained at 90kmph with a highway average of 75kmph overall. Now with broken Anmod route it may add another hour in my opinion. Hubli, Yellapur, Ankola, Karwar route used to take 12 hours then. Did not try for a decade now so cannot comment.

[ashis89]

Originally Posted by Nightmare

What speed are you guys driving at

I took more than 12 hours both ways.

Speed doesn't play as much role as the amount of traffic you encounter and the duration of breaks you take. One can do 90 kmph throughout on a sparse traffic road and average out at 80kmph overall. Someone else does 110-120 kmph throughout but still averages 70 because traffic or road conditions slowing them down. Another factor is your destination within Goa, the more you travel within the state, the longer your overall trip is.

When I started from Bangalore at 3:40AM, I reached Palolem at 1PM (via Hubbali-Karwar). There was hardly any traffic till Hubbali which I reached in 5 hours. My destination was extreme south Goa. And I must have taken 1.5 hrs worth of breaks. Return via the same route covering 620 kms. But I started at 9AM from Palolem and reached home at 9:30PM. Lots of traffic and 2.5 hrs of breaks enroute, are to be blamed. Speeds were 80-120 throughout either legs of the trip but mostly cruised at 100.

[pkjains]

Originally Posted by sachinjoseph

Hi thanks for this suggestion. I am planning to take a very low sedan for this drive. Is it a good idea? Ive had bad experience of horrible roads and with the same car the last time I drove to goa from Bangalore. If its not that good roads, would prefer taking an SUV.

Thanks in advance.

If you have an option of taking an SUV, do that. I think low sedan would be ok on that route - just would need to be careful for 10-15 kms stretch.

[sou_3749]

Originally Posted by Nightmare

But I am not able to fathom how members are managing 10/10.5 hrs.

Exactly my curiosity. Even google maps show the drive time of 12 hours with legal speeds.

The last couple of times I travelled, it took atleast 10 hours of drive time. With breaks it goes towards 12 hours. The matter of the fact is I generally don’t go beyond 100kmph. If I increase my average speed by 10kmph which is huge, I end up saving 30 minutes in total. If we do the maths, you need to maintain illegal speeds for most of the distance to complete the journey in 8.5 hours.

But why worry about spending 2 more hours. Better late than never. The overall strain increases exponentially with higher speeds. The correct balance is to keep the speeds around 90-95kmph and drive continuously for 3 hours at a stretch. Economical, Safe and enjoyable.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by Nightmare

But I am not able to fathom how members are managing 10/10.5 hrs.

Originally Posted by sou_3749

Exactly my curiosity. Even google maps show the drive time of 12 hours with legal speeds.

And I wonder why it is not possible at all!

I have a a thumb rule to start no later than 0400/0430. This gives you wings not to fly but cruise comfortably and yet get a very decent average of 100 kph. In fact, with consistent driving speeds between 100-120 kph, without a single break except toll booth stops briefly, one can very well average 90-100 kph till the first breakfast point, 360 km away from Bangalore. A 30 minute breakfast break and you are on the road again.

For Bangalore to Hubli with one breakfast break, 85 kph is an acceptable average even with 110-120 kph maintained consistently and with a 30 minute break.

Especially for Bangalore to Hubli, there are very less chances for you to brake or slow down if you manage to assess traffic and perform calculated overtaking on the 3+3 lane highway as it offers lot of room and opportunities for that. Primarily, this is the major advantage along with the fact that between 0400 and 0900, Bangalore Hubli section witnesses very less traffic. Personally, I also see some advantage due to darkness as flashing of lights is easier than honking while one is not sure about the truck's next move just when you are attempting to overtake (and I remain a fan of night driving).

Here is a capture from my navigation device from my drive in Oct, 2021 via Anmod. It took me mere 8.5 hours without really "speeding". You can very well notice how after the first breakfast break (15 km before Hubli) my cruising speeds also drop significantly.



And this is a capture from a drive this April, again to Varca but via Yellapura Karwar:



For this drive, we had started from home at 4:17am but GPS device could lock and start recording the log only after 45 minutes.

[Aviator_guy]

About the travel duration, I believe it highly depends on where in Bangalore you start and at what time. If someone is staying in north Bangalore and starts very early morning, vs someone coming from east/south Bangalore with a late morning start will make hell lot of difference in the duration.

After beating the city traffic, it is matter of what speeds one maintains and number/duration of breaks. Also, it'd matter which part of Goa one is heading to (South vs North Goa for example).

Personally I'm not a big fan of very early start and prefer to get good night sleep and start around 7AM wherever I am heading to. Also, I am a sedate driver and maintain a speed of 90-100 kmph.
Usually it means that I can't boast about my travel time and can only admire other posts about faster travel

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by Aviator_guy

Also, I am a sedate driver and maintain a speed of 90-100 kmph.
Usually it means that I can't boast about my travel time and can only admire other posts about faster travel

It will also depend on what time of the day you do this 90-100. Doing 90-100 from 7am to 12 noon will not be as efficient as doing the same between 4am to 11am.

So in the end, it is all about how efficiently one is driving and how you are able to consistently maintain the cruising speeds.

I don't think anyone of us here is boasting about speeds, reason why I also posted about the speed graph to break this myth because each time we have mentioned journey time, the next question we hear is - Which car and at what speeds.