[realcoolhand]

Originally Posted by maverickNerd

I am planning hyderabad to North Goa(Calangute beach) on 23rd July. Can someone suggest best route. I don't drive in night so I can start at 5 AM from hyderabad. Google map shows around 13-13.5 hrs. Will it take this time.
Do I need to be careful for speed cams within Telangana.

In return, I am doing multiple stop. Goa -> Gokarna -> Dandeli -> Hampi -> Hyderabad.

Planning to do this whole trip with in 14 days duration.

Whoa that's one heck of a trip. I'm sorry I don't have the road condition update but I'd be interested in road conditions after you finish this loooong trip and may be a travelogue too. Sounds amazing. I want to do a variation along similar desitinations.

Wish you safe and enjoyable trip.

[nitinralli]

Originally Posted by maverickNerd

I am planning hyderabad to North Goa(Calangute beach) on 23rd July. Can someone suggest best route. I don't drive in night so I can start at 5 AM from hyderabad. Google map shows around 13-13.5 hrs. Will it take this time.
Do I need to be careful for speed cams within Telangana.

In return, I am doing multiple stop. Goa -> Gokarna -> Dandeli -> Hampi -> Hyderabad.

Planning to do this whole trip with in 14 days duration.

I do this route once a year if not twice. Start from Hyderabad at 4 am and you will cover decent miles plus no tension of speed cams in TS. It takes me 11 hours to reach Candolim via Chorla.

[maverickNerd]

Originally Posted by nitinralli

I do this route once a year if not twice. Start from Hyderabad at 4 am and you will cover decent miles plus no tension of speed cams in TS. It takes me 11 hours to reach Candolim via Chorla.

What is Chorla route? Can you send me map link please, when you say i will not face speed cam issue? You mean this because they don't monitor cam in nights?

[nitinralli]

Originally Posted by maverickNerd

What is Chorla route? Can you send me map link please, when you say i will not face speed cam issue? You mean this because they don't monitor cam in nights?

Yes at night there's no speed cam vans in TS. Only after 7/8 am generally they come out for checking and putting manual cameras on dividers.

For the route follow this:
HYD>Humnabad>Jevargi>Vijayapura>Bagalkote>Belagavi >Chorla>Corlim>Calangute.

[Allwynstanley]

I have been to Goa via the Raichur road a couple of times at night.
Is the Zaheerabad-Vijayapura road safe to travel at night?

Planning to travel in August.

[CCRider]

Just finished my first genuinely long drive (> 300 kms) in my 2016 manual Creta with my wife and kid.
Since I had sufficient leave and there were heavy rains expected , decided to take it easy and not drive for more than 6 hours a day, avoid night time driving, and limit my max speed to 100 kph. This would mean 2 night stops on the way. Out of the several routes, the only one that fit the above requirement with decent hotels for a night stay was Hyd - Sholapur- Belgaum/Hubli - Palolem(South Goa)

The onward route I took-

Day 1 - Hyd- Humnabad- Sholapur - 300 kms - took 5.30 hours with one stop. All of it was on NH 65 Road was good to excellent and is divided all through.

Day 2 - Sholapur - Sangli - Belgaum - 300 kms- took around 6 hours. Most of the road (esp after Sangli) is a 2/3 lane single undivided road. Road condition was strictly OK but as I was unaccustomed to overtaking on such roads with oncoming traffic, going was a bit slow for me.

Day 3 - Belgaum – Khanapur – Mollem – South Goa – 150 kms - Took 5 hours. Google maps showed this route with < 4hours time going through the Bhimgad Wildlife Sanctuary, but maybe due to the recent heavy rains the road condition in the forest part was abysmal and for the most part I could manage an average speed of 5 kph ! There is a road via RamNagar, that bypasses the forest stretch , about 15 klms longer, which in retrospect would have been better but google maps does not show this as a route. The ghat road section in this drive was a first time driving on a ghat for me. There were heavy rains and a lot of fog affecting visibility, so again I drove cautiously.

