[ampere]

Originally Posted by sameerg

Need help/suggestions on a decent place to stay. Will be travelling with family.

As @Jaggu mentioned, it a good place and has good food too. The best part is its just off the 4-lane. But you need to be careful to spot the exit out and go below the 4-lane and cross to reach the hotel. At night you may miss the exit. So do keep that into account. Thanks to the flyover constructions, many places have been dug up and now these places are water logged thanks to rains.

[netarchie]

Returned to Mumbai from kumbakonam on Friday early morning. It took me about 14 hours from Bangalore nice road to my place in navi mumbai with about 2 hours break in between.

Hit nice road (e city end) at 2:10 pm and reached my place at 4:20 a.m.

Satara is the only problem area..rest all fine.
It was raining after chitradurga, that slowed down us a bit too.

[gururaj r]

Originally Posted by netarchie

Returned to Mumbai from kumbakonam on Friday early morning. It took me about 14 hours from Bangalore nice road to my place in navi mumbai with about 2 hours break in between.

Hit nice road (e city end) at 2:10 pm and reached my place at 4:20 a.m.

Satara is the only problem area..rest all fine.
It was raining after chitradurga, that slowed down us a bit too.

Allthe best on your safe journey. Could you inform the total toll paid one way for your journey from Kumbakonam to Mumbai

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by gururaj r

Allthe best on your safe journey. Could you inform the total toll paid one way for your journey from Kumbakonam to Mumbai

Hope I can help at least from NICE (Hosur Road) till Navi Mumbai:

NICE- 155
Nelemangala - 20
Tumkur - 33
Karjivanahalli - 55
Guilalu - 55
Davanagere - 65
Haveri - 80
Bankapura- 60
Hubli Bypass- 45
Bagewadi - 75
Hattaragi - 20
Kognoli - 30
Kini - 66
Taswade - 66
Anewadi - 50
Khedshivpur - 75
Expressway - 165

The total comes to 1115 for the above.

I hope netarchie would be able to help you with the toll from Hosur road onward till Kumbakonam.

Note: The toll rates are from my recent drives on July 19-21 (Mum/Vapi/Nashik) and Aug 14-17 (Belgaum/Chorla/Goa).

[netarchie]

Hi,
Adding to parag's list

Atibele - 25
Krishnagiri - 55
Krishnagiri thoupur - 79
Omalur - 63
Nathakarai - 40

Thanks to parag for the list,it was very useful during the journey as we were prepared with the money.it saved us time as well as some chocolates ;-)

[binand]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

The total comes to 1115 for the above.

That's a near 40% increase in two years:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...EE&usp=sharing

Haveri and Davengere are (relatively) new toll collection points?

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by binand

That's a near 40% increase in two years:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...EE&usp=sharing

Haveri and Davengere are (relatively) new toll collection points?

Yes binand. The new collection Points are Before and after Davanagere which exists since more than a year now (65 and 80).

Unfortunately, they are also located very close to each other and perhaps the most costliest toll among all the toll booths in Karnataka between Bangalore and Kognoli(KA-MH Border).

[gururaj r]

Was just calculating the total cost of travel. 100 litres of petrol plus Rs1155 towards toll would make us poorer by Rs10000 one way. Flight for two would be cheap, safe and quicker. But would miss all the temples enroute. My trip is mostly from Mumbai to Madurai in my i10 with my wife.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by gururaj r

Was just calculating the total cost of travel. 100 litres of petrol plus Rs1155 towards toll would make us poorer by Rs10000 one way. Flight for two would be cheap, safe and quicker. But would miss all the temples enroute. My trip is mostly from Mumbai to Madurai in my i10 with my wife.

And add to it a stay in a hotel for a break in the journey some where on the highway. You can not do it in a single drive.

[cyberwhizs]

Originally Posted by netarchie

Satara is the only problem area..rest all fine.

How bad is it between pune and satara? Is it mainly traffic snarls, or umpteen diversions or just plain bad potholed roads? am planning to drive down next weekend to satara, actually kaas, and back.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by cyberwhizs

How bad is it between pune and satara? Is it mainly traffic snarls, or umpteen diversions or just plain bad potholed roads? am planning to drive down next weekend to satara, actually kaas, and back.

You have a couple of diversions due to 6 lane work between these 2 points. Plus if you are driving beyond Pune towards Mumbai, the Pune bypass alone has at least 5 diversions. These diversions slow you down due to slow moving traffic arresting your overtaking options as you follow traffic.
However, since Kaas is your destination you wont have to bother much about these.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by cyberwhizs

How bad is it between pune and satara? Is it mainly traffic snarls, or umpteen diversions or just plain bad potholed roads? am planning to drive down next weekend to satara, actually kaas, and back.

