B'lore to Uttaranchal road trip in Dec

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

My cousin runs a transport company and they have had a few truck looting instanced in MP. So now they do not ply at night, and even in day the trucks prefer to stay together.
Thats why I was suggesting the Bombay route.
I presume its going to be around 400kms extra.

I agree with you on the unsafe conditions in MP - moreover, facilities are pretty poor and road conditions are not conducive to night driving.

[Tiger]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Bangalore-Bombay-Jaipur-Delhi is 2,530 kms, plus the distance to go to Moradabad (extra 160 kms). If they were to go to Agra from Jaipur, that would mean 2,500 kms.

On the other hand, the route via Nagpur to Agra is only 1,950 kms, a saving of over 500 kms. I have no idea how much distance it is from Agra to Moradabad, but even if you add 200 kms to that, you will still save some distance.

But I think you could be equally fast on NH4/NH8 via Delhi.

We were thinking of Blr - Belgaum-Pune-Nasik-Indore-Gwalior-Agra(2050kms) or Hyd-nagpur route(1850kms). 1st one was 200kms more than Hyd route. But not aware how is Nasik-indore-gwalior route.

Last time when we travelled we stayed at Narsinghapur & in the morning we proceeded towards Gwalior. But this time we will be crossing MP during night. I dont know how safe it is.

Also road from Lakhadon to Sagar thru Narsinghapur was extremenly bad. Avg speed was around 10kms/hr. Now when everyone is suggesting night journey is not good on that route then we may have to re think.

Is Nasik-Indore-Gwalior route is safe?? because that journey is also during night. My wife & friends wife both are there during this journey.

Agra - moradabad is around 180kms & Moradabad to Naini is 130kms.

Can any one tell us how the roads are from Agra - M'bad??
There are 2 routes
1) thru Aligarh - anupshar -sambhal -moradabd &
2)Aligarh-bulundshar-garhmukteshwar -moradabad. 100kms more than 1st one.
Which one is better?? this journey will be during daytime.

Thanks all.

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by Tiger

Is Nasik-Indore-Gwalior route is safe?? because that journey is also during night. My wife & friends wife both are there during this journey.

Can any one tell us how the roads are from Agra - M'bad??
There are 2 routes
1) thru Aligarh - anupshar -sambhal -moradabd &
2)Aligarh-bulundshar-garhmukteshwar -moradabad. 100kms more than 1st one.
Which one is better?? this journey will be during daytime.

Thanks all.

Route via Indore has high traffic and is safer than the Sagar route. I have driven through at night. Daytime travel is OK. But please remember taht from Gwalior, you are passing through Cahmbal Valley (Morena, Pholpur) and I would hesitate to travel with family (although I have driven through night alone).

But teh biigest problem is that teh road from Maharaahtra border beyond Shirpur is non-existent in MP to Indore and beyond. One of our freinds went through sometime and reported ghastly roads. My personal experience on these roads post-monsoons is also very bad - in fact, the route from Indore to Shajahanpur is also terrible and beyond that road has several bad sections all the way to Gwalior. It is definitely not pleasant bouncing along on such roads, and your speeds are unlikley to be high - plus I have run into 10-km long traffic jams. Besides, I found teh facilities very poor on this route - once, I landed up staying in a very seedy lodge in Shivpuri.

Someone in this forum had travelled Agra-Aligarh-Meerut and he was very unhappy with the road. When I went to Uttaranchal last year, I dropped the idea of coming on this road after hearing about its bad condition and preferred to come via Delhi. The Route 2 from Aligarh will connect you to the main Delhi-Moradabad road at Garhmukteswar.

having said all this, I would take the NH4/NH8 on the onward journey since I would like to have my car in best condition before getting to teh hills and a worn-out car can be prone to breakdowns after the abttering it takes before it reaches Uttaranchal. I might come back on the Central Indian route on the return journey, asssuming I have an appetite for a new route.

[tsk1979]

Considering the roads are so bad on the direct route, 500kms more seems small. You can cover up the time easily. Compare crawling at 50 to cruising at 100.

[ramkya1]

Originally Posted by Tiger

Thanks a lot to all of you,

ramkya - We will try to get in contack with Leisure hotels. Looks to be a better bet with hotels across U'chal. Also we use Lonely planet maps(its a map in the book form), it is a fantastic guide & using that we have travelled across india. I think it is pretty accurate. We also have other books on uttaranchal & think that will do. We are also trying to buy GPS. If you have details I will be thankful.
Since we are taking a bolero, think it will do the job in those tough roads. We had driven the same vehicle to Ladakh also.

Hai,

I bought my GPS online from the following site, pretty good back up, all India map is not very good. If you have good physical maps, YOU DON'T need GPS, specially in Uttranchal. Also the present Maps available with anybody is NOT accurate.

