[mobike008]

Day 1 : Hyderabad-Mumbai (695kms)
Day 2: Mumbai-Udaipur (753kms)
Day 3 : Stay whole day in Udaipur
Day 4 : Udaipur-Jodhpur (255kms)
Day 5: Stay whole day in Jodhpur
Day 6 : Jodhpur-Jaisalmer (263kms)
Day 7: Stay whole day in Jaisalmer
Day 8 : Jaisalmer-Jaipur (575kms)
Day 9 : Jaipur-Delhi (260kms)
Day 10: Delhi-Meerut (70kms)
Day 11: Meerut-Dehradun (170kms)
Day 12: Dehradun
Day 13: Dehradun-Meerut-Delhi ( 240kms)
Day 14: Delhi
Day 15: Delhi-Himmatnagar (Gujarat)-(825kms)
Day 16: Himmatnagar-Pune (727kms)
Day 17: Pune-Hyderabad (560kms)

Total Kms : ~ 5500kms

Around 3rd week of December planning a roadtrip as outlined above. I plan to drive only during 5AM-8PM each day. Want to simply abhor night driving (though i enjoy it) throught out this trip. In addition to that would like to drive through above mentioned circuit without having to constantly looking at my watch. After all, it's a vacation

I have already received phenomenal amount of information including trip logs from Ranjitp1 who has done Hyderabad-Rajasthan a couple of months ago. However, my plan is a bit different from his plan with regards to entry and exit points for cities/states

I have devised above route keeping in mind what would be best way to enter and exit from one city/state to another. The latter part of the plan from Delhi-Hyd has been completely changed based on Ranjit's feedback.

Have a long list of queries and appreciate information on some of my queries below

1. I wish to do Hyd-Mumbai in day one. I know its going to be a bit stressful but, plan to stay outside Mumbai ( well away from famed mumbai traffic) enroute Gujarat. So would Panvel be the right place to halt for first night? Anyone can share hotel info?

2. Mumbai-Udaipur. Is this section easily doable from early morning to late evening? How are the road conditions and traffic situation?

3. Would love to know the road conditions from Jaisalmer to Jaipur. Any idea how much time to cover 575kms?

4. I understand Jaipur-Delhi would be a breeze? Is that true?

5. Due to family obligations need to be in Delhi and Meerut without fail. So planned Dehradun into the itnernary but, i know its going to be crowded. Is it worth going during that timeframe? Also, any other place suggestions instead of Doon?

I dont want to add more driving to my already packed schedule. Somewhere in range of maximum 200kms would be a good option. Perhaps, i can consider Rishikesh as other option. Any other options apart from these two? My simple criteria. Cold, Colder, Coldest weather

6. Is Delhi-Himmatnagar doable in one day? How are the road and traffic conditions?

7. Is Himmatnagar-Pune doable in one day? How are the road and traffic conditions?

8. Would appreciate information on hotels for all places enroute and in Rajasthan with a budget of Rs.1500/night at an average

9. Is it going to be cold in Rajasthan? Any need for woolens?

10. Any other feedback/inputs are more than welcome

[ampere]

December: Rajasthan would be cold. In the desert, it is even more so!

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by mobike008

Day 1 : Hyderabad-Mumbai (695kms)

3am Departure Bom,8pm arrival- Hotel Fountain,Ghodbunder.

Originally Posted by mobike008

Day 2: Mumbai-Udaipur (753kms)

12-13hours.6am departure-Hotel Fountain,arrival Udaipur 8pm.

Originally Posted by mobike008

Day 4 : Udaipur-Jodhpur (255kms)

7hours at the maximum.Go via Pali.Start early from udaipur,visit Ranakpur and then head to Pali-Jodhpur.

Originally Posted by mobike008

Day 6 : Jodhpur-Jaisalmer (263kms)

4 hours drive

Originally Posted by mobike008

Day 8 : Jaisalmer-Jaipur (575kms)

11hour drive

Originally Posted by mobike008

Day 9 : Jaipur-Delhi (260kms)

6hour drive depending on traffic.

Originally Posted by mobike008

Day 15: Delhi-Himmatnagar (Gujarat)-(825kms)

15hour drive,stay at Hotel Landmark in Himmatnagar.Call ahead and block the room,since its season time

Originally Posted by mobike008

Day 16: Himmatnagar-Pune (727kms)

13hour drive.Stay at Ginger or in Sadanand in Pune on the Mumbai Bypass road.

Originally Posted by mobike008

Day 17: Pune-Hyderabad (560kms)

Start after breakfast as there is nothing noteworthy to eat on this stretch!

