Pune to Delhi - Route, experience etc.

[sushil.raddi]

Hi Friends,

I am planning to drive down from Pune to Delhi in my toyota Corolla in December.

Plan to strart from Pune in the evening and take a overnight halt in Mumbai and the next day drive straight from Mumbai to Jaipur... and then onward to Delhi if possible on the same day. I would be travelling witn my family and elder daughter is close to 7 yrs and the younger one is close to 2 so intermittant stops is the rule of the game. Please advise on
1. Route
2. Road Conditions
3. Eating joints
4. Fuel stations(quality of fuel available)
5. other useful information
6. good and not so expensive place to stay overnight at Jaipur (very close to the highway)

Thanks

[phamilyman]

Kindly PM hvkumar and please add your query to many pre-existing threads.

fyi - jaipur - you will have to get into the city at the bypass point to get some decent hotels. else the bypass is for the majority, no hotels

don't fill up between jaipur and kishangarh - totally noxious fellows they are

[Maverick79]

Well Sushil,
This is the route I did twice. i.e to and fro with a gap of exactly 1 year.
I drove along with my just bought M800 on 30th Oct '06 from Pune to Alwar ( 80 Kms off the Jaipur Delhi Road at Daruhera).
While I was returning back to Pune, after I changed my job,I was all alone while, hence loaded my self with some good music as my companion.

As you are starting from Pune,

The stretch from Mumbai to Surat is a bit muckky, with single roads and heavy trafficvery few good restaurants. U can do ur firts pitstop at Baroda/ Ahmedabad, depending on how fast u can reach.
After a night halt, pls take as much food as possible as the road ahead has hardly any nice food joints.
Road after Surat is ok and u will come across the Vadodara Ahmedabad express way most enjoyable in this stretch.
From Ahmedabad, the roads are really good. I maintained an average of 90 kmph in my 800 and enjoyed a lot.
Till u reach, Udaipur, u may not require to use ur left foot.
From Udaipur, the road is so soo with too many patch works and moving speed breakers ( cattle). After this stretch, the road is really smooth till u reach Jaipur and further from Jaipur, its again a smooth cruise.
Now the most imp is the fuel stops. Never fill it near Jaipur, I could see a drastic change of 2km drop in the F.E. The same was observed by my colleague too, some 3 months later.
Post Ahmedabad, as I mentioned earlier, u need to carry good amounts of food n water, with u till u reach Udaipur or Jaipur.

One more imp thing I would like to share is the total toll amount I paid is Rs. 610while I was returing back from Alwar to Pune ( Including the Mum- Pune Exps. way)

Have a nice jolly ride..

Originally Posted by phamilyman

Kindly PM hvkumar and please add your query to many pre-existing threads.

fyi - jaipur - you will have to get into the city at the bypass point to get some decent hotels. else the bypass is for the majority, no hotels

don't fill up between jaipur and kishangarh - totally noxious fellows they are

[amit_arya]

well my trip april09 delhi-pune-delhi in 5 days..
used HV's sheet GQ logbook as my reference points...

In condense form
Day 1 : 4am(delhi) to 12:45AM(Valsad) : includes 2-3hours rest post vadodra as one of the co passenger got sick (travel sickness)
Day 2 : 11AM (Valsad) to 2-3PM (Pune)
Day 3 : 5PM (Pune) to 10PM (mumbai, mira road)
Day 4 : 11AM (Mumbai) to Nargol to (11PM) Ahemdabad
Day 5 : 11Am (Ahemdabad) to 10pm (delhi)

Halts:
Day 1 :
- Breakfast : 11AM, some where on road
- Lunch : NE1, reliance (after ahemdabad), worst place to have lunch. u can prefer the city
- Dinner : Valsad
Day 2 :
- Breakfast : valsad
- lunch / dinner une
Day 3 :
- breakfast / lunch : Pune
- Dinner : mumbai
Day 4 :
- Breakfast : mumbai
- Lunch : Valsad
- Dinner : ahemdabad (entered city and did not took the bypass)
Day 5 :
- breakfast : Ahemdabad
- Lunch : some part of rajasthan .. (some 250KM before jaipur)
- Dinner : Gurgoan, pizza hut

route :

delhi to kishangargh NH8
kishangargh to udaipur NH79 and NH76
udaipur to mumbai NH8
mumbai to pune - Expressway

i tried and maintained a log book like HV but lazy to type it and upload it...

All i will say is keep ur speed a bit under control in pune expressway (i was about to meet god there... but it seems like god was not that interested)... moreover one of the TBHP member who tried his GQ stunt (in may/june09..starting from bangalore .. forgetting his name) met with an accident on NH8 (ghats before ahemdabad)

[ptushar]

Originally Posted by sushil.raddi

Hi Friends,

I am planning to drive down from Pune to Delhi in my toyota Corolla in December.

Plan to strart from Pune in the evening and take a overnight halt in Mumbai and the next day drive straight from Mumbai to Jaipur... and then onward to Delhi if possible on the same day. I would be travelling witn my family and elder daughter is close to 7 yrs and the younger one is close to 2 so intermittant stops is the rule of the game. Please advise on
1. Route
2. Road Conditions
3. Eating joints
4. Fuel stations(quality of fuel available)
5. other useful information
6. good and not so expensive place to stay overnight at Jaipur (very close to the highway)

Thanks

Just came back from my Pune-Udaipur-Pune drive.

