[shankar.balan]

Yes the road from Srirangapatna to Kushalnagar is fine. The Yelwal byepass is a bit iffy in patches but certainly motorable.
Dont take the south coorg left turn - take only the main road to Madikeri through Periyapatna etc. As of last weekend the roads that way are very very good indeed all the way to Madikeri.

Originally Posted by Kiran_NM

Thanks to numerous travelogues on Coorg in T-BHP, I’ve finally decided to visit Coorg. I will be travelling from Bangalore on Jan 26. I want to know if the road from Srirangapattana to Kushalnagar is motorable and if there are any bad patches. If the roads are too bad, I might have to take the bus. Any update/information would be of great help. Moreover, this will be my first long drive and I don’t want to be driving on craters

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[Fauji]

Originally Posted by Kiran_NM

Moreover, this will be my first long drive and I don’t want to be driving on craters

Hey Kiran,

Go ahead and enjoy the drive. As everyone in the forum has mentioned, it is a nice stretch of road except for half a KM before Ilvala which is not a big deal. You can stop over at any of the good places - Kamat, Kadambam, Shivalli or Adigas - on the way for Breakfast and reach Madikeri comfortably for lunch. Happy driving

[nma83]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

the hunsur-gonikoppal-virajpet road is horrendous as of last weekend
the periyapatna-sidapur-ammathi-virajpet stretch is slightly better but not much
the best route to go to virajpet is via madikeri as of right now, though it is 75 kms longer

Hi, we would be going to kakabe tomorrow. Is the hunsur-gonikoppal route better now? Or is the fastest way still via madikeri as mentioned in above post?

[shankar.balan]

Dont use the Gonikoppal route if you can avoid it. It is in bad shape and I suffered on that route on 2nd Nov in my Scorpio itself.
When I went there last week for New Year's eve etc, I had checked with my friends and they said there had been no improvement in 2 months.
So I took the Yeti on the main Madikeri route instead. It may mean around 50-60 kms detour but at least you can be sure of the road quality and a comfortable ride, not only for your passengers but your vehicle as well.
Part of the enjoyment of a holiday is a good comfortable drive and hence my suggestion.
Watch out for speed cameras though and do not exceed 60kmph however tempting the road may be. There are a few cameras stuck at strategic points here and there and there is no indication of them either so you've got to be wary.

Originally Posted by nma83

Hi, we would be going to kakabe tomorrow. Is the hunsur-gonikoppal route better now? Or is the fastest way still via madikeri as mentioned in above post?

[mmxylorider]

I will be driving down from Pune on 26th Jan. The plan is to make an overnight halt so as to reach around Noon on 27. Also, since Kolhapur is on the way, we plan on spending some time in the city doing 'darshan'.

Google indicates the best route via Mangalore but the Club Mahindra folks sent out a mail advising against this route. Help required on...

1. Considering we would leave around 3:00 PM from Kolhapur, what would be the best place for overnight halt? Dharwad/Hubli or Davangere or any other place? We would like to keep as less distance for next day as possible.
2. Is there a need to go all the way to B'lore->Mysore for Madikeri or divert someplace after Davangere and proceed via Banwara and Hassan. This is about 200 kms less than via Blore/Mysore. Road conditions on Banwara /Hassan?

Vehicle will be Xylo at full capacity from 8 yrs to 70 yrs.

[addyhemmige]

Originally Posted by mmxylorider

2. Is there a need to go all the way to B'lore->Mysore for Madikeri or divert someplace after Davangere and proceed via Banwara and Hassan. This is about 200 kms less than via Blore/Mysore. Road conditions on Banwara /Hassan?

Vehicle will be Xylo at full capacity from 8 yrs to 70 yrs.

There are a couple of routes from Banawara to Hassan.

1. Banavara-Arsikere-Hassan: Road is good upto Arsikere and and 10 kms from there. But after that it is horrible. Don't ever try this road.

2. Banavara-Javagal-Halebeedu-Hagare-Hassan: From what I've heard, the road should be decent till Halebeedu (about 30 kms). From Halebeedu to Hagare it is bad (10 kms) and from Hagare to Hassan (20 kms), it is a beautiful road.

I did travel from Hassan to Banavara last week, but we took some interior roads which were fairly good. I would have suggested these roads, but there are no signboards anywhere on the route and it is easy to get lost.

From Hassan to Madikeri, the route is Hassan-Gorur-Arkalgud-Mallipatna-Shanivarasante-Somwarpet-Madikeri

Last I heard that this route upto Shanivarasante was bad. From Shanivarasante to Somwarpet and Madikeri should be decent.

[zenx]

From Banwara there are backroads that take you to Somwarapet - from there the road to Madikeri is pretty ok. The Arkalgud-Sanivarsanthe stretch is in bad shape, if you head that way.

[mmxylorider]

Thanks Folks. However what is the general consensus? Go all the way to Blore/Mysore or exit NH4 earlier and cut down the driving distance by 200kms.

Will the additional 200 kms be worth the drive and how much time will that add?

