[h14]

Originally Posted by pramodpk

The best way to avoid Sankari & Omallur tolls while coming from Coimbatore is to take the Sankari - Edappadi road, Tharamangalam and Omalur. The route is 46 KMS long and it takes 46 - 50 mins for me during day time. Roads are good through out. To avoid Thoppur and Krishnagiri you can take

Mecheri - Pennagaram - Rayakottah - Palacode - Hosur route.

Thanks Pramod. I did try the Tharamangalam - Omalur and only issue was the trucks overtaking each other in corners. And that was as early as 5 in the morning. Had a couple of instances where a truck on full speed was coming onto me on my lane when I was entering a corner.

How is the Pennagaram-Mecheri road condition? Shall explore that as well sometime

[pramodpk]

Originally Posted by h14

Thanks Pramod. I did try the Tharamangalam - Omalur and only issue was the trucks overtaking each other in corners. And that was as early as 5 in the morning. Had a couple of instances where a truck on full speed was coming onto me on my lane when I was entering a corner.

How is the Pennagaram-Mecheri road condition? Shall explore that as well sometime

I had taken Mecheri - Pennagaram route in Dec 2014 to avoid toll booths. Roads were good that time. There was a ghat section between Mecheri and Pennagaram. The road surface was excellent but was narrow at some places. The route was scenic. Would recommend only during day time.

[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by h14

Thanks Suresh! Will try out next week. Where would this join on NH544? Would I be by-passing the Sankkagiri toll?

Also any suggestions to by-pass the Thoppur toll? These days more than paying the amount, the waiting hurts.

While coming from Bangalore, the Edappadi route joins NH544 after the Sankagiri toll. So by this route you will be avoiding both Omalur and Sankagiri tolls.
There is an option to bypass Thoppur toll plaza but not worth taking this alternate route.

See post no. 10230 in the below link

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...ml#post4122784

[binaiks]

Has anyone recently tried the Dhimbham ghat route? I plan to travel that way next week from Bangalore to Coimbatore, and onward to Thrissur. I am bored of the Salem route, and wanted a change.

[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by binaiks

Has anyone recently tried the Dhimbham ghat route? I plan to travel that way next week from Bangalore to Coimbatore, and onward to Thrissur. I am bored of the Salem route, and wanted a change.

You can try, Bangalore - Kanakapura – Kollegal – Germalam – Dhimbam – Sathyamangalam – Annur - Coimbatore route. Except few KMs on the Kanakapura road and few minor stretches, rest of the roads are in good condition. I took this route along with few bhpians 3 weeks back only.

You can find some pics here,

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-t...ml#post4148376

[kala]

Originally Posted by binaiks

Has anyone recently tried the Dhimbham ghat route? I plan to travel that way next week from Bangalore to Coimbatore, and onward to Thrissur. I am bored of the Salem route, and wanted a change.

I travelled through Dhimbham a couple of weeks ago, the road conditions are quite good all through except for the stretches with roadwork between Bangalore and Kanakapura.

For the Malavalli-Chamarajnagar section I would suggest the route via Bannur (left turn at Santhemala junction about 1 km before Bannur) - Somanathpura- T.Narsipur - Santhamarahalli. Found this route to be faster than the regular NH209 route via Shivanasamudra-Kollegal-Yelandur when I tried this option during that last trip.

Also note that if you take SH165 from Annur towards NH47 you will join the NH just before the toll at Karumathampatti, and will end up paying Rs. 85 (I think) for the toll even though you would be travelling only around 10 kms on the 6 lane highway. An alternative would be to go on the Annur-Coimbatore road for a few more kms and turn left at Kurumbapalayam and get to the beginning of the L&T bypass via Avinashi Road (turn left at the Coimbatore airport junction and travel a couple of kms to reach Neelambur). This will probably add about 5 to 10 minutes to your driving time though.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by arun_josie

You can try, Bangalore - Kanakapura – Kollegal – Germalam – Dhimbam – Sathyamangalam – Annur - Coimbatore route. Except

Some how I have never been happy to suggest that route (Germalem) for a family. Great route yes, but service options for family? Zero.

[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by ampere

Some how I have never been happy to suggest that route (Germalem) for a family. Great route yes, but service options for family? Zero.

Yes, no option to stop on the Germalam route. However, Sathyamangalam is only another 50 Kms or less than 75-90mins drive from here. So, if you can time your drive accordingly, you can stop in Sathyamangalam for refreshments.

I have plans to take this route with family, probably a 4-4:30 AM start and breakfast stop at Sathyamangalam which will be around 8:30 - 9:00 AM.

Another option that we have is Via Chamarajnagar with a stop at Nijaguna.

But for someone who is worried about stopovers, I think the route via Salem is the best to Coimbatore. Dhimbham route is prone for truck accidents as well and if any such accident blocks the road then there is no alternate route option.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by arun_josie

But for someone who is worried about stopovers, I think the route via Salem is the best to Coimbatore. Dhimbham route is prone for truck accidents as well and if any such accident blocks the road then there is no alternate route option.

This is one reason why I do not suggest the NH209 and more so the Germalem route. It can be a good drive, but surely not a chosen route for a commute.

[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by ampere

This is one reason why I do not suggest the NH209 and more so the Germalem route. It can be a good drive, but surely not a chosen route for a commute.