Originally Posted by mobike008

1. I wish to do Hyd-Mumbai in day one. I know its going to be a bit stressful but, plan to stay outside Mumbai ( well away from famed mumbai traffic) enroute Gujarat. So would Panvel be the right place to halt for first night? Anyone can share hotel info?

If you are going to drive till Mumbai,then you might as well stay on NH8 as your next day start would be easy.Drive till Ghodbunder via Thane and stay at HVK Junction(officially known as Ghodbunder Junction but for TBHPIANS it is HVKumar Junction!!)Hotel Fountain is right at the signal and next day morning you could directly get onto NH8 and go towards Ahmedabad.

Originally Posted by mobike008

2. Mumbai-Udaipur. Is this section easily doable from early morning to late evening? How are the road conditions and traffic situation?

Easily doable,excellent roads,its a 13hour drive with breaks.4 laned all the way and 6 laned between Surat and Baroda and plus you have the famous NE1 between Baroda & AMD.Easily doable.

Originally Posted by mobike008

4. I understand Jaipur-Delhi would be a breeze? Is that true?

It was ouat,not anymore thanx to the road widening work that is in progress at the moment,too much of chaos at the moment.Regulars on this route would be able to shed more light,but it definitely is not a breeze anymore sadly.

Originally Posted by mobike008

6. Is Delhi-Himmatnagar doable in one day? How are the road and traffic conditions?

Easily doable,in fact if you want you can stretch it till Baroda,as the AMD-Baroda is an expressway,but do that depending on your state when you reach Himmatnagar!Do not push it if you are mentally tired,like you said you are on a vacation

Originally Posted by mobike008

7. Is Himmatnagar-Pune doable in one day? How are the road and traffic conditions?

easily doable.4laned all the way,nothing to worry about,excellent facilities enroute,plenty of places to eat,in fact I havent seen this many restaurants on any highway as much as I saw in between Surat & Baroda!

Originally Posted by mobike008

8. Would appreciate information on hotels for all places enroute and in Rajasthan with a budget of Rs.1500/night at an average

RTDC hotels are your best bet,ANainar from Blore did a similar trip,he might be able to help you with hotels.Jaipur,TBHPIAN Deky has a guest house in a jaipur,you might want to check with him about avlbty

Originally Posted by mobike008

9. Is it going to be cold in Rajasthan? Any need for woolens?

Yes,extra luggage for you.

[MX6]

Delhi to Himmatnagar leg. Make allowances for fog as well.

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by MX6

Delhi to Himmatnagar leg. Make allowances for fog as well.

Oh yeah, i didnt factor that in.

North is engulfed in fog during December and you can encounter it at any time of the day

Ranjit, thanks for your inputs again. Do you think it will take 17 hours to drive from Hyderabad to Mumbai ( Ghodbhandar)? I thought it was doable in 14 hours or so?

Btw, was checking all travel websites and almost every website with 1000-2000 per night budget are showing up as "sold out". This is an alarming situation. I was depending majorly on sites like makemytrip, cleartrip and yatra for booking rooms.

I think now need to book the hotel rooms by contacting hotel folks directly.

Would appreciate information on hotels with contact info for my Rajasthan leg so i can contact them directly and book the hotels instead of going through these travel websites who are notorious for holding up rooms and sell it at higher prices later on.

a) Udaipur
b) Jodhpur
c) Jaisalmer
d) Jaipur

[Dry Ice]

Originally Posted by mobike008

Day 10: Delhi-Meerut (70kms)
Day 11: Meerut-Dehradun (170kms)
Day 12: Dehradun
Day 13: Dehradun-Meerut-Delhi ( 240kms)

Due to family obligations need to be in Delhi and Meerut without fail. So planned Dehradun into the itnernary but, i know its going to be crowded. Is it worth going during that timeframe? Also, any other place suggestions instead of Doon?

I dont want to add more driving to my already packed schedule. Somewhere in range of maximum 200kms would be a good option. Perhaps, i can consider Rishikesh as other option. Any other options apart from these two? My simple criteria. Cold, Colder, Coldest weather

Well since you already want to be in Dehradun, I would suggest try including Mussorie. It hardly takes an hour from Dehradun and the road is just awesome! Curves, inclines, great views. In good condition and well marked too! (This was some time ago, hope it has not degraded!)

I suggest you start from Meerut before the chaos in the town kicks in and you could be sipping tea in Mussorie by late afternoon. Leave the next afternoon and explore Dehradun for the rest of the day.

And your criteria would be fullfilled, it could well be the coldest point on your entire journey, should you decide to visit!

