[aspire]

Originally Posted by ampere

Usually rains do not hamper the conditions on this road. My updates were based on last month when it was good. Do not know if it may have in the last month.

Hi,

Planning to go to Sri Kalahasti this Friday from HSR layout, I had gone some 5 years back via chittoor, the highway was under construction at many places, lot of sudden speed breakers were there on the highway without even proper markings.

How is the road nowadays, and any suggestions for a decent and not so expensive place to stay in Kalahasti.

I plan to leave around 4 in the morning, and after visiting the temple, take some rest and then leave in the evening.

Please do provide any suggestions or advise.

Regards
Shailesh

[ampere]

Originally Posted by aspire

Planning to go to Sri Kalahasti this Friday from HSR layout, I had gone some 5 years back via chittoor, the highway was under construction at many places, lot of sudden speed breakers were there on the highway without even proper markings.

Its good roads all the way. Go via KR Puram and chose a suitable time window to meet minimum traffic in there. You should be good that way (say early morning).

But yes there are many speed breakers all through the distance. You need to be careful. There are both humps and rumble strips.

[sdp1975]

I have a return train from Tirupati at 2pm to Bangalore and I would like to visit Sri Kalahasti in the morning. What's the frequency of buses from Tirupati to Sri Kalahasti and back ?

When should I start from Tirupati in the morning to cover Sri Kalahasti comfortably ?

[Rovergen]

Originally Posted by sdp1975

I have a return train from Tirupati at 2pm to Bangalore and I would like to visit Sri Kalahasti in the morning. What's the frequency of buses from Tirupati to Sri Kalahasti and back ?

When should I start from Tirupati in the morning to cover Sri Kalahasti comfortably ?

Every ten minutes there is a bus from tirupati to Sri kalahasti , you have to leave aside 2 hours for darshan at sri kalahasti . 2 pm intercity from Tirupati starts on time so plan accordingly .

[airbus]

We will be visiting Tirupati on 1st November and we have darshan ticket for 3 pm. We will start from Bengaluru around 7 am, complete darshan and return to Bengaluru same evening, target is to reach home back by 11 pm. Is this doable? Though we have small kids, they are used to long drives.

Please also guide about stretches where I will need to be extra careful about speed breakers/barriers.

[srvm]

Originally Posted by airbus

We will be visiting Tirupati on 1st November and we have darshan ticket for 3 pm. We will start from Bengaluru around 7 am, complete darshan and return to Bengaluru same evening, target is to reach home back by 11 pm. Is this doable? Though we have small kids, they are used to long drives.

Please also guide about stretches where I will need to be extra careful about speed breakers/barriers.

If you report for darsan at 3pm, you are likely to complete darsan by 6pm. Which leaves only 5 hours to travel back to Bangalore from Tirumala! Too cramped in my opinion.
Also, this route is not ideal to drive after sunset. Lots of local traffic in Chittoor, Bangarpalem and Palamner towns, till AP-KA border. Also, plenty of trucks and buses on high-beams. Add plenty of speed breakers into the mix. Not to mention, you could be tired after all the driving and walking-in-queue since morning. I recommend having an overnight break at Tirupati (not Tirumala). Plenty of options there.

Regarding status of speed-breakers, I was on this stretch in last week of August. Some new speed breakers have come up between KA-AP border and Palamner town. See my post in another thread for details.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by airbus

We will be visiting Tirupati on 1st November and we have darshan ticket for 3 pm. We will start from Bengaluru around 7 am, complete darshan and return to Bengaluru same evening, target is to reach home back by 11 pm. Is this doable? Though we have small kids, they are used to long drives.

Please also guide about stretches where I will need to be extra careful about speed breakers/barriers.

Seconding srvm, I would request you to please take a day off on Nov 2nd, stay back in Tirupathi on 1st and come back leisurely on 2nd morning. You can have breakfast in Tirupathi, reach Adigas/Maiyas for lunch. You can also reach Bangalore by late afternoon which will be ideal. And dont forget to thank me later for this

Night driving on that stretch is something I would not recommend. Firstly, you should be good at overtakes and also have a car that can accelerate well. Else, it will be a 40-60kmph drive all the way till Nangli. It will be tiring and strenous and later, once you reach the four lane stretch inside Karnataka, you wont have the same alertness and energy to hit speeds. The entire stretch in AP and Karnataka will have drunkard bikers and truck drivers until around 9PM. Hence, I personally would never recommend this unless the darshan is in the afternoon at around 1-2PM.

If you are really insisting on returning same evening, report to the darshan at 130PM. 99.9% they will allow you inside before your actual reporting time. We always do it. If you are lucky enough and no VVIP turns up at the temple, you will come out by 3PM. If you leave immediately you will reach Tirupathi by 430 and without a break if you continue to Palamner, you are likely to reach Palamner by 630. Perhaps you could stop for some food in Palamner and then continue. My objective here is to reach KA border or at least Palamner by the time it gets dark. Later on, you can have a relaxed journey. We have done that once, but then did not drive all the way till Bangalore but went to my native in Kolar.

But just like you, there will be thousands of other people having similar plans. Such was visible the last weekend. Everyone will leave Tirupathi at around 4-5PM and there will be madmen driving recklessly. Hence, you might not be able to maintain the timing I stated above. Thats why I again recommend you to halt at Tirupathi and leave the next day.

