[ampere]

Originally Posted by dean5545

Left for Pondicherry yesturday morning via Salem and then Via NH 47. Good roads there also. Reached Pondicherry by 6.30. There was lots of wind and rained heavily leading to trees being uprooted.
Will update the entire trip log after reaching home ie Sunday.

Wow! Thats one big round trip you are having. Mumbai-Bangalore-CBE-Trichur-Salem-Pondicherry-Bangalore-Mumbai ! All the best for the final lap.

[dean5545]

Originally Posted by ampere

Wow! Thats one big round trip you are having. Mumbai-Bangalore-CBE-Trichur-Salem-Pondicherry-Bangalore-Mumbai ! All the best for the final lap.

Reached Bombay safely today morning at 2.00 am. Did Puducherry-Mumbai in 20 hours. Did not encounter any rains was able to cover 2km/min at 60% of stretches.
Thanks alot once again.

[Gannu_1]

Planning to drive down to Palakkad from Surat during September 2nd week. Instead of doing this trip alone, I thought of tagging along our family chauffeur.

The route (as suggested by Google Maps/HVK Sir) will be: Surat - Bombay - Pune - Satara - Karad - Kolhapur - Belgaum (halt for the night) - Hubli - Davangere - Tumkur - Bangalore - Dharmapuri - Salem - Bhavani - Avinashi - Coimbatore - Palakkad.



We intend to complete the trip in 2 days. Total distance is 1663 km (as Google Maps suggests) so I hope that should be doable if we leave early around 4:30 AM and halt by sunset (say 7:00 PM). The only worry I have right now is bypassing Bombay. No stopovers during the trip except tea breaks/breakfast/lunch. Since I had been to Karad this April, I have some idea of the road conditions until there. There were a few diversions in place from Pune to Karad but the roads were good otherwise.

Is 2 days stretching it a bit? This will be the first time I’d be driving this long so I am a bit worried. Our driver has undertaken many lengthy trips and is familiar with many vehicles (Indica, Tata 407, Innova etc.) so this shouldn’t be a concern but I intend to do most of the driving and he would be the co-driver. In case I feel tired, he would take over.

Please let me know! Any tips in this regard would greatly help us to plan the trip suitably. Thanks in advance!

[ampere]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

Planning to drive down to Palakkad from Surat during September 2nd week. Instead of doing this trip alone, I thought of tagging along our family chauffeur.

Perfectly possible. End to end 4-lane. Belgaum to Palakkad would a long haul. 7 hours for Bangalore and another 6 to Palakkad. Add about 2 hours to bypass Bangalore from Nelamangala and come till Hosur. That means even on Day 2, you get up quite early and hit the road.

[Gannu_1]

Originally Posted by ampere

Perfectly possible. End to end 4-lane. Belgaum to Palakkad would a long haul. 7 hours for Bangalore and another 6 to Palakkad. Add about 2 hours to bypass Bangalore from Nelamangala and come till Hosur. That means even on Day 2, you get up quite early and hit the road.

Thanks a lot ampere, as always.

Suppose we reach Belgaum early, say by 5 PM, should we proceed to Hubli and halt instead? Stay wouldn't be a problem as we would be staying at SBI's guest houses or holiday homes.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

Thanks a lot ampere, as always.

Suppose we reach Belgaum early, say by 5 PM, should we proceed to Hubli and halt instead? Stay wouldn't be a problem as we would be staying at SBI's guest houses or holiday homes.

Gannu, That would really help. You can easily gain 2 hours. I just hope you guys dont get fatigued out. The best place to stay in Hubli is Clarks.

Here is the location: Hotel Location

[Gannu_1]

Originally Posted by ampere

Gannu, That would really help. You can easily gain 2 hours.

Then we would try to depart early from Surat, say by 3:30 AM. We will catch a good sleep the previous night and leave early morn so we can bypass Bombay before the rush hour.

Originally Posted by ampere

I just hope you guys dont get fatigued out.

I sincerely hope so. The moment I feel exhausted, I will switch to the co-driver's seat.

Originally Posted by ampere

The best place to stay in Hubli is Clarks.

Here is the location: Hotel Location

Cleartrip says 3k for a 'Superior Room'. Isn't that a bit too much just for a night's halt? Let me ask my father if there are any guest houses/holiday homes there. Would be dirt cheap for some 100-150 Rs.!

The 60-day ARP for 7th September IRCTC bookings begins tomorrow so I can book the ticket for our driver.

Thank you once again Amp!

[ampere]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

Cleartrip says 3k for a 'Superior Room'. Isn't that a bit too much just for a night's halt? Let me ask my father if there are any guest houses/holiday homes there. Would be dirt cheap for some 100-150 Rs.!

Its costly no doubt. In fact I paid about 4K some time back. But surely a good place to stay.

BTW you now have a Taj too in Hubli! Want to try?

[rakesh_r]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

Planning to drive down to Palakkad from Surat during September 2nd week. Instead of doing this trip alone, I thought of tagging along our family chauffeur.

The route (as suggested by Google Maps/HVK Sir) will be: Surat - Bombay - Pune - Satara - Karad - Kolhapur - Belgaum (halt for the night) - Hubli - Davangere - Tumkur - Bangalore - Dharmapuri - Salem - Bhavani - Avinashi - Coimbatore - Palakkad.