[kala]

Originally Posted by mmxylorider

Thanks Folks. However what is the general consensus? Go all the way to Blore/Mysore or exit NH4 earlier and cut down the driving distance by 200kms.

Will the additional 200 kms be worth the drive and how much time will that add?

Have you considered the deviating from NH4 at Hiriyur and going via Hiriyur - Huliyar - Nelligere - Nagamandala - Pandavpura - Srirangapatna and then the regular Mysore-Madikeri highway ?

Would be longer than the route via Hassan by only 50 kms, allows you to bypass Bangalore and the busy SH17 almost completely and is reported to be in decent condition as per this message : http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...ml#post2626854

[addyhemmige]

I would agree with kala here. This route seems to be decent enough. It is is definitely a pain driving from Hassan to Madikeri in the current condition of roads. Better take the Hiriyur-Srirangapatna route.

And I don't think it makes sense to go all the way to Bangalore and then back to Mysore and Madikeri especially considering the mad traffic between Bangalore and Mysore.

EDIT: I just checked. It still is longer than the Hassan route by about 90-100 kms approx

[mmxylorider]

Originally Posted by kala

Have you considered the deviating from NH4 at Hiriyur and going via Hiriyur - Huliyar - Nelligere - Nagamandala - Pandavpura - Srirangapatna and then the regular Mysore-Madikeri highway ?

That's a great suggestion.
My revised route now exits NH4 at Hiriyur and reaches Nelligere via Huliyar. That got me thinking, I can connect to NH48 M'lore-B'Lore at Nelligere and continue onwards to Madikeri via Channarayapattana.

Now I am assuming that the NH48 stretch should be ok, it's an NH right? And 50 kms should be doable within an hour. Or should I continue to Nagamangala?

That leaves the last leg from CNPattana to Madikeri - about 120 kms - which google suggests at 2.5 hrs. Is that realistic? How about the road condition.

If I make my overnight stay at Davangere, I need to cover about 400 odd kms to Madikeri that day. Factoring bad roads/breaks, 8-9 hrs?

[kala]

Originally Posted by mmxylorider

That's a great suggestion.
My revised route now exits NH4 at Hiriyur and reaches Nelligere via Huliyar. That got me thinking, I can connect to NH48 M'lore-B'Lore at Nelligere and continue onwards to Madikeri via Channarayapattana.

Now I am assuming that the NH48 stretch should be ok, it's an NH right? And 50 kms should be doable within an hour. Or should I continue to Nagamangala?

That leaves the last leg from CNPattana to Madikeri - about 120 kms - which google suggests at 2.5 hrs. Is that realistic? How about the road condition.

If I make my overnight stay at Davangere, I need to cover about 400 odd kms to Madikeri that day. Factoring bad roads/breaks, 8-9 hrs?

The NH48 stretch should be easily doable in less than an hour, but I have no idea about the roads from Channarayapatna to Madikeri.

Considering the fact that the trip report that I referred to mentioned about 3.5 hours of driving time from Hiriyur to Srirangapatna via Nagamangala, I'd think that you can make it to Madikeri in under 6 hours if you go via Srirangapatna, so you may not be gaining more than half an hour by going through Channarayapatna if the road conditions from there to Madikeri is good. So unless you get a confirmation about the condition of those roads from someone who has travelled that route recently, I'd stick to the Srirangapatna route - bad roads can set you back by a long way in terms of driving time.

8 to 9 hours from Davengere to Madikeri seems pretty reasonable to me. So if you start early from Davengere, you should be able to reach Madikeri by lunchtime.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by mmxylorider

If I make my overnight stay at Davangere, I need to cover about 400 odd kms to Madikeri that day. Factoring bad roads/breaks, 8-9 hrs?

You can do Hiriyur-Mysore in 3 hours (Check Bigzero's update)
And then add another 2-3 hours for Mysore-Madikeri.

[addyhemmige]

Originally Posted by mmxylorider

That's a great suggestion.
My revised route now exits NH4 at Hiriyur and reaches Nelligere via Huliyar. That got me thinking, I can connect to NH48 M'lore-B'Lore at Nelligere and continue onwards to Madikeri via Channarayapattana.

Now I am assuming that the NH48 stretch should be ok, it's an NH right? And 50 kms should be doable within an hour. Or should I continue to Nagamangala?

That leaves the last leg from CNPattana to Madikeri - about 120 kms - which google suggests at 2.5 hrs. Is that realistic? How about the road condition.

I would suggest you take the Srirangapatna route from Nelligere. The NH 48 is in good shape. The road from CR Patna to Madikeri is good only upto Holenarasipur. From there it goes through Arkalgud and joins the Hassan-Madikeri route. So, you will still have to drive on bad roads. Better go via Nagamangala-Srirangapatna even if it means longer distance

[Ranjani]

Going to Kannur (Cannanore) from Bangalore shortly. I know Coorg roads are aarrrghhh! How long should I budget, if I leave at 5am and stop just twice for breakfast in Mysore and lunch (ideas?). Thanks!