[pgupta]

As far as I remember for the most part of NH13 between Chitradurga to Hospet it was full of potholes, endless traffic of trucks. I tried my level best to avoid the potholes still my XUV took a loud hit when I failed to spot one as I was driving behind a truck. The road is a single road and does not have any decent place to even have a cup of tea.

[jaisonjose]

Hi, Which route you took from Bangalore to reach Hampi?

[NPV]

Originally Posted by jaisonjose

Hi, Which route you took from Bangalore to reach Hampi?

Bangalore-tumkur-hiriyur-challakere-hospet is in good condition and is the best route. Chitradurga-hospet is broken at many place and sees more truck traffic.
Please see earlier posts by @pggupta and others.

[bik1906]

Hi this might sound like a stupid question but google maps shows the route from challakere to bellary through a small place called sandur. Is this the route to be taken or is everyone referring to what is marked on google maps as Ballari?

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by bik1906

Hi this might sound like a stupid question but google maps shows the route from challakere to bellary through a small place called sandur. Is this the route to be taken or is everyone referring to what is marked on google maps as Ballari?

No, Sandur does not come on the Hiriyur-Challakere-Bellary route

[abhishekd]

Back from Hampi.

NH13 comes as a rude shock especially after the 6 lane Bangalore to Chitradurga highway. Almost 50 Kms of the 120+ Km stretch between Chitradurga and Hospet is bad with scattered potholes. We were able to cover this stretch is 2 and a half hours. For some reason the truck traffic was not very heavy, throughout the route we were never struck behind the trucks on this 2 lane (without divider road). There were various stretches where we could easily maintain 80 Km/Hour. Near hospet, there were workers who were filling the potholes.

Being said that we took the same highway on our way to and back from Hospet because of Chitradurga fort, which I must add was a very pleasant surprise. Thanks for the suggestion again Suhas.

[bik1906]

Just back from a 3 day ride to Hampi...took the anantapur-urvakonda-bellary-hospet route while going which was superb till anantapur, ok till past urvakonda and then miserable once re-entering karnataka going towards bellary. Went through bellary town and then hit a load of lorry traffic on the other side till Toranagallu. Road post this was allright till Hospet. I was staying on the other side of the river so rode around to Sanapur which is a good 35km extra from hospet. For those of you planning to bike it I really would not recommend putting your bikes in the Hampi river ferry boat as they have no ramp and your bike is going to get bumped around when they dump it (I mean this literally) off the boat.

I decided to take the Hospet-Chitradurga route when coming back as I knew there was a semi-decent hotel (Naveen Regency) to stop and have breakfast in Chitradurga. However the reviews of this section of highway are exactly as before. The potholes towards hospet are more like craters and while dodging potholes you need to keep an eye out for crazy lorry drivers and the speed breakers in every village and crossing. Fortunately the Duke 390 makes quick work of overtaking but I still had a couple of scary "lorry makes sudden turn to avoid potholes" situations which made me glad to have ABS. The road only redeems itself about 50 kms before you reach Chitradurga.

[Develish]

Originally Posted by bik1906

Hi this might sound like a stupid question but google maps shows the route from challakere to bellary through a small place called sandur.

Sandur is a small mining town and home to Sandur Manganese and Iron. But Challakere to Bellary does not go via Sandur at all. Just checked Google maps myself.

Has anyone tried going via Gooty, Guntakal and NH63 to Bellary? How is the road there?

How long is the bad stretch from Karnataka border to Bellary if going from Ananthapur side?

If I have to depart around 2pm, what would be the estimated drive time to Toranagallu via Hiryur and Challakere, assuming one stop for evening tea and some snacks.

Thanks in advance.

[srsrini]

Originally Posted by NPV

Bangalore-tumkur-hiriyur-challakere-hospet is in good condition and is the best route. Chitradurga-hospet is broken at many place and sees more truck traffic.
Please see earlier posts by @pggupta and others.

Thank you and pgupta and others. We are planning to drive to Hampi on 24 Dec. I had a question on the actual route after Challakere. Google maps puts me back on NH13 if I type in the entire string. I would greatly appreciate the waypoints between Challakere and Hospet.

TIA

[srsrini]

An update to my earlier query...

We took the Hiriyur - Challakere route. It was indeed great to drive on. Though the road is 2 way (1 + 1), the traffic is light and the speed breakers are not of the killing variety.

At Rampura, we asked for the best way to get to Hampi and were told to go towards Bellari and take the bypass road after about 25 km. The Bellary - Hospet road is below par. The traffic is heavy and there are potholes and rough stretches. It definitely was nowhere near the quality of the Hiriyur-Rampura stretch. We still wonder if we should have taken SH 131 from near Rampura to reach Hampi. We may try it on the way back.

Srinivasan

[srsrini]

Yet another response to my own query...

