[Digital Vampire]

I'm required to travel from Hyderabad to Mangalore to attend an important family function. The travel date is the first weekend of June.

The distance is around 850 Kms...Can this route which is a mix of National and State highways and Ghat section/s be done in 14-16 hrs continous on an Indigo.

I have recently done a 650 kms continous run without much strain, but the roads were 95% national highways.

Satguide, MMI, Google Maps, Yahoo maps are giving confusing duration required for the journey varying from 12 hrs to 24 hrs.

Has anyone taken this route or some leg of this route recently?
How are the road conditions? I'm more worried about the ghat sections in between. Also need help in identifying the exact ghat areas. I'm unable to figure it out from the map.

Other alternative route suggestions are always welcome as long as it does not enter Bangalore city.

[mobike008]

Hyd-Bangalore is 560kms and if you do without much breaks and keep a fast pace should be around 10 hours. Remaining 300kms will take you another 5-6 hours if you get out of bangalore using the outer ring road and afaik, the roads are pretty good.

But, if you have not driven these type of distances before, it is not really a good idea because it will be very exhausting.

So in short, your looking at 5AM-10PM drive including breaks

[absynthguzzler]

Doable if there 2 drivers in the Car and the more confident night driver takes over at Dawn. Else DO NOT RISK driving such long distances without sufficient leisure/sleep brakes.

Timings given by Avi are right , one thing id add though is that Bangalore is doable in 8Hours without a stop since the roads are literally awesome of late (apart from the Kurnool Bit) .
Bangalore- Mangalore , guess the Karnataka boys can guide you better.

[kutlee]

it would be a bit of stretch. last time i did around 890kms from hyd to sultan battery in kerala. there were no ghats but still took 17 hours and lost my way between. since this is a new route, you will always be slow. here is my calculation. hyd blore should be 9 hours. blore mysore should be 2 hours. from mysore mangalore is around 200 kms. if there are ghats in this route, i would put 4 hours. should be ok with. else stay in mysore and start for mangalore next day.

[Samurai]

It is possible, start very early, and you will reach late night.

If you venture anywhere near Bellary or Hospet, you can get royally entangled with mine trucks, that can delay you for hours together. Ananthpur-Tumkur-Hassan-Shiradi Ghat-Mangalore may be a better idea.

[hvkumar]

Other than the excellent idea to go via Bangalore or Samurai's Ananthapur suggestion, I would suggest 2 alternative routes. The only hitch with Samurai's routing is that the linkages from Ananthapur to Tumkur are not so great - I suppose he means that one takes NH7 till Penukonda and go via Pavagada, Challakere to either Chitradurga or Tumkur, which roads are not good.

Assuming that you take the route suggested by Google Maps, try to take the road to Bellary via Raichur and Sindhanur which is good. So is the road from Bellary to Hiriyur.

One alternative suggestion is to go from Hyderabad to Raichur, link up with NH63 at Gadag and take NH63 all the way via Hubli and Yellapur to Ankola. From Ankola, take Nh17 all the way to Mangalore. You could easily target Hubli before lunch time and Mangalore could be reached by late evening.

More suggestions: reach Hubli, and turn off NH4 at Harihar, going via Honnali to Shimoga and then NH13 from there all the way to Mangalore via Tirthahalli and Karkala.

[Digital Vampire]

Thanks for the replies! Seems like the Hyderabad boys were getting a dose of TBHP just before sleep...

Originally Posted by mobike008

Hyd-Bangalore is 560kms and if you do without much breaks and keep a fast pace should be around 10 hours.

So in short, your looking at 5AM-10PM drive including breaks

Originally Posted by absynthguzzler

Doable if there 2 drivers in the Car and the more confident night driver takes over at Dawn. Else DO NOT RISK driving such long distances without sufficient leisure/sleep brakes.

Timings given by Avi are right , one thing id add though is that Bangalore is doable in 8Hours without a stop since the roads are literally awesome of late (apart from the Kurnool Bit).

Yes, the HYD-BLR highway was superb when I did that route in Nov 2008. There were incomplete patches every 5-10 kms slowing you down, but I guess most of them would be fixed by now. Doable in 8-9 hrs without pushing too hard and if you don't go anywhere near Bangalore city limits.

At the moment, I'm the only person travelling/driving. Now I need to find a co-driver...lol. I understand it would be too much of a stress otherwise.

Originally Posted by kutlee

it would be a bit of stretch. last time i did around 890kms from hyd to sultan battery in kerala. there were no ghats but still took 17 hours and lost my way between. since this is a new route, you will always be slow. here is my calculation. hyd blore should be 9 hours. blore mysore should be 2 hours. from mysore mangalore is around 200 kms. if there are ghats in this route, i would put 4 hours. should be ok with. else stay in mysore and start for mangalore next day.