Hoping to read an epic travelogue here!

[MileCruncher]

First things first: Are you sure you are doing this driving holiday? You still have 3 weeks to decide and buy your alternate flight tickets to Delhi

Anyways if you still decide to take the hard route, here are are some that you may need.

Originally Posted by mobike008

1. Day 1 : Hyderabad-Mumbai (695kms) - Doable but you need to out no later than 4AM and you can break the day at HVK Junction aka Ghodbunder, Hotel Fountain.
2. Day 2: Mumbai-Udaipur (753kms) - This is also very doable but you must start early from Ghodbunder to avoid getting stuck in traffic at Surat / Bharuch.
3. Day 3 : Stay whole day in Udaipur . Where are you staying? Lake Place ?
4. Day 4 : Udaipur-Jodhpur (255kms) Easy but you will encounter some single lane roads on the way.
5. Day 5: Stay whole day in Jodhpur. Umaid Bhawan Palace is highly recommended
6. Day 6 : Jodhpur-Jaisalmer (263kms) Again easy but you will need to careful as sand on the road makes driving tricky.
7. Day 7: Stay whole day in Jaisalmer. Stay inside the Fort if you can.
8. Day 8 : Jaisalmer-Jaipur (575kms) This SH isnot in good condition so you might have to travel thru Jodhpur, Beawar, Ajmer, Kishangarh. The best route in this case would Jaisalmer - Bikaner - Delhi. You can stay in Bikaner, enjoy the food and then also go to the Karni Mata Temple in Deshnoke famous for its rats.
9. Day 9 : Jaipur-Delhi (260kms)
10. Day 10: Delhi-Meerut (70kms)
11. Day 11: Meerut-Dehradun (170kms)
12. Day 12: Dehradun
13. Day 13: Dehradun-Meerut-Delhi ( 240kms)
14. Day 14: Delhi
15. Day 15: Delhi-Himmatnagar (Gujarat)-(825kms) I would suggest Delhi - Jaipur / Jaipur - Pune / Pune - Hyderabad incase you want to spend time in Jaipur, else its totally avoidable.
16. Day 16: Himmatnagar-Pune (727kms)
17. Day 17: Pune-Hyderabad (560kms)

Total Kms : ~ 5500kms

Hope this helps

[mobike008]

Thanks Ani & Dry Ice for your response.

If Mussorie is so close then will definetly club it if i am headed towards Doon. But, you never know these days everything is dynamic, not sure if all will go according to the plan.

@Ani,

I had initially planned my return from Delhi via. Jaipur. But, changed it based on Ranjit's advice.

Jaipur-Pune is 1200+ kms which cannot be covered in single day. So need to make a stop at Surat/AHMD etc. I think you missed my point that iam on a vacation and not in Cannonball Run

However, if there is nothing really to see in Jaipur then will skip that entire sector and from Jaisalmer will head towards Bikaner and then onwards to Delhi ( which initally was my plan but, just because wanted to include Jaipur changed it and running south and then east towards Delhi)

I will make a call of visiting or not visiting Jaipur depending on all your responses and my convenience during the trip

Which bring me to another question

Is it possible to do Jaisalmer-Bikaner-Delhi which I think is 700+kms in one shot? I can use those extra days in Mussorie

[kpzen]

Originally Posted by mobike008

However, if there is nothing really to see in Jaipur then will skip that entire sector and from Jaisalmer will head towards Bikaner and then onwards to Delhi ( which initally was my plan but, just because wanted to include Jaipur changed it and running south and then east towards Delhi)

I will make a call of visiting or not visiting Jaipur depending on all your responses and my convenience during the trip

Which bring me to another question

Is it possible to do Jaisalmer-Bikaner-Delhi which I think is 700+kms in one shot? I can use those extra days in Mussorie

Jaisalmer - Delhi via Bikaner is gonna take min. 12hrs.
I would prefer to do Jaisalmer - Pokhran - Jodhpur - Jaipur - Delhi 925kms in 12hrs. Its a bloody runway till Ajmer. You can do a cannonball cruze on vacation.

Another option is that you reach Jaipur by evening and have dinner @ Chowki Dhani (if you haven't been there before). Start for delhi next day morning.

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by mobike008

Do you think it will take 17 hours to drive from Hyderabad to Mumbai ( Ghodbhandar)? I thought it was doable in 14 hours or so?