Google Maps was quite reluctant to show SH131 as a route, even when I put in a narrow search like Hampi - Nagalapur - Rampura. This route is narrow - but that is not a problem since there is little traffic. There is little traffic probably because the route is badly signposted - there are many turns and merged sections with other roads, but the SH131 signs are not around where they are needed. In the middle of a long stretch, the signs appear though! Also, the 'state highway' is indistinguishable from village roads - more than once we had to be directed to the correct route in the villages. The road quality is quite good and it passes through nice hills and a small section of forest. But all in all, it doesn't save any time over the Bellary bypass - Toranagallu route.

For that route use the search Hiriyur-Chellakere-Rampura in google maps. The road is superb till 20 km so after Rampura. The turn to Hospet is a blink-and-miss - it is a nondescript right turn across the railway tracks. The stretch has a lot of lorry traffic and has potholes and even craters. About 10 km after Toranagallu it improves a bit and the final stretch towards Hospet/Hampi is decent. If you are going to Hampi, you would need to turn right after Doraji bear sanctuary to SH131 - this would put you directly into Kamalapur - just before the village you have to take a deviation along the canal since a bridge is under repair - not something to be attempted at night.

Our trip itself was great fun. I will post more in the travelogues section.

Regards

[srsrini]

Originally Posted by Develish

...

Has anyone tried going via Gooty, Guntakal and NH63 to Bellary? How is the road there?

How long is the bad stretch from Karnataka border to Bellary if going from Ananthapur side?

If I have to depart around 2pm, what would be the estimated drive time to Toranagallu via Hiryur and Challakere, assuming one stop for evening tea and some snacks.

Thanks in advance.

I don't have responses to your queries as such. But from Bangalore, I don't see a need to explore other routes. The Hiriyiur - Chellakere - Rampura route is very good - till you hit the mining sector town of Obalapuram. The part after this is in any way mostly common with the Bellary route.

From Dobaspet, the time till Hampi/Bellary would be 4-5 hours. No predictions can be made for the Bangalore traffic till Dobaspet :-)

Regards

[goandude]

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

My choice for food break on that road is hotel inside VRL campus just before Chitradurga located here. It comes around 20 KM's after the toll booth, food here is as good / bad as that of Kamat. But service is fast and is on left side of the road.

This has been my usual watering hole on my journeys on NH4 about 200 kms and 3 hours from home make it ideal for breakfast. Service is quick and the toilets are clean. If traveling with a pet then it is even better as there is a large parking where the pet can roam.

Originally Posted by pgupta

As suggested by Ampere tried the Hospet-Bellary-Hiriyur SH 63 then SH 19 leading to NH4 today. The road end to end i.e Hospet to Hiriyur is butter smooth. Quite a few Speed breakers are there till Challakere but most of them are such that will cause no problem at all. I don't think that distance wise it is anything significantly more than chitradurga- hospet route however way better in condition. I will recommend taking Hiryur-bellary route to Hospet anytime over NH13.

Butter Smooth? Going through this thread it appears that the Bangalore, Hiriyur, Challakere, Rampura road till Lt turn onto NH 63 is good. Thereafter the Bellary bypass, even though it is a tolled road, deteriorates and only gets better towards Hospet.

Anyone try the NH4 /13 route lately?

[shuchi05]

We drove from Bangalore to Hampi in the end of December. Unfortunately due to last minute bookings, we couldnt get any place to stay in Hampi or Hospet and found a hotel in a small town called Gangavathi which is around 35 kms from Hampi (unfortunately we didnt check this up before hand). we were 5 of us and were in a Ford Figo. A fully loaded Figo is a dangerous proposition, as everytime you go over a bump you have to hold your breath and pray that the undersides don't graze the road.
Anyways we followed google maps and the route it suggested was
Bangalore ->Bellary -> Kampli -> Gangavathi.
Things were absolutely fine till Kampli, and after that all hell broke loose. There were places where we had doubts if the roads exist or not. There were times when we almost thought about getting down from the car and walking to save us and the car some pain. Unless you have a 4WD and enjoy roughing it, I would suggest not taking this route.

While coming back we spoke to a few taxi drivers and they all suggested that we come via Hospet. So the route we followed was
Gangavathi -> Hospet -> Kudatini -> Bellary -> Bangalore
Yes, this route was quite a round about route but totally worth it. There were very few bad patches, and those that were there were quite manageable. I would definitely recommend this route.

[hondadude]

I traveled to Hampi on Dec 25th and returned on Dec 28th.

I took the following route

Bangalore-Chitradurga-Hospet

I was quite tentative and was expecting pretty bad road conditions after reading the review of that route but I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, a few kms were pretty bad and there were potholes that if one wasn't watching would be bad and yes, there was truck traffic but it wasn't bad at all. That is how most of the undivided highways are. Most of the time, I was able to maintain speeds of 80-100 kmph in my Scorpio. I am guessing that people compare that route to Chitradurga-Tumkur and feel disappointed. Total time between Chitradurga and Hospet was 2 hours 20 minutes while going and 10 minutes less on my way back.

So, if you aren't expecting roads like GQ, I would still recommend Bangalore-Chitradurga-Hospet for Hampi trips. I made it in 6 hours and 10 minutes with two stops (Pavithra in Tumkur and VRL before Chitradurga) while going and 5.5 hours on my way back (one quick stop in Kamath at Sira).