Return route- I took the route via Hubli as I wanted to go through Dandeli for a specific personal reason.

Day 1 – South Goa – Dandeli - Hubli – 190 kms - 4.5 hours( excluding a 2 hour stop at Dandeli). The road from Goa to Dandeli was mostly ghat and very picturesque with amazing waterfalls. The road condition was decent. After having a late lunch at Dandeli, we proceeded to Hubli which took a couple of hours with road being quite good (but still an undivided road).

Day 2 – Hubli – Vijayapura - Solapur – 300 kms – 6 hours. Road was good, but Hubli to Vijayapura stretch was undivided road and there was fair bit of traffic from opposite side. The KSRTC buses were driven pretty rashly and sometimes pushed me off the road. Overall progress was a bit slow.

Day 3 – Sholapur – Humnabad- Hyd – 300 kms – 5.5 hours with a 30 minute tea break


A few of my take-aways / observations
- Going in your own car has great benefits – monetary (30k flight vs 8-9k I spent on fuel) or otherwise (no time pressure, no hard limits on luggage and packing is easier), no ticket booking hassles, no airport cab etc.
- We felt it was a good call to break up the journey as 1) there was absolutely no pressure to speed so we could enjoy the drive and reduce the risk of mishaps 2) we could explore the different places en-route. Wife could do a bit of local shopping. We could try some local food joints.
- Once EVs go mainstream, the travel costs will be negligible relative to other vacation costs, so I foresee people will 1) take vacations a more often (within a radius of 700kms maybe) or 2) the extra money would go into upscaling other aspects of the vacation like food and stay.

I am eagerly looking forward to my next trip.

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by CCRider

Sholapur - Sangli - Belgaum
Hubli – Vijayapura - Solapur

Any reason for these choices? Since either Solapur-Mangalwedha-Sangli-Kolhapur or Belgaum-Bagalkot-Bijapur are in much better condition. The latter is the preferred, since most coming from Hyderabad, take Humnabad/Basavakalyan-Gulbarga-Bijapur route.

BTW Kolhapur-Sangli-Solapur traffic wasn't that significant when I last drove. Has this changed?

[ampere]

I have a more fundamental question: Why Sholapur and that too when heading to South Goa?

Should have stuck to the regular route (the one you took while coming back). Even that's relaxed. Stay over night at Hubli and head out the next day.

[CCRider]

Originally Posted by narayans80

Any reason for these choices? Since either Solapur-Mangalwedha-Sangli-Kolhapur or Belgaum-Bagalkot-Bijapur are in much better condition. The latter is the preferred, since most coming from Hyderabad, take Humnabad/Basavakalyan-Gulbarga-Bijapur route.

For the onward journey, since my destination was South Goa, Kolhapur -> South Goa was showing up to be two hours more than Belgaum -> South Goa (5.40 hrs vs 3.40 hrs) so chose to go via Belgaum.

When I checked the routes for Solapur to Belgaum , Gmaps showed two routes - one via Sangli and another the one you mention (Bijapur - Bagalkot), but the former was showing up as a shorter route by about 30 mins so I took it, but in retrospect it was not the right call. Out of the two routes GMaps was infact showing the Bijapur route as the preferred default route - I still chose the alternate route because it was shorter : (

Originally Posted by narayans80

BTW Kolhapur-Sangli-Solapur traffic wasn't that significant when I last drove. Has this changed?

The traffic from Solapur till Sangli was not much with the caveat that I did this trip on a Sunday afternoon. On the whole I felt traffic on this route was slightly easier to negotiate then the return trip from Hubli to Bijapur strech.

Originally Posted by ampere

I have a more fundamental question: Why Sholapur and that too when heading to South Goa?

Should have stuck to the regular route (the one you took while coming back). Even that's relaxed. Stay over night at Hubli and head out the next day.

I did explore a lot before choosing the route via Solapur as this did not seem the usual route folks took. But I had two self imposed constraints which none of the other routes met - 1) I did not want to drive more than 6 hours a day2) I wanted to stop at a decent place to stay for the night.