Traffic is fairly fast moving. You may lose some time at toll booths. I am guessing you would on the Pune Bypass NH4, which is also fast moving. Stoppages I think should not be a problem.

Bad roads around Satara are only at the town bypass, which I think you may not be seeing and you get into the town at the first exit.

[Kimified]

Need some quick suggestion. Planning to travel to Mumbai from Bangalore during the last week of this month. Jayanagar in Bangalore to Powai in Mumbai. I am assuming it would take around 14 hours including breaks.

So, planning to leave around 6am and reach by around 8pm. I would not mind stopping over to see a couple of places on the way spending say 2 hours extra.

Reaching by 11 PM would also not be a problem. I generally drive during night on known roads (Previously driven roads), considering that I am doing the Mumbai route the first time, aim is to avoid night driving as much as possible.

So, can you please suggest some quick stop over places that can be visited and are worth visiting en-route ? Also, places for having breakfast around 930 am, lunch around 130pm and a chai/snacks stop over around 6pm would be awesome Thanks in advance.

[Drivethru]

Please tell me the road conditions and the traffic conditions on tumkur dabaspete doddaballapur devanahalli bengaluru airport route. I shall trying to reach BIAL on Tuesday late night from tumkur side. Is it a safe road in nights after 9 to 10 pm.

Thanks

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by Kimified

Need some quick suggestion. Planning to travel to Mumbai from Bangalore during the last week of this month. Jayanagar in Bangalore to Powai in Mumbai. I am assuming it would take around 14 hours including breaks.

So, planning to leave around 6am and reach by around 8pm. I would not mind stopping over to see a couple of places on the way spending say 2 hours extra.

Reaching by 11 PM would also not be a problem. I generally drive during night on known roads (Previously driven roads), considering that I am doing the Mumbai route the first time, aim is to avoid night driving as much as possible.

So, can you please suggest some quick stop over places that can be visited and are worth visiting en-route ? Also, places for having breakfast around 930 am, lunch around 130pm and a chai/snacks stop over around 6pm would be awesome Thanks in advance.

I would say Budget 15 hours in case you are leaving at 6:00 AM from Jayanagar.

Option 1: No sight seeing, drive straight to Mumbai:

6:00AM - Jayanagar
7:00AM - JAS Toll booth Nelamangala (Via City or NICE)
9:30AM - Chitradurga - Breakfast at Naveen Regency here

If you want to push a little further by 70 more kms, I would also suggest the following options:

10:15AM - Davanagare - Breakfast at Kamant attached to IOCL or even better, Davanagere Butter Dosas inside the city which is a mere 20 mins extra to enter and exit together.

Assuming that you opt for Chitradurga or Davanagere for Breakfast, you would cross Belgaum (~480 Kms from JAS, Nelamangala), around 1:30PM-2:00PM.

Ideally, you can have lunch at here at the following places:

Hotel Sankam Residency, Off NH4
Hotel Ramdev, Inside Belgaum City

Note:Reaching Sankam from the Highway takes less than 5 minutes and Ramdev another about 15 minutes.

In case you manage to do some very good average speeds and Belgaum seems too early for lunch, the next best option would be at the end of Tawandi Ghats before Nippani at a place called "Amar - Only Veg"

With a 6:00AM start, Kolhapur would be too late for lunch else you would have relished some typical Maharashtrain/Konkan delicacies at Hotel Opal.

In all probabilities, you would reach KhedShivpur Toll plaza around 5:30PM and this is certainly not a good time to then spend the next 45 kms till you enter the Mumbai-Pune expressway. Pune's Westerly bypass is not really a bypass today with peak hour evening traffic slowing you down and irritating you after that 830 kms drive since Morning.

Soon after you enter the Mumbai-Pune expressway, factor around 2 hours till you reach Vashi Bridge and then take either Vashi Bridge or Thane Belapur road to reach whatever destination you have planned to.

Option 2: Sight seeing, reach Mumbai late:

Chitradurga Fort ( ~230 from Jaynagar Inside Chitradurga Town)
Utsav Rock Garden ( ~ 375 Kms from Jayanagar, after Shiggaon on NH4)

Here's the URL for Utsav: https://www.facebook.com/UtsavRockGarden/photos_stream

Mahalakshmi Temple (Inside Kolhapur city)

My 2 cents:

If you are the lone driver with family, I would strongly suggest not spending time sight seeing since the journey itself will be 1000 kms and none of the human bodies including that of the drive will have the enthusiasm to go sight seeing after so much of time spent on roads.

In case you wish to drive straight to Mumbai, I will suggest an early start (4:30/5:00AM) from Jayanagar so that you cross Pune bypass by 4:00/4:30PM when traffic will be considerably thinner.