Welcome to SatGuide – India’s 1st GPS Navigation

Giving below the details of Leasure Properties, they are your best bet, they have a great camp site with swiss tents at Joshimath, I stayed there with family from 20th to 24th Last year in November, it was -4 and the swiss tents were OK if you have plenty of warm cloths.

Talk to Ramendra Singh, quote my name if you want, they are pretty good. This is OFF SEASON for them and you'd get about 1500 to 2000 per pax per day all invlusive.

Leisure Hotels Ltd.,
DD - 29,
Nehru Enclave, Kalkaji,
New Delhi - 110 019
tel : 91-11- 4652 0000
Mobile: 91-98103 96848
fax: 91-11- 2641 3303
email: ramendra.singh@leisurehotels.in
website: Uttranchal India Holiday,Uttranchal Holiday Tours in Uttranchal India,Uttranchal Holidays India


Happy Driving,

--Ramky

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[snaronikar]

I do hope you might have finalized the travel plan by now. Pls update the same.

Also thanks for Lonely Planet Map. It was very helpful throughout my journey to Gulbarga and back.

[navpreet318]

for staying in auli you can have 2 places.
one is the GMVN hotel.pretty decent.

the other one is a very lavish club house-clifftop club
surendran is the general manager there.
numbers are:(05947)253232,253233,253234,09411532907
email is gmo@ssrpl.com
and website is Club Group Of Hotels

these guys also have hotels in nainital and bhimtal.

in auli they have full skiing gear.you should be able to ski there in this season.

other than that if you have any problem just pm me.k.plan your trip beforehand and book all hotels before hand.like paythem before hand so you're not stranded without a room.

[Tiger]

Almost finalised the trip,

We have booked log huts at GMVN Auli for 30th & 31st Dec stay.( those were the last 2 log huts remaining, if we had delayed we would have missed that also).
Came to around Rs1000/day/room. Checked with Cliff top & their minimum quote was Rs6000/day/room. So saving of around 20k upfront. I think it is not worth that much( once we go there we will know its worth!!!)

By this weekend we will book for nainital stay on 23rd, Rest all we have kept it open.

Other than the places mentioned earlier we are planning to see Munsiyari(if the roads are open now) other wise we will stay at a good place for longer time.

We have decided to drive thru Hyd-Nagpur route as the mumbai route will be 500kms more.

Now only hitch is, We will be touching Sagar at around 9.0pm on 22nd & reach Agra at around 5.0am next day morning. I am still checking with my friends whether that route is safe or not during night. Planning to check in a police station at Sagar or Lalitpur & then continue.
If it is not safe then we will stay at Lalitpur. This will create lot of problems as again we have to drive thru Aligarh-hathras during night. So if possible first priority is to drive off sagar to Agra during night and Aligarh -hathras during day.

[anupmathur]

Originally Posted by Tiger

Almost finalised the trip,
By this weekend we will book for nainital stay on 23rd, Rest all we have kept it open.

One of the best hotels is Grand Hotel. Excellent location, parking within their premises (not on the roadside, like Hotel Alka, India etc), good lake views from most of the rooms.
They normally close during off-season, but I think they might be open for the year-end season.

[hvkumar]

Tiger, Laknadon-Sagar-Lalitpur-Jhansi road is in a very bad shape. Avoidable by day and night. It is not worth driving through at night, not just safety but also awful roads. Besides, the Agra-Hathras road is also terrible. Bangalore-Hyderabad road is not in great shape, and there are bad sections between Adilabad and Nagpur.

Believe me, despite the extra 500 kms (as per your calc), the route via Bombay and Udaipur is preferable. Bangalore-Bombay is still a very fast drive despite the minor bad sections Haveri/Ranebennur. The only problem area is the Surat bypass which can have bad traffic jams. Nonetheless, this is one route which you can drive through comfortably day or night without any speed restrictions or safety issues.

[breezydrive]

Originally Posted by Tiger

Also road from Lakhadon to Sagar thru Narsinghapur was extremenly bad. Avg speed was around 10kms/hr. Now when everyone is suggesting night journey is not good on that route then we may have to re think.

Seoni - Lakhnadoon - Narsinghpur road is good now.

In fact, Jabalpur byepass - Narsinghpur is a toll road & it took us 1hour to cover the distance in October'07

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by breezydrive

Seoni - Lakhnadoon - Narsinghpur road is good now.

In fact, Jabalpur byepass - Narsinghpur is a toll road & it took us 1hour to cover the distance in October'07

Tirthankar Basu drove on this route from Hyderabad to Delhi during Diwali and he reported speeds of 15-20 kmph in this sector.

[Tiger]

Just checked with my friends relative who stays at Sagar, he is of the view that road is better/good from Lakandon to gwalior, but avoidable driving during night as it is not safe.

I think safety is more important than saving some time & kms. we will decide in a day or two on the route.

Thanks all for the feedback.

[snaronikar]

Take some warm clothes and necessary things to keep yourselves warm as the temperatures in these regions are nearing zero. Do post routes after you finalize on the same.