Timings as of Last week of October
Hyd-Solapur: 5hrs
Solapur-Hadapsar:4-5hrs
Hadapsar-Expressway:1-1.5hrs(depending on traffic)
Expressway-Panvel:1.5-2hrs
Panvel-Ghodbunder:2-3hours
Breaks/Refuelling:1-1.5hrs
Hyd-Sangareddy:4laned in good shape.
Sangareddy-Zaheerabad:Potholed
Zaheerabad-Solapur:Potholed and rough surface
Solapur-Indapur:Good to bad surface
Indapur-Loni:4laning in progress,will slow you down,road shoulder very less
Loni-Hadapsar:Good roads,dense traffic,overtaking difficult
Hadapsar-Expressway:4laned,dense city traffic,if you reach Pune around 2-5pm,then go through the city-Hadapsar-Swargate-Katraj-Bypass-MPEW.Do not follow the left arrow sign at Hadapsar which says Mumbai,its a very long and tiring route and in very bad state.This is the Saswad road.If you happen to reach after 6 then take this road as Swargate would be choc-a-bloc with evening traffic.
Expressway-Panvel:Excellent,preserve the toll ticket for showing at exit,earlier they used to have cards,but now its plain paper.
Panvel-Ghodbunder:Go via Thane,there is a bypass guide prepared by HVK,you would get it on the many threads,if I get it shall send it to you,follow it and you should be able to reach Ghodbunder without too much trouble.

[deky]

1. Jaipur-Delhi(260kms) If you start at 0600 hrs from Jaipur you will easily be at home in Delhi by 1100 hrs with one stop. The route is getting better. But if you in no hurry to reach Delhi then you can start later also but in anycase start before Noon.

2. Delhi-Himmatnagar: I dont think should be more than 13 hrs if you starting from Delhi at 0500hrs (best time to start from Delhi for any destination) provided there is no fog

3. December time carry plenty of woolens for Rajasthan/Delhi/ HP. Its already very cold

4. December is the peak season for hotels in Rajasthan, so Rs.1500/- maybe a bit tight. I am sending you a PM regarding the same

5. Jaiselmer- Bikaner - Delhi: IMO is only a good option if you hard pressed for time and want to reach Delhi in advance. The thing is that entering NCR between 1800hrs - 2200hrs is a big no no. You will be anyways at the lowest of your energy levels plus the maddening traffic and long long ques at bottlenecks before/at/after Manesar ( there are too many of them) will make you really frustrated

• Jaiselmer - Bikaner - Fatehpur - Jhunjhunu: The road is excellent.

• Jhunjhunu- Behror: not sure about the road

• Behror - Manesar- Gurgaon- Delhi: Good roads, but chaotic traffic

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by kpzen

Jaisalmer - Delhi via Bikaner is gonna take min. 12hrs.
I would prefer to do Jaisalmer - Pokhran - Jodhpur - Jaipur - Delhi 925kms in 12hrs. Its a bloody runway till Ajmer. You can do a cannonball cruze on vacation.

Another option is that you reach Jaipur by evening and have dinner @ Chowki Dhani (if you haven't been there before). Start for delhi next day morning.

I would second this option of doing Jaisalmer-Jaipur on one day and have a nice rajasthani thali at Chokhi Dhani or at the LMBs or BMBs,it would revitalise you for your next day's drive and you could start after a comfortable breakfast to reach home in Del for lunch.Jaisalmer-Delhi is a bad idea.

[vnabhi]

Wow, what a heck of a trip! All the best, Avi.

Hyd to HVK Jn might take 16 hours taking into account the bad roads near Homnabad and Indapur, the truck traffic from Mohol to Indapur, evening traffic at Pune and evening traffic towards Thane after the Expressway ends.

I remember it took me 15 hours to cover 720 kms to Thane 3 years back ---left at 630 am and reached at 930 pm.

Unless you have a co-driver, it will be too tiresome and mechanical after a couple of days, IMO.

[kpzen]

For doing Jaisalmer - Delhi in one stretch you will have to time it in such a way that you hit Kotputli - Manesar around midnight or early morning.
Else, you will get stuck in some mad traffic jam in the last section of your day's journey with min. energy level. Not ideal IMO, unless you have couple of drivers.

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

Hyd to HVK Jn might take 16 hours taking into account the bad roads near Homnabad and Indapur, the truck traffic from Mohol to Indapur, evening traffic at Pune and evening traffic towards Thane after the Expressway ends.

I remember it took me 15 hours to cover 720 kms to Thane 3 years back ---left at 630 am and reached at 930 pm.

Nothing much has changed even today!!it still would take close to 16-17hrs to cover the distance thanx to the condition of the roads!and the same distance in other parts of the country are covered in half that time!Just shows what bad roads can do to speed averages