[RedTerrano]

Originally Posted by Tgo

North East-2

Dibrugarh - Kohima - Churachandpur - Imphal - Pawlrang - Aizwal - Mamit - Kumarghat - Agartala

This is another section I am totally clueless about.
Input needed for:

Hi @Tgo
First of all hats off to your mom and dad. To undertake such an adventure after retirement. Please convey my respect and best wishes to them.

In 2018, I had driven from Pune to all the seven sisters. You might find my travelogue helpful.
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...ir-cousin.html (To escape in-laws, I became an outlaw and fled to the waiting arms of the 7 sisters…and their cousin)

I have mentioned places we stopped for food, road conditions (with pics/video) as well as our night halts. Of course this was two years ago and conditions (especially road conditions) might have changed. But that should give your parents a fair idea of what to expect. Also, as per the replies some sections have been good or bad for an extended period of time.

Again, I wish your parents the very best and hope they have a safe and thoroughly enjoyable adventure.

[GTO]

Only on Team-BHP will a route query be so detailed with 14 posts & thousands of words . Sorry for the off-topic post, but I had to say this .

[Ragavsr]

Originally Posted by Tgo

[*]Route condition between Madurai-Pondicherry.
[/list]

If your mom is interested in archeology and temples as such, you have to break your journey in Thanjavur. The Cauvery Delta districts have hundreds of majestic 1000 year old temples that would put temples and palaces in the rest of India put together to shame.

Especially you have to visit the big Temple at Thanjavur and Gangaikondacholapuram. Both are excellently maintained and even celebrated their 1000 year old anniversary and the temples here have largely been spared from destruction by the invaders.

Roads in TN are generally good to excellent. Dont get worried about them. Chennai to Srisailam in one day is impossible ( would require 10-12 hours of driving) . Better to stop at Gandikota .

Also between Sarchu and Leh , most are tiny villages small towns. Karu and Upshi are larger villages or towns if you may call that. So dearth of good hotels exist on the route. However decent homestays are available everywhere, you just have to search.

[whitewing]

Wishing your parents memorable & safe road trips!

Originally Posted by Tgo

South West

Mumbai - Belgaum - Goa - Hampi - Bangalore - Ooty - Trivandrum - Kanyakumari

inputs needed for:

2.A place for a small break between Hampi-Bangalore

Consider a midway halt at Chitradurga. This place has limited stay options, there is one hotel nearby the town that had a decent enough stay (can't recollect the name, this was on the highway itself).


Expanding on nearby places along the route, I would suggest the following deroute:

Hampi->Chitradurga(Halt)-> Belur/Halebeedu/Hassan (halt)->Shravanbelagola ->Bangalore->>

[jagira]

Originally Posted by Tgo

Suitable stop to break the journey between Bhopal-Ahmedabad

Your parents can spend a day + night stay at Mandu (Mandavgarh). From Mandu, I would recommend going to Vadodara instead of Ahmedabad and staying there instead of staying in Ahmedabad & Rajpipla. Ahmedabad, Modhera & Gandhinagar all can be covered in a day trip from Vadodara. Champaner and Statue of Unity are very close to Vadodara. Both Champaner and Statue of Unity can be covered in a single day from Vadodara.

Also, I would suggest going to Aurangabad from Vadodara via Surat - Nashik instead of taking Rajpipla to Aurangabad route. It's a bit safer.

Originally Posted by Tgo

They've visited Diu. Does it make sense to cover Daman and Dadra & Nagar Haveli to tick off the UTs from the list?

Yep, Daman and D&N Haveli can be skipped.

Originally Posted by Tgo

Lastly, pour in your suggestions for places worth visiting along the way.

If time permits, your parents can go to either Rani ki Vav or Adalaj Stepwell from Modhera.

While in Vadodara, your parents can visit Lakshmi Vilas Palace.

Your parents can visit Udvada instead. It's close to Surat.

[Researcher]

Hats off to your parents! I wish them all the best for this trip of a lifetime!

Originally Posted by Tgo

Is the Ro-Ro Ferry still running?

Yes and it is probably just running till the end of the month. From the recent news.

The Ro-Ro service has been schedule to operate till the end of this month for the duration of the Ganpati festival.

Originally Posted by Tgo

They want to give Puri 2 days since they plan to visit the Chilka lake for birding. Bhubaneshwar would be touch and go.

In Bhubaneswar, you may visit the Lingaraj Temple. It is on the older Puri-Bhubaneswar-Cuttack route and would be a slight detour from the Puri-Cuttack route which sort of bypasses the older highway. It passes through the city of Bhubaneswar and the temple is in one of the oldest parts of town. I would suggest to avoid visiting the temple on Mondays, Thursdays, Saturdays and religious holidays.

