[hvkumar]

From Bangalore to Chitradurga, it is a fantastic road, double road complete in all respects. All you have to do is to have an early start out of Bangalore to beat the jams on the road to Nelamangala. En route, be careful at the Tumkur bypass - there are no proper signages where the bypass starts, else you may shoot off into Tumkur city.

From Chitradurga, double-road construction work is on all the way to Belgaum. You will find several stretches of completed double-road, but take care - there are several turn outs, unmarked deviations and humps. But otherwise road condition is good. Davangere-Harihar bypass could be a bit bad. Hubli-Dharwad bypass is in good shape. From Hubli to Belgaum, teh road is otherwise excellent.

There are lots of Reliance petrol pumps on this route, hence you have access to good toilets and in some places A1 plazas.

If you drive at 100 kmpg crusing sppeds, with an early start form bangalore (latest by 6 am), you should be in Belgaum by late afternoon.

[Jeeves]

Many thanks hvkumar. About 7-8 hours you think?
Jeeves

[sreenivass]

Originally Posted by diwa

Thanks Trooper and akroy.

But which is the shortest route and how good are the roads? How many Kms?
How about NH18? (Cudappah route) How are the roads?

Trooper

Can you please let me know NH numbers and the distance in Kms for this route: chennai - nellore - ongole - nagarjun sagar - hyderabad

Also the directions from Ongole to Hyderabad (never travelled in this route)

Diwa,

I dont know if you have travelled already otherwise you can find this useful. I'd suggest you not to go via N. Sagar, some portions of the road are good, and some are terrible.

From Ongole go towards north and you go to a town called Medarametla. After you go a few KMs on bypass, there is a road going towards Addanki. A road that intersects NH-5 after the town. Take a left and go towards Addanki. Its almost straight from there. It goes via Addanki, Piduguralla, Nalgonda and Miryalaguda. This road meets NH-9 (VJWD<-> HYD) at Narketpalli. Take a left and go towards Hyderabad. This is about 350+ KMs. There are a few villages and lot of speed bumps on the way.

Just in case you want to go via N. Sagar, you have to take a diversion that goes left (north west kind of) and go via Macherla. This diversion comes at Nakirekal junction. Its probably about 60-80 KMs from Ongole.

A third option you have is to continue on NH-5 until Vijayawada and then take NH-9 to Hyderabad. VJWD is about 160 KMs from Ongole and VJWD-HYD is under 300 KMs on NH-9. NH-9 is not all that great, apart from the small segment after VJWD and the one before HYD.

[nitrous]

8 months back, i did Chennai-Hyderabad-Chennai on an Accent CRDi.
While going, i took the NH (via vijayawada) and while returning , i took the nagarjun sagar route.
Frankly, there isnt much difference in the road quality and its not worth doing the extra kms for the NH sake.
Bon voyage!

[sreenivass]

Originally Posted by nitrous

8 months back, i did Chennai-Hyderabad-Chennai on an Accent CRDi.
While going, i took the NH (via vijayawada) and while returning , i took the nagarjun sagar route.
Frankly, there isnt much difference in the road quality and its not worth doing the extra kms for the NH sake.
Bon voyage!

Hey I am talking about 3 options, not two.

1. Chennai -> VJWD (?? KMs) NH5 and VJWD -> HYD NH9 (280+ KMs)

2. Chennai -> Ongole/ Past Ongole on NH5 and then Via Addanki, Piduguralla, Nalgonda, Narketpalli and then NH9

3. Chennai -> Ongole/ Past Ongole on NH5 and then Via Addanki, Nakirekal Junction, Macherla, N. Sagar and Hyderabad.

The most popular one is option 2 unless one wants to visit N. Sagar.

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by Jeeves

Many thanks hvkumar. About 7-8 hours you think?
Jeeves

The drive from Bangalore to Belgaum can be easily done in 8 hours.

[badris]

Hi: I plan to drive from Mumbai to Chennai and back sometime at the end of Jan or early Feb. Would appreciate information related to planning my trip, including routes, halts to take and some suggested hotels for night halts.

I plan to drive alone in Innova.

Hope to hear some good tips.

Regards: Badri

[RJ555]

Originally Posted by the_trooper

chennai - redhills - tada - nellore - ongole - vijayawada - hyderabad

(or)

chennai - nellore - ongole - nagarjun sagar - hyderabad (for a more scenic back roads drive). this is the route which all the buses take.

how was the trip? which was the vehicle u toured