[ampere]

Originally Posted by mv4bhp

Hi Clix,

How long did the BLR-Kodi and Kodi-BLR trips take you? And how much were the tolls overall? I am thinking of a trip later this month.

Thanks

Approximately you should clock:

- 2.5 to 3 hours to Salem (200)
- 2 to 2.5 to Dindigul (180)
- 2.5 to 3 hours to Kodai (110km)

Add to it your breaks for food. Above is just the drive time.

[hiunni]

Thanks ampere and the rest of you who contributed - did Kodai Bangalore yesterday - started at 8 was in blr Old Madras road by 1730 with a 1 hour stop for lunch at Salem - was drawn by the ads of Ponram biryani , which turned out fine but not worth the detour @ Salem -

also i had driven in to Kodai from Palghat (pallakkad ) through palani -

road conditions

Pgt to kodai - good roads - state high way excellent

Kodai to Blr - excellent roads but for the stretch between vathalgundu to kodai road -

( btw the left at vathlagundu not sure why some one here mentioned not to take it but appeared shorter and well laid as much as i could see )

since the octavia was in blr took the Honda city

[ampere]

Originally Posted by hiunni

Pgt to kodai - good roads - state high way excellent

If you went via Pollachi/Udumalpet/Palani its a NH 209 (Kanakpura Road!)

( btw the left at vathlagundu not sure why some one here mentioned not to take it but appeared shorter and well laid as much as i could see )

Thats because for almost a year Dindigul-Batlagundu-Theni was pretty bad. So folks going to Kodai took the detour via Kodai road.
Now they have fixed it. You can drive to Dindigul straightaway from Batlagundu without the detour.

[mv4bhp]

Thanks for all the good advice from the BHPians.

I did the BLR-Kodi-BLR trip over the weekend, so I'd like to update the details here.

First of all my car: she's a 2005 model City; 70K kilometers under the belt; slightly upsized Yokohama A-drives; and a K&N air filter (both these modifications were also based on the stuff I read on Team-BHP, and I'm eternally grateful for that). She drives like butter..

Anyway, we (me, wife, 5 year daughter) started from home (Sarjapur road) at 4:45 on Friday (the 24th). Stopped at Shoolagiri for quick bio-break. Toilets there were ok.
Stopped at the A2B near Thoppur for breakfast. Breakfast was good, but the toilets where bad. In fact the whole place is quite filthy. Wifey was not happy..
Passed by the GRT in Salem and wished i had stopped there (as originally planned).
Reached Dindigul without event, took the Batal-Gundu road (its the second turn off after you take the service road). There was about a 15 minute jam inside Batal-Gundu because of a stupid ill-designed T junction with lots traffic.
Didnt stop anywhere for lunch as we had packed a few sandwiches with us. Started munching the sandwiches around 12, just as we started on the ghat road. (I like to have my stomach full when driving in the mountains, for me it helps keep the sea-sickness at bay).
Checked into the hotel (Villa-Retreat) at 2 sharp.
The roads all the way were very good. I kept the needle betweem 100 and 105 on the highways and around 90 on the stretch before the ghats. Of course, on the ghats you are at the mercy of any doddering bus that happens to be in front of you, so you cant go too fast. And of course there are the maniacal jeeps and bikers..

The hotel (Villa-Retreat) is a bit expensive, but the view is exquisite. In fact you get a better view from the hotel garden than from any of the famed view points that one happens to visit.
One tip to Kodi travellers: Please do NOT plan on any sight-seeing on the weekends; in fact try NOT to visit any time during the school holidays. The whole place is absolutely jam-packed with tourists; looks like the whole of south India is walking around in Kodi on the weekends. There was a one hour traffic jam in the middle of the forest when we were trying to visit the famed "Pillar rocks"... Need I say more?
Started back on Tuesday (the 28th). Started at around 9am after a good breakfast of onion-dosa and idlis and vada's... Stopped at a couple of places to buy a load of plums, peaches, and pears. Daughter felt a bit sick on the way down, so had to drive a bit slow and stop at a few places; reached Dindigul about 12:15. Stopped at a place called "Fort Restaurant" for bio and tea break. Its just at the point where the Service road joins NH7 at Dindigul. Mens toilets were good, but the wife says the womens where not too good.. We had packed sandwiches at the hotel so we munched these as we drove.
Reached Salem around 3 and stopped at GRT. Had Tea and Coffee and freshened up in the nice clean restrooms.. (150 bucks for the tea and coffee .. ).
Started off again around 3:30. The stretch before Hosur slows you down badly because of a lot of construction work, so the average speed drops of sharply. Crossed Hosur around 6.
Decided to take the Attibele road to Sarjapur and then home; but found they have blocked the stupid Decathlon junction because they are building a bridge there, so had to back track and take another route via Carmelarum. Finally reached home around 7:30.

