[Soumitra77]

After long discussion and calculation, me and my wife decided to go to Odisha for our yearly vacation via road from Hyderabad. We started planning a month ahead on the route, time of travel and stay etc. We took a yearly vacation of 2 weeks to visit our hometown. This year we planned from 21st Dec’2019 to 4th of Jan’2020. We were super excited and bouncing off the walls about this tour as this is the first time we are going to Odisha on road and most interestingly with our upgraded car from Santro to Seltos.
The travel plan was:
Day 1: Hyderabad 🡪 Visakhapatnam (12 h (680 km) via NH65 and AH45)
Day 2: Visakhapatnam 🡪 Bhubaneswar (10 h (440 km) via NH16)
Day 3: Bhubaneswar 🡪 Chandaka Forest 🡪 Bhubaneswar (50 km)
Day 4: Bhubaneswar 🡪 Puri 🡪 Bhubaneswar (150 km)
Day 5: Bhubaneswar 🡪 Sambalpur/Hirakud (8 h (290 km) via Badakera - Cuttack Rd and NH55)
Day 6: Sambalpur/Hirakud 🡪 Bargarh 🡪 Sambalpur (60 km)
Day 7: Sambalpur/Hirakud 🡪 Jharsuguda 🡪 Brajarajnagar 🡪 Sambalpur/Hirakud (150 km)
Day 8: Sambalpur/Hirakud 🡪 Bhubaneswar (8 h (340 km) via NH57)
Day 9: Bhubaneswar 🡪 Visakhapatnam (10 h (440 km) via NH16)
Day 10: Visakhapatnam 🡪 Hyderabad (12 h (680 km) via NH65 and AH45)

Total Travel:
KM: 3788
Fuel Cost : 15k
Mileage Avg: 18kmph
Day 1: Hyderabad 🡪 Visakhapatnam
Finally, the day came, 21st Dec’2019 Saturday, we started our journey at 3.30 AM in the morning.



Our plan was to travel as much as in the morning & daytime and avoid Night as we were traveling along with our 8Yr Kid. We hit the Nehru ORR at around 4AM. It was freezing cold on the outskirts of Hyderabad. Our kid was ready for the trip with his beddings in the back seat. Our plan was to have breakfast after crossing Vijayawada just to avoid Vijayawada and Rajahmundry traffic in the morning and reach Eluru by afternoon.
We stopped in hotel 7 to have some coffee as we heard about this hotel from many travellers. Indeed, it’s a nice neat and clean hotel but a little expensive. But this is the only hotel we saw at that time around 6:30 -7 AM.
After having nice coffee and breakfast we started again.





We crossed Vijayawada early in the morning and avoided local traffic. I gave the steering to my wife and took a quick power nap. As planned, we reached Rajmundary in the afternoon. Somehow we took the shortcut road to cross Rajmundary and had lunch somewhere just before hitting NH16.




In most of our journey we try to pack the food from home and this time also we had our homemade food box which we enjoyed there.

My kid wanted to have some fun by making a room on the back side of the car. We folded the back seat and put all the baggage on one side and got a nice room for the kid to have fun and for us to sleep.


We reached Visakhapatnam at around 5PM. We straight went to the hotel (Encore ) and had dinner and put the alarm at 3:30AM and slept as we wanted to start the next day journey around 4AM. Good night. 😊

Day 2: Visakhapatnam 🡪 Bhubaneswar (10 h (440 km) via NH16)

Alarm clock made us wake up at 3:30 and we just packed one bag with necessary items and checked out of the hotel at around 6AM. We started to drive towards the beach road and hit the RK beach at 6:30AM. It was a super view with sunrise.





We just stopped by the beach for some time and took some fresh air which motivated us to drive further. We had our breakfast at Haritha Beach Resort at Rushikonda and then We drove on the Bheemili beach road for around 25km and hit NH16 again and started cruising towards Odisha.
Visakhapatnam to Brahmapur NH16 is still under construction as they are going to make it wider and 4 Lane road but it's Ok to travel now as well.




We reached Brahmapur around 2 pm and had lunch near the hotel. We again started at 3 and reached Bhubaneswar around 5PM. Yaaahooooo
Met Maa and Bapa and Sister after a long time. Super excitement for all. For dinner the table was full with varieties of food like Fish curry, Prawn, Chicken and many veggies. We had a nice dinner all together with lots of discussion about the journey. Hit the bed at around 12PM. Good Night.

Day 3: Bhubaneswar 🡪 Chandaka Forest 🡪 Bhubaneswar (50 km)
My Kid wanted to visit Chandaka Elephant Sanctuary and hence we planned to take him to Chandaka and showed him the forest environment. We went around 2PM and entered the sanctuary around 3PM.