For example:
-Bijapur had good night stops but Hyd to Bijapur would have taken >= 7 hours which did not fulfil my constraint above.
- Hyd -> Kalaburagi had good stay options and took around 4 hours from Hyd, but Kalaburagi to Hubli/Belgaum would again take around 7 hrs.

With the route I took
Hyd - Solapur was 5:30 hrs , then Solapur- Belgaum/Hubli was 5.30 hours, Belgaum/Hubli to Goa was around 3:30 hours

[RoadTiger]

Any experience with the usual Hyd-Humnabad-Vijaypura - Bagalkot - Belgaum/ Hubli route recently ? Have done the route a few times over the years - so fairly familiar - wondering how road conditions are post monsoon ?

Any other route suggestions/ inputs ? Thanks

[Zezé]

Originally Posted by CCRider

............- Hyd -> Kalaburagi had good stay options and took around 4 hours from Hyd, ................

I am planning a Hyd-Goa-Hyd trip with an overnight halt each way. Planning to halt at Bagalkot on the outward leg and Kalaburagi on the inward leg. However, I am not too sure about the availability of good hotels in Kalaburagi.

As you appear to have researched this aspect, I was wondering whether you could share your findings regarding a good hotel, not too off the route.

[CCRider]

Originally Posted by Zezé

I am planning a Hyd-Goa-Hyd trip with an overnight halt each way. Planning to halt at Bagalkot on the outward leg and Kalaburagi on the inward leg. However, I am not too sure about the availability of good hotels in Kalaburagi.

As you appear to have researched this aspect, I was wondering whether you could share your findings regarding a good hotel, not too off the route.

I had checked MMT that time and had shortlisted 2- the Kyriad hotel and the Mastiff Select. Both of them seemed decent for a night halt with family. The Mastiff hotel has the advantage of being very close to the highway, but again Gulbarga being a smallish town and no matter where you stay you will be able to get onto the highway in under 10 mins.


Out of curiosity , why are you not considering the halt at Vijayapura as it will split your journey more evenly ?

[Zezé]

Originally Posted by CCRider

.........

.....Out of curiosity , why are you not considering the halt at Vijayapura as it will split your journey more evenly ?

Thank you for the prompt response. The main reason for not choosing Vijayapura for an overnight halt is the lack of decent hotels. Have stopped overnight at Vijayapura on three occasions.

First time at the KTDC tourist Hostel that I booked online through a travel portal. Hygiene, etc was quite poor but I guess, par for a government establishment.

Next two times, to and from Goa, we stayed at Hotel Pearl. Clean rooms, linen etc but during the night, on the return leg, we were awoken to find the bed crawling with bed bugs. Left post haste in the middle of the night for Hyderabad.

As a fellow BHPian said, Vijayapura doesn't have hotels; only lodges masquerading as hotels. Pearl is supposed to be one of the better hotels.

[CCRider]

Originally Posted by Zezé

Thank you for the prompt response. The main reason for not choosing Vijayapura for an overnight halt is the lack of decent hotels. Have stopped overnight at Vijayapura on three occasions.

.

Sorry to hear that. I remeber reading a few posts on this thread where folks stayed at Kyriad and the Fern at Vijayapura and both were rated to be decent enough B&Bs. FYI just in case you want to try again and maybe get fourth time lucky.

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by Zezé

The main reason for not choosing Vijayapura for an overnight halt is the lack of decent hotels. Have stopped overnight at Vijayapura on three occasions.

Originally Posted by CCRider

I remeber reading a few posts on this thread where folks stayed at Kyriad and the Fern at Vijayapura and both were rated to be decent enough B&Bs.

+1 to this.

I have stayed at Fern Residency in Vijayapura, and it is quite good. Certainly a good place for an overnight break while passing the town. It is not a fancy hotel by any stretch of imagination. But nevertheless, it is a good, clean, comfortable, 3-star hotel (a typical 3-star business hotel) with all the basic comforts (without any frills) one would need for an overnight stay. The restaurant is quite good too, and the food for both dinner and breakfast was good.