From there to Ranchi would be doable in one day...So from there to Ranchi would be a day's work. Have heard that the road from Ranchi to Kolkata is quite scenic.

I would suggest you to have a bit of spare time at hand because roads in Jharkhand may not be in the best of conditions and work maybe under progress. However this is as per my personal travel back in March 2020 and a friend who drove back in June 2020. There is also quite a number of diversions and heavy traffic due to work in progress in NH16 around Cuttack-Panikoili as informed by the friend, who got stuck for around 3 hours. Other BHPians who have traveled more recently may be able confirm if this is still an issue.

Originally Posted by Tgo

Lets talk about the safety and recovery gear required for the vehicle which needs to be put in place before starting from Jaipur.

I will also suggest to keep a printed list of service centers that would be on your route in addition to saving on the phone.

Originally Posted by Tgo

The ubiquitous camera phones, dash cam and a dedicated superzoom / DSLR for pictures and video will be there.

You have covered almost everything that comes to my mind. Just keep some spare batteries and memory cards with a habit to frequently back-up to any cloud storage. Eagerly waiting for a great travelogue here!

Originally Posted by GTO

Only on Team-BHP will a route query be so detailed with 14 posts & thousands of words.

If the plan is this detailed and thorough, I can only imagine how the travelogue is going to run into pages!

[manonsong]

Originally Posted by Tgo

South West

Mumbai - Belgaum - Goa - Hampi - Bangalore - Ooty - Trivandrum - Kanyakumari

This part of the trip covers the west coast. Coastal routes are avoided since they will impede travel and more importantly they have travelled along the coast in Karnataka and parts of Kerala, but haven't been to Hampi, Ooty and Periyar NP.

Attachment 2042885

inputs needed for:

1. A better place to stop in between Mumbai-Goa (currently considering Belgaum)
2. A place for a small break between Hampi-Bangalore
3. Exact shorter route Ooty-Udumalpet-Periyar and its feasibility.
4. A comfortable and outdoorsy place to stay near Periyal NP.
5. Iconic landmarks for a photo-op @ Panaji, Bangalore and Trivandrum
6. Lastly, pour in your suggestions for places worth visiting along the way.

One option is to go to Goa via the old NH 17 Highway along the Konkan Coast. (NH 17 name has changed) Then a stop in Chiplun is good some good places to stay, comfortable, clean and interesting. The road is more scenic than the road via Belgaum. A little longer but with the break in Chiplun should be fine. Right now a lot of road works are in progress to make this a 4 lane road.

Originally Posted by Tgo

West

Jaipur - Bhopal - Gandhinagar - Rajpipla - Aurangabad - Mumbai

It is planned to depart from Jaipur in the winter months. Preferably January. We Think it would be better to travel down south first and be able to cover the hot southern part of the country in 15-20 days, while the winter will be at full swing. Here is the route outline for this leg of the journey.

Attachment 2042871

Inputs needed for:

1. Suitable stop to break the journey between Bhopal-Ahmedabad
2. Route condition for Aurangabad-Igatpuri-Mumbai
3. Iconic landmark for a photo-op @ Bhopal, Gandhinagar, Daman/Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli
4. They've visited Diu. Does it make sense to cover Daman and Dadra & Nagar Haveli to tick off the UTs from the list?
5. Is the Ro-Ro Ferry still running?
6. Lastly, pour in your suggestions for places worth visiting along the way.

Aurangabad-Igatpuri road has no remarkable restuarants or toilet facilities. Be aware. May be better to come to Nashik and stop over. Visit a winery or more. Suggest York winery as a good place. Then Mumbai is only a 3 to 4 hr drive max.
Mumbai is an expensive city for hotels but great for eating out at reasonable costs.
Feel free to contact me for suggestions abut Nashik, Aurangabad and Mumbai.

[shrinandiyer]

Originally Posted by Tgo

South East


Inputs needed:

1. Is it advisable to do Chennai-Gandikota-Srisailam in one day?
2. Route condition between Madurai-Pondicherry.
3. Places to visit near Hyderabad and Amaravathi.
4. Iconic landmarks for a photo-op @ Pondicherry, Chennai, Hyderabad and Amaravathi
5. Places worth visiting or worth taking a mid-way break along the way.

Brilliant plan.

Please consider few more destinations in TN.

