[LongDrive lover]

At Khajuraho, MPTDC Hotel Payal is a very good option. Very open, outside the main city (but not away), ample parking space, clean, good food, etc.....I had very good experience staying there with family during our trip in Oct. 2009. I think it can be booked online too!

[Surprise]

Tentatively the stay options would be

NIRMAL OR ABILABAD OR NAGPUR
BHEDAGHAT
SATNA
VARANASI
KOLKOTTA
BUBANESWAR
VIZAG

Originally Posted by MileCruncher

Depending upon where you enter the city from, I can suggest you a good route to bypass the madness of the city.

Cheers

Madras-Chittoor is fine. Night hawk confirmed that roads are good between Madanapalle to Anantpur...so this one looks good. Suggest for this option

[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by MileCruncher

When was this done? The road condition after Addanki is not too good!

Cheers

I took this route around 8 months back and the stretch between Addanki->Piduguralla was bad hence during the return journey I skipped Addanki and took Chilakaluripet-> Piduguralla. One of my friend who took the same route couple of months back told that Addanki->Piduguralla stretch is better now with lots of patch work done.

Six months back, I also tried Chennai-Vijaywada-Hyderabad(Its around 740 Kms). 4 lane constuction was going in Vijaywada-Hyderabad stretch and hence lots of disturbance, adding to this the truck traffic is also high.

[Surprise]

Originally Posted by Surprise

NIRMAL OR ABILABAD OR NAGPUR
BHEDAGHAT
SATNA

Would be great, if anyone could suggest the stay options for these sectors atleast esp. Nirmal/Abilabad

[LongDrive lover]

Originally Posted by Surprise

Would be great, if anyone could suggest the stay options for these sectors atleast esp. Nirmal/Abilabad

I have contact details of Hotels at Adilabad (have stayed thrice there in last 1.5 yrs) and Nirmal. Shall dig out and post in a couple of days.

Nagpur to Bhedaghat and then Bhedaghat to Satna, and then satna to Varansi!! These distances will be too short to take a night halt!! I think you might be planning some sight seeing at those places!

Past Lakhnadon (60 kms past Seoni) where 4 lane ends, expect NH7 to have cracks and potholes, sply between Lakhnadon - Jabalpur - Katni sector. Nothing much to worry though. During day time, it'll be manageable. I had little tough time in last March as I was driving these sections during night.

From Bhedaghat to Satna, you need not to go to Rewa, you can leave NH7 at Mehar and take a SH that'll take you directly to Satna. That is a good newly built road. We used it (by mistake!) during our trip to AP in May 2010.

I have once again rescheduled my Leh expedition. The only change I am contemplating is, Chennai is the origin instead of Bangalore, which will remain the destination. I propose to start from my Chennai Royapettah home on 9 September 2011 evening on this route: Chennai>Uthukkottai>Nagalapuram>Puttur>Kadapa>Kurn ool>Hyderabad>Nagpur via GNT Road [NH 5]/NH 205/SH 12/NH 18/NH 7. MapMyIndia shows a distance of 1166.5 km with a journey time of 27 hours. Google Maps show 1165 km and 16 hours & 53 minutes. Preliminary enquiry indicates the road conditions are generally good. Any further information to get me more enlightened regarding this route including fuel pumps, eateries, road conditions, is welcome.

[Rohit Tripathi]

Hi All,
Updating the information for this section of the route.
I drove from Bangalore to Kajuraho via Nagpur and came back via Indore and Pune.
Bangalore to Nagpur: smooth and fast speed is dependent on your car possible to do 120 all through except Karnool town (auto drivers)and Hinghanghat section(muddy/mucky/potholed)
Nagpur Narsinghpur fast well marked two lane. Narsinghpur to Sagar 4 lane and great road.
Sagar to Chatarpur 100 km first 40 slow due to diversions and small crowded towns next 60 fast wide two lane. Important try avoiding this route from 5 pm as there are as many cows as people and all the cows sit on the road when they come back in the evening. Chatarpur to Kajuraho is narrow two lane, while exiting Chatarpur it is very crowded for 10 km and then the road empties right up to the left turn for Khajuraho from the turn it is 10 km dual lane until Khajuraho.
RETURN
Google shows a way to bypass Chatarpur but I would recommend to take the Chatarpur road as we wasted a lot of time on our way back. Until Sagar it is the same route. Sagar town very bad potholed road you cannot bypass Sagar if heading to Sanchi.
Wide two lane/ 4 lane until Sanchi but be alert for a big bump or pothole that will come up suddenly although less in number. Cows in the evening were our bane.
Sanchi to Indore via Bhopal fast 4 lane but watch out for bikers slow traffic on the slow lane they are not as bad as Kolhapur traffic and stick to their lane.
Observation: Karnool local traffic will do their own thing I had only one close call in the entire trip where a biker turned right without warning and on hearing my braking went away immediately to a road on the left !
I have never seen so many cows ever as much as between Sagar and Chatarpur!
MP drivers are easy to drive with and do not go aggressive seeing a car from a different state as we see in some other states.
Hope this was useful for planning your trips!
Enjoy your Drive-Rohit