[ampere]

Originally Posted by rajathv8

Thanks rawnak.
Does anyone know the condition of road from Arcot to Kanchi? I may need to drive down on the weekend.

The road condition is I guess status quo. Rough patches here and there on the four lane. But I think over all good to drive.

[rajathv8]

Originally Posted by rajathv8

Thanks rawnak.
Does anyone know the condition of road from Arcot to Kanchi? I may need to drive down on the weekend.

Reporting back. Here is a summary :

Car : Hired Innova with driver
Kms : 610
Tolls : Rs.660
Route : Blore - Krishnagiri - Vellore - Arcot - Kanchi
Condition : Apart form patched roads for about 20Km between Arcot and Kanchi the roads were in very good condition. The patches are nothing to worry about though.

Special mention:
The Innova was a 7 seater 2008 beauty with 3.1L Km on the odo and she drove like a gem. The AC on all three rows worked well and kept everyone cool. The music system with Sony HU and JBL 1000W sub made the ride all the more enjoyable. Although we were only 4 + driver I decided to hire an Innova since I have never travelled long distance in one. The car has left an impression now

[ampere]

Originally Posted by rajathv8

Route : Blore - Krishnagiri - Vellore - Arcot - Kanchi
Condition : Apart form patched roads for about 20Km between Arcot and Kanchi the roads were in very good condition. The patches are nothing to worry about though.

You DONT need to go to Kanchi. At Arcot before the bridge on Palar, you can see a diversion marked for Tindivanam. This goes via Cheyyar and Vandavasi. Very good and decent roads. This also avoids the traffic and bad tarmac after Ranipet.

[rohanak1]

Just completed a 3 day trip to Pondicherry from Bangalore. Started from home in Hoodi on a Saturday around 7:45am and decided to take the route from Hosur. With very light traffic reached Silk board in 30 minutes and proceeded towards electronics city. Did not take the elevated road as I thought I would waste time and money at the toll booth. I reached the signal after electronics city around 8:35am. From here onwards with relatively empty roads could maintain very good speeds throughout the journey to Pondicherry. At 9:45am we reached the exit on NH7 leading to NH46 towards Chennai. We had decided to stop for breakfast at hotel annapurna on NH7. Love the food here. Have eaten here during our trips to Coonoor and Yercaud. Unfortunately, we could not locate it. Either we missed it or it is located after the exit to Chennai. Not wasting any more time here we decided to take the exit to NH46 and look for good restaurants on the way. Once I touched NH-46 I was mighty impressed to see this road. What a brilliant 6 lane road. I maintained consistent speed of 90-100kmph. I usually do not exceed this speed as it is extremely dangerous on Indian highways with villagers moving in the opposite direction in the fast lane!!!!. This happened 2-3 times. We did not find any decent restaurants on this road for quite some distance. After a while we pulled over for fuel at an HP outlet. Re-fuelled here, used the restrooms, stretched a bit. This took about 15 minutes. We then continued our journey. A few minutes later, we saw a signboard that read Sai Sangeet 2kms ahead. We were delighted. In little over a minute we pulled over to Sai Sangeet for breakfast. It was around 10:45am at this time. Had tasty masala dosa, pongal and coffee. They have a nice shop attached selling clay products made by locals at good prices. They also sell locally made food products. Purchased few things from here and left around 11:45am after a very long break. By this time it had started getting really hot outside. But my Duster kept us really cool inside. I continued driving on NH46 until Arcot. At this point, NH46 is a bridge over some defunct water body. There is no need to go over the bridge. There is an exit here. From there take the U-turn back onto NH46 and then the left turn to SH5 which is a single lane (either side) high quality state highway all the way to Tindivanam which is almost 100kms away. But there is no need to worry. You can safely do speeds of 80-90kmph and there are bypasses through Cheyyar and Vandavasi which makes driving a delight here. The countryside is a pleasure to watch. Please finish all food breaks before getting to SH5 because there is hardly anything on the way. This road ends at Tindivanam. From here take the Tindivanam bypass and reach NH45 (Grand southern trunk road). Another brilliant 6 lane road. A wide open road after quite a while prompted me to accelerate to 120kmph But I kept with my promise of not crossing 100kmph and slowed down. After a short time on this road, we need to take the exit to NH66 which will take us straight to Pondicherry. Another four lane national highway which was a pleasure to ride on. Reached our hotel Accord Puducherry at 3pm and checked in.