[balan]

I do this route at least 3 times a year and sometimes travel from our Muduamali guest house to Kodaikanal house. So kind of very used to this route. Dindugal - Batlagundu is over except a patch before Vatlagundu.
Another issue is, they still havent painted the divider lines on the road and every body inclduing mee are driing everywhere on this road. Beware.

The Vatlagundu bypass will take time atleast another 2 years as I heard the alignment is mired in land acquisition problems.

Last 3 times I planned to stop at Raja Bhojanam and been missing it every time. Where exactly is this raja Bhojanam location.

Went to GRT and Park Plaza at salem for lunch buffet and they said no buffet on week days. Even though Ponram is ok, the distance i too much inside the city. have to locate some decent lunch place with NV and clean toilet on the salem namakkal sector.

Thalapaikatti in Batlagudu is a crowded option for classic dindugal biriyani
It is last decent toilet option for ladies before reaching kodai.

This year due to excesssive heats in the plains, all hills (ooty, kodai, yercaud) were simply over crowded and it was best to stay inside your house and not go out anywhere. I had to go to the Mannavanur sheep farm on some work and it took 3 hours to go from pine forest location to the cross road that leads to Mannavanur.

Used to see CSK super bosss Srini regularly walking on the lake bank with his 2 similarly numbered land rover and land cruiser waiting patiently and suddenly he had to rush off because of the fixing issue. This time saw many high end cars in Kodai but not as much as Ooty

Can we give a link to my Kodai pictures to my facebook page?
best regards
Bala

[NPV]

Originally Posted by balan

Last 3 times I planned to stop at Raja Bhojanam and been missing it every time. Where exactly is this raja Bhojanam location.

I haven't tried this yet but I think it is located just before the Thoppur toll on the right side when going from Bangalore so you will have to make a U-turn before the toll plaza. Once you make the U-turn you will first see the BP petrol pump that also has the A2B (aka Refugee camp ) and after this you will find Raja Bhojanam.
EDIT:Found ranjit's earlier post on this

[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by balan

Went to GRT and Park Plaza at salem for lunch buffet and they said no buffet on week days. Even though Ponram is ok, the distance i too much inside the city. have to locate some decent lunch place with NV and clean toilet on the salem namakkal sector.

There is a Selvi Mess near the Salem-Namakkal road junction. Selvi Mess is known for NV food in Salem.

http://maps.google.co.in/maps?saddr=...ra=ls&t=m&z=10

[ampere]

Originally Posted by arun_josie

There is a Selvi Mess near the Salem-Namakkal road junction. Selvi Mess is known for NV food in Salem.

There is also an Arya Bhavan right between Salem and Namakkal. I dont know the food quality as I never had food there. But its right there on the highway and hence can be a break point.

[Rajesh1968]

Hi,

I just returned from a BLR-Kodaikanal - Tiruppur-Bangalore, last week.

The drive to Kodai is very good.

Started from Sarjapur Road, Bangalore at around 6.30 am, the drive to Krishnagiri is good barring one major show stopper at Hosur Checkpost, not sure why Lorry drivers park to hinder progress at the checkpost, apart from that none of the other deviations hampered the movement. Stopped Sarvana Bhavan after Krishnagiri for breakfast, good breakfast and quick one at that, we left for Kodai, just after befor Dindigul took the road to Batalagundu, the Chennai - Theni Highway, was hoping that the road was good, it sure it was, till Kodai Hills, barring a few hundred meters in the town, which is to be expected. The Ghat section road was also being relaid, since it was my first to Kodai, my observations were that the Ghat road is narrow compared to some of them I have driven and also the discipline amongst taxi and bikes absolutely non existent, the State Transport buses were very organized and do not hinder progress, the barriers on the ghat road are being mended and set right but at places it is pretty narrow and scary. Though it is 45 kms, it took me 2 hours not sure if I was very slow, but enjoyed. Reached Kodai by Lunch time. I stayed at Kodai By the Lake of Sterling, the resort was good, but signage was very obscure, took almost 20 minutes to locate. Spent 3 full days doing sightseeing, eating and soaking in Kodai.

The very reason to visit was the TV show Highway on my plate, where 2 restaurants Abby's Cafe and Pastry Place, which were featured, wanted to go and see as I had not seen Kodai.