[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by airbus

We will be visiting Tirupati on 1st November and we have darshan ticket for 3 pm. We will start from Bengaluru around 7 am, complete darshan and return to Bengaluru same evening, target is to reach home back by 11 pm. Is this doable? Though we have small kids, they are used to long drives.

Please also guide about stretches where I will need to be extra careful about speed breakers/barriers.

Mate, If your darshan time is 3 PM, then you have to leave Bangalore by at least 4 AM so that you reach the foot of the hills by 10-10:30 AM. Then after completing the security check make sure you do not reach the top of the hills in less than 28 min. You have to stand in the queue by 2 15 PM. Say your darshan time is 3 hrs, you are back by 6 PM.
While driving down the ghats, make sure you dont climb down in less than 40 min.
You will be then driving back to Bangalore in the dark which is not advisable. I would suggest you to stay back in Tirumala after darshan and leave the next day morning.

[Arjun Reddy]

Originally Posted by airbus

We will be visiting Tirupati on 1st November and we have darshan ticket for 3 pm. We will start from Bengaluru around 7 am, complete darshan and return to Bengaluru same evening, target is to reach home back by 11 pm. Is this doable? Though we have small kids, they are used to long drives.

Please also guide about stretches where I will need to be extra careful about speed breakers/barriers.

Night drive on that road is not advisable. Narrow 2 lane,loads of speed breakers which are not visible, slow moving trucks and and a whole lot of buses from the opposite lane will dart into you to
pull of spectacular overtaking manoeuvres. I have tried it a couple of times and it is very strenuous.

If you really cannot take a day off, I suggest you take the night bus to and fro.

[airbus]

Originally Posted by srvm

Which leaves only 5 hours to travel back to Bangalore from Tirumala! Too cramped in my opinion. Also, this route is not ideal to drive after sunset.

Originally Posted by audioholic

Seconding srvm, I would request you to please take a day off on Nov 2nd, stay back in Tirupathi on 1st and come back leisurely on 2nd morning.
- - - -
If you are really insisting on returning same evening, report to the darshan at 130PM. 99.9% they will allow you inside before your actual reporting time.

Originally Posted by suresh_gs

You will be then driving back to Bangalore in the dark which is not advisable. I would suggest you to stay back in Tirumala after darshan and leave the next day morning.

Originally Posted by Arjun Reddy

Night drive on that road is not advisable. Narrow 2 lane,loads of speed breakers which are not visible

Thanks for all the guidance. Two things I have considered while planning for same day return. It's holiday in KA but not in AP, so crowd should be manageable and I have fair amount of experience in driving on single carriageways, reaching home little late may not be an issue. But looking at the consensus, I might plan to stay back, if we could not finish darshan by 4.30 pm.

As suggested by audioholic we will report early and try to finish darshan early and return to Bengaluru.

[airbus]

Originally Posted by airbus

I might plan to stay back, if we could not finish darshan by 4.30 pm.

We did Bengaluru - Tirupati - Bengaluru trip on 1st November. We could start only at 7 am, with one break we reached Tirumala at 1:30 pm. Reported for darshan at 2 pm, which was completed by 4 pm. Started our return journey at 4:30 pm and reached home at 11:30 pm with two breaks for tea and dinner. FASTag helped me to save some time.

Because of high seating position of my car (TUV3OO), I did not face much problem due to high beam lights from opposite direction

[audioholic]

Good to know you were able to leave by 430PM. That would have been ideal since you could have reached Nangli by 730PM. Thats still before the trucks and trailers begin their night run. Most of the traffic would be in your direction as well and less oncoming traffic.

Originally Posted by airbus

Because of high seating position of my car (TUV3OO), I did not face much problem due to high beam lights from opposite direction

Oh come on, I dont take this argument. If I switch on the high beams of my car, even truck and bus drivers respond to the action though they are sitting at a height equivalent to my cars roof. Afterall, compared to a sedan you would be sitting around 50-70cm higher, which is a small part of the high beam hotspot of a car. .

[kavensri]

One of my friend is planning to drive to Tirupati this weekend. He has to meet someone in Madanapalli, so he wants to know the current condition of the route from Bangalore to Tirupati via Madanapalli (https://goo.gl/maps/WbV5AsXTsCG2)?

[deehunk]

Originally Posted by kavensri

One of my friend is planning to drive to Tirupati this weekend. He has to meet someone in Madanapalli, so he wants to know the current condition of the route from Bangalore to Tirupati via Madanapalli (https://goo.gl/maps/WbV5AsXTsCG2)?

The road is in good condition up to Kaiwara Cross, thereafter it is ok kind of stretch till Chintamani. I had used this route while coming back from Tirupathi earlier this year, it was an isolated highway during the daytime. The traffic is crazy in Madanapalli town and road to Tirupathi via Pileru is time-consuming and can be tiresome.

[kavensri]

Originally Posted by deehunk

The road is in good condition up to Kaiwara Cross, thereafter it is ok kind of stretch till Chintamani. I had used this route while coming back from Tirupathi earlier this year, it was an isolated highway during the daytime. The traffic is crazy in Madanapalli town and road to Tirupathi via Pileru is time-consuming and can be tiresome.

Thanks for the update. After reading your message, he dropped his plan to visit Madanapalli and he will be taking the regular route to Tirupati.