[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by silversun100

Phase 1 : Blr - Kalady via Guruvayor
Proposed Route : Blr - Mysore - Bandipur - Gudalur - Nadugani - Edakkara - Manjeri - Kunnamkulam - Guruvayoor - Thrissur - Chalakudy - Angamally - Kalady

Going via Thrissur (NH7-NH47) is going to be faster,and better roads.

Originally Posted by silversun100

Phase 2 : Kalady - Sabarimala
Kalady – Perumbavoor – Mavattupuzha – Thodupuzha – Erattupetta – Erumeli – Pamba

Phase 3 : Sabarimala - Blr
Pamba – Thulapally – Kanamala – Thekkady – Cumbum – Theni – Karur – Namakkal - Rasipuram – Salem – Thoppur – Dharmapuri – Krishnagiri – Hosur - Bangalore

Need your help and advice on the route, road conditions and eat outs.

Roads are all good to Pampa and back to NH7.No problems.Plenty of wayside eateries in the form of Aryaas,Just Coffee,Saravana Bhavans etc.

BLR-Mysore road is a virtual food court.Post Mysore also plenty of eating options.On your return also once you reach the NH7 plenty of options available,nothing to worry about.Have a safe trip.

[ajishanand]

Traveling from Bangalore to Guruvayur tomorrow. Planning to take this route http://goo.gl/c7IOjy (Electronics City- Kanakpure-Kollegal-Gundlupet_Gudallur_Nilambur-Perinthalmanna-Pattambi-Guruvayur). Any update on the condition of this route? Did anyone do this recently.

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by ajishanand

Traveling from Bangalore to Guruvayur tomorrow. Planning to take this route http://goo.gl/c7IOjy (Electronics City- Kanakpure-Kollegal-Gundlupet_Gudallur_Nilambur-Perinthalmanna-Pattambi-Guruvayur). Any update on the condition of this route? Did anyone do this recently.

Traffic is going to slow you down once you enter Kerala at Vazhikadavu all the way till Guruvayur.Road conditions are pretty much good.Budget for a 8hr drive with breaks.

[ajishanand]

Did this route on October 2nd. As expected good roads and not much traffic till Mudumalai check post. Many bad stretches from Mudumalia check post till Gudalur.

[nvramsub]

Did a trip to Guruvayoor over the weekend.

Route taken on-ward: Bangalore -> NICE road entry from PES College -> Exit Nice Road on Kanakpura Road -> Malavalli -> Maddur (missed the left turn towards Mysore from Malavalli, and ended up going to Maddur) -> Mysore -> Gundlupet -> Bandipur -> Mudumalai -> Gudalur -> Nilambur -> Perinthalmanna -> Pattambi -> Kunnamkulam -> Guruvayoor.

Road Conditions: Potholes from Malavalli to Maddur. Some really bad stretches in the Mudumalai-Gudalur section where the roads seem to have been washed away by heavy rain. Gudalur-Nilambur is one of the most beautiful roads to drive, with innumerable sharp curves and excellent road condition. Good quality of roads all the way till Kunnamkulam, from where the road to Guruvayoor (about 7 kms) has a few bad stretches and lot of potholes.

Eating places: I had breakfast at Hotel Siddhartha in Mysore, which is very close to the Palance. Had tea at the exit of Mudumalai. Lunch was at a Udupi (veg. only) hotel in Pattambi which served decent meals for 3 hungry souls at 2.45 p.m.! This is located on the right side of the road as soon as you cross the bridge on Pattambi - Guruvayoor road.

Travel time: 9 hours 40 minutes (excl stoppages) Left Bangalore at 5.20 a.m. and reached Guruvayoor at 4.10 p.m. with a total break of 1.10 minutes for breakfast, lunch and tea.
Total Distance: 440 kms (due to missing the turn at Malavalli) leading to about 50 kms extra.

Return: Guruvayoor -> Pattambi -> Ottappalam -> Palakkad -> Coimbatore -> Salem -> Bangalore.