Attachment 1258884

We intend to complete the trip in 2 days. Total distance is 1663 km (as Google Maps suggests) so I hope that should be doable if we leave early around 4:30 AM and halt by sunset (say 7:00 PM). The only worry I have right now is bypassing Bombay. No stopovers during the trip except tea breaks/breakfast/lunch. Since I had been to Karad this April, I have some idea of the road conditions until there. There were a few diversions in place from Pune to Karad but the roads were good otherwise.

Is 2 days stretching it a bit? This will be the first time I’d be driving this long so I am a bit worried. Our driver has undertaken many lengthy trips and is familiar with many vehicles (Indica, Tata 407, Innova etc.) so this shouldn’t be a concern but I intend to do most of the driving and he would be the co-driver. In case I feel tired, he would take over.

Please let me know! Any tips in this regard would greatly help us to plan the trip suitably. Thanks in advance!

You can easily bypass Mumbai as I presume you would be taking the Ghodbunder road.You mite face traffic inside Thane-Airoli stretch.
By the way where are you put up at palakkad?
PS-If your car doesn't have a cruise control,do carry a rock.You can keep it on the accelerator pedal as NH4 is nothing but straight roads.
The other place you might get traffic would be Avinashi road at CBE.

[Gannu_1]

Originally Posted by ampere

BTW you now have a Taj too in Hubli! Want to try?

Woah! No thank you.

Originally Posted by rakesh_r

You can easily bypass Mumbai as I presume you would be taking the Ghodbunder road.You mite face traffic inside Thane-Airoli stretch.

We did a big blunder! Twice! It was some 9 AM when we crossed Thane and it was the rush hour. Got stuck in traffic especially at one junction where there was some flyover and we had to go beneath that. And, instead of taking the Airoli-Navi Mumbai route, we went by the Mumbra route. Too many trucks and we got stuck for almost an hour in this small stretch.



Should we be taking the Airoli-Navi Mumbai route?

Originally Posted by rakesh_r

By the way where are you put up at palakkad?

Opposite Mercy College.

Originally Posted by rakesh_r

PS-If your car doesn't have a cruise control,do carry a rock.You can keep it on the accelerator pedal as NH4 is nothing but straight roads.

Haha straight roads would be nice. No cruise control unfortunately.

[rakesh_r]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

Woah! No thank you.



We did a big blunder! Twice! It was some 9 AM when we crossed Thane and it was the rush hour. Got stuck in traffic especially at one junction where there was some flyover and we had to go beneath that. And, instead of taking the Airoli-Navi Mumbai route, we went by the Mumbra route. Too many trucks and we got stuck for almost an hour in this small stretch.
Should we be taking the Airoli-Navi Mumbai route?
Opposite Mercy College.

I would suggest you to take the Airoli-Navi Mumbai road.You will not face any hurdles till Panvel as the flyovers have opened and you can hit the Mumbai-Pune Eway in no time.However you might/might not hit a small hurdle in Airoli,Digha talao to be precise (nothing to worry about,just a small bottle neck).

Aha then we are neighbors,I am put up at Venekkara,3-4 km from Mercy. college

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

Woah! No thank you.



We did a big blunder! Twice! It was some 9 AM when we crossed Thane and it was the rush hour. Got stuck in traffic especially at one junction where there was some flyover and we had to go beneath that. And, instead of taking the Airoli-Navi Mumbai route, we went by the Mumbra route. Too many trucks and we got stuck for almost an hour in this small stretch.

Attachment 1259001

Should we be taking the Airoli-Navi Mumbai route?



Opposite Mercy College.



Haha straight roads would be nice. No cruise control unfortunately.

With a 330am dep from Surat your timings should be as below:

330 Surat,0730 Thane,0900Panvel,1100 Pune,1600 Kolhapur,1700 Belgaum,1830 Hubli.Crossing Pune would be a pain irrespective of having the bypass which has become a part of the city now!

Take the Airoli route,its easier.

[Gannu_1]

Just a week more to go for the trip. How time flies!

Got the car serviced last weekend, got the wheel balancing and alignment done, yet to do the PUC check which will be done sometime this week. The insurance was renewed 2 weeks back and the hard copy arrived via mail last week. Considering this is going to be a long’ish trip (1725 km, 2 days), I had to get some tools and essentials just to be safe. God forbid, if we ever get stranded on the way due to a breakdown, we can manage by the time help arrives!

The only worry is, 8th is going to be Ganesh Visarjan and we are leaving on 9th early morn. I just hope we don’t face road blocks en route.

amp, ranjit, rakesh - thanks a lot for the help guys.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

amp, ranjit, rakesh - thanks a lot for the help guys.

Ideally I would suggest a Garmin, with all the bypasses (esp Mumbai) keyed in. Its too late now. But do consider getting a Garmin 24XX series GPS with MMI maps for future. Perfect for such long drives.

If the maps installed are same across people, then one can share a planned route as a GPX. You just need to load it onto the device and follow the route! All the best and have a safe drive.

[Gannu_1]

Originally Posted by ampere

Ideally I would suggest a Garmin, with all the bypasses (esp Mumbai) keyed in. Its too late now. But do consider getting a Garmin 24XX series GPS with MMI maps for future. Perfect for such long drives.

If the maps installed are same across people, then one can share a planned route as a GPX. You just need to load it onto the device and follow the route! All the best and have a safe drive.

I have a couple of devices with GPS to help us with the navigation - my Lumia 920 and the MMI map on the car’s HU. I’ll see if I can have the route preconfigured on the devices and saved.

Btw amp, since you were recommending the Taj at Hubli, beat this:


Rs. 20 for a suite!