[Trojan]

Hello Friends,

We are planning to visit Binsar/Mukteshwar and the surrounding areas this May.
The first part of our trip will be at Panna Tiger Reserve before heading towards Uttarakhand.

I have been searching the forum for information on the best route that one can/should take, however, most (nearly all) of the recent information is available for routes originating from Delhi. It would be great for some current information for people driving from central India towards Uttarakhand.

From my studies on the map, I have come up with the following routes, I have sorted the below from the shortest route (1) to the longest. We plan to leave early (6am) from Panna and planning to reach by 10/11 to Mukteshwar. How are the road conditions towards Binsar/Mukteshwar, are they clearly marked (sign boards, destination boards, etc.)

Route 1 - 687 Kms (15hrs 53mins)

Panna - Chhatarpur - Mahoba - Hamirpur - Kanpur - Kannauj - Bareilly - Haldwani

This route seems extremely busy and with heavy traffic.



Route 2 - 737 Kms (17hrs 03mins)

Panna - Ajaygarh - Banda - Fatehpur - Bachhrawan - Lucknow - Sitapur - Gokarnath - Khatima - Sitarganj - Haldwani.



The other alternative to Route 2 would be to drive towards Bareilly from Sitapur and then onwards to Haldwani.

Route 3 - 807 Kms (18hrs 40mins)

Panna - Chhatarpur - Jhansi - Gwalior - Agra - Moradabad - Bazpur - Nainital - Mukteshwar



We have done Agra - Panna in November 2017, post Gwalior lot of road work was on but ok as such, not too many options for lunch dinner though.

Could you please suggest what would be the best route to be taken from Panna.
Looking forward to tips, good to know stuff and any other details which might be important (including routes which may not be listed above).

Thanks all in advance.

@ Mods - I did not find any recent information for this route, hence the new thread. I hope am correct on this else please feel free to merge.

P.s. - The timings are indicative from Google, I do understand that real world time may differ - real time experiences welcome.

Cheers,
Trojan

[Trojan]

No response till now

Its 2 weeks to go and unfortunately could not get the booking for Mukteshwar and have now booked a place in Chaukori.

Didn't want to drive the remaining stretch during night hours on account of the fear of losing on some breathtaking views.
So, we will be taking a halt at Haldwani and then the next day travel at leisure enjoying the sights on the way.

Here is the route which I am planning to take, requesting BHPians from the vicinity or the ones who have traveled on this route to suggest if this is ok.



Looking forward for suggestions.

Cheers,
Trojan

[Singh09]

Hey buddy I would suggest the following route

Panna - Lucknow - Bareilly - Haldwani - Nanital.

Now from Haldwani there are 2 options to reach Nanital. First you go via Kathgodam and the second one where you go via Kaladhungi. We prefer the Kaladhungi route over the kathgodam route. The roads are pretty good and freshly laid. And the journey is done very smoothly.

[Nav-i-gator]

Originally Posted by Singh09

Hey buddy I would suggest the following route

Panna - Lucknow - Bareilly - Haldwani - Nanital.

Now from Haldwani there are 2 options to reach Nanital. First you go via Kathgodam and the second one where you go via Kaladhungi. We prefer the Kaladhungi route over the kathgodam route. The roads are pretty good and freshly laid. And the journey is done very smoothly.

I suggest the same - and same kaladhungi route too. You will remember the morning drive through it for a long long time.

[Trojan]

Originally Posted by Singh09

Hey buddy I would suggest the following route

Panna - Lucknow - Bareilly - Haldwani - Nanital.

First you go via Kathgodam and the second one where you go via Kaladhungi. We prefer the Kaladhungi route over the kathgodam route. The roads are pretty good and freshly laid.

Originally Posted by Nav-i-gator

I suggest the same - and same kaladhungi route too. You will remember the morning drive through it for a long long time.

Thank you Singh09 and Navigator, much appreciated!
So I will travel from Lucknow instead, I see that there is an arm of the Lucknow-Agra expressway (see pic below) where we will have 2 options to either take the exit towards Hardoi (marked in Blue) or go further and take the Farrukhabad exit, I think the latter the better to have some free and open roads, what do you say.

Regarding the Kaladhungi route, our destination is Chaukori, would this still make sense to go around.



Thanks again!

Cheers,
Trojan

[Trojan]

Hello Friends,

So we are back after a 5200km run. Thought I would share some updates on the road conditions between Panna and Uttarakhand.

So on the way to Uttarakhand we took the following route leaving Panna at 1130AM

Panna - Ajaygarh - Banda - Fatehpur - Bachhrawan - Lucknow - Sitapur - Shahjahanpur - Nigohi - Sitarganj - Haldwani

Now this turned out to be a HUGE mistake.

All travelers please note, while in Uttar Pradesh DO NOT under any circumstances leave the NH. The SH and MDR are not fit to be called roads most of the time. Right after we crossed into UP this became a regular affair.
The bridge over the Yamuna near Fatehpur is not complete and you have to take a makeshift floating bridge to get across.

The Lucknow bypass is very busy and it takes time to exit the city, but the NH all the way upto Sitapur is good.

After Sitapur towards Bareilly many sections are still under construction and there are diversions throughout.
We reached Shahjahanpur at 11PM and stopped at a dhaba for a quick dinner. Asked the dhaba owner on road conditions thereon and he suggested to go through Nigohi - Pilibhit instead of Bareilly as this one was freshly laid.

While this was true about the road condition, what we didnt know that this was the sugar belt and we were soon caught in a huge jam due to some 100 odd tractors laden with sugarcane and all lined up to enter the Dalmiya sugar mills.
This took 3 hours to clear after some stick pounding by the policemen.
We finally reached our hotel Haldwani at 515am after a 19hour drive.

The route from Haldwani to Chaukori is beautiful and we took the Almora - Binsar - Berinag route, the 200km takes around 8hrs if you drive in leisure.

On the return we had planned to go Jim Corbett, so we went through Nainital and finally returning to Panna.

This return we had made up our mind to stick to NH so after being misguided by Here Maps on supposedly non-existent but shorter routes we came through
Ramnagar - Moradabad - Rampur - Bareilly - Sitapur - Lucknow - Kanpur Bypass - Hamirpur - Mahoba - Chhatarpur - Panna. This is a longer but anyday better route (NH30 & NH34) and it took us 16hrs with breaks.

Happy to answer queries.

Cheers!