Original plan-
Kanyakumari - Rameshwaram - Madurai - Pondicherry

Additions -
Kanyakumari - Rameshwaram - Madurai - 1. Trichy - 2. Thanjavur - 3. Kumbakonam - 4. Karaikal - Pondicherry

1. Trichy -
130km highway drive from Madurai.
Places of interest -
Srirangam Temple
Thiruvanaikaval
Rockfort

2. Thanjavur
60Km drive from Trichy - be cautious about the route to take. Ask locals for guidance.
Places of interest -
Kallanai (enroute to Thanjavur)
Thanjavur main temple

3. Kumbakonam
Places of interest -
The saying goes "In Kumbakonam you would stumble and fall, but in front of another temple"

4. Karaikal
Places of interest -
You're practically already in Pondicherry and you should not miss the temple here.

Notes:

1. This lists seems more of a pilgrimage as I have added only temples here, but there are other POI's you can add in all locations.
2. The variety of food is something to look forward to in all these places.
3. Coffee! Throughout the highway you can look out of small shops. Make sure you ask for filter coffee and not instant (My preference )
4. For the weaker stomach - Steamed Idly all time and any time!
5. Try getting Thirunelveli Iruttu Kadai Halwa. (Dark shop Halwa)
   Sweet heaven!
6. For the stronger gut - Try Parotta - Most of the below types of Parottas originate from Madurai (pronounced Poo-Row-tta)

1. Poricha Parotta
2. Madurai Parotta
3. Bun Parotta
4. Kothu Parotta (Tamil word "Kothu" means "To chop" hence the name Kothu Parotta)

Would love to compile a longer list of destinations, POI's and food provided I do some homework.
(WFH takes its own toll. Just a delay. )

[Dry Ice]

Originally Posted by Tgo

Logging the trip

I also want you to share creative ideas for logging the trip. I don't mean the number crunching stuff, but logging the memories. The ubiquitous camera phones, dash cam and a dedicated superzoom / DSLR for pictures and video will be there. They'll also maintain an app based or manual trip log book. What I am looking for are some interesting ideas. A few that crossed my mind are..

Do let me know if anyone has other ideas which would be convenient enough to put in practice for logging and sharing the memories from the trip.

Wonderful thread Tgo, and wish the trip is a grand success!

Reg. the photos, you can setup the camera to record GPS as well in the picture data. It would allow you to pinpoint where exactly the photo was taken.

Secondly if you backup the photos to Google photos, it will automatically sort them for you based on location, objects, people etc. It also auto creates some collages - which can be good to share as the day winds up. And it will also remind you for the next few years about this trip on the same dates.

[eyedocgb]

Congratulations on the planning for your parent's upcoming road trip.
If I may enquire:-
1. The vehicle your parents would be using for the trip as the terrain would vary.
2. Their ages and any health issues,if any and necessary health insurance ( although they look quite healthy)
3. When is the trip planned ? ( in view of Covid prevalence, road conditions, weather, local administration rules eg.just last week onwards,Meghalaya has banned entry of travellers in the first week of every month etc)
4. Please carry at least one BSNL postpaid sum connection,as prepaid roaming services are either not available/ allowed or patchy network issues exist,in some areas.
5. Hopefully they will have access to friends/relatives/local Team BHP members for help and assistance along the way. I'm sure everyone would be glad to lend a hand .
6. In Assam, currently road conditions especially highway from Guwahati to Upper Assam are not the best due to recent floods and pending 4 - laning project, repairs of which have been delayed due to Covid and next year Assembly elections.

Wishing them a wonderful trip with beautiful memories.

Thanks.

[viXit]

Since I haven't had all that much experience travelling I'll stick to this,

Originally Posted by Tgo

Logging the trip

I also want you to share creative ideas for logging the trip.

Seeing that the logging is important make sure to provide all the dongles and camera wires for file management on-the-go.

OTG adapters so they can do it directly on the mobile phone.
An added advantage is that once on the phone, if enabled, google photos logs:
Date, time, metadata and GPS locations on the cloud.

So they can even stand to lose a device yet have all the memories safe and sound waiting for them when they need it. I've regretted not doing that several times.

Like mentioned previously, don't under any circumstance let them travel without a BSNL sim card.
My father was a pilot in siachen and used a phone with BSNL services even in the least accessible places. A MUST HAVE .

But what can be better than a LIVE team-BHP travelogue to keep us all up to date with the fun.
Consider making your parents join. Seeing that they are experienced travelers it's only a matter of time before we're listening from them.

It will also help in this way. BHPians from around the country can jump in and help them wherever they need some. Whatever area they are in, I'm pretty sure our local BHPians will be hooked onto that part of their travelogue in real time waiting to be of any help.