We took a safari (Open Jeep) to show the Elephants and Wild animals. We saw a few animals and 3 elephants. It is a nice dense forest with fog everywhere. The weather was awesome. We enjoyed it a lot and came back to home around 5PM.
Day 4: Bhubaneswar 🡪 Puri 🡪 Bhubaneswar (150 km)
We planned to visit Puri in the morning hours but somehow, we could start at around 1PM and reached Puri at around 2PM. Bhubaneswar to Puri road is awesome. It’s a toll road but worth it.
Had darshan of our divine Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra. In the temple they have started the line system. There is a separate line for senior citizens. After darshan we went to the sea beach and stayed there for a couple of hours and returned to Bhubaneswar in the night at 7PM and reached around 8PM.

Day 5: Bhubaneswar 🡪 Sambalpur/Hirakud (8 h (290 km) via Badakera - Cuttack Rd and NH55)
Since NH55 is under construction we had to travel to Badakera and then hit NH55 to avoid some part of the under construction road. The environment was very scenic and the weather was very pleasant.


It was almost 10 am but there was fog everywhere.The road till Badkera was good but it is from villages that need lots of attention while driving.


Badakera to Sambalpur road was not so good at that time due to heavy road construction to make it wide and 4 lane. I believe it will take another couple of years to get this completed and once this road is done it will take around 5 hrs to reach Sambalpur from Bhubaneswar.
(NOTE: Due to road conditions we took a different route while coming back from Sambalpur to Bhubaneswar, which we have mentioned on Day 8). We had our lunch at JITU Dhaba, Jujumura which is very famous in that area. We ordered mutton thali and were super excited to taste the desi style mutton curry. But to our surprise the mutton was not cooked properly and we had to leave the plate like that.

We reached Sambalpur in the evening and then dropped my wife and kid at her parents’ home which is in Bargarh district and 35 km from my house in Hirakud. Came back to Hirakud and spent some time with my uncle and cousin and went to bed.

Day 7: Sambalpur/Hirakud 🡪 Jharsuguda 🡪 Brajrajnagar 🡪 Sambalpur/Hirakud (150 km)
Next day I again drove to my relative’s house which is in Brajrajnagar and around 70 km from Hirakud.It was a nice experience. The road from Hirakud to Jharsuguda is really good. We travel through the Hirakud Dyke road which is a super scenic route.


Day 6: Sambalpur/Hirakud 🡪 Bargarh 🡪 Sambalpur (60 km)
Next morning I went to Bargarh to bring my family back and we returned to Hirakud at 1pm. We visited the Panrapat Mandir on the way back to Hirakud.
Had lunch and again went sightseeing to Hirakud dam. Recently one rope way has been started from the jawahar Udyan to Gandhi Minar but unfortunately it got closed by the time we reached there.So we drove towards the dyke road and clicked some pics, rewind some old and childhood memories, played in water and spent some time there.





Then had some mouthwatering local samosas, the taste of which is unbeatable and returned to home. Again packing started for the return journey. We made everything ready at night and slept so that next morning we could start early.

Day 8: Sambalpur/Hirakud 🡪 Bhubaneswar (8 h (340 km) via NH57)
Next morning we started at around 8.30 am. Ah! This is the best part of travel. We took the Boudh and Daspalla road (NH57) from Redhakhol while coming back to Bhubaneswar from Sambalpur. It’s a very beautiful road.

It's hard to believe that in Orissa also one can find this type of scenic road. Till now in my life I have never seen this much beautiful and scenic road elsewhere. The roads are black with white stripes and inside of dense forest. Everywhere is greenery and it is lively.



The daspalla road is awesome. The road is in between the forest and Satkosia Tiger Reserve.



You wont get food on the daspalla forest road. The only place you will get the food next is, Hotel Rajput. We love the food there. One can get options starting from authentic odia food to chinese cuisine here.



We reached Bhubaneswar at 6 pm and took proper rest.

Day 9: Bhubaneswar 🡪 Visakhapatnam (10 h (440 km) via NH16)
We started from Bhubaneswar in the early morning at 5 AM. Plan was to reach Visakhapatnam before evening so that we could spend some time on the Sea beach. We crossed the Odisha border in the afternoon.



Reached Visakhapatnam at 3 PM. We directly entered the beach road and went to Rishikunda Beach. Enjoyed the evening on the beach till 7 PM and went to Hotel PL Grand. It's a very nice hotel to stay. Next day we had breakfast in the morning and started back journey to Hyderabad.



Had a small tea break at Vindu hotel around 12PM.

Gave a bath to Car while we had our lunch near Rajahmundry. You will get so many car wash shop on the Rajahmundry bypass road.


We reached Vijayawada around 7 PM. Had a tea break for 30mins and then started back to Hyderabad again. My kid was so impatient to eat the hyderabadi style spicy chicken biriyani after 10 days that We took a parcel of Biryani and he enjoyed it in the rear seat while we were heading towards Hyderabad. You can feel his love for specific Hyderabadi Spicy biriyani.
We hit the road after having dinner and reached Hyderabad OOR at around 12 AM. We stopped on the Airport road for a few minutes, took some snaps and enjoyed the chilled weather.

Finally reached home at 1.15 am.

It was our first long journey with Seltos and we enjoyed every bit of it. Excited and waiting for the next adventure.





