Hmm...its a stretch for sure. But I guess we can avoid Mysore altogether. I have 2 GPS units running latest maps from Satguide and Map My India. So I hope that would take care of getting lost part.

Originally Posted by Samurai

It is possible, start very early, and you will reach late night.

If you venture anywhere near Bellary or Hospet, you can get royally entangled with mine trucks, that can delay you for hours together. Ananthpur-Tumkur-Hassan-Shiradi Ghat-Mangalore may be a better idea.

Thanks for the helpful hint. I totally forgot that area was a mining hub with crawling truck traffic.

[RM4]

The last 150 kms is full of Ghats.
All your average calculations will be different for this section.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

You could easily target Hubli before lunch time and Mangalore could be reached by late evening.

The traffic on this road is the killer. Between maravanthe and Mangalore, about 125Kms is like driving in city traffic.

[Digital Vampire]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Assuming that you take the route suggested by Google Maps, try to take the road to Bellary via Raichur and Sindhanur which is good. So is the road from Bellary to Hiriyur.

One alternative suggestion is to go from Hyderabad to Raichur, link up with NH63 at Gadag and take NH63 all the way via Hubli and Yellapur to Ankola. From Ankola, take Nh17 all the way to Mangalore. You could easily target Hubli before lunch time and Mangalore could be reached by late evening.

More suggestions: reach Hubli, and turn off NH4 at Harihar, going via Honnali to Shimoga and then NH13 from there all the way to Mangalore via Tirthahalli and Karkala.

Thanks for the alternate route options. APSRTC runs a bus from Hyderabad to Mangalore and I had the misfortune of travelling this route once in that bus and I remember seeing Shimoga enroute. I'm not sure about the places it went through, but I was up all night because of the bone jarring ride. Any clues on which route the bus takes so that I can avoid it.

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by Digital Vampire

Hmm...its a stretch for sure. But I guess we can avoid Mysore altogether. I have 2 GPS units running latest maps from Satguide and Map My India. So I hope that would take care of getting lost part.

Guaranteed to get you lost!

[ravibhat]

I suggest you split this into 2 days by taking halt either at Hassan or Ankola or Shimoga. Driving from hyderabad to Mangalore involve crossing 3 different weather conditions so journey would be very much tiresome.

Plan1: If you want to take via Bangalore drive upto Hassan and stay for night for next day easy journey to Mangalore(max 5 hrs.).

Plan2: If via Hubli take Hyderabad - Raichur - Gadag - Hubli - Ankola and do night halt and proceed next day for Mangalore(max. 5 hrs.). I suggest avoid this route as roads are not so good around raichur - Gadag but I am not sure about exact road condition. roads around Koppal are not supposed to be good. One more idea: hyderabad to hubli how about this route ? MapmyIndia - maps, directions, and local search across India - just search, print and go!

Plan3: Via Bellary is also good option, Hyderabad - Gooty - Bellary - challakere - chitradurga - shimoga and stay there and proceed to mangalore next day and can reach in 5 hours.

In every route there are good and bad roads. I highly recommand splut the journey for healthy/comfortable drive. Don't risk out!!

In my plan first day you need to drive around 650km and next day around 200km which is ideal!

Few more info about road update: Bellary - hospet - koppal - gadag seems still in bad shape and roads are blocked for sometime due to rain as bridge washed away recently.

Raichur to Hubli I feel via hungund - badami roads are good. Gadag to hubli road is supposed to be decent.

Chitradurga to shimoga roads decent but not great.

Gooty/anantpur to bellary roads not so great. These are ppints you need to remember when you plan the trip.

Shimoga - Agumbe - Mangalore roads decent.

Regards,

Ravi.

[Digital Vampire]

Originally Posted by Digital Vampire
Hmm...its a stretch for sure. But I guess we can avoid Mysore altogether. I have 2 GPS units running latest maps from Satguide and Map My India. So I hope that would take care of getting lost part.

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Guaranteed to get you lost!

I believe you. I'm sure you are telling from experience during your recent trips.

[akroy]

Start at 3AM and it can be done in a day. I would prefer the route via Shimoga, Tirthahalli (as mentioned by HVK, last option).

Abhi

[Digital Vampire]

Originally Posted by ravibhat

I suggest you split this into 2 days by taking halt either at Hassan or Ankola or Shimoga. Driving from hyderabad to Mangalore involve crossing 3 different weather conditions so journey would be very much tiresome.

Thanks for your valuable suggestions and route information

I'm slowly leaning towards making this a 2 day trip if I'm the only traveler, driver. If I get anyone to accompany me in this trip, I would consider doing it in a single stretch.