Road Conditions: Pattambi - Palakkad has awesome roads, where I managed to cover the 60 kms distance in an hour on a 2 lane road with a lot of turns! Palakkad - Coimbatore is in a bad shape due to road-widening on the Kerala side and narrow roads on the TN side. With heavy traffic and heavy rain during the time I drove, it took 1 hour 15 minutes to reach the first tool booth on Coimbatore by-pass from Palakkad. The roads are in great shape in Coimbatore by-pass. Once you exit Coimbatore and join the 6-lane wide road to Avinashi, roads are excellent, but watch out for speed breakers laid on flyovers. For some reason, the joints at the flyovers have become speed-breakers. Roads are excellent all the way till Bangalore except in some stretches in Hosur due to construction work.

Eating places: Had lunch at Hotel Aarya in Palakkad. This is located near the under-construction flyover on NH-47 (Coimbatore-Thrissur road) on the right side if you are traveling from Thrissur/Palakkad. Dinner was at Hotel Mangalam Veg after the Krishnagiri tool on the left side of the road. Very prominent board makes it easy to locate.

Travel time: 8.30 hours (excl stoppages). Left Guruvayoor at 11.30 a.m. and reached Bangalore (Madivala) at 9.15 p.m, thanks to less than expected traffic from Krishnagiri.
Total Distance: 495 kms

[manjubp]

Planning for Guruvayoor trip from Bangalore. Purely to visit temple. On the way it has to be via Coimbatore (Some official work and break for a day).

Please do advice on route from Coimbatore to Guruvayoor (looks like there are multiple options, but which one is decent to drive in terms of road condition and traffic)
Similarly please do advice on return trip via mysore.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by manjubp

Please do advice on route from Coimbatore to Guruvayoor (looks like there are multiple options, but which one is decent to drive in terms of road condition and traffic)

Assuming Walayar is not worth the risk:

CBE-Pollachi-Kollengode-Alathur-Pazhyannur-Wadakkancherry-Choondal-GVR

This option is about 25km more than the NH47 option. Cbe-Walayar-Palakkad-Ottapalam-Shornur-Wadakkanchery-Choondal-GVR

Similarly please do advice on return trip via mysore.

GVR-Kunnamkulam-Pattambi-Perinthalmanna-Pandikkad-Wandoor-Nilambur-Gudalur-Bandipur-Gundlupet-Mysore.

[sshank]

Quick question on traffic on Palakkad - Bangalore route (NH47/NH7). I am considering either this Friday or Saturday for the drive - is there a big difference in traffic weekday vs weekend?

Thanks!

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by sshank

Quick question on traffic on Palakkad - Bangalore route (NH47/NH7). I am considering either this Friday or Saturday for the drive - is there a big difference in traffic weekday vs weekend?

Thanks!

no major difference except for slightly less traffic between electronic city ant silk board jn

[pariwar]

Did Bangalore-Guruvayur & return on the 24th, 25th, 26th long weekend break and was in for a couple of surprises.

Onward Journey - Bangalore-Just before Kollegal-Talacaud-T.Narsipura-Chamarajnagar-Sathyamangalam-Annur-Palladam-Palladam-Othakalmandapam-NH47(L & T Byepass)-Walayar-Palakkad-Pattambi-Kunnamkulam-Guruvayur

• NH209 is as usual wonderful to drive on till you reach the old dilapidated bridge before Kollegal which used to restrict heavy vehicles earlier. Surprise - it is completely closed with a large size panel across the lanes. The right turn just before is pretty long winding through Talacaud & T. Narsipura joining up on the Nanjangud-Chamarajanagar road and heading straight into Chamarajnagar. While the roads are quite ok, local festival and a bit of traffic slowed us down tremendously. Approx. 15 odd kms longer, it took 45 minutes additional in time as compared to the standard BLR University to Nijaguna Residency, Chamarajnagar 190 kms & 3 hours.
• No complaints whatsoever on Chamarajnagar-Sathyamangalam-Annur-Karumathampatti route. Beautiful roads and Dhimbam ghats was as usual a breeze to get through.
• Intent was to take Palladam-Pollachi-Kollengode-Alathur route, but it was quite late and due to some mistakes, we took the Palladam-Othakalmandapam route which was pristine and another pleasure to drive on. Dinner over, we decided to risk the L&T Byepass - Walayar - Palakkad segment and boy were we in for a pleasant surprise.
• L & T Byepass continues to be patched up good, once again no complaints on this stretch. The under-construction-for-ages-and-looks-abandoned-flyover-columns-at-the-junctions were the same after L&T Byepass, with the potholes on the diversions patched up. So far so good, we were dreading Walayar-Kanjikode-Palakkad segment.
• After a wee bit of patched up stretch suddenly we came across segregated, newly laid/expanded four lane stretch just after crossing the TN border. We were surprised as there was no indication of such a stretch in any of the threads that I had searched. 80-90 kmph was easy and we were dreading the end of such a beautiful stretch of road. Breezed through Walayar with the beautiful road still continuing came across a small diversion and thought, thats it! End of good day! It was an under construction toll plaza completely concretized road and past this diversion the wonderful stretch continued. Passed Kanjikode and still beautiful roads. Just could not believe what I was seeing in front of me. Pinched myself a couple of times wondering whether I am on a wrong stretch, but the landmarks that I am quite familiar with kept passing by and I knew this was real. The beautiful stretch continues till just short of Palakkad junction where a curving flyover (Trichur-Walayar vehicles only I think) is under advanced construction. The stretch so far was unimaginably superb!
• Palakkad-Pattambi-Kunnamkulam-Guruvayur once again no complaints.