Onward journey route: Hoodi -> Silk board -> Electronics city -> Hosur -> Krishnagiri -> Vellore -> Arcot -> Cheyyar -> Vandavasi -> Tindivanam -> Pondicherry

Return journey
We started on Monday around 1:30pm from Pondicherry. This time I decided to take the NH4 route via Kolar as this was closer to home. I could escape peak hour traffic through electronics city and outer ring road. Again followed the same route until Arcot i.e. Nh-66 from Pondicherry until Nh-45. From here to Tindivanam. Then use the SH5 to reach Arcot and merge to NH46. Instead of going towards Krishnagiri, use the bridge over the defunct water body and then proceed towards Ranipet to join NH4 back to Bangalore. Now this is a single lane (either side) highway and you need to have a lot of patience as you would encounter slow trucks, pesky 2 wheelers, tractors all along until the 4lane begins before Mulbagal. But the road is of high quality and is very picturesque all along with hills, greenery and the winding roads. After a lot of overtaking, getting stuck behind our famous slow trucks I was tired and stopped at the Cafe Coffee Day somewhere in Andhra Pradesh around 5pm. Had a sandwich, samosa and water here, took a rest room break and left after 30 minutes. I am not very good at overtaking vehicles on these kind of single lane highways and got stuck quite a few times behind trucks. There were people doing stunts like overtaking trucks on curves which is madness. Some drivers would also overtake 4-5 vehicles at once in a high speed manoeuvre. After all this, I finally reached the 4lane highway just before Mulbagal and then heaved a sigh of relief. From here onwards, we can again do good speeds all the way till KR Puram. There are 3 toll booths if I remember correctly. Finally around 8pm I reached the KR puram signal and then turned left into Devasandra and reached home by 8:15pm.

Return journey route:
Pondicherry -> Tindivanam -> Vandavasi -> Cheyyar -> Arcot ->Ranipet -> Chittoor -> Mulbagal -> Kolar -> Hoskote -> KR puram -> Hoodi (home)

The roads are of excellent quality throughout. Please use google maps. It works perfectly through either NH4 or NH7/NH46. It is definitely needed on SH5 to Tindivanam as using the bypasses will save considerable time. I loved the drive a lot.

[rajathv8]

Originally Posted by ampere

You DONT need to go to Kanchi. .

Oops! I should have been clear. My destination was Kanchi. Since the route was mentioned here, I felt its best to post here to get a quick response

[bharat4ever]

I'm planning a weekend trip to Pondicherry from Bangalore.
Is the Thiruvannamalai route good? Or is it better to go through Vellore?

[Grand Drive]

Originally Posted by bharat4ever

I'm planning a weekend trip to Pondicherry from Bangalore.

You can refer this travelogue for details.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by bharat4ever

I'm planning a weekend trip to Pondicherry from Bangalore.
Is the Thiruvannamalai route good? Or is it better to go through Vellore?

Thanks to crowd sourcing, if you check for the default route in Google, it wont show you Tiruvannamalai (in spite of it being the shortest)! Thats because bulk of the traffic goes via Vellore-Arcot-Cheyyar-Vandavasi-Tindivanam.

Thats the better route. At a sedate pace it translates to about 6 to 6.5 hours of drive with a break.

[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by bharat4ever

I'm planning a weekend trip to Pondicherry from Bangalore.
Is the Thiruvannamalai route good? Or is it better to go through Vellore?

No second thoughts. Go Via Hosur, Krishnagiri, Vellore, Arcot,Cheyyar, Vandavasi and Tindivanam.

[kalsu]

All- did bangalore pondy via vellore arcot cheyyar route, started at 630am in morning from sarjapur road reached pondy at 12pm this included a small break fast as was travelling with a small kid. further 23 km from pondy to club mahindra resort
fantastic roads and my wife could drive around 150km of the total 386 till resort. car type tata safari 2.2

[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by kalsu

All- did bangalore pondy via vellore arcot cheyyar route, started at 630am in morning from sarjapur road reached pondy at 12pm this included a small break fast as was travelling with a small kid. further 23 km from pondy to club mahindra resort
fantastic roads and my wife could drive around 150km of the total 386 till resort. car type tata safari 2.2

Were you able to cover the distance in 5.5 hrs including break. Was the traffic sparse? Hope you did not over speed.

[zombiedriver]

Originally Posted by kalsu

All- did bangalore pondy via vellore arcot cheyyar route, started at 630am in morning from sarjapur road reached pondy at 12pm this included a small break fast as was travelling with a small kid. further 23 km from pondy to club mahindra resort
fantastic roads and my wife could drive around 150km of the total 386 till resort. car type tata safari 2.2

I do this trip a lot of times as my wife studies in mahatma gandhi medical college which is opposite the turn leading to club Mahindra on the cuddalore road and i live on sarjapura road too. But i take the Salem - ulundurpet - cuddalore route which is about 400kms but takes the same time and has 4 laned roads for about 330kms of the stretch. Try that on your return journey.

[pc1686]

Hi,

How will be the weather in the first week of August? I am planning a 4 days trip (6-9th August)

Since the route has been extensively discussed, please let me know some good stay options. Can I expect good offers since this is not a peak season?

Thanks

[ampere]

Originally Posted by pc1686

Since the route has been extensively discussed, please let me know some good stay options. Can I expect good offers since this is not a peak season?

Check out Trivago. You should get some good deals. I just casually looked. Accord (A 4/5 Star hotel) is available at 3.5K per day!

[pc1686]

Originally Posted by ampere

Check out Trivago. You should get some good deals. I just casually looked. Accord (A 4/5 Star hotel) is available at 3.5K per day!

Thanks Ampere. Please throw some light on the weather part also for the first week of August.