Both the places are good.

Just wanted to meet my friend in Tiruppur on my way back, so took the Kodai-Attur-Dharapuram-Tiruppur, though a SH, was in excellent condition and was beautiful to drive on, also visited Coimbatore later that day, the road to CBE is almost complete with 1 or 2 flyovers pending.

Tiruppur _BLR, was usual a four and half hour drive, which included a 15 minute Bio Break at Refugee Camp ( AAB)

[xuvian]

First n foremost thanks to all of you for your directions. I am just back from Kodaikanal trip for Dussera long weekend. After a long discussion between me, my wife, my cousin and reading all reviews on this thread, we finally decided to head to Kodaikanal and have a leisure trip for 3 days (including travel days).
We (5 of us, including my 3 year old kid) have started at sharp 6am on Saturday, 12th October from Indiranagar, Bangalore towards Intermediate ring road, Madiwala and then to Silk board in my Cheetah (read it as XUV 500). Soon we realized its a special day and there are lot of people trying to buy flowers in Madiwala for Ayudha pooja and that took 15 min more before we could hit Electronic city expressway at 6:30 am. 9km is a cake walk but right at the end of expressway, we hit another block at toll booth. 6:40am on a saturday morning and we were approximately 20th in row in the shortest lane of all. Its long weekend and that traffic was expected to Chennai, Salem, Coimbatore and some fun trips like us. Soon after EC tool, there is one just near Hosur which is equally busy. Finally we crossed Hosur and stuck behind a huge truck (surprizingly its huge in terms of width and not length. Its carrying some wide block which is almost occupying two lanes). after 10 min of drive at <30km/h we could over take this truck and by 7:40 we were at kamat for breakfast. Our first break for 30 min and then we started hoping to face lesser traffic and wider roads. At 8:30 my trip meter read 100. It took 2.5 hours including break for first 100km. it was smooth drive from here and if I remember correctly, by 9:45 we were in Salem to fill my fuel tank (we get 50p per liter advantage in Tamilnadu compared to Bangalore).
From Salem, its a completely different drive on NH7 all the way to Namakkal, then to Karur and to Dindigul. For first timers on this road, at Salem, when you cross Bypass, do remember to take the loop on right to Namakkal. Straight is Chennai route. And at Dindigul be watchful to sight directions to Kodaikanal. we took a right which is Kottayam road, a two lane no divider but pretty good wide road. its fun to drive on this road. I think around 1:30pm, we were at Battalagundu (some boards say Vattlagundu) and as soon as we take the right from there, there is one hotel and restaurant called Crescent Inn where we stopped for lunch (meals were good and My cousin ordered Chapathi and its good. Just that they take very long time to serve). we spent almost 1 hour there and we started around 2:30pm again and soon after we cross the checkpost, we saw a board which said Kodaikanal 51km towards right. In 5-6km from there, we entered Ghat. I drove at 30-35km/h speed in Ghat and we had two stops before we finally entered Kodai. We stopped at Rat tail falls and Silver Cascade on the way. After losing the way to Sterling valley view, we finally hit the hotel reception at 5:30pm.

Have to rush for my next meeting and will continue with Kodai trip plan and return journey later. Sorry for a long write up.

[kanthams]

Originally Posted by xuvian

Have to rush for my next meeting and will continue with Kodai trip plan and return journey later. Sorry for a long write up.

Why Sorry, it is helping us very much. Planning a trip on jan 29th. Your views seems to come handy.

[xuvian]

Originally Posted by kanthams

Why Sorry, it is helping us very much. Planning a trip on jan 29th. Your views seems to come handy.

Thanks. I am glad it can help you. Not sure if you have bookings for hotels already. If not, my advice is book something closer to the lake so that you dont have to drive around a lot.

[balan]

Road widening work is going on between the foothills to Oothu on the batlagundu route. Fromm Oothu to Perumal malai is full of pot holes as usual. Drive carefully.
Best regards
Bala

[kanthams]

Originally Posted by xuvian

Thanks. I am glad it can help you. Not sure if you have bookings for hotels already. If not, my advice is book something closer to the lake so that you dont have to drive around a lot.

Thanks, I have booked already. it is around 5 kms from the lake. Hill country resort thru club mahindra. I will try to be around the lake most of the time

[ethanhunt123]

Whats the route guidance from Bangalore to Kodaikanal right now ? Blr-Salem-Dindigul-Kodai ? or via Dharapuram-Palani ? Google maps shows Palani route to be shorter but more time consuming.