Return route was Guruvayur-Pattambi-Palakkad-Walayar(to reconfirm the beautiful stretch)-L&T Byepass and then NH47 all the way to Bangalore.


Thank you Palladam, Pollachi.....I will not see you again if I am going to Guruvayur.

[poloman]

Totally agree. I have never understood the logic of some people still suggesting Palladam, Pollachi for Guruvayur. Palakkad-Walayar is one of the finest roads you will encounter in the trip. The only problem is 5 odd kms from Walayar to L&T bypass. But that has been patched up and in acceptable condition for long time now. I did a Kunnamkulam- Bangalore trip under 7.30 hours yesterday taking this route.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by poloman

Totally agree. I have never understood the logic of some people still suggesting Palladam, Pollachi for Guruvayur. Palakkad-Walayar is one of the finest roads you will encounter in the trip. The only problem is 5 odd kms from Walayar to L&T bypass. But that has been patched up and in acceptable condition for long time now. I did a Kunnamkulam- Bangalore trip under 7.30 hours yesterday taking this route.

I think the issue was we always got to read contrasting views. While one said it was a good experience, the second post was bad roads and long queues at the border.

Now looks like the road status part of it has been sorted out. May be some more time and it should all be done. But then how about traffic and queues thanks to trucks at the border? Is that bad still? Or its more of a transient situation?

[poloman]

Originally Posted by ampere

I think the issue was we always got to read contrasting views. While one said it was a good experience, the second post was bad roads and long queues at the border.

Now looks like the road status part of it has been sorted out. May be some more time and it should all be done. But then how about traffic and queues thanks to trucks at the border? Is that bad still? Or its more of a transient situation?

The status has not been changed much for last 2 months or so. The actual problem is the time you reach the Walayar stretch. If you reach there during peak hours in the evening you will find the stretch irritating. I started at 5.30AM from Kunnamkulam and reached L&T bypass by 7.30AM. Hardly any traffic and excellent roads for 99% of the route. Check out the Palakkad-Walayar stretch once and you will agree on what I am talking about the quality of roads. I think the toll will be operational on this stretch in a couple of months.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by pariwar

[*]NH209 is as usual wonderful to drive on till you reach the old dilapidated bridge before Kollegal which used to restrict heavy vehicles earlier. Surprise - it is completely closed with a large size panel across the lanes. The right turn just before is pretty long winding through Talacaud & T. Narsipura joining up on the Nanjangud-Chamarajanagar road and heading straight into Chamarajnagar.

Thanks for the detailed update

Surprised you took this route to the cauvery bridge near Shivanasamudram - the alternatives are from near Malavalli itself and have been detailed by @kala and others in other threads.

The bridge closure topic has actually been beaten to death in the last couple of months mostly in the All roads to kerala thread

[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by poloman

Check out the Palakkad-Walayar stretch once and you will agree on what I am talking about the quality of roads. I think the toll will be operational on this stretch in a couple of months.

The last time I drove, a couple of months ago, the road condition in the entire palakkad district was bad. Has the road widening completed and both sides open for traffic?