[jeetaman]

Hi,

I was in Hampi from Thu August 15th - August 18th. I drove from Hyderabad - Hospet. I drove my i20 diesel.

The Route:
Onwards: Hyderabad - Bhuthpur - Mehabubnagar - Raichur - Sindhanur - Gangavati - Hospet.
Return: Hospet - Gangavati - Sindhanur - Raichur - Mehabubnagar - Jadcherla - Hyderabad.

I will post details in a while.

Cheers
Jeet

Hi,

I was in Hampi from Thu August 15th - August 18th. I drove from Hyderabad - Hospet. I drove my i20 diesel.

The Route:
The Route:
Onwards: Hyderabad - Bhuthpur - Mahabubnagar - Raichur - Sindhanur - Gangawati - Hospet.
Return: Hospet - Gangawati - Sindhanur - Raichur - Mahabubnagar - Jadcherla - Hyderabad.

Duration:
Started at 5:30am from Hyderabad, reached Tungabhadra Dam (T B Dam) @12:30pm with around an hour breaks for food, bio-calls, and of course, field

photography - in the beautiful Sunflower fields between Sindhanur - Gangavati stretch.

Road Conditions:
Hyderabad - Bhuthpur is 95km on Hyd - Bangalore NH7. Always fun driving on this part. In the process of enjoying the ride and heavy rainfall with

visibility not more than 100 meters, forgot to take the diversion at Jadcherla leading to Mahabubnagar, crossed Bhuthpur too by 15km. Finally, went

back to basic to "ask-when-in-doubt" mode and a auto driver helped in getting back to the right direction.

Bhuthpur - Mahabubnagar: Good road condition on SH20. Drove 8 kms to reach Mahabubnagar city limit. Took the left turn diversion towards Raichur Road

after driving 1.5 kms passing Govt High School on right side.

Mahabubnagar - Raichur: Good road condition on SH18 except too many speed breakers (of various sizes, impact, and patterns - single hump, double humps

etc.) in 10 km stretch between KPCL Raichur Thermal Power Plant and Raichur bypass Road.

Raichur Bypass Road: After taking right, there is another EASY-To-MISS-RIGHT-TURN just 50 meters. The 3.8 km stretch between this point and actual

Raichur Bypass road is bad - to the extent, you land up searching for road in the dense jungle of potholes. With rains, this search game becomes a

nightmare. Once you hit the upcoming Raichur Bypass road (it would connect on SH18 around 2 km ahead of the current right turn in Raichur) - you feel

like back to heaven. It is a stretch of smooth 4.5 km road to hit a deadend - left take you to the Raichar City and right to Sindhanur / Bagalkot.

Drive 6.5 km to take LEFT to Sindhanur direction.

Raichur - Sindhanur - Gangawati - Hotspet: State Highway. No surprises on speed breakers in the villages / towns areas by design.

On speed Breakers: Towns and Villages grew beyond the original limits and speed breakers now find themselves in the center of the town/village

stretches. Authorities, continue to maintain them as is instead of shifting to the new town/village limits. It makes your guesses to wrong in

predicting speed breakers

The last 29 km stretch on the new highway NH13 to Hospet is a heartening change over what I witnessed 4 years back. You would enjoy a beautiful view of

Tungabhadra Dam.

Since, I landed in Hospet on August 15th, all 33 gates of T B Dam were open as an annual ritual. People from surrounding villages were pouring in to view the scene.

Few Pictures:

[smartindboy]

Some snaps from Hampi, starting with the room at Royal orchids:

[smartindboy]

Few more from the collection:

[mithuntm]

Route via Gadwal is the one to take for Hyderabad to Raichur.

Except for around 10 kms around the Karnataka AP border and another 3-4 kms as soon as you enter Raichur, rest of the Gadwal road is a breeze... Did Hyd-Raichur in around 3.5 hours.

In order to avoid bypass road, I found a decent alternative to the roadless road mentioned by a few here (had to travel twice in a span of 15 days on the potholed filled road)... Full thanks to Android and Google Maps...
http://goo.gl/maps/ifM1S

Overall condition from Raichur to Hospet is decent (NH from Boodgump to Hospet is awesome)...

Took the Kampli road on the way back since we were already at Hampi... ok road (my expectations were very low)... took us around 45 mins for 30+ kms... The road around Kampli though is pretty bad...

[jeetaman]

Originally Posted by mithuntm

Route via Gadwal is the one to take for Hyderabad to Raichur.

Except for around 10 kms around the Karnataka AP border and another 3-4 kms as soon as you enter Raichur, rest of the Gadwal road is a breeze... Did Hyd-Raichur in around 3.5 hours.

In order to avoid bypass road, I found a decent alternative to the roadless road mentioned by a few here (had to travel twice in a span of 15 days on the potholed filled road)... Full thanks to Android and Google Maps...
http://goo.gl/maps/ifM1S

Overall condition from Raichur to Hospet is decent (NH from Boodgump to Hospet is awesome)...

Took the Kampli road on the way back since we were already at Hampi... ok road (my expectations were very low)... took us around 45 mins for 30+ kms... The road around Kampli though is pretty bad...

Thanks Mithun for suggesting the alternate route to avoid the 4km of torture. I hope the NH authorities complete the bypass extension to join it to a point before Raichur. That would make the journey even more pleasant.

BTW, you can enjoy more picture in my TL:

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...ed-stones.html

Cheers

[rahulv]

Hello

has any of us stayed in Hampi's boulders?

if cost is not an issue, is sloth bear resort a good option?