That's just my two paise!
Wishing them all the best!
This one is going to be One heck of a road trip.
All of BHP's experience is gonna come in handy.

[amsidhu]

Adventurous idea. Best of luck.
Hooked onto this thread. It will be a treasure house of Information on road travel across country.
I'm sure it will have the most detailed planning preparation execution and later detailed de-briefing on various aspects.

Btw did I miss out, which is the chosen steed for this trip your parents have shortlisted ?

[vgsr]

I love that someone is doing this. I too am retired and have been planning a coast to coast trip for the last few years. Never got off the ground due to my childrens weddings and visiting them and grandchildren came in the way !!
But its still on and drawing inspiration from your parents, I must actionise my plan.
Meanwhile I did do a 8000 km drive from New York to Juneau . Alaska in 2018, and took in several sightseeing places like your parents are planning to do.
All the best to them. Considering the shorter distances on most days and that they are driving through populated areas, I dont think they will face any issues.
Just one suggestion. They should avoid night driving in India and halt by 4/5 pm on driving days.

[Alpha8118]

Originally Posted by Tgo

Central

Jalpaiguri - Purnia - Deoghar - Gaya - Patna - Ayodhya - Lucknow - Katarniyaghat - Dudhwa/Pilibhit

This section begins from Jalpaiguri to reach Dog-ear(JH) for a visit to Baidyanath Jyotirling Temple. From there head on to Gaya and Patna. Journey to Lucknow needs to br broken at Ayodhya and from there on they follow the Terai region bordering Nepal to Pilibhit. The Allahbad-Kanpur-Agra route is avoided since they have travelled trough this area before and with the purpose of taking a new rout through UP.

Attachment 2043145

Inputs needed for:

1. Places to visit near Purnia
2. Whether Sasaram is a worthy de-tour on the way from Gaya-Patna
3. The might skip one of the three (Katarniyaghat/Dudhwa/Pilibhit) depending on the park visiting season
4. Iconic landmarks for a photo-op @ Patna and Lucknow.

Sasaram has absolutely nothing worthy of making a detour on the way to Patna. I live in Varanasi and visit Sasaram often for some business work but it has absolutely nothing as to qualify as a "sightseeing" place.

[PrasannaDhana]

Originally Posted by shrinandiyer

1. Trichy -
130km highway drive from Madurai.
Places of interest -
Srirangam Temple
Thiruvanaikaval
Rockfort

2. Thanjavur
60Km drive from Trichy - be cautious about the route to take. Ask locals for guidance.
Places of interest -
Kallanai (enroute to Thanjavur)
Thanjavur main temple

3. Kumbakonam
Places of interest -
The saying goes "In Kumbakonam you would stumble and fall, but in front of another temple"

4. Karaikal
Places of interest -
You're practically already in Pondicherry and you should not miss the temple here.

Notes:

1. This lists seems more of a pilgrimage as I have added only temples here, but there are other POI's you can add in all locations.
2. The variety of food is something to look forward to in all these places.
3. Coffee! Throughout the highway you can look out of small shops. Make sure you ask for filter coffee and not instant (My preference )
4. For the weaker stomach - Steamed Idly all time and any time!
5. Try getting Thirunelveli Iruttu Kadai Halwa. (Dark shop Halwa)
   Sweet heaven!
6. For the stronger gut - Try Parotta - Most of the below types of Parottas originate from Madurai (pronounced Poo-Row-tta)

1. Poricha Parotta
2. Madurai Parotta
3. Bun Parotta
4. Kothu Parotta (Tamil word "Kothu" means "To chop" hence the name Kothu Parotta)

Would love to compile a longer list of destinations, POI's and food provided I do some homework.
(WFH takes its own toll. Just a delay. )

+1

Madurai to Trichy is just an hour drive (I regularly do it). It might be 130 km but the route is flawless (like most parts of TN) and you can effortlessly maintain easy triple digit average speeds.

Kallanai is just 12 km from Trichy. Srirangam and Rockfort are must-visit places if you are in a pilgrimage. Kallanai is a 2000 years old dam, probably the oldest in India, if not the world.

Trichy to Tanjore is another 30-35 minutes drive on another flawless highway. Tanjore Big temple is a wonderful place (Heritage site).

Considering his parents' age, I would not suggest madurai parottas as they are always spicy. But for healthy digestive systems, that food range is a heaven. I recommend Amma mess.

But as you had written, filter coffee is a must try in Tamilnadu.

Tanjore - Kumbakonam has narrow, curvy roads with very poor traffic sense prevailing among locals. They need to be very careful driving in that route.