Yes, this route is not for people who are just looking to travel between point A to point B in quickest time with loads of option for stopover.

But people who are looking for driving pleasure and who wants to be away from the boring 4L roads will love this route.

[rajathv8]

Though belated, sharing my trip experience to Coimbatore.

Onward : Standard google maps route.
The Onward journey was on April 29th. Though I was exited to drive on my BDay I was brooding the traffic at toll gates since it was the start of a long weekend and it was holiday season for schools. I left home from HAL airport area around 6:30am. My worst fears came true at EC toll booth when the toll queue extended all the way over the expressway. The situation was even worse at Attibele toll where the queue started well before the upward ramp of Attibele overpass, somewhere opposite to the Attibele check post gates. Same situation at Krishnagiri toll though past this it was relatively smooth. The situation was grim for breakfast too with us driving through the usual stop Shri Krishna Inn without finding a parking spot and later parking at A2B only to return back to the car frightened after seeing the queue at the billing counter.
Wife and I enter the building :
Me : Retreat?
Wife : Walks back to the car in a haste
We finally ate at one of the generic Saravana Bhavans and the only thing I remember about the place was that the dosa was extremely salty!
The net result was a total drive time to Hotel KR Residency, Avanashi Road, Coimbatore of 10 hours! Tank full to tank full mileage of 18.18 kmpl with AC running for about 2 hours or more while crawling through toll traffic in my A-Star.

One pic from onward drive at a IKay Bakes for lemon juice quick stop. That's Vivekananda Engineering College in the background.


Return :
Return was the exact opposite. Sunday morning 10:30 am start after a smashing tamil breakfast that we relished at Shree Anandhaas right next to KR Residency. It was a good start to the day and remained good with thin traffic. We did a non-stop drive with only one bio break and reached silk board in 5hrs 15 mins at a relaxed cruising speed of 80Kmph with a milage of 21.69 with 100% AC.

Here is the only pic I took on the return drive. No prizes for guessing why we stopped here


This trip gave me good exposure to how one can cover long distances without actually having to drive fast. It also showed me how nasty things can get with traffic at a few toll gates. Overall I loved the roads and despite the traffic I loved the drive

[ampere]

Originally Posted by rajathv8

The net result was a total drive time to Hotel KR Residency, Avanashi Road, Coimbatore of 10 hours! Tank full to tank full mileage of 18.18 kmpl with AC running for about 2 hours or more while crawling through toll traffic in my A-Star.

These tolls are notorious for long queues. Hence there is no solution to an early start. Let me give an example:

During last X-mas, we drove past Salem. We started at 4. Despite a fast-tag it took some for us to go past each toll booth (Attibele/Krishnagiri/Thoppur being the painful ones).

We thought, OK we are now past Salem, and we should be good. We entered into Saravana Bhavan at Vaikundam. And what do we see? Near 40 cars with KA plates parked ! But thanks to hotel's swift service, we could get out fast with lower wait times as well. But it just illustrates how the Bangalore-Salem-Coimbattore section is. There is just no substitute to an early start. And 4 is not an early start these days during long weekends!

Another solution for the hotel problem is, prepare yourself to splurge and go either to Park Plaza of Grand Estancia at Salem. They are on the main road and you do need to take a detour.

We did a non-stop drive with only one bio break and reached silk board in 5hrs 15 mins at a relaxed cruising speed of 80Kmph with a milage of 21.69 with 100% AC.
...
This trip gave me good exposure to how one can cover long distances without actually having to drive fast. It also showed me how nasty things can get with traffic at a few toll gates.

+1. See the difference for yourself. The above is what I advocate all the times. Its never the speed that will improve the drive times. Even with a speed of 80-100 you can get good end to end timings.

Its all about how you time your drive and the efficiency of consistent driving even though at normal speeds.

[speedkrish]

Originally Posted by arun_josie

You can try, Bangalore - Kanakapura – Kollegal – Germalam – Dhimbam – Sathyamangalam – Annur - Coimbatore route. Except few KMs on the Kanakapura road and few minor stretches, rest of the roads are in good condition. I took this route along with few bhpians 3 weeks back only.

You can find some pics here,

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-t...ml#post4148376

Did you visit the monastery [ Dzogchen ] enroute ?
How may Kms is the drive through the forest. Though this route sounds exciting I am skeptical of driving with family and wondering if I should stick to NH209 via Chamrajnagar ?

[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by speedkrish

Did you visit the monastery [ Dzogchen ] enroute ?
How may Kms is the drive through the forest. Though this route sounds exciting I am skeptical of driving with family and wondering if I should stick to NH209 via Chamrajnagar ?

From Bannari amman temple till Germalam is around 35 Kms.

This route is good and shouldn't be problem during day time. You can find few pics in the below thread which was taken during our drive,

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-t...ml#post4148376 (Unexpected love affair with an Italian beauty: Fiat Linea MJD. EDIT: 1,20,000 km up)

We didn't go to any Monastery.

[slakhs]

I drove last year to a resort near Germalem via Kollegal. Road was good with some patchy stretches but TN section was butter smooth. At that time road works were going on in KA near border for 2 Kms but should have completed now. I also went to the Tibetan settlement and monastery, a small detour off the highway. Less crowded than the Coorg one and a very scenic background.