[hyd_traveller]

Originally Posted by rahulv

has any of us stayed in Hampi's boulders?

if cost is not an issue, is sloth bear resort a good option?

I would opt for Hotel Malligi over these two but then it is my personal view.

[rahulv]

Originally Posted by hyd_traveller

I would opt for Hotel Malligi over these two but then it is my personal view.

i wanted to avoid the regular 3-4-5 star hotels.

i just relocated back to india. there was a delay in joining the job and i had already vacated the apartment in singapore. so ended up living in hotel for 3 months in singapore. after coming back to hyderabad, i was in hotel for one month.

trust me, more than a month in hotel is very boring

[rahulv]

Off to Hampi tomorrow morning.

does anyone know if raichur by-pass is complete or not?

[hyd_traveller]

Originally Posted by rahulv

does anyone know if raichur by-pass is complete or not?

If by bye pass you mean the one showing under construction on Google maps, no, it is not complete or so I was told.
Go towards the town till you see Gunj Market (wholesale) on your left, turn right and keep on this road till the junction where right turn is SH20 while straight is Station Road.

[rahulv]

Folks,

The bypass is open now. Tortures Raichur is thing of past

[hyd_traveller]

Originally Posted by rahulv

Folks,

The bypass is open now. Tortures Raichur is thing of past

This is indeed a great news.

Ardy also did this route today and shared the same news around noon offline.

[RoadTiger]

Planning HYD - Hampi shortly ... Have been there 3 times via different routes over the last 3-4 years

Here are the routes, in order of my preference for this trip ...

1. Via Mahbubnagar - Raichur .... with Raichur bypass open, this should be good ... not sure of road condition of M'nagar - Raichur
2. Via Gadwal - Raichur ... I know Gadwal-Raichur is narrow, mediocre + this is a longer route
3. Via Gooty - Bellary ... This is the longest route and the advantage of the drive all the way to Gooty is partly negated by the time Gooty to Hospet takes due to small towns and massive speedbreakers etc

Does anyone have any opinions/ road updates on the above preferences ? Thanks in advance, folks !

[RoadTiger]

Quick update from a HYD-Hampi trip in November 2014.

- The route to do is Hyd-Boothpur (just after Jadcherla on NH7)-M'nagar-Raichur bypass - Sindhanur - Gangawati - Boothkampa Xroads - Hospet

- About 6.5 hours of driving time

- The best tarmac is on the M'nagar - Raichur stretch. The Raichur - Gangawati stretch that was blemishless at one point of time has many stretches of poor to average road surface now

- About 2-3 good clean 'modern' restaurants have opened up in Sindhanur town and close to Gangawati

- Please avoid the Gadwal to Raichur route at any cost. I did take the route and it had a few dozen craters that could have swallowed a tractor (no kidding)

- The route from Gangawati to Hampi via Kampli is shorter but has a few bad patches over a few kms - and is avoidable particularly at night

- In terms of stay options having stayed at 3 of the most popular hotel options over the years, here's the take
1. Royal Orchid - best rooms, nice property, good service, average food, decent bar/lounge, located close to a canal and fields, however not a great locality close to the railway station
2. Malligi - decent rooms, nice service, BEST food (esp. veg) that is very reasonably priced
3. Mayura Bhuvaneshwari (KTDC) - closest to Hampi, very average rooms, poor service, only place in Hampi (the other two hotels are in Hospet about 8-9 kms away) to serve beer.

- Mango Tree Restaurant has moved close to the Virupaksha temple and has lost its charm that it had when it was outdoor on the banks of the T'badhra. Food menu stays the same and is decent

[harshmishr]

Hi,

Going to Hampi this weekend.

@RoadTiger: Is the route suggested by you same as what's shown in google maps?

https://www.google.co.in/maps/dir/Hy...4!2d15.3350132

Staying in Malligi.. Will we get guide from the hotel or is suggested to get one after reaching Hampi? Planning to leave on Saturday by 4 AM and complete Hampi the same day..

Originally Posted by RoadTiger

Quick update from a HYD-Hampi trip in November 2014.

- The route to do is Hyd-Boothpur (just after Jadcherla on NH7)-M'nagar-Raichur bypass - Sindhanur - Gangawati - Boothkampa Xroads - Hospet

- About 6.5 hours of driving time

- The best tarmac is on the M'nagar - Raichur stretch. The Raichur - Gangawati stretch that was blemishless at one point of time has many stretches of poor to average road surface now

- About 2-3 good clean 'modern' restaurants have opened up in Sindhanur town and close to Gangawati

- Please avoid the Gadwal to Raichur route at any cost. I did take the route and it had a few dozen craters that could have swallowed a tractor (no kidding)

- The route from Gangawati to Hampi via Kampli is shorter but has a few bad patches over a few kms - and is avoidable particularly at night

- In terms of stay options having stayed at 3 of the most popular hotel options over the years, here's the take
1. Royal Orchid - best rooms, nice property, good service, average food, decent bar/lounge, located close to a canal and fields, however not a great locality close to the railway station
2. Malligi - decent rooms, nice service, BEST food (esp. veg) that is very reasonably priced
3. Mayura Bhuvaneshwari (KTDC) - closest to Hampi, very average rooms, poor service, only place in Hampi (the other two hotels are in Hospet about 8-9 kms away) to serve beer.

- Mango Tree Restaurant has moved close to the Virupaksha temple and has lost its charm that it had when it was outdoor on the banks of the T'badhra. Food menu stays the same and is decent