[pramodpk]

Hi,

I drove from Bangalore to Trivandrum on 30th October. Started at 4:30 AM from Bangalore and reached Trivandrum by 5:00 PM. Driving time was 10 Hours 45 mins. I was mostly cruising at 100-110 Km/h on the 4 lane roads.

Here is the trip sheet.



We stopped for breakfast after Karur. Had initially planned to have breakfast at Salem but most of the hotels were closed. The place where we had breakfast was not decent. But we saw some decent hotels a couple of KMs later. Had lunch before Nagercoil after leaving NH7. The restaurant was decent.

[krish3]

Hey Pramod- I was on the same route at around the same time. I started from Bangalore at 4:45 am and reached trivandrum by 2:45 pm. Had a 10 min nap after thoppur, tea break after salem, breakfast after Karur (packed) and lunch after getting into Kerala. :-)

Seems like we missed each other. I was driving a Grey coloured Getz

[sbraj]

Originally Posted by pramodpk

Started at 4:30 AM from Bangalore and reached Trivandrum by 5:00 PM.

Good that you started early. Evening traffic on the NH47 stretch is horrible.

There is a Ghar Dhaba after Dindigul, near Vaadipatti. This is 28km before the Samayanallur cross. But in your case, you would have reached this place at around 10am.

Originally Posted by pramodpk

Had lunch before Nagercoil after leaving NH7. The restaurant was decent.

Do you remember the name and location of this restaurant?

[bejoy]

Pramod, Krish,
Even I was on the same route around the same time. Started at 4:30 from Bangalore. crossed Karur at 8:30. I was driving my Palio on way to Kodai.

Found a nice Hotel after Karur with well maintained Rest rooms. It comes along side a BP pump on the left side, 5-6kms after Karur byepass.

Location here.

[krish3]

Thanks Bejoy. This will come useful very soon for me.

I had noticed it, but didnt want to stop. Didnt know it was pretty good

[sbkumar]

I did the BLR-NGL-BLR over the weekend. Started Thursday, Nov 4th and Returned Sunday Nov 7th.

Onward Journey details


Faced heavy traffic upto Hosur due to the Firework Shops. Again from Virudhunagar to Tirunelveli had to endure heavy rain with winds, making it impossible to go beyond 40 kmph. Otherwise, mostly around 100-110 on clear stretches.

Return Journey details


NGL-Madurai was a breeze. Madurai to Salem was okay. Salem to Krishnagiri bad, Krishnagiri to Blr was horrible. Heavy rains + Weekend Traffic slowed us down quite a bit. Happy to reach home safe though.

[pramodpk]

Originally Posted by sbraj

Good that you started early. Evening traffic on the NH47 stretch is horrible.

There is a Ghar Dhaba after Dindigul, near Vaadipatti. This is 28km before the Samayanallur cross. But in your case, you would have reached this place at around 10am.


Do you remember the name and location of this restaurant?

The restaurant where we had lunch is exactly after 18.5 KMs after we leave NH7 (see my trip log). This is on the right hand side. Don't remember the exact name. It is some "Business Hotel".

I had noted down the locations of all Ghar Dhabas but could not wait till Dindigul for breakfast as I was driving on emty stomach.

[sbraj]

Originally Posted by pramodpk

The restaurant where we had lunch is exactly after 18.5 KMs after we leave NH7 (see my trip log). This is on the right hand side. Don't remember the exact name. It is some "Business Hotel".

Ok, got it.

Originally Posted by sbkumar

Again from Virudhunagar to Tirunelveli had to endure heavy rain with winds, making it impossible to go beyond 40 kmph.

Water logging on the highway? Or visibility issues?

Originally Posted by bejoy

Found a nice Hotel after Karur with well maintained Rest rooms. It comes along side a BP pump on the left side, 5-6kms after Karur byepass.

Location here.

I have been here. Pretty clean. Food quality is okay, not great. They have children play area as well. IIRC, it is called Hotel Aristo.

[sbkumar]

Originally Posted by sbraj

Water logging on the highway? Or visibility issues?
.

It was a bit of both. There are stretches where so much water was flowing on the highway that I could feel a loss of grip when going over them. But the bigger issue was visibility, I guess due to the winds + heavy rains. I even stopped for a while near hotel Tamil Nadu in sattur, but there was no signs of it coming down. Since it was pretty late already, i decided to put my hazard lights on and keep moving slowly along with couple of other vehicles which were doing the same. To my relief I found that it was coming down as I closed in on Tirunelveli. The good thing about the new 4-lane is that we can trust the roads to be without potholes so that made it a little easy. Else stopping would have been the only option.

[sbraj]

HVK Sir,
How are the roads now within Nagercoil town? And NH47 to TVM?

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by sbraj

HVK Sir,
How are the roads now within Nagercoil town? And NH47 to TVM?

The usual small-town roads, quite OK. NH47 from Nagercoil to Trivandrum is as good as ever. Just that it is a very slow road.

[kj302]

I love the NH7 BLR-TVM route. I do an running average of 95-100 till Nagercoil deviation. Only pain is the NH47 session. Painfully and frustratingly slow. Give yourselves 1.5 to 2 hours to cover this stretch any time between 9 AM-11 PM.

[hellstar]

Originally Posted by kj302

I love the NH7 BLR-TVM route. I do an running average of 95-100 till Nagercoil deviation. Only pain is the NH47 session. Painfully and frustratingly slow. Give yourselves 1.5 to 2 hours to cover this stretch any time between 9 AM-11 PM.

Well after 11pm it only get worse with the heavily loaded trucks entering the state and the subsequent RTO , Sales Tax, Excise and Police checks that happen, i usually avoid this route and choose the Kulathupuzha route even if it more twisty , these is lesser traffic till about 30 kms from TVM city and roads are good i hear...

[sbraj]

I went to TVM from BLR on Dec 23 and came back on Jan 1 via Salem-Madurai-Nagercoil route.

Started the onward journey at 0330 hours, but a traffic block at Thoppur due to a lorry accident resulted in delay of 1.5 hours there. Otherwise NH7 was fine but another traffic block on NH47 near Marthandam cost another 1.5 hours. Nagercoil-TVM stretch of 70 km took 4 hours and finally reached TVM at 1830.

Return journey was much better. Started from TVM at 0800 hours on Jan 1, took 1.5 hours for Nagercoil. Nagercoil to Salem was done in an unbelievable 5 hours. It was a virtually empty stretch of 460 kms.

[kj302]

Originally Posted by sbraj

Nagercoil to Salem was done in an unbelievable 5 hours. It was a virtually empty stretch of 460 kms.

Sorry for boasting myself. I have done Blr-kavalkinar (exit from GQ to nagercoil) in 5 hr 42 minutes last thursday.