Here is my $0.02 on the topic. Hope this helps.

Route:
In the last one month I did the Pune-Indore (NH3) and the Pune-Udaipur (NH8) drive. Technically you can take both these routes from Pune; however since you are driving from Mumbai, its the NH8 for you. And trust me you are NOT missing the NH3.

Road Conditions:
Pune-Panvel-Thane - Most of this is the expressway, so no problem. You have probably done this a million times by now.
Thane-Ghodbunder - Four laned all troughout. No worries. This will hit NH8 just after Dahisar. Good road. You will not need this,as you are are driving from Mumbai.
Ghodbunder to Manor - Pain in all the wrong places. The road condition now is full of potholes. To make matters worse you will need to cross the Vasai toll booth, which is truly a crazy experience given the lenght of the line that you can get here. This section has heavy truck traffic.
Manor to MH border - Again heavy truck traffic, road condition is average. This section is really really scenic though.
MH-border to Surat - Quite good roads in Gujarat. This will cross major towns like Vapi, Valsad and Navsari, but no worries, either these are by-passed or you have flyovers all over, so you just go cool
Surat - Vadodra - FANTASTIC!!! No other words here...
Vadodra - Ahmedabad - Expressway. This is a four laned access controlled road. Great, just great.
Ahmedabd bypass: You do not need to enter the city, take the exit on the Ahmedabad ring road. You will need to take the exit and then take a U-turn for Udaipur on the ring-road. Pass two toll booths and take the right for Udaipur/Jaipur.
Ring-road - Udaipur - Four laned road (except for the first 20 kms which is two laned, but wide). Very good road. I did the Vadodra - Udaipur section (340 kms) in 4 hrs 20 minutes. The road in Rajasthan is not as good as in Gujarat, but it is still great. very minimal traffic on this section.

While I write this I have to say "Roads in Gujarat rock". One needs to drive here to experience the sheer pleasure.

I was stopped by the police on the Ahmedabad bypass since I did not have the mandatory yellow sticker on my right headlight. But they let me go after they saw the MH-12 number plate and realised that I was only driving through GJ.

Eating joints:
I stopped at Kamaths restaurant on NH8 just after the Vasai toll booth. Good palce for breakfast. I would recommend it for their clean toilets. They have a small box kept in the toilet for you to tip if you liked the toilets. They were so spik and san, that I was glad to tip.
Decent and plentiful restaurants all the way till MH border. After that the numbers drop, but you will get pretty good food joints near major towns like Vapi etc. You will not need to enter any town or city though. No eateries on the Vadodra-Ahmedabad expressway, but then you hardly need about 50 minutes to cross this section.
My only concern with these places on the highway are the toilets. Generally they do not have clean toilets and that is a big let-down. That is why I liked Kamaths a lot.

Fuel stations:
Plentiful. No worries in this department. I usually stopped at Indian Oil (Extra Preminum) or HP (Power). No issues faced on quality of fuel.

Hope this helps. As my trip was only till Udaipur (probably half-way for you), may not be able to help you post that. Let me know your experience; I am planning a longer trip till Shimla early next year.

[Sea Cruiser]

Originally Posted by sushil.raddi

Hi Friends,

I am planning to drive down from Pune to Delhi in my toyota Corolla in December.

Plan to strart from Pune in the evening and take a overnight halt in Mumbai and the next day drive straight from Mumbai to Jaipur... and then onward to Delhi if possible on the same day. I would be travelling witn my family and elder daughter is close to 7 yrs and the younger one is close to 2 so intermittant stops is the rule of the game. Please advise on
1. Route
2. Road Conditions
3. Eating joints
4. Fuel stations(quality of fuel available)
5. other useful information
6. good and not so expensive place to stay overnight at Jaipur (very close to the highway)

Thanks

Hi Sushil

Your plan seems appropriate. Do a night stay in Mumbai. Start from Mumbai (Virar/Vashi) at 0500 hrs. By 1100 hrs you would have crossed Ahemdabad (500 kms). By 1400 hrs you would have crossed Udaipur (250 kms). And by 1900-2000 hrs you can aim to reach Jaipur (425 kms). It will be advisable to do Jaipur Delhi next day as the road and traffic conditions post Jaipur are not one of the very best and as you will be traveling with your family.

The condition of the roads till Jaipur is excellent. You will encounter some moderate traffic till Surat. Beyond Surat the traffic starts becoming scarce and finally beyond Udaipur its only you, your car and the road. Traffic is vey less.

All the timings indicated above are conservative and don't be surprised if you get an average of 80-100 kmph from surat to jaipur.

[sushil.raddi]

Hi all thanks a lot for your valuable advise.

Looking at the reactions I think I should should change my plan and start from Pune a bit early and stay o\ver at surat and then the next day drive straight to Delhi from Surat. The only constraint is that 24th Dec is a working day!!!