 

[jothishX]

Excellent travelogue, Soumitra. Having left Odisha 10 years back after staying there for 20+ years, the pic of the meal on the leaf plate brought all those sweet memories back. I've been planning a similar drive from Kerala all the way to Odisha and visit Kolkata also if possible in my Seltos. If not for this pandemic situation, I would have started the itinerary planning already

[blackwasp]

Nice trip there Soumitra77! I liked the fact that you carried your own food and travelled at a pace you were comfortable with while taking in the sights.

I've never been to the state of Odhisha, but your report here makes me want to definitely have a road trip there sometime in the future.

[flyingsaucer]

While I absolutely enjoyed the travelogue, what really got me was the mention of the food you are when you reached Bhubaneswar! I'm from Odisha and started salivating imagining the spread on offer. Totally blame you for making me crave all this while I'm in a different part of the country and cannot travel there!

[Bibendum90949]

Congratulations Soumitra on your new ride. A good travelogue too.

Just keen to know which transmission do you have. It's a petrol I understand from the pic of instrument cluster. Is it an IVT, DCT or manual ?

[ashis89]

Excellent trip report there Soumitra77! Having been born and brought up in Sambalpur, that very sight of right dyke made me go weak in the knees. It has been more than 13 years since my parents relocated from Sambalpur to Bhubaneswar. My trips to Sambalpur and Bargarh (our ancestral village is nearby) have become rarer. I hope to make it there soon!

Wishing you many happy miles with your Seltos!

Juhar

Originally Posted by Bibendum90949

Congratulations Soumitra on your new ride. A good travelogue too.

Just keen to know which transmission do you have. It's a petrol I understand from the pic of instrument cluster. Is it an IVT, DCT or manual ?

Should be the HTK+ variant (Halogen projectors and rear wiper). This variant doesn't come petrol automatic option and it should be 1.5P manual.

[knrn]

Good to read a nice travelogue after long. Your pic of you sleeping with your son was very emotionally captivating. Such memories should be cherished.

On a side note, in one of the pics your rear right hand side wheel appears out of alignment. Camber probably. Maybe it is due to the camera lens but caught my eye nonetheless.
Happy motoring.

[evil_grin]

Hey Soumitra, we also drove from Hyderabad to Bhubaneswar last year around Diwali. It was good fun. Since we too live in Hyderabad and have family in Bhubaneswar, let me know the next time you plan a similar trip. We can take both our cars and go together.

I'd have messaged you for this, but it's not enabled for you yet.

[vindrider2626]

Hi great drive you had it seems,Have one doubt though.Are the road safe for travel or is there something to be taken care of?I am planning this route after all this clears.

[topse]

Originally Posted by Soumitra77

After long

Visakhapatnam to Brahmapur NH16 is still under construction as they are going to make it wider and 4 Lane road but it's Ok to travel now as well.

I traveled through the same route of NH16 during my itinerary in July last year. The road condition at that stretch was more bad due to construction work and heavy rain that time. Hope it will be over soon with all pending works and will give respite to many travellers picking up that road regularly as that's the one of the main costal highway connecting eastern India with southern India.
Anyways, nice travelogue and a feel good family travel.

[MUJ]

Great Travelogue @Soumitra77 with your new Kid (Seltos) and your family. Many more happy miles to you.

[samkat1]

Originally Posted by evil_grin

Hey Soumitra, we also drove from Hyderabad to Bhubaneswar last year around Diwali. It was good fun. Since we too live in Hyderabad and have family in Bhubaneswar, let me know the next time you plan a similar trip. We can take both our cars and go together.

I'd have messaged you for this, but it's not enabled for you yet.

That's a wonderful idea. Been thinking of a similar trip for a while and would have probably made it if there was no pandemic situation. All such persons of similar interest can form a group & plan it together (of course post the current situation normalizes).

[D'Ro@dSt@r]

Originally Posted by Soumitra77

The travel plan was:
Day 1: Hyderabad -- Visakhapatnam (12 h (680 km) via NH65 and AH45)

Oh boy. You just sent me to back to my old childhood days.

I have grown up in the city of Sambalpur of this beautiful and less explored state Odisha. Indeed those Left Dykes and Right dykes can give any of the marine drives a tough competition in terms of scenic beauty. Early mornings are just picture perfect every day.

Lovely travelogue and keep munching more miles like these. May be one day we can meet at the famous Hirakud Dam along with our rides if I am able to plan out my road trip to Sambalpur from Bangalore

[Stribog]

Lovely photos and I liked that you ended your days with a "good night" very quirky and funny.

That forest road in particular was simply stunning

[Soumitra77]

Originally Posted by blackwasp

Nice trip there Soumitra77! I liked the fact that you carried your own food and travelled at a pace you were comfortable with while taking in the sights.

I've never been to the state of Odhisha, but your report here makes me want to definitely have a road trip there sometime in the future.

Thanks a lot. If you love travelling I would encourage you to visit Odisha. It is a place where you can find all natural features like lovely mountains, many waterfalls, dense forest, hills even snowfall in some parts during winter. I am sure you will take back some nostalgic memories with you.